America’s bastion of liberal ideology is under attack from the forces of capitalism. With a sense of inevitability, the Silicon Valley “peasants’ revolt” is underway.

The cost of manufacturing solar panels has dropped in recent years—largely thanks to generous government support by states attempting to move first in the fledgling market—yet efficiencies have largely stagnated. That’s a significant problem for the future of the renewable energy source.

A Nebraska judge has ruled that the Governor erred in fast-tracking state approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project. This gives President Obama a heaven-sent opportunity avoid upsetting his green base before the midterms.

The great irony of Germany’s energiewende—its recent “green” energy transformation—has been a sudden revival of the country’s coal industry. The energy imperative to get that coal out of the ground may bring about the razing of entire villages as a kind of collateral damage.

Monday night, WRM made an appearance on PBS’s Newshour, along with former ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns, to discuss the necessary requirements for American ambassadors, after a spate of embarrassing mistakes made by recent Obama appointees during their confirmation hearings.

Genetic modifications have vanquished the potato’s greatest enemy: blight. In a recent three-year-long study, a GM potato outperformed its more “natural” counterpart not only in yield (by a factor of two), but was also “fully resistant” to the vegetable’s most dangerous disease.

Good evening, TAI readers! As you prepare for the week ahead, take the time to look back on what you may have missed over the last week:

The tandem technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal well drilling haven’t just unlocked reserves of natural gas trapped in shale—they’ve also given America access to so-called “tight oil” trapped in shale as well. But the Economist argues that policy is lagging behind events, and makes the case for opening up America’s crude oil exports.

Biofuels were sold as a renewable, non-emitting energy source, when on balance the anachronistic energy source does more harm to the environment than good.

It’s not just German households and businesses struggling under the yoke of the country’s ill-conceived green energy scheme. The ripples from Berlin’s energiewende are extended in to Austria, where excess renewable energy is straining the German neighbor’s grid.