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JPMorgan nods to sustainability

This is progress:

Time to change the way you do business

Hmmm ... maybe those Reapers were onto something after all?

DETROIT - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its corporate credit ratings to junk status for both General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., a significant blow that will increase borrowing costs and limit fund-raising options for the nation's two biggest automakers.

Shares of both companies fell 5 percent or more after Thursday's downgrades, and the news sent the overall market lower.

The decision by one of the nation's most respected ratings agencies comes as the two iconic American automakers are losing market share at home to Asian automakers, seeing sales soften for their most profitable models and are facing enormous health care and post-retirement liabilities.

The credit ratings agency said its downgrade of GM's long-term rating below investment-grade status reflects its conclusion that management's current strategies may not be effective in dealing with the automaker's competitive disadvantages.

My free advice to Ford and GM: spend more time and resources innovating and less time fighting against CAFE standards.

Breaking a Bad Habitat

More problems uncovered with habitat conservation plans The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has published parts two and three of its special series on habitat conservation plans (HCPs) and, suffice to say, the story didn’t get any cheerier after part one. A proposed 9.1 million-acre HCP in Washington — which would cover the bulk of the state’s private […]

Knock on Wood

Researchers suggest wood as source for ethanol production Wood could one day join corn as a major source of ethanol, with the production process feeding off a by-product of paper mills. Researchers from the State University of New York estimate that bio-refineries built in already existing paper mills could produce some 2.4 billion gallons of […]

Live chat on habitat conservation plans

If you've been following the great Seattle P-I series on habitat conservation plans, you should tune in for a live online chat with one of the authors, Robert McClure. It happens at 12:30 (PST) today. You can submit a question now.

UCS on hybrids

Check two new projects on hybrid cars from the Union of Concerned Scientists: Hybridcenter.org, a source for consumer and technical information, and Hybridblog.org, which is, you guess it, a blog.

They also offer this HybridAction widget, where you can express your support for the CLEAR Act, recently offered up by Orrin Hatch.

(Via Mike Millikin, who is -- have I mentioned? -- this week's InterActivist.)

There are many, but not one knock-out.

Sorry to keep going on and on about energy policy, but ... there's a flurry of good points and confusion swirling about, so I'll jump in.

First, Matt the Prolific points to an NRO piece by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren on some strange misconceptions hovering around the energy debate in Congress.

Their principle point, which The Economist also makes this week, is this:

The hostility directed at "foreign" oil is ridiculous. The amount of oil we import has no bearing on the impact of world oil-market shocks on our economy. Even if the United States imported no oil at all (and we did not restrict trade), supply disruptions abroad would have a similar effect on our economy as if all our oil came from overseas. That's because oil is traded in global markets: Anything that affects supply or demand anywhere affects prices everywhere.

Thus, the national security argument that we should increase domestic oil exploration, drilling, and production is silly. To the extent Congresscritters are making that argument, they are doing so on behalf of the domestic oil industry. As long as our economy is based on oil, we are vulnerable to oil markets and the countries -- mostly in the Middle East -- that supply them.

Matt agrees, and concludes this:

TIME columnist feels safe endorsing energy independence now that the cool kids are on board.

Let me be honest: I loath Joe Klein. To me he represents everything that's wrong with the smug, self-satisfied, head-up-its-ass D.C. media establishment. Beltway opinion-makers live in a bizarre bubble of "conventional wisdom" that consists almost entirely of what they tell each other at cocktail parties and on Sunday-morning cable shows. They are consistently, grossly, embarrassingly manipulated by those in power -- the very ones they're supposed to be afflicting.

You couldn't find a better example than Klein's current op-ed in TIME.

Plus Ca (Climate) Change …

Ancient empires crushed by changing climate — not that you should worry Elizabeth Kolbert continues her exploration of climate change in the second of a three-part series in The New Yorker. She begins with a look at the world’s first great empire, founded 4,300 years ago on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. […]

Grist wins Webby Award.

So, a few weeks ago we mentioned that Grist was up for a Webby Award in the magazine category. Well, if you haven't heard, Grist is the People's Voice winner! Woo-hoo!

While our friends at AlterNet.org won the Webby Award, Grist got the vote of the people, which is what really matters. (What does a panel of judges know anyhoo?)

Needless to say, everyone at Grist appreciates all who supported us.