Donald Trump’s secretary of energy, Rick Perry, once campaigned to abolish the $30 billion agency that he now runs, which oversees everything from our nuclear arsenal to the electrical grid. The department’s budget is now on the chopping block. But does anyone in the White House really understand what the Department of Energy actually does? And what a horrible risk it would be to ignore its extraordinary, life-or-death responsibilities? By Michael Lewis.

Imagine a lamp, any lamp. Now imagine having to water it. Dutch product designer Ermi van Oers created Living Light: plants that double as lights. Or lights that double as plants – whichever way you prefer looking at it. The lighst run on electricity generated by bacteria in the soil.

A local environmental activist fights to prepare her community for life beyond mining. By Eliza Griswold.

Anxiety over “wind-turbine syndrome” stems from a decades-old misunderstanding of inaudible noise. By Philip Jaekl. (June 19, 2017)

Two billion years ago parts of an African uranium deposit spontaneously underwent nuclear fission. The details of this remarkable phenomenon are just now becoming clear. By Alex P. Meshik on (Jan. 26, 2009)

Scientists warn that hydroelectric dams in the Amazon could have a significant impact on the environment. By Rebecca Morelle.

The Science Team of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has cancelled the first leg of the 2017 Expedition due to complications associated with the southward motion of hazardous Arctic sea ice, caused by climate change.

The long range of airborne drones helps them perform critical tasks in the skies. Now MIT spinout Open Water Power (OWP) aims to greatly improve the range of unpiloted underwater vehicles (UUVs), helping them better perform in a range of applications under the sea. By Rob Matheson.

In a windsurfers’ paradise, turbines capture gusts that pick up at exactly the right time - or the wrong time, if you're trying to sell natural gas.

Most were not told about it until months later, and other mishaps at the Nevada nuclear test site followed. By Patrick Malone, Peter Cary, R. Jeffrey Smith. Part Four of a series.

When a drilling platform is scheduled for destruction, it must go on a thousand-mile final journey to the breaker’s yard. As one rig proved when it crashed on to the rocks of a remote Scottish island, this is always a risky business. By Tom Lamont.

It's named after a Nordic god and drills deep into the heart of a volcano

Canada’s thirst for oil pitted against its commitment to First Nations. By Patrick Michels.

The conservative movement to save the planet. By Kate Aronoff.

Beneath a forested patch of land on the Gulf of Bothnia, at the bottom of a steep tunnel that winds for three miles through granite bedrock, Finland is getting ready to entomb its nuclear waste.

New York City is ramping up an aggressive campaign to turn its annual 14 million tons of waste into compost and clean energy—here's how.

Years after shutdown, Savannah still waits for funding for its reactor decommissioning.

Scientists have figured out how microbes can suck energy from rocks. Such lifeforms might be more widespread than anyone anticipated. By Emily Singer. (June 21, 2016)

EU proposal on a free trade deal with the US could curb energy saving measures and a planned switch to clean energy, say MEPs. By Arthur Neslen.

A supersonic airliner that flies at three times the speed of sound – and runs on nuclear fusion. Stephen Dowling investigates the challenges of making airliners run on atomic power.

Ron Risman

Saturday's large quake immediately raised suspicions that it was linked to injection wells that oil and gas companies use as part of fracking and other operations.

In some of the sunniest areas of the U.S., solar power is becoming a victim of its own success. With so many people leaving the grid, power utilities are now wondering who's going to pay the bill. They're fighting back, trying to make going solar much less attractive.

Data centers may be more ubiquitous than indoor grow operations for marijuana, but the latter are as energy-intensive as the former, according to a new report by EQ Research. Indoor grows can have an energy intensity of about 2,000 watts per meter, according to the report, A Chronic Problem. A 2012 study from Berkeley Lab found that indoor marijuana production could account for as much as 1 percent of U.S. electricity use, about half the energy consumed by data centers.

Scientists are a step closer to using Australia's iconic gum trees to develop low-carbon renewable jet and missile fuel. (Sept. 19, 2016)

This soap molecule is made from natural products, like soybeans, coconut, and corn rather than fossil fuels, making it ten times better for the Earth.

How does Fusion Energy work and is it a good idea?

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a well-known climate skeptic to oversee the transition of the country's Environmental Protection Agency. The Republican Party has pledged to shut down the regulatory entity. By Dave Keating.

Lawsuits and a new study raise questions about the project’s environmental impact. By Lesley Evans Ogden.

An audacious plan to create a new energy source could save the planet from catastrophe. But time is running out. By Raffi Khatchadourian. (Mar. 3, 2014)

The federal government is moving to phase out the use of coal-fired electricity in Canada by 2030.

For over a quarter-century the company tried to deceive policymakers and the public about the realities of climate change, protecting its profits at the cost of immense damage to life on this planet.

Scientists from the University of Central Florida (UCF) have created a supercapacitor battery prototype that works like new even after being recharged 30,000 times. The research could yield high-capacity, ultra-fast-charging batteries that last over 20 times longer than a conventional lithium-ion cell. "You could charge your mobile phone in a few seconds and you wouldn't need to charge it again for over a week," says UCF postdoctoral associate Nitin Choudhary.

The federal cabinet will make a decision on the Enbridge-backed Northern Gateway pipeline today, after years of delays and false starts, but it will be days before the public knows the fate of the controversial project.

Japan’s trade ministry has almost doubled the estimated cost of compensation for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant to more than 20 trillion yen ($177.51 billion), the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday. By Osamu Tsukimori.