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Germany is dumping electricity on its unwilling neighbors and by wintertime the feud should come to a head. Central and Eastern European countries are moving to disconnect their power lines from Germany's during the windiest days. That's when they get flooded with energy, echoing struggles seen from China to Texas over accommodating the world's 200,000 windmills.

Until recently, the East African country was better known for its long civil war, and had few energy resources compared with regional heavy-hitters like Nigeria and Angola. But in the last 10 years, companies like Exxon Mobil, the BG Group of Britain and Eni of Italy have used the latest technologies, including advances in deep-sea drilling, to find new natural gas resources that are turning Mozambique into the center of an energy boom.

This article connects our last unit to our present one, showing another harmful effect of fossil fuels as an energy source. Hydraulic fracturing or "Fracking" is a proses where an energy company injects fluid into drilled holes, fracturing oil shale rocks. This process releases natural gas and methane, which the energy company uses for fuel. This gas can also; however, seep into the ground water and wells, polluting our very own tap water.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy released its annual Energy Efficiency State Scorecard this month. The scorecard ranks states that have the best overall energy efficiency policies, and it measures the progress of states toward adopting and implementing various energy efficiency policies and programs. So which state came out on top?

We won! Woohoo!

Put your computer charger/computer, monitor, hard drives, scanner, printer, etc. on this power strip and easily turn in on or off with the wall mountable remote.

Good progress on climate.

This is a prime example of utilizing our waste to create energy. A good example of a "Green Technology" achievement.

This story doesn't mention how much is spent subsidizing fossil fuels, but it is still interesting.

http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/ Or: "In 2011, developing and industrialized countries spent $1.9 trillion to subsidize fossil fuels, according to the International Monetary Fund, with the US spending $502 billion. The IMF has called on leaders to cut back on the subsidies, saying they benefit primarily the wealthy, who spend the most on energy." http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/1101/How-much-of-your-tax-money-goes-to-oil-and-gas

Coal? Natural gas? Nuke? We can wipe them all off the drawing board by using current energy more efficiently. Are you listening, Washington?

An old coal power plant in Salem, Mass. is scheduled to be replaced by a newer, smaller, 'greener' natural gas plant. Environmental advocates say that if we install this plant we will not meet our mandate for reducing carbon emissions, as set forth in the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008 (the one that Dr. Cash worked on!!!). However, energy and power experts say that if this plant does not get built on schedule, Massachusetts will be in danger of blackouts and power shortages in 2016.

A strong statement on Climate Change

I think it was great what Obama did but I was looking through the internet and im not sure how the American public will view it. http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/public-to-obama-congress-climate-action-is-no-big-deal-this-year-20140128 This article talks about new polls that have come out saying that the public wanted Obama to talk more about jobs and pushing Congress with new economic agendas. I am curious to find out whether or not he will accomplish anything that he said.

You guys may remember this guy, Enrique Peñalosa. He was the former mayor of Bogata, Colombia and was featured in the documentary we watched, "Urbanized" earlier this year. I thought this was an interesting topic on population and urbanization that also ties in very nicely with our energy unit!

This was great.

An interesting opinion on Putin, Ukraine and energy.