Scientists have found a new cost that comes with wind power. Turns out wind power devastates nearby bats. The wind turbines apparently create low pressure that blows up bats’ lungs.

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Guest Commentary, From The Dallas Business Journal – In early summer, the U.S. Senate considered legislation introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., that would have established a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 44% in an effort to prevent global warming.

Thankfully, the bill was defeated. Because of the media hype generated by former Vice President Al Gore and his successful global warming horror movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” many were surprised by the margin of defeat. The 2008 climate legislation garnered fewer votes than similar legislation had received when considered in 2004 and again in 2006.

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Plans like those of Southern California Edison to plant its own solar panels on acres of Los Angeles rooftops have some in the California solar industry nervous about the prospect of being cut out of the picture, the San Francisco Business Times reports.

It’s not that they don’t want big utilities to get into the solar game. It’s just that they want to compete with those utilities.

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When they found out it would be too expensive to get their own wind turbine company rolling, this group did the next best thing: They started a consulting company.

Gregory Hering, Jayson Uppal and Jared Rodriguez — all undergraduates at Tufts University at the time — wanted to get into wind power, the Boston Business Journal reports. But they found doing so was well beyond their means. So instead, they started a company, Emergent Energy Group Inc., advising businesses and towns on how best to install wind or solar.

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Twelve states led by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo are suing the Environmental Protection Agency to try and force the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries. Reuters reports that the suit alleges the Bush Administration has violated the Clean Air Act by balking at regulating emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that environmental groups are accusing the Bush Administration of trying to rewrite rules for protecting endangered species without giving sufficient time for public comment. The Interior Department has set a 30-day public comment period for the rewrite of rules for enforcing the Endangered Species Act.

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It’s a blazing hot Columbia, S.C. afternoon, humid enough to drown an alligator. We’re out at a creek bank beside a city street, looking at grass.

It’s not just any grass. This stuff’s at least eight feet tall, and the guys I’m with are hoping this grass can make them a lot of money.

The grass is named “Arundo Donax,” and two of the men I’m with, University of South Carolina professor Laszlo Marton and his colleague Mihaly Czako, have come up with a way to grow lots of it in one place, something that once was very difficult, if not impossible.

The other folks with us represent Biomass Gas & Electric of Atlanta. They’re wagering these grasses could be one of the next big things in energy.

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A California fund is looking to bridge the gap between early and late-stage investments in cleantech companies.

That’s what Sue Preston, who manages the relatively small CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund set up by the California Clean Energy Fund, tells the San Francisco Business Times. The angel fund was seeded with money from a $30 million from the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. bankruptcy settlement, has since raised $7 million and is looking to bring the total up to $20 million.

It’s small change, compared to cleantech funds run by such giants as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. But Preston says it fills a need.

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Add a rock star designer and a former Ford executive to the Tesla team bringing new electric cars to market.

The San Jose Business Journal reports the startup has hired Franz von Holzhausen from Mazda Motor Corp. to lead its design team. Deepak Ahuja, former chief financial officer at Ford Motor Co. of Southern Africa, will also join the venture-funded electric car maker. Mike Donoughe, a former Chrysler LLC executive, joined the team in July to lead production of Tesla’s Roadster and its planned sedan.

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While his company does battle with consumer watchdogs over its keystone energy efficiency program, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers is making news of his own.

The utility chief told the World Affairs Council of Charlotte that China is outstripping the U.S. when it comes to energy technology. “They are living the balanced solution on energy,” he told his audience at The Westin hotel in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday afternoon, the Charlotte Business Journal reports. “They are making it happen while we are still talking about it.”

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A strong majority of greenbizjournal readers think Al Gore is dead-on with his call for getting all energy for buildings from renewable sources within 10 years.

About 63 percent of those who responded to our informal survey agreed that Gore’s proposal is inspiring and should be the policy the U.S. follows. On the other side, the second-largest group, 18 percent, see Gore as a blowhard whose ideas would destroy the economy. Another 13 percent think his ideas are inspiring but unrealistic and 7 percent think Gore’s heart is in the right place, but he doesn’t have the right answers.

This time, we ask what’s more damaging to green businesses: Companies engaged in false green marketing claims or activists for whom no business is green enough.