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Protecting Americans from Power Plant Pollution
On September 20, the Environmental Protection Agency will release new safeguards against carbon pollution that, if expectations are on target, will confirm something investors, governors, community leaders, and everyday Americans have been saying for a decade – in the 21st century, it just doesn’t make sense to build new coal-fired power plants. To be specific, […]
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Utility Agrees: (Their) Solar Should Supplant Natural Gas
Five months ago, one of the country’s ten largest electric utilities told regulators in Minnesota that it needed three new natural gas power plants to handle peak energy demand. This week, the same company’s Colorado division announced plans to use more solar power because it is cost competitive with gas. Maybe they need a memo […]
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Digging deep to uncover biocarbon’s advantages for farmers
Filed under: Northwest Biocarbon Initiative, NBI, biocarbon, carbon, home, agriculture Soaking carbon from the atmosphere into farm soils is a widely advocated climate solution. A new Australian study kicks dirt all over the idea. Carbon markets would not provide sufficient incentives for farmers to build soil carbon. But digging in a little deeper uncovers a […]
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A “No Deniers Rule” for Solutions Companies
Is it possible for environmentally conscious companies to operate in Washington, D.C., without selling their clean energy souls? Customers asked this question earlier this year when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s lobby group FWD.us released ads supporting the dirty tar-sands oil pipeline, Keystone XL, and again this summer when news broke that Google hosted a fundraiser […]
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Why would Kiewit want the risk of an expanded coal mine?
That’s the question at the heart of a letter sent today to the CEO of Kiewit and the President of its mining subsidiary as this major construction company considers whether to bid on the Hay Creek II coal lease next week. The Bureau of Land Management has scheduled the lease of 167 million tons of […]
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Is this a La Niña or El Niño year? Try La Nada
For more than a year now, the Pacific Ocean has been without La Niña or El Niño. In its place is La Nada, which could be a lot more extreme than it sounds.
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Kentucky’s Coal Challenges – Public Health, Clean Water, and Clean Air
Guest column by Heather Moyer, Sierra Club This week’s column focuses on some big coal-related news items out of the Bluegrass State, where some inspiring Beyond Coal activists are making waves. First, some good news: In a victory for clean water and public health, late yesterday a Kentucky circuit court overruled a lax permit that […]
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U.S. Nuclear Power in Decline
By J. Matthew Roney Nuclear power generation in the United States is falling. After increasing rapidly since the 1970s, electricity generation at U.S. nuclear plants began to grow more slowly in the early 2000s. It then plateaued between 2007 and 2010—before falling more than 4 percent over the last two years. Projections for 2013 show […]
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Europe says its own biofuels policies increase food costs 50%, drive deforestation
Two new studies that came out in Europe during the last couple of days show that biofuel mandates are causing consumers far more pocketbook pain – and contributing more to deforestation and climate pollution – than even previous studies suggested. The European Union’s own Joint Research Center found that Europe’s biofuels mandates are dramatically driving […]
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5 Barriers to and Solutions for Community Renewable Energy
Community renewable energy has significant political and economic benefits, but is often hindered by five major barriers. Read on for a summary of the five barriers, watch them in a 17-minute presentation, or check out the vividly illustrated slideshow. Barrier one is tradition. Utilities are simply used to operating a grid in a 20th century […]
