[ Iraq’s Green Zone Gets Greener With Biogas and Other Clean Energy Solutions ]

Culhane shows off a high-efficiency LED-powered street lamp at an energy workshop in Iraq.

Iraq is longing for renewable and sustainable energy solutions, National Geographic Explorer Thomas H. Culhane found out. It just takes a little extra time to don body armor and get through security when you’re packing food-waste grinders, solar panels, water pumps, and bio-gas systems. Culhane filed this report from his travels to Iraq, a place with personal meaning for him as the homeland of his maternal grandfather:

Earth Day is special for me.…

[ On Science, Politics and Climate Change ]

U.S. Representative Lamar Smith’s strutting his science cred.

Smith, a Republican, represents the 21st District of Texas, which includes his hometown of San Antonio, and chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. I met him a few weeks ago at a hearing on climate held by the Subcommittee on the Environment. He was the consummate gentleman. Despite the fact that I was testifying as a witness for the Democratic Party, he was cordial and gentle in his questions.…

[ Tesla Motors’ Success Gives Electric Car Market a Charge ]

Amid a decimated field of E.V. startups, Tesla Motors is riding high. But can its feats help take electric cars mainstream?

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[ With a New Look, French Teams Take Top Prizes in Shell Eco-marathon Europe ]

For several years running, French engineering students from two neighboring Loire Valley schools, Polytech Nantes and La Joliverie, have shared engineering and effort to build rocket-shaped vehicles that captured top prizes at Shell Eco-marathon Europe fuel efficiency race. But the students began to feel there was something lacking in their cars’ perennially award-winning profile.

“It didn’t look like a car,” explained Nantes student Frederic Calvez.

So the students designed Cityjoule, a super-compact, but street-legal electric blue coupe powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.…

[ New Energy Secretary Moniz Stresses Efficiency, to Start ]

In his first official remarks as Energy Secretary Tuesday, Ernest Moniz focused on an aspect of energy policy that lends itself to consensus perhaps a bit more easily than others:  the need for greater efficiency.

Speaking at the Energy Efficiency Global Forum in Washington, Moniz noted it was fortuitous that the annual event followed his swearing in just three hours before: “Efficiency is going to be a big focus as we go forward.”

The 68-year-old physicist and MIT professor was unanimously confirmed as energy secretary by the Senate last week.…