As plans progress for an ethanol plant in Hopewell, a Kentucky town’s experience offers insights on what to expect in Virginia.
SLIDESHOW: Living with ethanol production in Hopkinsville, Ky.

WASHINGTON—Scientists who are seeking new sources of clean energy are trying to mimic the way plants and trees do it, by converting sunlight into fuel. Unlike standard solar panels on rooftops or arrays of solar collectors in the desert, this is a form of “artificial photosynthesis.“ It tries to imitate the elaborate system that microbes, algae and green plants developed over 3 billion of years of evolution.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Crisis? What crisis? Lost amid persistent worries about the price of crude oil and gasoline is a little-understood reality: There is more natural gas under our feet than we know what to do with. Indeed, natural-gas production is growing at such a rapid rate in this country that it’s threatening to outrun demand—driving down prices and prompting producers to ponder capping wells or exporting the excess to Asia.

PHILADELPHIA—Five miles off the southern tip of Long Beach Island, an oversize yellow buoy floats alone, purposefully mounting the waves and occasionally phoning home. After two years it has proved itself, at least to its inventors, as a workable design for what may well be the biggest technological quest of the 21st century: renewable energy.