By SLJ Staff — School Library Journal
Whitmore Lake High School in Michigan takes going green seriously. So much so that the LEED certified school is providing a year-long program called “Green Tech,” which lets students explore alternative energy sources and their importance to economic stability, as well as the sustainability of the earth’s natural resources.
The [...]

LANSING (AP) — Retired second-grade teacher Jean Veselenak drove four hours to tell state regulators what she fears would happen if a new coal-fired power plant is built in her community along Lake Huron in northern Michigan.
She believes the environment would be polluted with more mercury — a toxin that can damage children’s nervous systems [...]

The United States has seen its position as the most attractive destination for investment in renewable energy nose dive, helping Germany move to joint first place according to Ernst & Young’s latest Renewable energy country attractiveness indices, according to a December press release.
The indices - which track and score global investment in renewable energy – [...]

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama wants to use his economic aid plan to cut energy use in federal buildings, a long-sought goal that has achieved mixed success.
“If we do that effectively, then over the long term we are going to save billions of dollars in energy costs for the federal government [...]

Largest ever US trade mission travels to Delhi and Mumbai as nuclear supply embargo on the country is lifted
Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
The United States will enter the fray against France and Russia this week in the scramble to supply nuclear power equipment worth an estimated $150 billion to India.
The US is sending what is thought [...]

By T.L. HAMILTON
Westinghouse Electric Company has awarded Chicago Bridge & Iron a second contract to build the containment vessels for a nuclear power plant expansion in the southeastern United States.
The engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction contract is valued at $150 million.
“It’s an exciting award for us,” said Jan Sieving, spokesperson for CB&I, which has administrative [...]

By MARTHA RAFFAELE
Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG — Federal regulators proposed a $65,000 fine Tuesday against the owner of a Pennsylvania nuclear plant where security guards routinely napped on the job.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced the fine against Chicago-based Exelon Nuclear after completing a special investigation of the Peach Bottom plant in south-central Pennsylvania.
Multiple guards were “deliberately [...]

By ELIZABETH SOUDER/ The Dallas Morning News
GLEN ROSE – If the turnout for Tuesday’s public meeting on expansion of the nuclear plant is any sign, protesters might not pose much of a threat to Energy Future Holdings’ plans to build two new reactors.
Some representatives of state environmental groups and a few local people expressed [...]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The University of Wisconsin-Madison is taking advantage of its location to create a geothermal heating and cooling system for the new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
Geothermal systems use the earth’s mass and stable temperature to produce or absorb heat.
Building project manager George Austin says the institutes’ location between two lakes makes [...]

NEW YORK (AFP) – Oil prices rose sharply Monday as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict intensified and major crude producer Iran said OPEC would hold a special meeting next month.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for February, shot up 2.47 dollars to close at 48.81 dollars a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February rallied [...]