The Ferris Files

This week: Are oil rigs a threatened species? Also, rain falls on the electric-car parade, and Google makes a curious investment.

A roundup of the week’s news in sustainability and clean tech.

Top News: This week, President Obama startled both his allies and critics with a plan to permit drilling for oil off the Southern Atlantic states and in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile the Secret Service, in a stroke of karmic justice, denied the president’s request for a hybrid limo.

Today, as part of the Society of Environmental Journalists annual meeting, I hopped a bus and toured three of Wisconsin’s leading renewable-energy projects. Heartened as I was to see innovation in action, I could also tell we’re still in Mile One of a long marathon away from fossil fuels.
First we visited a Wisconsin Energy coal-fired [...]