Category: Energy

Wal-Mart Tries to be Good

Wal-Mart, known by most to be a horrible corporation, is trying to be environmentally conscious. CNN has an article on a new store Wal-Mart is opening that has a windmill and a roof that opens and closes based on sunlight.

Wal-Mart is doing this to save money and also to try to improve its reputation. I never thought that Wal-Mart would ever make it onto this site in this way, but it does make sense since energy is becoming more and more expensive. Wal-Marts have huge roofs that can be used for solar panels; their buildings are surrounded by huge parking lots that would allow wind to be generated for windmills.

From Sails to Solar

As the price of oil increases (because we are running out of the stuff) some smart people are realising that we need to look elsewhere for energy. It is only suiting that the shipping industry does this since renewable resources for energy (wind) have been used longer than human-made forms of energy. One company, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, has designed a ship that uses three forms of energy: wind, solar, and water.

The linked article also has a list of other innovate approaches that have been spawned by this boating project.

Thanks, Emily!

Oiling the Squeaky Wheel

Venezuela has ordered Royal Dutch/Shell to pay almost $131 million in back taxes. The government is cracking down on tax evasions by oil companies and so they also confiscated financial data form Chevron. Hugo Chavez, the current president of Venezuela, is trying to tighten the government’s control over the lucrative and strategic oil industry. The government has said that they are going to alert two more oil companies in the coming weeks if they owe back taxes or not.