Germany will extend the life spans of 17 plants while alternative energy sources are developed, which is likely to make money for power companies and the government.

Is working less the only way to get more people working?

A team at the Almaden Research Center of I.B.M. in California is trying to develop a new battery technology called lithium air that could allow a car to go 500 miles on a single charge. But a top researcher says that it will take many years, if it ever happens at all, to make the technology useful.

Turkey may be frustrated in its bid to become part of the European Union, but by the end of September, it will join Europe's electric grid.

The United States has virtually no fast trains like those of China, Japan and Europe, but that could change. President Obama has said that rail transport is a priority.

The energy industry centered in Prudhoe Bay is the economic engine of the North Slope, helping preserve the Inupiat culture, but it also presents a potential threat to that culture. Mayor Edward Itta of the North Slope Borough e-mailed answers to our questions about these conflicts.

After a new blowout preventer was latched to the wellhead, BP prepared to conduct tests that should allow the company to finish plugging the well.

A group of fisheries scientists argue that the Marine Stewardship Council, an influential body that ranks fish sources as sustainable, grants its seal of approval too easily. As a result, some fish populations may be more endangered than consumers believe.

A platform fire this week brings new scrutiny to the more than 3,000 shallow-water platforms operating in the gulf.

At River Pointe, a community in Manchester, N.J., solar technology that earns energy credits is a standard feature in each house.

As lawmakers call for new inquiries into Thursday's accident, oil industry executives say it will now be more difficult to lift the government's offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.

The crackdown by Vietnamese forestry officials is part of a broader effort to halt the illegal international trade in the meat of threatened species.

Tibet's high-altitude meadows disappear as global warming and overgrazing accelerate desertification. "Once the grasslands are destroyed, they rarely come back," a Chinese official says.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change would do well to cultivate contacts between its authors and reporters in poor countries.

A judge has ruled the Fish and Wildlife Service must revise a Bush administration recovery plan for the northern spotted owl.

Styria, a province in southeastern Austria, is enjoying an economic boom generated in part by a project by 79 municipalities to promote local, green, self-sustaining businesses.

The government of Abu Dhabi, with the help of a German consultant, is working on a plan to extend its emergency freshwater reserves from 48 hours to 90 days.

After Pacific Gas & Electric, the giant California utility, began installing smart meters in the state's Central Valley, the company was swamped with complaints from residents that their utility bills had spiked. But an independent review of the smart meters released Thursday found that the devices were functioning properly and attributed the high charges to a heat wave last year that coincided with their installation as well as poor customer service by P.G.&.E.

Josef Zotter produces organic fair-trade chocolate in Austria and says he has no desire to see his business expand.

Selco, a solar energy company, has provided 100,000 mostly rural homes in southern India with solar lighting systems. Now it is deepening its market to include the urban poor.