The Future of Energy: A Special Report

It's going to take a lot more than changing lightbulbs to get us on the path to sustainability. We investigate the options (solar? nuclear? cow poop?), what's hype, what's really happening, and who's standing in the way of change.

Illustration by Koren Shadmi

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DEPARTMENTS

Editors' Note
Masthead
Contributors
Backtalk

OUTFRONT
The Iraqi exile who could foil Bush's plans for permanent bases; fluoride bites back; a refugee couple's happy ending; HIV's morning-after pill; wizards for Ron Paul; KBR answers to no one; energy iconoclast James Woolsey; squatters take over foreclosed homes.

EXHIBIT
8 Lbs, 21 Inches, 3,800 Diapers, and 1,525 Tons of Carbon
By Kiera Butler and Dave Gilson
Little feet sure do pitter-patter, all right. All over the planet.

WITNESS
Constant Sorrow
By Bernice Yeung
It wasn't Toto Constant's human rights violations in Haiti that finally landed him in prison. It was mortgage fraud in Long Island.

PRACTICAL VALUES
Inn Excess
By Kimberly Lisagor
Why are hotels' environmental values on permanent vacation?

MEDIA JONES
Debra J. Dickerson on how the Moral Majority fudged its numbers; filmmaker Errol Morris sees through Abu Ghraib; the return of Susan Meiselas' Kurdistan; plus more book(Opting In, Leisureville: Advertures in America's Reitrement Utopias, Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids), film, and music(Mr. Love & Justice, Pershing, Warchild, Stronger) reviews

P.S.
Just say "faux" to drugs.
Illustration by John Cuneo

FEATURES

CRUDE AWAKENING
The Seven Myths Of Energy Independence
By Paul Roberts
Kicking our foreign-oil habit may sound like a good idea, but it's nothing more than a pipe dream.

POWER BROKERS
Put a Tyrant in Your Tank
By Joshua Kurlantzick
The new kings of crude are even bigger (and badder) than Big Oil.

The Greenback Effect
By Bill McKibben
Markets can help us fight global warming—if we teach them how.

THE TRANSFORMERS
Sol Man
By Jon Mooallem
The founder of Match.com wants to hook Americans up with solar.

Breaking The Gridlock
By Jennifer Kahn
The Smart Grid could fix one of the biggest obstacles to energy efficiency—us.

It Keeps Going and Going...
By Britt Robson
Batteries were born before Christ. So why haven't we gotten them right yet?

Rural Renewal
By Jennifer Vogel
These small towns were dying. Then alternative power reenergized them.

THE N-WORD
The Nuclear Option
By Judith Lewis
Is it time to reconsider atomic energy?

FRONTIER OIL
Tar Wars
By Josh Harkinson
Scenes from Canada's Wild West, where oil fever extracts a heavy toll.

THE RESISTERS
Scrubbing King Coal
By James Ridgeway
Power companies say they're cleaning up their act when really they're just cleaning up their image.

Fossil Fools
By Chris Mooney
Who stands between us and a clean-energy future? These guys.

Cover Illustration by Joe Zeff Design, Inc.