Dear Umbra, Every week I scan the gasoline signs looking for the cheapest deal, while knowing that what I pay in rock-bottom prices may come at the expense of environmental integrity and social justice. I'd like to choose my brand of gas with more conscience. Would you help? I'd love to see a ranking or rating system of the major gasoline brands. It could let us know which ones are meaningfully pursuing renewable energy sources, protecting indigenous political and property rights at the source, and making efforts to minimize the environmental impact of their oil extraction and refinement. Are any …

Investing in renewable energy can pose ethical dilemmas Over the past two years, the value of fossil-fuel companies has soared while the worldwide stock-market value of renewable-energy companies has declined from $13 billion to $10.7 billion. This, despite ever-renewing hope that a major energy transition will spark a boom in the renewables arena. Many Wall Street investors are reluctant to go for renewables because there's so much insecurity around energy markets. The U.S. and other key nations have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and there's a patchwork of national standards for carbon-dioxide emissions. Many socially and environmentally conscious investors continue …

Exotic South American forest set aside as wilderness by ... bankers? When New York investment banking and management firm Goldman Sachs acquired a logging operation in Tierra del Fuego, on an island off the southernmost tip of Chile, it did something unusual: Rather than "seek to maximize its economic value, which is what we would have done if this were a shopping mall or an apartment building," says the firm's Larry Linden, "we decided to do what we thought was the right thing" -- dedicate the land, more than 1,000 square miles, as a wilderness reserve. The U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation …

Slave labor used to clear Brazilian rainforest The Amazon rainforest is disappearing at a precipitous pace, and as is too often the case, this environmental catastrophe is connected to equally dire human-rights abuses. To wit: Thousands of poor, illiterate Brazilian peasants work every year chopping down the forest in conditions Brazil's Labor Ministry delicately refers to as "analogous to slavery.'' Promised $3 to $4 a day, peasants are lured to southeastern Brazil to clear forests with machetes, tractors, and chain saws. They often find themselves working from sunup to sundown in the tropical heat, seven days a week, only to …

Arnold Schwarzenegger's exuberant speech last Tuesday at the Republican National Convention suggested that the Governator may be less the moderate Republican than advertised. Hailed by some during the convention as the Obama of the right, the California governor came across as a devout, rock-ribbed Bush lover. Just days after Schwarzenegger's speech, more evidence emerged to indicate that this compassionate conservative may be borrowing not-so-compassionate tricks from the Bush-Cheney playbook: An Associated Press story last Friday revealed that a sweeping reform proposal for California state government commissioned by Schwarzenegger was "influenced significantly" by industry interests -- in particular, ChevronTexaco, the largest …

ChevronTexaco Heavily Influenced California Restructuring California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) recently announced plan to comprehensively reorganize state government brought grumbles from some enviros, who were piqued by the proposed consolidation of various boards and commissions from which many of the state's groundbreaking environmental initiatives have emerged. This latest news isn't going to mollify them. The proposed reorganization contains several provisions that would directly benefit oil and gas behemoth ChevronTexaco by revising the process for permitting and siting refineries and streamlining the activities of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which oversees many of the company's interests in the …

Cute, Tiny Smart Cars to Come to U.S. and Get Big The tiny, fuel-efficient, two-seater Smart cars (named after their manufacturer) that are so popular in Europe are coming to the U.S. Sort of. Convinced that a tiny car -- even one that gets 60 miles per gallon and has been repeatedly proven safe for drivers -- will offend Americans' sense that bigger means better and safer, Smart U.S.A. will be introducing a Smart SUV to U.S. streets in 2006. If you think that introducing another SUV to a crowded American market would be not only financially silly, but a …

Wall Street Remains Hesitant on Renewable Energy It's a familiar refrain: Wall Street investors, we are told, are not yet sold on renewable energy. They worry that the technologies are not mature, that massive upfront infrastructure costs are too high a barrier, that despite rosy predictions from socially responsible investors, the price gap between oil and gas stocks and renewable energy stocks is not narrowing. They're not convinced that the large companies investing in wind and solar power -- among them GE, Royal Dutch/Shell, and BP -- are making smart moves. But what goes unmentioned by Wall Street analysts in …

Toyota's Hot-Selling Prius Appeals to Drivers' Vanity Last month, Honda sold 1,963 Civic Hybrids and a meager 34 Insight hybrids in the U.S. -- and sales trends for both models are trending downward -- while the Toyota Prius fairly flew off lots, with 5,230 sold in the U.S. last month. A Toyota spokesperson said the company could have sold twice as many if production had kept up with demand. Why the difference? It's not performance or gas mileage, areas where the cars are roughly equivalent. Analysts say one thing can explain the disparate sales figures: vanity. Unlike the Civic, the …

Ford Battles Hybrid-Friendly Legislation, Destroys Electric Cars Ford Motor Co. CEO Bill Ford's vocal attempts to position his company as eco-friendly are sounding a little hollow this week. As the California legislative session nears its end, Ford has ramped up lobbying efforts to kill a bill that would allow drivers of fuel-efficient hybrids to drive solo in the state's carpool lanes. Ford said the measure -- sponsored by Assemblymember Fran Pavley (D) and backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) -- is a "buy Japanese" bill "intended for almost exclusive use by Toyota Prius drivers." Ford took issue with the bill's …