Here's a little quiz on a topic much discussed over the past couple of years: jobs. How many people work in the U.S. coal industry? Not just miners, but office staff, too. And, how many people work for solar-energy companies in the U.S.? DON'T MISS: Clean energy provides far more U.S. jobs than fossil fuels: analysis Coal mining was a mainstay of... Solar jobs have grown 20 percent a year since 2012; coal, not so much
Here's a little quiz on a topic much discussed over the past couple of years: jobs. How many people work in the U.S. coal industry? Not just miners, but office staff, too. And, how many people work for solar-energy companies in the U.S.? DON'T MISS: Clean energy provides far more U.S. jobs than fossil fuels: analysis Coal mining was a mainstay of... 
The 50 states that make up the U.S. don't get to set their own foreign policies (neither do Canadian provinces). But that doesn't necessarily prevent them from working with other countries on matters of mutual interest. And that's just what California is doing in an agreement announced this weekend that expands its efforts to battle climate change... 
The "war on coal" has long been a talking point of politicians running for elected office in the state of Kentucky. The state was once home to a booming coal industry that has floundered over the years as cheaper fracked natural gas has supplanted coal for electricity generation. The state's coal industry job losses have thus been due to the surge... 
Thirteen states, at least 80 mayors, and more than 100 businesses will task themselves to meet ambitious climate-change goals—with or without federal participation. The newly formed United States Climate Alliance—which so far has support from more than a dozen states including New York, California, and Massachusetts—says it will... 
Fulfilling a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump said yesterday that he will set in motion plans to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Pact that it joined last fall. In turn, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded that he will have to pull out of Trump's business advisory councils of CEOs and executives, which he had joined in January. Musk was... ![Electric cars dominate U.S. climate-friendly vehicles [data: U.S. EIA; map: Climate Central]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/electric-cars-dominate-u-s-climate-friendly-vehicles-data-u-s-eia-map-climate-central_100608171_t.gif)
The question is a reasonable one: electric cars may be zero-emission, but what about the electricity to recharge them? While renewable energy is growing globally, burning fossil fuels is still the source of most electric power today. The good news is that in most areas of the U.S., the "wells to wheels" carbon-dioxide emissions associated with... ![The White House, Washington, D.C. [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/white-house_100170583_t.gif)
While the news headlines on President Donald Trump mostly address potential scandals, his administration has also lagged significantly in appointing top-level officials to run government agencies. Those that have been appointed often have an adversarial relationship to the missions of the agencies they run. Scott Pruitt, for example, is now... 
California has by far the most aggressive climate-change policies in the nation, and the state is a global leader in plans to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. It's also the world's eighth-largest economy, with a growing population, soaring economic output, and a resolutely progressive legislature. While its zero-emission vehicle policies may get...