"Seeking to put the nation back in the lead on an important technology, the Obama administration awarded more than $2 billion in grants on Wednesday for manufacturing advanced batteries and other components for electric cars."

"The U.S. Senate approved and sent to the White House on Thursday a $2 billion extension of the 'cash for clunkers' autos sales incentive program."

"The Senate reached a deal on saving the dwindling "cash for clunkers" program late Wednesday, agreeing to vote on a plan that would add $2 billion to the popular rebate program and give car shoppers until Labor Day to trade in their gas-guzzlers for a new ride."

"The current recession has caused the price of oil to drop -- most think temporarily. James Woolsey was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency -- the CIA -- during the Clinton Administration. ... Woolsey has been arguing that, no matter what the price, dependence on oil is a national security problem that we need to solve."

"The Obama administration will suspend the 'cash for clunkers' program unless the Senate provides $2 billion more for the popular car incentive plan, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday."

Portugal may be the first nation out of the blocks in the scramble for electric automobiles. Its motives may be more selfish than ecological.

"The Energy Department is making up to $30 billion in loan guarantee authority available for renewable energy and electric grid modernization projects."

The World Bank is taking a renewed role in hydropower development, driven it part by estimates that the developing world has 1,333 GW of potential and unexploited hydro capacity. Some NGOs, however, don’t believe large scale hydropower is the answer for rural electrification and say the World Bank's number would be much lower if negative social and economic impacts were taken into consideration.

"New-car shoppers appear to have already snapped up all the $1 billion that Congress appropriated for the 'cash for clunkers' program, leading the Transportation Department to tell auto dealers Thursday night to stop offering the rebates."

"The biggest opportunity to improve the nation’s energy situation is a major investment program to make homes and businesses more efficient, according to a study released Wednesday."

"The country's top regulator of commodity markets said Tuesday that the government should 'seriously consider' strict limits on the trades of purely financial investors in the futures markets for oil, natural gas and other energy products."

"More than 20,000 old oil and gas wells across [Alberta] have been sitting abandoned or inactive for more than a decade without being cleaned up, worrying landowners and environmentalists who say the sites unnecessarily eat up and possibly contaminate valuable farm land."

What will happen to all the "clunkers" traded in for gas-sipping new cars under a new federal rebate program?

Wood has been hailed as a renewable fuel and is being used in New England power plants. But it is not undergoing some serious scrutiny of its environmental consequences.

"Whenever solar power is mentioned, critics are quick to note -- when there's no sun, there's no power. Lester Graham talked with the author of a report who says one type of solar power can store energy."