Prospects for using the Congress’s budget process to pass cap-and-trade legislation were extinguished on Wednesday night as the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a measure to bar that option.
[...]
Prospects for using the Congress’s budget process to pass cap-and-trade legislation were extinguished on Wednesday night as the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a measure to bar that option.
A system of per-mile road usage fees can replace our dysfunctional gasoline tax as a way of funding transportation infrastructure.
Climate activist Thomas Kineshanko’s musing on jet travel was one of several back-to-earth moments provided by the youngest speakers at the World Conference on Sport and the Environment.
Talk of “harnessing” the passion of sports showed up everywhere at the World Conference on Sport and the Environment, but one marketer moved past the cliché and made a case that athletes are in a great position to promote environmentally friendly behavior.
Is it better to buy locally grown marijuana which may have been fed with chemicals, or organic hooch from far away?
So Republicans have been going around saying that Obama’s cap-and-trade program will cost every American household $3,128 a year.
Continuing her spring cleaning, our advice columnist unearths questions on mean drivers, meat, and tennis balls.
Barack Obama has a problem, one he shares with Gordon Brown. And, for that matter, with Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Stephen Harper, and even Lula da Silva. The problem just happens to be prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi.
House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders released the much-anticipated draft of their climate and energy legislation on Tuesday, a proposal that includes emissions goals more ambitious than those proposed by the Obama White House but also leaves open many of the most contentious questions on climate policy.
There was some good stuff along with the cheerleading on day one at the World Conference on Sport and the Environment.
Vancouver wants make the 2010 Winter Games carbon neutral, but the plan it released Monday counts on help from the private sector to make it happen.
If you’re looking for rays of hope amidst the torrent of idiocy and bad news—not that I’m projecting—you could do worse than reading U.S. Climate Envoy Todd Stern’s speech to the recent international climate gathering in Bonn, Germany.
Nike, Starbucks, eBay, and a handful of other big-name U.S. companies are putting forward a climate agenda that’s just as ambitious as that of many environmentalists, if not more so.
Neighbors of U2 guitarist The Edge are Malibu-hooing about his eco-destructive real estate plans.
Neighbors of U2 guitarist The Edge are Malibu-hooing about his eco-destructive real estate plans.
Could the revenue from auctioning off carbon credits be used to pay for a new health-care system?
Could the revenue from auctioning off carbon credits be used to pay for a new health-care system?
PARIS (AFP) - UN talks on delivering a historic deal on climate change resume in Bonn on Sunday with many hoping that US President Barack Obama’s untested negotiators can breathe life into a troubled process.
PARIS (AFP) - UN talks on delivering a historic deal on climate change resume in Bonn on Sunday with many hoping that US President Barack Obama’s untested negotiators can breathe life into a troubled process.
As solar projects finally start to be built, a shakeout is inevitable. The winners will be those solar technologies that produce the most carbon-free electricity at the cheapest prices.
Climate leaders in both Congress and the United Nations are optimistic about making landmark progress on an international climate accord this year, but hopes that an agreement will be finalized in 2009 seem to be dimming.
Yvo de Boer, the U.N. climate chief, and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Energy and Environment [...]
A year or so ago, I spoke at a solar conference in France—a country that produces 78 percent of its electricity with nukes. A couple of folks told me that the government’s interest in solar stemmed from the fact that during the previous summer’s heat wave, river levels dropped to the point that they [...]
A year or so ago, I spoke at a solar conference in France—a country that produces 78 percent of its electricity with nukes. A couple of folks told me that the government’s interest in solar stemmed from the fact that during the previous summer’s heat wave, river levels dropped to the point that they [...]
CFLs everywhere will go dark Saturday night for the global Earth Hour event scheduled for 8:30 p.m. local time. The aim of the annual effort is to make a “statement of concern about climate change,” rather than, say, save a few watts.
CFLs everywhere will go dark Saturday night for the global Earth Hour event scheduled for 8:30 p.m. local time. The aim of the annual effort is to make a “statement of concern about climate change,” rather than, say, save a few watts.
The latest ad from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. Note that they don’t even bother mentioning the “clean” part until the logo at the very end.
Tuesday marks 20 years since the Exxon Valdez dumped nearly 11 million of gallons of crude oil into Alaskan waters, resulting in the most severe impacts on the environment of any spill anywhere. I was there and will attest to the graveness of the situation then, and now—my memories of that day are graphic. [...]
There’s been a deluge of bills on climate and energy introduced in Congress in the past few weeks.
There’s been a deluge of bills on climate and energy introduced in Congress in the past few weeks.
By Guest author
This is a guest post by Pepe Escobar, the roving correspondent for Asia Times and an analyst for the Real News. This article draws from his new book, Obama does Globalistan. He may be reached at pepeasia AT yahoo.com. This post was originally published [...]
