Interesting Ideas

New analysis assesses the price of running a car on advanced biofuels versus an electric vehicle. The European car industry wants lawmakers to weaken EU car CO2 targets — which are a major driver of more affordable EV models — by counting combustion cars running on advanced biofuels as zero ... [continued]

The post The Cost of Advanced Biofuels appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Legislation from Rep. Westerman would have drastically weakened bedrock environmental law. WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, on Earth Day, the House of Representatives removed a bill from consideration that, if passed, would have dangerous consequences for endangered and threatened species across the country. The “ESA Amendments Act” (HR 1897), sponsored by ... [continued]

The post House of Representatives Pulls Bill To Gut Endangered Species Act appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Commons committee heard from residents of Yorkshire town with the highest levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in UK

On 15 January, members of the House of Commons environmental audit committee (EAC) visited Bentham, the North Yorkshire town that has the highest levels of Pfas contamination in the UK.

Colloquially known as “forever chemicals”, Pfas (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) do not naturally degrade or decompose. This persistence gives them special properties with useful applications in both industrial and consumer products.

CATL made a host of new announcements this week, including a new fast charging unt that goes from 10 to 98 % SOC in 6 minutes.

The post CATL Announces 6-Minute Charging Time For Latest Battery appeared first on CleanTechnica.

As rising gold prices fuel environmental destruction, communities in the country’s biodiverse heartland are passing laws against mining

Mahogany trees tower above Herminio Mamani as he tends his cacao farm in Bolivia’s biodiverse north-west. A former president of El Ceibo, the country’s largest organic cacao co-operative, he says the agroforestry model used by its 1,300 members is vital not only to maintain the quality of the cacao they grow, which is used for chocolate and other products, but also for keeping gold mining at bay.

“We cacao producers would never kill an animal here,” he says, parrots squawking nearby. “The parcels [of land] can never be monocultures – all the crops grow together.”

Campaigners in Henley say insufficient number of bathers to qualify for status is result of poor water quality

Bathing water rules in England should be improved to help drive a clean-up of pollution at a spot on the River Thames in Henley, campaigners say.

In a letter to the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, businesses, river users, community groups and civic leaders said poor water quality had been damaging the town and had put public health at risk.

T&E reaction to the European Commission announcement of emergency measures on the energy crisis. The emergency actions presented by the European Commission today are only half measures to respond to the oil crisis and reduce Europe’s dependency on fossil fuel imports, T&E has said. The EU missed an opportunity to tax the ... [continued]

The post EU Energy Crisis Response Needs a Windfall Tax on Oil Companies to Fund Electrification of Transport appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Despite the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy, the smart money is steering over to landfills, derelict coal mines, and other industrial sites for conversion into solar power plants.

The post Coal Mines, Landfills, & The Persistence Of Solar Power appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A series of stunning findings about great apes’ mental capabilities in recent years has transformed how we see our closest relatives

Clear plastic cups and pitchers adorned the wooden table in Des Moines, Iowa. Invisible juice was poured and presented to Kanzi, who enthusiastically chose the fake filled cup, playing along with the man who had come to visit. In many ways, it was the quintessential scene of a children’s imaginary tea party. Only Kanzi, at 44 years old, was a bonobo.

The experiment, carried out at the Ape Initiative facility in 2024, was the first to empirically test and document pretend play in a great ape species, with the results published in the journal Science in February. The study adds to an expansive repertoire of research over the past decade that has uncovered robust similarities between ape and human behaviours, upending long-held beliefs about how we distinguish ourselves from our closest kin.

The EPA on Tuesday proposed rescinding a Biden-era ruling to reclassify Utah’s Wasatch Front from “serious” nonattainment of the 2015 ozone standards to mere “moderate” nonattainment, significantly decreasing required pollution reductions. The proposal downplays local emissions, shifting blame to foreign sources instead of reining in local emissions. EPA has issued ... [continued]

The post Trump EPA Downplays Local Emissions in Proposed Repeal appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The leading Ukrainian energy firm DTEK Group is building a new 100-turbine, 650-megawatt wind farm to help improve resiliency as Russia continues to attack conventional thermal power plants.

The post A 650 Megawatt Wind Farm Is Rising In War Torn Ukraine, With An Assist From Norway appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Marches, Shropshire: Recently I had wondered how long this great lime would stay standing. The next day, I had my answer

How quickly something that defines a landscape for centuries becomes the absence that redefines it – so it is with ancient trees. The trunk snapped like a carrot at the roots and crashed, its bony branches splintered. Now it lies like a shipwreck stranded in an open field, its hulk of twigs an animal pelt stilled.

