Dr. Tom Hansen has a vision for clean power. It’s big and bold. Dubbed the ‘Hansen Plan’ in a January 2008 Scientific American article, it would completely replace fossil fuels and nuclear power generation across the country. The idea is gaining fervent followers for its seeming simplicity, and equally passionate detractors for the cost and effort required to implement it.

At first blush Dr. Hansen seems an unlikely visionary. The mild, even humble manner, worn running shoes, plaid shirt and rumpled khakis belong to a man who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty. For years he ran coal-fired power plants for Tucson Electric Power, now serving almost four hundred thousand customers in Arizona. Not having much to do because the plants “ran themselves,” he started researching how to transform TEP and the industry. In the early 90s he quit running the coal plants to focus on renewables, and is now TEP’s Vice President of Environmental Services, Conservation and Renewable Energy.

Last week I chatted with Dr. Hansen at TEP’s bustling Green Team office. We talked about the company’s goals, the Hansen Plan, state of the art energy storage, plug-in hybrids and the new Smart Grid demo projects, as well as his concerns about natural gas. He also reveals his pick for the best thin film solar panels . They may be less efficient but are becoming less expensive than the standard silicon-based ones, which he calls “crystallines”.

In December 2006, Dr. Mark Trexler authored a controversial paper called A Consumer’s Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers. He studied and ranked the numerous firms selling carbon offsets - also known as carbon credits - and named several firms with credible products. However, some of the most popular companies in the fledgling industry came out smelling, well, rather bad. The report caused quite a flap.

Dr. Trexler is Managing Director of EcoSecurities Global Consulting Services, an international carbon trading and consulting firm. I caught up with him at the noisy EUEC Energy and Environment Conference held at the end of every January in the foothills of Tucson, Arizona. Scientists, policy makers and business leaders from around the world gathered to tackle the fabulously difficult issues of climate change and energy.

Here are Dr. Trexler’s thoughts on topics including whether the Federal Trade Commission will find fraud in the carbon market during its ongoing investigation, when he thinks carbon credits work, and whether to buy them.

Most of us think of solar power as coming from glass panels on rooftops, and increasingly large arrays in the middle of some sun-drenched desert. Now it can come from green, slimy ponds and bioreactors filled with algae that soak up the rays to make oil.

Some species of algae contain as much as 50% oil, and out-produce other biofuels. An acre of soybean produces around 70 gallons of biodiesel. The same area of corn makes roughly 420 gallons of ethanol. Algae can produce about 5,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre. Not too shabby!

Another plus is that algae don’t compete with our food supply as other biofuels can. No exorbitantly priced corn tortillas just to fill our gas tanks!

As someone who fantasizes about shooting a paint gun at Hummers and other suburban attack vehicles to mark them as hazards to planetary health, I recently succumbed to the most scandalous vacation decision. My husband and I were to drive around the Southwest in an RV, dragging two motorcycles – bikes that aren’t even street legal, I might add, only meant for riding at high speed around a tarmac racetrack, burning up fossil fuels just for the hell of it.

“How many miles does this RV do to the gallon?” I timidly asked the man who handed me the rental papers to sign.

“Well, the manual says 10, but it’s more like 7, particularly with a trailer.” He said. We had chosen the smallest camper.

Research in all manner of renewable energy technologies abounds. There’s tidal energy, underwater turbines, biological fuel cells, cow poop power. You name it someone’s probably having a go at it. Now researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology have come up with the kind of power source that is reminiscent of the Star Trek materializer – solar cells that spew out of an inkjet printer. It’s so simple, anyone can do it.

No more bulky, unsightly roof-top panels.

With all the talk of contaminated food pouring in from China and elsewhere, I have to wonder how safe our food supply really is. Let’s face it! It’s not just food coming from outside our borders that contain things not normally considered edible.

Several groups are now developing standards for the voluntary carbon credit market to take some of the chaos and guesswork out of it for us poor consumers. The ones I've looked at look pretty decent, and cover the major issues so that they are a real net benefit for carbon emissions - the struggle will be making them so they're not too bureaucratic so the price of each carbon credit doesn't go up more than the market can bare. Time will tell.

There is so much green being bandied about that it’s practically impossible for us mere mortals to sort out the true green from the green wash. Some of the claims are indeed true, some are a pile of hocus pocus, and some are well, good in theory but too bloody bad because of unintended consequences. So in this, my new series about what’s green and what’s not, I am going to attempt to figure out just that. You and I can then vote green thumbs up, or alternatively, down. (See the thumb key at the end to see how to rate).

In this my inaugural piece, I thought I’d go straight for the jugular, and tackle that most maligned of issues… carbon credits.

White gold. That’s what some call one of the most-eaten seafoods because it's so lucrative. A.k.a. shrimp, the new gold rush has reached landlocked desert farms in Arizona.

“What heat-stroked dummkopf came up with that insane notion?” I find myself exclaiming at the thought of all that water. “Haven’t they heard the word drought? Or sustainability?”

Well, actually, it’s not quite as certifiable as it sounds.

Those of us attempting to curb our emissions can soon travel with a little less guilt. Boeing unveiled its ~300-seat greenliner in Seattle yesterday. Made largely of composites, it is lighter than other airplanes of a similar size, and thus will consume about 20% less fuel. And did I mention it looks cool, too?