Balancing oil and the environment

Johannesburg, South Africa, is a center not just for diamonds and minerals but also for Africa's other great physical resource: energy -- in the shape of coal in the city but elsewhere in the continent in the shape of oil.

The oil industry is big and profitable. For decades, the industry's rush to gain from the world's resources infuriated environmentalists. But in recent years, some major oil companies have sounded a high-minded battle cry for change.

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Midwest farmers harvest wind power

Considering how much money farmers in Iowa and Minnesota make on power-generating wind turbines, their corn and soybean crops look like peanuts.

Once a struggling renewable energy supply that survived only through government protection, wind energy technology has taken off, in some cases producing electricity more economically than fossil fuels.

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Alternative power sources: Pros and cons

In the midst of a fuel crisis, what are the world's alternative power sources? Hydroelectric power, wind, photovoltaic, fuel cells, biomass, coal and gas have advantages and disadvantages.

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Cheney urges 'fresh look' at nuclear power

Nuclear power can solve America's energy woes and help protect the environment, Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN.

The answers, Cheney said, lie in increasing the supply of energy sources -- a policy that would include giving nuclear power "a fresh look."

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