A day before, looking at its 300-year-old architecture of mostly dead wood yet so vividly alive, admiring its form and persistence through years and trouble, standing alone with spring coursing through the land and its timbers, I wondered how long, in tree time, it had left.

The injunction pauses policy giving senior Trump official direct sign-off on federal clean energy projects

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Tuesday struck down several Trump administration actions slowing down development of clean energy, including a requirement that all solar and wind energy projects on federal lands and waters be personally approved by the interior secretary, Doug Burgum.

Denise J Casper, chief judge of the US district court for Massachusetts, ruled that a coalition of plaintiffs representing wind and solar developers were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that the administration’s actions violate federal statute and would cause irreparable harm if the court did not intervene.

Unwanted vessels left to decay release fibreglass shards into the water, harming marine life. Steve Green – with his trusty van Cecil – is determined to clean things up

Steve Green, a boat engineer from Cornwall, was pulled over by the police just before Christmas. He was driving a decrepit-looking VW campervan and towing an even more dilapidated yacht up to Truro. He hadn’t broken any laws, but he admits that Cecil the campervan, which runs on donated chip oil from local pubs and has a crane and a winch on the front, “wasn’t quite what VW intended”.

Green (and Cecil) are on a mission to rid the beautiful hidden creeks of Cornwall’s Helford and Fal rivers of 166 abandoned fibreglass yachts, which are leaking plastic and toxins into the predominantly marine waters. Marine biologists have likened the thousands of shards of fibreglass they have found embedded in the flesh of sea-creatures in areas with wrecks such as these to asbestos, a substance known to have a noxious effect on humans.

Green uses a detachable crane system at the front of his van to move around bags of plastic after they have been weighed. Cecil is upholstered in recycled denim

World’s worst nuclear disaster leaves mixed legacy of nature’s resilience amid serious contamination, as wars increase lobbying for energy supply

Forty years on from the world’s worst nuclear disaster, Chornobyl is still contaminated with almost half the caesium-137 that exploded from the Unit 4 reactor in 1986, as well other hazards such as plutonium, tritium and americium. But according to some experts, the long-term effects on nature may be less than if the area had been left to humans, resulting in unexpected consequences in an environment left to its own devices.

The reminder of the protracted fallout from Chornobyl was made ahead of Sunday’s anniversary, which coincides with renewed lobbying for nuclear power and a rise in fears about atomic brinkmanship due to the oil crisis and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

The latest IEA energy report for 2025 shows solar and energy storage are rapidly displacing fossil fuels for energy generation.

The post IEA Says World Has Entered The “Age Of Electricity” appeared first on CleanTechnica.

After his project got rejected in Sydney, a rubbish disposal magnate now hopes to build a $630m port and waste incinerator near a tourist gateway city

An Australian billionaire’s plan to burn rubbish for energy in Fiji amounts to “waste colonialism” and risks spoiling a “beach paradise”, villagers and the Pacific country’s UN ambassador have said.

Traditional landowner Inoke Tora boarded a bus to the capital, Suva, on Tuesday with a petition from villagers opposing the $630m waste-to-energy incinerator, which is forecast to consume 900,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish each year.

A church in Georgia has a new 70.11-kW solar system and a 41-kWh battery storage system which could generate and store enough electricity to save about $15,000 a year on its utility bills. There was no up-front cost to the congregation because of support from Hive Fund, Black Voters Matter, ... [continued]

The post Solar Power + Energy Storage Transform Church Into Resilience Hub appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Donald Trump’s conflict with Iran could speed the EU’s green revolution – if panicking governments can hold their nerve on clean energy

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A surge in demand for electric vehicles across Europe may be evidence of what George Monbiot greeted as the silver lining of the Iran war. Sales of electric cars in continental Europe rose by 51% in March.

The International Energy Agency has called the disruption in the strait of Hormuz the “biggest energy crisis in history”, but it appears, on one level, to be accelerating Europe’s green revolution. Yet, even if car-owners are rushing to the EV showrooms, some European governments, facing a groundswell of anger over soaring petrol and gas prices, are at risk of sending the clean energy transition into reverse.

A new report from Parens states that US fast chargers were installed in the US at a healthy rate of over 3,000 in the first quarter of 2026, saying, “Deployment remains elevated, with ~3,300 new ports added in Q1, in line with seasonal patterns. Utilization held at ~15.6%, only slightly ... [continued]

The post 3,000 Fast EV Chargers Were Installed In The US In Q1 appeared first on CleanTechnica.