Author Archives: Tina Casey


About Tina Casey

Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. You can also follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.

Geobacter Microbe Holds The Key To Methane Biogas In Its Hairy Little Hands

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Geobactor could be harnessed for methane biogas production

Discovered in the mud of the Potomac River, a microbe called Geobacter has been quietly showing off its unique electrical properties for a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts for the past 20 years. The researchers, lead by microbiologist Derek Lovley, are developing ways to harness Geobacter for methane biogas production and environmental remediation, and just last week they announced a new discovery that could finally answer a “major objection” that other biologists … Read More

John Kerry: The Science Is Screaming At Us

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John Kerry argues for climate change action at Ross Sea reception

Secretary of State John Kerry gave a barn-burner of a speech about climate change at National Geographic’s Ross Sea Conservation reception earlier this week, in which he renewed his calls to “respond to what the science and the facts are telling us.” Oddly enough, though, he hung the meat of his speech on the same hook that former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney deployed last year. It’s an old argument that dates back to the 17th … Read More

Another Milestone For Cape Wind, The First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm

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First offshore wind farm in U.S.

The U.K., China, Belgium and Denmark have been leading the world in offshore wind power production, and if you’re wondering where the U.S. has been, join the club. Despite our tantalizingly long coastlines, the U.S. has no offshore wind farms, at least not yet. That’s one reason why we’ve been following the ambitious Cape Wind project so closely as it navigates a long and torturous route through the approval process and into the financing stage. … Read More

Another Day, Another Attack On Navy Biofuel

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Navy biofuel program keeps growing

The Senate is set to vote today on amendments to the $984 billion federal spending bill, and our friends over at The Hill tell us that hidden among the gems is a measure to strip out U.S. Navy biofuel initiatives. Talk about closing the barn door after the horses have run out! While certain anti-biofuel lawmakers have been busily pushing their legislative pencils around, the Obama Administration has been actually doing stuff to ensure that … Read More

Affordable, Wireless EV Charging A-Go-Go

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Evatran wins DOE contract for affordable wireless charging

Wireless electric vehicle charging systems have started to seep into the EV market, and little wonder. All you have to do is park your EV over a special pad and science does the rest. It’s far more convenient than using a plug-in electric charger, and it’s almost comically more convenient than pumping your own gas at a gas station, especially when you consider the potential for wirelessly charging an EV while it’s in motion. The … Read More

NYC Sewage Gets A First-of-Its Kind Green Makeover

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Green chemistry uses glycerol for NYC wastewater

Glycerol is better known as a common ingredient in pharmaceuticals, foods, soaps and perfumes, but lately it’s been wandering off into strange new territory, popping up here and there as a green chemistry alternative to petrochemicals. In the latest development, glycerol (aka glycerin or glycerine) has been successfully deployed as the main ingredient in an innovative new nitrogen removal system at a New York City wastewater treatment plant. It’s the first such facility of its … Read More

$2 Billion For Clean Transportation, Emissions Could Drop 80 Percent

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Obama calls for $2 billion energy security trust

President Obama dropped a clean tech bombshell yesterday when he renewed his call for Congress to create a new $2 billion Energy Security Trust to fund cutting edge clean energy research projects, but that wasn’t even the half of it. Yesterday the President also announced that he would deploy a 1970′s-era law to order all federal agencies to consider climate change when new projects come up for review, he called for pulling the whole transportation … Read More

World’s Largest Solar Power Towers To Rise In California

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Abengoa and Brightsource partner for world's largest solar towers

Two leading solar innovators have teamed up to build the world’s largest solar power towers in California, and we can all thank Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar for that. Abengoa and BrightSource Energy are the two companies involved in the project, a 500 MW (megawatt) utility scale behemoth called the Palen Solar Electric Generating System. Consisting of two 250-MW units, it will be located in a federally designated Solar Energy Zone in Riverside County, on public … Read More

Tired Of Your Solar Panel? Eat It!

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BioSolar introduces biobased solar cell backsheet

Well, to be honest we’re not quite there yet when it comes to edible solar panels, but a company called BioSolar has been working on a bio-based solar panel component for several years now, and they’ve just introduced it to the commercial market. Called a backsheet, it’s the same kind of protective covering that you’ll find on practically any photovoltaic cell today, but instead of being made with petroleum film it’s made from a proprietary … Read More