By Joseph Romm
Dr. Jonathan Pershing became the new Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week.
Pershing will work under U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern, appointed by Clinton in January as Obama's lead climate negotiator (see Secretary Clinton appoints special [...]
By Gar Lipow
Back in early January, I mentioned it was bad news that VRB, the makers of large-scale, long-lasting vanadium flow batteries for storing electricity, was going out of business.
Well their assets have been acquired by Prudent Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese JD [...]
By David Roberts
This is one of the most successful, least awkward Colbert interviews I've seen, with a guy named Michael Reynolds who builds houses out of trash and runs Earthship.
By David Roberts
Just got a press release that begins thusly:
David,And I'd been so worried!
By Adam Stein
The other day, I used the fanciful example of $50,000-utility bills to illustrate how cap-and-rebate schemes can inspire energy efficiency and conservation. The numbers were deliberately exaggerated, but they highlight one of the features of cap-and-rebate that I like: the robustness of the system in the face [...]
The New Yorker magazine has just published a lead story on climate, “Economy vs. Environment,” by David Owen, that is so bad, so filled with long-debunked right-wing talking points, it would barely qualify for the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
The New Yorker magazine has just published a lead story on climate, “Economy vs. Environment,” by David Owen, that is so bad, so filled with long-debunked right-wing talking points, it would barely qualify for the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
By Joseph Romm
At one time, Chicago was a serious contender for America's greenest big city. Now they appear to be mostly contending for biggest greenwasher.
I didn't learn the stunning story about what Chicago is trying to get away with until I was interviewed by a Chicago Tribune reporter. His' [...]
By Andrew Sharpless
In the minutes after midnight on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez poured 10.8 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. The spill turned pristine spruce-lined waters into a sticky death trap for countless animals, including a quarter of a million birds.
Yet two decades later, [...]
By Joseph Romm
President Obama has picked David Sandalow to be assistant secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the Energy Department. He also plans to nominate BP chief scientist Steven Koonin to be undersecretary for Science.
And I hear that renewables expert and UC Berkeley professor Dan Kammen (PDF) is [...]
By Russ Walker
During his prime time press conference Tuesday evening, President Obama was put on the spot about Congress' apparent unwillingness to go along with some of his budget proposals. The questioner listed a number of areas where Democrats on Capitol Hill may part ways, including the White House's proposed' [...]
By Russ Walker
One can only wonder whether the following EPA statement regarding its move on mountaintop removal was prompted by some angry phone calls to the agency from certain influential West Virginia lawmakers. In any event, here's what the EPA sent out late Tuesday:
Following reports that mischaracterize actions [...]During his prime time press conference Tuesday evening, President Obama was put on the spot about Congress’ apparent unwillingness to go along with some of his budget proposals. The questioner listed a number of areas where Democrats on Capitol Hill may part ways, including the White House’s proposed cap-and-trade program [...]
During his prime time press conference Tuesday evening, President Obama was put on the spot about Congress’ apparent unwillingness to go along with some of his budget proposals. The questioner listed a number of areas where Democrats on Capitol Hill may part ways, including the White House’s proposed cap-and-trade program [...]
By Tom Philpott
So, I'm featured as a talking head in a documentary on the sustainable-food movement called Food Fight. Other folks who appear include Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and Dan Barber.
Food Fight will be screening this coming Saturday, March 28, 7 pm, in Seattle as part of Green' [...]
By Joseph Romm
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) appears to like deserts so much that she wants them to stretch from Oklahoma to California and cover one third the planet.
The AP reported Friday, "Feinstein seeks [to] block solar power from desert land":
Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar [...]By Kate Sheppard
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), one of the House's biggest coal supporters, on Tuesday reintroduced a bill that would invest billions of dollars in the development of carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS) technology for fossil-fuel power plants.
Like a similar measure Boucher introduced last year, the "Carbon Capture and" [...]
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), one of the House’s biggest coal supporters, on Tuesday reintroduced a bill that would invest billions of dollars in the development of carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS) technology for fossil-fuel power plants.
By Eric de Place
Over the last couple of weeks, there's been a lot of hand-wringing about the state of climate policy in the Northwest. Washington's citizen-backed renewable energy standard is in jeopardy and neither Oregon nor Washington appears close to implementing the Western Climate Initiative. Even British Columbia's pioneering [...]
By David Roberts
San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom said something that caught my ear: San Francsisco is going to adopt Berkeley's innovative financing program to fund not only rooftop solar (as Berkeley does) but other distributed generation and energy efficiency projects.
That is excellent stuff. Hopefully SF can' [...]
By David Roberts
Just a reminder: I'm at the Earth2Tech Green:Net '09 conference all day today. It looks like about half the people here are media, but if you don't find the dozens of other outlets for commentary sufficient, you can follow along with the action on my' [...]
