This Sunday's New York Times Magazine had a cover story on green investment titled "Capitalism to the Rescue". We've mentioned in other posts that venture capital investment in clean energy is on the rise. This article was interesting in that it profiled one particular venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins. The author interviewed the firm's partners about why they see clean energy as such a good investment.

To start with, explained partner Randy Komisar, the current energy market is so large and outdated that "green-tech" is a huge and relatively low-risk opportunity. And we're not, as many think, waiting for the new inventions to come. We're waiting for federal policy to give private investment incentive. That is, we're waiting for a mandatory carbon cap.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Environmental Defense Fund can't comment on the candidates in this year's historic election because of our tax status as a 501c3 charitable organization. But it's okay for us to provide interesting sources of information, and here's one: a site that tracks which lawmakers receive money from the coal industry.

It's very detailed and very interesting, with multiple ways to browse or search. Take a look!

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

When I went out to get lunch yesterday, I passed a sporting goods store with an interestingly labeled sneaker display. I'd never thought of my feet as an "alternative fuel" before, but I guess that's right!

Human movement isn't just for transportation. Take a look at last Thursday's post for examples from around the world of how human movement can be used to generate electricity. Investment spurred by cap-and-trade legislation will make clean energy technologies like these the norm rather than the exception.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Yesterday's New York Times reported that a number of chain stores, including Wal-Mart, Macy's, Safeway, and Whole Foods, are putting solar panels on their roofs to generate electricity. There's a big opportunity here. Stores are the largest energy users in many communities, and solar panels could generate 10 to 40 percent of the store's electric needs.

Solar power still costs more than electricity from coal, but:

[R]etailers believe that they can achieve economies of scale. With coal and electricity prices rising, they are also betting that solar power will become more competitive, especially if new policies addressing global warming limit the emissions from coal plants.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

The idea of generating electricity from human movement isn't new, but recent advances make it practical in a way it never was before. This CNN article gives a good overview of how the technologies work, and where they are in use. For example:

• The California Fitness gym in Hong Kong captures energy from workout machines to power lights and music. The technology was developed by French inventor Lucien Gambarota. Another human-powered gym is set to open this month in Portland, Oregon.
• A London nightclub called Surya uses a special dance floors to convert vibrations into electricity. Another vibration-powered club will open next month in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The floor technology can be used in more than just dance clubs. Any large crowd will produce vibrations. Sustainable Dance Club also has received requests for floors from bus and train stations, where it can be used to power lights and display boards.

And there's more!

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Billionaire Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens is pushing hard for the development of wind power. He says that we can get 20 percent of our electricity from wind within 10 years if we put our minds to it, and is planning a large wind farm in Pampa TX.

And that's not the only Texas wind project in the works.

On Thursday, Texas regulators approved a $5 billion project to build transmission lines for carrying wind power. The new lines will bring power into urban areas, easing a serious bottleneck. The decision will give Texas more wind capacity than the next 14 states combined.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Yesterday, Former Vice President Al Gore gave a speech in Washington, D.C. that called for the U.S. to produce all electricity from carbon-free sources by 2018.

You can read the full transcript on WeCanSolveIt.org.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

People tend to do things the way they've always done unless something forces them to change - even if the new way is better and cheaper. So Hawaii has taken action to spur people along. From an article in the L.A. Times:

California last year passed legislation offering homeowners and businesses $250 million in incentives to install 200,000 solar water systems over the next 10 years.

But Hawaii Thursday took far bolder action, becoming the first state in the nation to require all new homes built after January 1, 2010 to be equipped with solar or other energy-efficient hot water systems.

The article goes on to say that Hawaii's switch to solar hot water will save homeowners money, and prevent the emission of more than 10,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Fareed Zakaria has a great editorial in today's Washington Post. It describes how the U.S. economy would be revitalized by a carbon cap that spurs clean energy development. Here's an excerpt:

Washington's inaction also stands in contrast to intense activity in the private sector, fascinatingly described in Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn's new book, "Earth: The Sequel." Krupp heads the Environmental Defense Fund, but this is not a gloomy global warming tirade. It's an optimistic account of the progress being made by American industry in renewable energy. The authors explore every new technology, from solar to wind to geothermal, and introduce the men and women who are inventing the future.

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This post is by Miriam Horn, a writer at Environmental Defense Fund and co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Earth: The Sequel.

We received quite a few questions in email about the new technologies I described in our video series, Unleash the Future. I responded to questions on specific technologies in comments to the relevant blog post (solar, biofuels, geothermal, and wave). But there was one important question that applies to all the different technologies:

I'm a firm believer in alternative technology to reduce world wide dependence on fossil fuels, but with our present knowledge of the negative impacts of past innovations due to lack of foresight, what precautions are being taken to make sure that 50 years down the road our grandchildren will not be mopping up yet another mess or suffering from health problems due to compromised ethics?

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