The U.S. wind energy industry released their annual report last week touting another record year. More than 10,000 MW of new wind power generating capacity came online last year, the largest year in U.S. history, and enough to power the equivalent of 2.4 million homes or generate as much electricity as three large nuclear power plants.  

America’s wind power fleet will conserve approximately 20 billion gallons of water annually that would otherwise be lost to evaporation from steam of cooling in conventional power plants. And, it will eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to taking 10.5 million cars off the road.

So far, corporate first-quarter earnings reports are delivering more than pedestrian growth, justifying a stock market rally based on fundamentals.

New hiring and more upbeat outlooks to kick off the reporting session are encouraging investors, thanks to yesterday’s announcement from Intel that they will hire 1,000 and the sunnier outlook expressed by JP Morgan Chase and Alcoa.

(READ the analysis at Forbes.com)

Photo credit: imelenchon from morguefile.com

The American economy appears to be in a cyclical recovery that is gaining strength. Firms have begun to hire and consumer spending seems to be accelerating, so it is surprising that many commentators, whether economists or politicians, seem to doubt that such a thing could possibly be happening.

Why is good news being received with such doubt? There are, I think, a number of reasons for the glum outlook that are unrelated to the actual economic data.

(READ the column by Floyd Norris in New York Times)

Thanks to David G. for submitting the story!

Airlines with fewer flights and fewer passengers have translated into better performance for the customer.

For the second consecutive year, the performance of the nation’s leading carriers improved, according to the annual national Airline Quality Rating. It was the third best overall score in the 19 years researchers have tracked the performance of airlines.

Though coal still provides the majority of China’s power, there’s good news about a greener future: New official Chinese records show that the nation’s renewable energy capacity is now growing faster than its coal plants.

Through the end of 2009 180 GW of new power capacity was under construction. Renewables outpaced coal by some 16 GW. All told, low-carbon energy sources (hydro, nuclear, and renewables) will account for 26% of China’s power capacity, by the end of 2010.

(READ More in Treehugger)