By Guest author
This is a guest post by Dennis Takahashi-Kelso, executive vice president for Ocean Conservancy and Alaska's former commissioner of environmental conservation.
The Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, March 1989.Tuesday marks 20 years since the Exxon Valdez dumped nearly 11 million of gallons [...]
By Tom Philpott
I recently finished Taras Grescoe's wonderful, vitally important book Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood. Everyone who loves seafood and would prefer to be able to enjoy it in 20 years must read it.
Basic message: overfishing, pollution, climate change, and abusive' [...]
By David Roberts
I'm staying with a friend in San Francisco who just recently (in the midst of doing a massive renovation of his 1870s row house) put up a solar PV system on his roof. Two systems, actually, one to power his unit and one to power the downstairs unit.' [...]
By David Roberts
"I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us 'having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,' and the people -- we the people -- are going to have" [...]
By Kate Sheppard
The Environmental Protection Agency told the White House on Friday that climate change is a danger to public welfare -- a move that takes the administration a step closer to regulating planet-warming greenhouse gases.
The agency's finding -- which the White House will now review -- comes [...]
By David Roberts
All day tomorrow (Tuesday) I'll be at Green:Net, a greentech conference sponsored by the excellent blog Earth2Tech.
Specifically, the conference will be about how the tools that created the net and net architecture will help to revolutionize energy. You can check out the line-up' [...]
By Kate Sheppard
President Obama is giving top billing to clean energy and green jobs as he promotes his $3.6 trillion budget plan.
Addressing a group of clean-tech entrepreneurs and researchers on Monday, the president noted that his proposed budget includes $150 billion over 10 years for direct investments in [...]
By Joseph Romm
The Department of Energy announced on Friday that the first energy loan guarantee authorized by the 2005 (!) Energy Policy Act went to a plant that manufactures solar panels:
Energy Secretary Steven Chu today offered a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc. to support the [...]By Tom Philpott
When Michelle Obama plunged a shovel into the White House lawn last Friday, she wasn't just preparing a productive vegetable-garden bed. She's was also tilling fertile ground for debate about new directions for the food system.
In The New York Times, Andrew Martin helpfully got the ball [...]
By Joseph Romm
In The U.S. requires a strong climate bill to remain competitive, Part 1, I reprised the thesis first documented by Harvard's Michael Porter -- strong, leading edge, pro-innovation regulations promote national competitiveness. As President Obama said last week:
We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created [...]By Joseph Romm
Contrary to popular belief, a strong climate bill will not harm U.S. competitiveness. Quite the reverse -- it is our only hope for restoring U.S. leadership in key job creating industries such as solar energy, wind power, and automobile manufacturing, which was lost in large part because of [...]
By biodiversivist
Rocket scientists Governors Gregoire, Kulongoski, and Schwarzenegger are supporting a brilliant idea to grab some of the stimulus funds. From a Seattle Times article that garnered 140 comments:
The three governors envision a series of alternative fueling stations stretching from the Canadian border to Mexico, creating what [...]By David Roberts
I didn't follow the George Will Climate Crank Controversy very closely on this blog. You can read a comprehensive play-by-play from Adam Siegel here.
The good news is, two new shots were fired today by the forces of sanity, in the pages of the Washington Post, which' [...]
By Ken Johnson
For an $80 billion program, President Barack Obama's cap-and-trade proposal is very short on specifics. His budget plan [PDF] provides only the briefest policy rationale for cap-and-trade, describing it as "a policy approach that dramatically reduced acid rain at much lower costs than the traditional government regulations" [...]
By David Roberts
Listen Play "ABCs (f. Chubb Rock)," by K'naanK'naan is a hip-hop MC out of Toronto, Ontario. (That's in Canada!) He was born and raised in Somalia, in truly horrific conditions of war and deprivation. He learned to rap -- before he even learned English -- by [...]
By Joseph Romm
Monday I wrote "Ignore NYT's Green Home column."
I was critical both of the author Julie Scelfo and Eric Corey Freed, the author of Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies. But having corresponded with Freed, it seems that his recommendations were taken somewhat out of context. He [...]
BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU leaders refused Friday to put a figure on aid for developing nations to cut greenhouse gases, saying they wanted to wait to see what the United States, China and others have to offer.
This week, as I sorted through my inbox and overflowing number of “google alerts,” one particular story from Fox News caught my attention. In a decidedly personal yet informative piece, Andy Kroll of Fox News outlined the reasons why he was going to reduce his meat consumption by 75 percent in the upcoming months. [...]
By Guest author
This is a guest post by Michael A. Livermore, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law and the coauthor, along with Richard L. Revesz, of Retaking Rationality: How Cost-Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect the Environment and Our Health.
