News
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Critical List: TransCanada reboots KeystoneXL; the most energy-dense battery ever
TransCanada is going to reapply for a Keystone XL permit and wants to start work on the Oklahoma-to-Texas portion of the pipeline. Envia Systems has created the most energy-dense battery ever, which could bring down the price of electric vehicles and extend their range. Rick Santorum thinks gas prices caused the recession. No, he really […]
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Critical List: BP spill liability trial delayed; Meryl Streep’s eco-friendly Oscar dress
BP’s trial for Deepwater Horizon liability has been pushed back one week as the company considers a $14 billion settlement. Scientist Peter Gleick is taking a leave of absence from the Pacific Institute after the organization’s board of directors expressed concern about the methods he used to obtain internal documents from the Heartland Institute. Meryl […]
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Critical List: Lucy Lawless occupies oil ship; Maine fisherman catches child-sized lobster
Lucy Lawless, best known for her role as Xena, Warrior Princess, teamed up with Greenpeace to occupy an oil drilling ship. The panel on Morning Joe posited that environmentalists think the alternative to fossil fuel is granola. (In case this wasn’t clear already, everyone on Morning Joe is a jerk.) A Pew Research Center poll […]
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Critical List: Selenium dumping gives fish two heads; Germany to cut solar subsidies
A mining company in Idaho wants to keep dumping selenium into local creeks, even after its scientific study turned up these two-headed trout and other deformed fish. A judge found BP liable for civil damages in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, meaning the company could pay billions in penalties. Germany is cutting solar subsidies … […]
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Critical List: Court upholds local fracking ban; New York could ban shark fin sales
A New York state court upheld the town of Dryden’s ban on fracking. Republicans are trying to pin rising gas prices on President Obama. Apple could allow independent environmental reviews of two factories in China. Chinese air pollution is visible from space.
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Critical List: Heartland documents obtained using deception; killer whales OK with climate change
Peter Gleick, a water expert and climate scientist, says he obtained documents that revealed the inner workings of the Heartland Institute by soliciting them from the group under someone else’s name. A new study says that exploiting Canada’s tar sands might not exacerbate climate change as much as environmental groups fear. Mexico and the U.S. […]
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One weird old trick for population control: Aspirin
You may have heard that Rick Santorum financial backer Foster Friess proposed one weird old trick for birth control: an aspirin between the knees. (If you don’t get it, try holding an aspirin between your knees, and then imagine that you only knew one sex position and it was missionary.) We found some file photos of […]
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Critical List: House passes drilling bill; turning grass into plastic
The House passed a bill expanding oil drilling in ANWR and oil shale drilling. Revenues are meant to fund the transportation bill, which won’t be considered until after the President’s Day recess. Mexico City shut down a giant landfill, but will capture methane that the landfill exudes and use it as a power source. A […]
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Critical List: State Department working to reduce emissions; transportation bill vote delayed
The State Department is going to announce this morning a program to reduce shorter-lived greenhouse gases, like methane. The House won’t vote on Republicans’ transportation bill of horrors quite yet. Worldwide, 92 percent of freshwater water goes to agriculture. Mining in Mongolia — good for China, maybe not the best idea for the desert environment […]