10. Electric Vehicles Roll Out in U.S.

From the Nissan Leaf to the Chevy Volt to the charging stations that make electric vehicles possible, 2010 ushered in a new era of automobiles and related infrastructure. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of that in 2011.

9. Solar-Nuclear Crossover

This caught a lot of people’s attention when the news broke. And for good reason. More of a symbolic thing than anything else, the point that solar has come so far is really something. Oh yeah, the specific story I’m referencing is that a report showed that solar energy costs are now lower than nuclear energy costs. Extremely rapid growth of the solar energy industry is an obvious result and another top news story that ties into this (I’m combining these for the purpose of this list). “Solar is now the fastest growing energy industry in the U.S., employing nearly 100,000 Americans and generating billions of dollars of economic growth for our economy.”

8. 2010 U.S. Elections

Well, it was expected, given that our economy could not recover economically from 8 years of Bush as president in less than 2. Nonetheless, the Republican (and even Tea Party) wins of 2010 are going to make for a rough couple of years. Republican obstructionism in the name of… nothing.. is a threat to the future of the U.S. One of the biggest threats in the history of the country I would say. As we saw just recently, these politicians are willing to hold the whole country’s prosperity and growth hostage for no other purpose than making the rich richer. And as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently annouced, “if they think it’s bad now, wait till next year.” Read more here: NY Times on GOP’s Intention to Attack EPA & Country

Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey