Secretary of Energy Steven Chu hasn't said definitively whether he supports the Keystone XL pipeline. But he's heavily implied that he's a fan, laying out the project's potential benefits in an interview with energyNOW!. "It's not perfect," said Chu of the pipeline, which would increase greenhouse-gas emissions and quite probably leak to boot. But he argues that extraction technology is improving, so someday in the future maybe it won't increase greenhouse-gas emissions and probably leak? It's a trade-off, says Chu, between having a reliable oil supply and having an oil supply that isn't super-polluting and gross. He apparently knows that …

Okay, so this video was sponsored by Chipotle, but if you can ignore a small amount of logo placement and posturing, it's really adorable. Look at the little propane-canister-looking pigs! Listen to Willie Nelson make a Coldplay song sound genuinely emotional! Watch the rotund farmer guy have a change of heart and let his animals go free-range! RUN FREE, PROPANE PIGGIES!

New Jersey natives, think fast: Who's your most embarrassing resident, your governor or your reality TV stars? Personally I think the scales are tipping in favor of the Jersey Shore cast. Chris Christie basically hates the environment, but Snooki believes in global warming! She may be constructed mostly of tanner and hair, but she knows what's up. Sort of. You probably don't want to watch this whole video, since it's characteristically shrilly-pitched and almost aggressively dumb. If Snooki's persona is made up, which it has to be, it's very close to being brilliant-stupid in the manner of Beavis and Butt-head, …

Sixteen-year-old Austin Hay of Santa Rosa, Calif., has been sleeping in a work-in-progress 130 square foot "tiny home" in his parents' backyard for months. The project came about because "like every teenager, I want to move out," says Hay. Hay learned basic construction skills in woodshop during his first two years of high school, and has applied those skills to roughing out a fully functional, self-contained home that sits atop a conventional trailer. He says it's "plenty of space" and hopes to live in the home after college. Showing an unusual level of awareness of the roots of America's current …

Workers broke ground recently in Seattle on a six-story building that will generate its own power, collect and reuse rainwater, compost its sewage, and depend on daylight instead of halogen lamps. Its owner, the Bullitt Foundation, which supports work in sustainability, set out to build the greenest building on Earth. We'd say they're earning that title. Other green features: The building is being made with sustainably harvested wood and will not contain contaminants like lead or mercury. Occupants will also be able to open the windows and tenants will be required to use technology that automatically turns off when idle. …

Just because your lungs are blackened doesn't mean you can't be green. San Diego-based company Greenbutts makes cigarette filters that not only biodegrade, but sprout when buried into what have to be the world's least healthy plants. The filters are made out of organic cotton, hemp, and wheat flour, and the company says they "can be combined with a variety of seeds including grass, flower, fruit, herb, or even trees." Hey, if you make them sprout tobacco plants, you can have a fully self-sustaining terrible fucking habit! Greenbutts is looking for investors and also selling panties and dog bandanas to …

Pickup artists among the great tits (a species of bird, ok?) know how to get chicks: They sing at low frequencies just before females of their species begin laying eggs. It's a great technique! Unless they happen to be hanging out near sources of noise pollution, like highways, which force the tits to change their tune to a higher pitch so that the girls can hear their song in the first place. But that's when things start going wrong. Although female tits will respond to higher songs if they can't hear the lower ones, males competing with noise pollution open …

XKCD tackles a neglected aspect of the new climate normal: What are we going to call all these new hurricanes? Here's the comic's alt text: After exhausting the OED, we started numbering them. When overlapping hurricanes formed at all points on the Earth's surface, and our scheme was foiled by Cantor diagonalization, we just decided to name them all "Steve." Your local forecast tomorrow is "Steve." Good luck.

"The biggest mistake this nation has made in its entire history" would be not to invest in clean energy, VP Joe Biden said yesterday at the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0 The Russian government just cut a deal with Exxon to look for oil in that country’s sector of the Arctic. The next day, Russia raided BP’s Moscow offices. George Monbiot argues that fracking without regulation is insane. Costa Rica's president is responding to tourism needs and economic woes by building an international airport in an environmentally sensitive area. Concrete could be a magical wonder green building material if only …

Here's Daryl Hannah preparing to be arrested at the Keystone XL protests -- she's writing a contact number, probably for her lawyer, on her arm so she doesn't forget it. And that's a nice hand-lettered sign! Hannah was arrested today outside the White House gates, and I originally was going to lead with that video and title the post "Daryl Hannah in handcuffs" but then I felt dirty about it. Here's the video, though! It's been a big week for celebrities at the protest -- NASA scientist James Hansen was arrested yesterday.