After the past eight years, I've gotten conditioned to cringing when the Fourth of July rolls around. My wife and I once marched with a peace group in my local parade (Sausalito, California is a very liberal town), and I like fireworks as much as anyone, but the whole rah-rah...

For better or worse, we all know Joe the Plumber. But have you heard of Troy the Turbine Builder?

That would be Troy Galloway of Hollsopple, Pennsylvania, who works at the Gamesa wind turbine plant in the nearby town of Ebensburg. Unlike Joe, Mr. Galloway is an actual turbine builder,...

Of all the great moments in Barack Obama's election-night victory speech in Chicago, my favorite was his tale of the 106-year-old Atlanta woman who had voted that day. Obama reflected on all the changes that Ann Nixon Cooper has seen in her lifetime, and then looked ahead:

Let us...

About 18 months ago, the clean tech buzz was all the rage. Billions of venture capital dollars were pouring in to clean energy technology startups, solar and biofuels stock prices (like the overall market) were soaring, and a new booming industry was well underway. Yet as soon as this happened,...

Visiting the warehouse of fast-growing residential solar installer SolarCity last Friday in Foster City, California, the first thing I saw was a big bucket of champagne on ice. There were high-fives in the hallways -- a scene no doubt repeating throughout the offices of solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and...

The global run-up in oil and gasoline prices may be the big story of the year so far, affecting everything from the presidential campaign to the recent Saudi-hosted OPEC summit. But guess what else is going up, in some cases dramatically? The cost of electricity. And that's dramatically changing the...

In a world where some of our biggest challenges - soaring energy and food prices, climate change - are global in nature, it's a good idea to leave the U.S. borders for a while to gain a different perspective. My wife and I returned last week from a two-week trip...

The term "shareholder resolution" usually conjures up images of banner-wielding PETA members or other scruffy hecklers who bear little resemblance to buttoned-down institutional investors quizzing corporate management about the fate of their billions of dollars. But that will not be the case on May 28 in Dallas, where stockholders at...

Some years ago, I'm not sure when, the prize vehicles awarded to heroes of major sports events made the unfortunate transition from snazzy convertible sports cars to the biggest, hulkiest, meanest SOBs - I mean SUVs - on the block. So it was no surprise when New York Giants quarterback...

Of all the green trends catching buzz in the business world today, "green-collar jobs" and a "green workforce" are among the most exciting. The premise is pretty simple. As marketplace demand for clean energy continues to grow rapidly - spurred by climate change concerns, skyrocketing oil prices, resource constraints, and...

The threat of recession. Oil at $100 a barrel. Anemic job market growth, with big cutbacks in some sectors. The sub-prime lending crisis and real estate slump. Stock market jitters. So far, the economic outlook for 2008 looks as dreary as the January weather.

Looking for some good news, or...