[...]By Jonathan Hiskes
Los Angeles citizens voted on a citywide solar energy plan on March 3, but the very narrow results didn't become official until yesterday: It lost (by about 1 percent).
That doesn't mean the city's electric utility won't proceed with rapidly expanding its solar voltaic energy portfolio' [...]
By David Roberts
George Stephanopoulos says Dems can't possibly pass both healthcare reform and cap-and-trade, and they've effectively chosen healthcare. Dems have supported a plan to push healthcare through via budget reconciliation, which requires only a 50 vote majority. They have not supported a plan to do the same with [...]
By Meredith Niles
This week, as I sorted through my inbox and overflowing number of "google alerts," one particular story from Fox News caught my attention. In a decidedly personal yet informative piece, Andy Kroll of Fox News outlined the reasons why he was going to reduce his meat consumption [...]
By David Roberts
Today the Department of Energy announced its first energy loan guarantee. It's going to ... Solyndra, a manufacturer of solar panels. What's the phrase? Oh, right: elections have consequences.
By Adam Browning
I have a foolproof plan to fight spam: if the government gave out Viagra for free, then most spammers would quickly go out of business as their market would be undercut. Foolproof.
Our friends at ForestEthics are trying to do the same for junk mail, except they have an [...]
By Jeff Biggers
As a new round of explosives shattered the ridges across mountaintop removal mines in Boone and Raleigh counties in West Virginia yesterday, unleashed by a recent U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, White House Council on Environmental Quality chair Nancy Sutley gave the first indications that the [...]
By Brad Johnson
This post originally appeared at the Wonk Room.
Glenn Beck, the conservative ideologue whose show is mocked by fellow Fox News anchors, recently attacked plans to modernize our electric grid. After Carol Browner, President Obama's climate and energy adviser, said that a smart grid means "[...]
By Joseph Romm
Yale and George Mason Universities surveyed 2,164 Americans last fall about their "climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences, and actions." Details will be posted at midnight Tuesday here. Here is a first look:
92 percent supported more funding for research on renewable energy sources, such as [...]By Robert Stavins
Whether they are called "revenue enhancements" or "user charges," fear of the political consequences of taxes restricts debate on energy and environmental policy options in Washington. In a March 7 post on "green jobs," in which I argued that it is not always best to try to [...]
By Tom Laskawy
Team Ethanol got together recently at the Department of Energy for Biomass 2009: Fueling Our Future -- a conference on all things biofuel. Needless to say, they're still singing the same old song. More subsidies, a higher blend wall (a cheer that USDA Chief Tom Vilsack
By Joseph Romm
The best and cheapest near-term strategy for reducing coal plant CO2 emissions without forcing utilities to simply walk away from their entire capital investment is to replace that coal with biomass (see here).
Today, Energy Daily ($ub. req'd) reports on the huge -- but little covered' [...]
By Tom Philpott
It's official, because it's been etched in the pages of our most sacred national chronicle. No, not the Federal Register -- I'm talking about O Magazine.
Here's the scoop: the Obamas will plant a veggie garden in the White House lawn. The First Lady of the United [...]
By Tom Philpott
Update [2009-3-19 12:37:25 by Tom Philpott]:Also on the theme of Big Oil loving biofuels: Valero Energy, the largest U.S. oil refiner, just snapped up seven ethanol plants from bankrupt ethanol maker Verasun for $1 billion. To get the plants, Valero beat out corn-processing giant Archer Daniels Midland, [...]
By David Roberts
Just because people keep asking me:
Yes, we are in fact in the homestretch and a brand new Grist.org will debut in the middle of next week (barring unforeseen disasters). We turned comments off because we've been dual-publishing on both sites for a week, just to make sure' [...]
By Ken Ward
After ducking the matter for a decade, U.S. environmental organizations finally pulled together a climate policy, but the National Call to Action on Global Warming issued by 53 organizations on March 5 is a mistake and should be reconsidered.
The National Call contains key elements [...]
By Adam Stein
Who, in this scenario [carbon revenue rebated to consumers], has any new incentive to shift to low-carbon electricity or efficiency?Short answer: everyone.
Let's say I'm your utility, and I raise your energy prices so that, at present rate of consumption, your bill will [...]
By Joseph Romm
After growing 19 percent in 2006 and 62 percent in 2007, world solar photovoltaic (PV) market installations exploded by 110 percent last year to a staggering 5.95 GW, according to Solarbuzz's Annual Report, Marketbuzz 2009:
Europe accounted for 82% of world demand in [...]By Kate Sheppard
On Wednesday, the Obama administration officially announced that Grist board member and Ford Foundation program officer Michelle DePass has been nominated to serve as the assistant administrator for international affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Michelle currently manages the Ford Foundation's initiative on Environmental Justice and [...]
