For seven long years, President George W. Bush has refused to confront the challenge of climate change and provide the leadership that America and the world needs to reduce greenhouse gases and avoid the destructive consequences of global warming.

Italy should keep its ban on nuclear power and should boost solar and wind energy instead to resolve its energy supply problems, Italian environmentalists said on Thursday as nuclear revival debate heated up. Italy banned nuclear power in a 1987 referendum after the Chernobyl disaster. But calls for a nuclear renaissance have intensified this month under the new government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as oil prices stormed record highs.

With about 20 biomass-based power projects generating 183 MW at Sirsa, Panipat, Karnal, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bhiwani, Nilokheri, Jagadhari, Khanesar and Dabwali, the people of Haryana can be assured of lesser power cuts. As the projects are being set up at the sites of the load centres, the power supply is expected to increase in these blocks, with transmission losses going down in a big way. Confirming this, officials of Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) said since the state is purchasing massive power from other states, it has to bear huge transmission losses.

The quantum of energy produced in Punjab through new and renewable energy sources will be around 917 million units (MU) by 2011-12, a sizeable 10 per cent contribution to the total power generation in the state. The proposed enhancement of 916.59 MU will come at a tentative investment of Rs 5,156.32 crore.

Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge sea-based wind parks costing up to $44 billion by 2025, Norway's Oil and Energy Minister said on Monday. Norway's Energy Council, comprising business leaders and officials, said green exports could help the European Union reach a goal of getting 20 percent of its electricity by 2020 from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro or wave power.

While most companies are watching soaring oil prices with an eye on rising costs some renewable energy executives are licking their lips at the prospect of "spectacular" growth. Oil sped above $135 to a new record for a third straight day on Thursday. That and new forecasts of a higher floor price has some alternative energy suppliers dreaming of an era of peak oil when global crude output starts to fall.

About 45 minutes north of downtown Los Angeles, a machine the size of a small truck flattens tons of food scraps, paper towels and other household trash into the side of a growing 300-foot pile. To Waste Management which operates the landfill, this is more than just a mountain of garbage. Pipes tunnelled deep into the mound extract gas from the rotting waste and send it to a plant that turns it into electricity.

The Delhi government's "go green go solar' campaign is fast catching up with educational institutions switching to renewable energy to meet their water needs in the power-starved national Capital. Around 50 schools and colleges including Miranda House, Sri Ram College of Commerce, St Stephans, Modern School, Delhi Public School at RK Puram and Air Force Bal Bharati school have installed solar water system at their hostels.