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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This post is by Miriam Horn, a writer at Environmental Defense Fund and co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Earth: The Sequel. It's part of a video series on new energy technologies, Unleash the Future.

1. Introduction (YouTube)
2. Solar
3. Biofuels
4. Geothermal
5. Wave

Almost every renewable energy resource begins with the Sun. Wave power is a third conversion of solar energy. The Sun creates the temperature differential that produces wind, and wind, in turn, produces ocean waves. Inventor Alla Weinstein found a way to convert the up-and-down motion of waves into electricity.

Take a look at my short video on wave power to learn more.

If you have any questions or comments on wave energy, please post them here. I'll do my best to answer.

This post is by Miriam Horn, a writer at Environmental Defense Fund and co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Earth: The Sequel. It's part of a video series on new energy technologies, Unleash the Future.

1. Introduction (YouTube)
2. Solar
3. Biofuels
4. Geothermal
5. Wave

While solar, wind and wave energy all originate with the Sun, the heat locked up in the Earth itself offers another huge potential energy resource. Historically, that "geothermal" power could be converted into electricity only in those rare locations where natural fissures allowed water to flow into deep hot rock and come to the surface at temperatures high enough to generate steam. Now an innovator in Alaska has developed the first low-temperature geothermal power plant, which United Technologies is commercializing for worldwide sale.

Take a look at my short video on geothermal power to learn more.

If you have any questions or comments on geothermal energy, please post them here. I'll do my best to answer.

This post is by Miriam Horn, a writer at Environmental Defense Fund and co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Earth: The Sequel. It's part of a video series on new energy technologies, Unleash the Future.

1. Introduction (YouTube)
2. Solar
3. Biofuels
4. Geothermal
5. Wave

"Anything you can get out of a barrel of oil, you can get out of a pound of sugar with the right microbe." So says Jack Newman of Amyris Biotechnologies, who is using genetically-modified yeast to brew gasoline.

Take a look at my short video on biofuels to learn more.

If you have any questions or comments on biofuels, please post them here. I'll do my best to answer.

This post is by Miriam Horn, a writer at Environmental Defense Fund and co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Earth: The Sequel. It's part of a video series on new energy technologies, Unleash the Future.

1. Introduction (YouTube)
2. Solar
3. Biofuels
4. Geothermal
5. Wave

Harnessing solar energy can be pricey, but that soon may change. One company aims to cut the price by a factor of 10 by printing cheap solar ink onto flexible film that could serve as your roofing material.

Take a look at my short video on new solar technologies to learn more.

If you have any questions or comments on solar power, please post them here. I'll do my best to answer.

This post is by Tony Kreindler, media director for the National Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense Fund.

The main reason to pass climate legislation as soon as possible is that the fate of the world is at stake. We're in a race against time to stop global warming, or face irreversible climate catastrophe.

But there's also another race - the race to develop the clean energy technologies that will power our future. The world is at the dawn of a technological revolution, and we need the economic incentive of climate legislation to fully participate.

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