Comment on ‘Forever chemicals’ are hard to break down, but light works

When we model commitment to pursuing excellence in our work and our character, we can’t help but inspire those around us to expect more from ourselves as well. If you haven’t seen the movie Groundhog Day, you’re either very old, very young, or completely detached from contemporary culture. Upon its release in 1993, the title instantaneously became a buzzword for the haunting feeling of living the same day over and over. 

PFAS compounds have carbon-fluorine bonds, one of the strongest in chemistry. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have earned the nickname “forever chemicals” from their extraordinary ability to stick around in the environment long after they’ve been used.

Clearloop is helping develop solar farms in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana—where renewable energy development has been slow. In some areas of the U. S., solar and wind farms generate a large percentage of the electricity on the grid. But in other areas, the grid remains much more reliant on carbon-polluting fossil fuels.

Freight trains criss-crossing the country carry cars of coal and tanks of oil and natural gas to power plants to help keep the nation’s electric grid going. Could freight trains haul electrons generated by renewable energy sources for the same purpose? That was a question that Christopher Smith, who has an extensive background in the renewable energy industry, asked himself.

With the holidays rapidly approaching, I find late December is a great time for family, friends, festivities, and a little reflection. The end of 2024 marks an important milestone: The first quarter of this century is now behind us. If you’re like me, the turn of the millennium doesn’t feel that long ago, yet the disco era is now closer to the year 2000 than we are. Time has a way of moving quickly, and constant change makes history easy to forget.

The subject line of a press release this month from Weld County was stark and foreboding: “County’s assessed value sees 20% decrease.” The cratering of taxable property value in the large county that hugs metro Denver’s northeast corner — from nearly $25 billion in 2023 to just under $20 billion this year — would probably send many county finance directors running to the medicine cabinet for a fistful of antacids. But for Cheryl Pattelli, it’s all part of managing the books for a county whose economy relies largely on boom-and-bust commodity industries, like agriculture and energy, that can experience wild swings in both price and production. Energy, in particular, plays an outsized role.