Natural gas vehicles were first promoted starting in about 2000 as a way to reduce reliance on imported oil and cut tailpipe emissions. Their promise appeared to grow near the height of the global financial crisis, when gas prices hovered around $4 per gallon across much of the United States. The domestic fuel promised to cut carbon-dioxide... RIP natural-gas cars, doomed by cheap gas and electric cars
Natural gas vehicles were first promoted starting in about 2000 as a way to reduce reliance on imported oil and cut tailpipe emissions. Their promise appeared to grow near the height of the global financial crisis, when gas prices hovered around $4 per gallon across much of the United States. The domestic fuel promised to cut carbon-dioxide... 
The industrial revolution that began around 1750 was powered in large part by coal, and the carbon-rich fuel had 200 good years after that. By the middle of the last century, however, serious studies had begun of its deleterious effects on human health—and that was before the climate-change impact of human emissions of carbon dioxide became... 
Over the past century, gasoline-powered vehicles have gotten simultaneously more complex and more reliable. Service intervals have lengthened, drivers no longer check a car's fluids daily or weekly, and many new-car owners will never once open the hood. Reliability data shows that some of them won't visit a dealer service department except for... 
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... 
Natural gas is growing as a part of the world's grid mix, because its carbon per kilowatt-hour is much lower. But methane leaks that emit large volumes of climate-change gas into the air may offset that advantage. Now, a Google Street View car has allowed researchers to pinpoint and quantify the severity of natural-gas leaks in five different... 
While renewable energy gets significant press as an alternative to coal in electricity generation, it isn't the main factor in decreasing the use of that carbon-intensive fuel. Thanks to its generally lower cost, natural gas is quickly displacing other fuels in the nation's power plants. In addition to its cost benefit for electric utilities... 
Natural gas has not proven popular for vehicles bought by individual consumers, but some fleet operators continue to find it an attractive alternative to gasoline and diesel. That's because the lack of public fueling infrastructure proves a major drawback for natural-gas passenger cars, but fleets can circumvent that by operating their own... 
New natural-gas passenger cars from major carmakers have disappeared from the U.S. Natural-gas options are available for large pickup trucks and vans but only exist for cars through aftermarket conversions offered by specialty firms. In Europe, though, the German luxury maker Audi remains committed to natural-gas powertrains. DON'T MISS: Renault... 
Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded a $1 million prize to a little-known team for what you might call a new garage appliance. The SimpleFuel team—actually a collaboration of three separate companies—won the prize, first offered in November 2014, for its hydrogen home-fueling station. The goal is to let drivers of hydrogen... 
Renewable-energy growth has accelerated in 2016, but this may go down as a milestone year for one renewable-energy source in particular. Together, all renewable-energy sources are expected to account for 8 percent of U.S. electricity-generation capacity in 2017, according to the Department of Energy, and solar energy is responsible for most of...