The world's greenest building might soon be located in the pioneer town of Independence, Oregon. Independence Station--a 57,000 square foot mixed use facility--is on track to receive the highest LEED rating ever awarded when it is completed in 2010.  The structure, being built by Aldeia Development...

We have a long-standing tradition of tackling our problems alphabetically at Piedmont Biofuels. I don’t normally blog about problems on Energy Blog.  My deep-seated belief is that there is enough bad news in the world and I would rather not be a contributor.  So I try to stay upbeat and hope...

: We always knew our readers were tech-savvy, but the submissions to our call for company gear photos left us humbled. Click through the gallery to see the badass gear that our readers work with everyday. Jeremy Chittenden, 29, from Bradenton, Florida, and currently living in Lafayette, Louisiana Jo...

Today Matt Rudolf is giving a speech in Charlotte to a bunch of NC farmers.  I think it is an excellent overview that reads like “Feedstock 101.”  Here is what he is going to say: When I talk to the public about biodiesel a common question I get is:  When will biodiesel become ubiquit...

Today I am off to NC State to participate in a symposium entitled The Energy Situation, Public Deliberation and Social Innovation. Here is what I am going to say: Six years ago, when I was a student at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro, there was a popular phrase being bandied about Wa...

There’s much talk, high-level debate and lobbying over sustainability and biofuels these days, despite their miniscule market share and debate concerning what “sustainable� actually means. How all this well-intentioned theorizing, research and debate translates into real progress and positive ...

Rachel just returned from Seattle and here’s her guest blog entry: IÂ’m on my way home from a 5-day respite from life in Pittsboro and the day to day grind at the Plant. I would not really call it vacation, cause IÂ’m here on biodiesel. But often a change can be as good as rest, as I can attes...

Yesterday David shipped a biodiesel plant over to Carolina Biodiesel in Durham. That in itself is not that unusual.  We ship plants all the time.  When David is not shipping tankage, he is sending off designs, and when he is not sending of designs, he is walking through prospective facilities with...

Journalist, goat herder, and Sierra contributor Doug Fine hits Leno tonight to talk about going green and his new book, Farewell, My Subaru. This onetime suburbanite now grows much of his own food (at "Funky Butte Ranch"), drives on vegetable oil, and generally makes an adventure out of lo...

A couple of years ago when our family spent time in and around Jemez Springs, New Mexico, I met several local residents who aspired to “live off the grid.” By “the grid,” they meant the electricity grid to which most of us in the “developed world” are connected ev...