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Wind works — time to pass the Production Tax Credit

The wind industry supports more than 75,000 American-made jobs around the country, and is helping to lead the way toward America’s clean energy future.  But right now Congress is holding the fate of thousands of those jobs in its hands. The Production Tax Credit (PTC), a federal policy that helps level the playing field and […]

Ginger beer [RECIPE]

The following recipe is from the book The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World. Read more from the author, Sandor Katz, here. Ginger beer is a classic flavor of homemade soda. It can be made lightly gingered, like most commercial ginger ale, or as spicy as you […]

Local Ownership Doubles Economic Value of Wind

Local ownership of a wind project accounts for half of its lifetime economic value to the community! From: Value Creation for Local Communities through Renewable Energies [pdf] This post originally appeared on ILSR’s Energy Self-Reliant States blog.

Friday music blogging: Cory Branan

Cory Branan is hard to pigeonhole, which is probably why he’s labored in obscurity for so long. He’s a singer-songwriter, but his mix of pathos, humor, and musical variety — the closest parallel probably being Branan’s hero John Prine — isn’t exactly built for radio. I was really into Branan’s debut album, The Hell You […]

Powerful New Video: Protect the Moapa Band of Paiutes from Dirty Coal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DSFhGt-DN7g

The Moapa Band of Paiutes continues to fight the pollution from the nearby Reid Gardner coal plant in Southern Nevada, and the Sierra Club stands with them. Today, we are releasing this powerful new video that features members of the tribe telling moving personal stories about the devastating effects of pollution from Reid Gardner. I first wrote about the Moapa in late April when we supported the Moapa Band of Paiutes on their three-day, 50-mile cultural healing walk from their reservation to the Lloyd George Federal Building in Las Vegas. The walk brought visibility to the damage that the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant is doing to the tribe's health, culture and economy. Following that march, on May 3, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a hearing on the Moapa reservation about the pollution permits for Reid Gardner. That's when much of the footage was taken for this short, unforgettable video. The hearing was packed with tribal members telling their stories of serious health problems: asthma, other lung diseases, nosebleeds, severe allergies, heart disease, and more. Members also talked about being unable to live their lives according to their culture: the toxic dust stirred by the wind keeps people indoors; they are afraid to gather herbs and use them because they know they are contaminated with coal ash; and they universally are concerned about the long-term survival of the tribe. This is an issue of fairness and justice. This Tribe deserves clean air and water, not an outdated coal plant saddled with second-rate pollution controls. The Moapa are leading the way beyond dirty coal and to clean energy by developing a major solar plant on the reservation. Now EPA needs to do its part by requiring first-rate technology to reduce air pollution at the Reid Gardner coal plant. You can help - take action today to tell EPA to protect the Moapa from dirty coal pollution.

Featured Friend: Liz C.

Each month, we showcase one of our beloved Friends with Benefits — folks who have donated to support our work. Want to take your relationship with Grist to the next level? Just donate any amount to join the fun.  Liz C. “My name is Liz Cook. From California I hail. I give Grist what I can of […]

A Big Week for Public Health, Grassroots Activism

This has been a big week for clean air, public health, and grassroots activism that is moving America beyond coal. First, we can breathe easier this week knowing that more aging, polluting coal plants are being retired as South Carolina Gas & Electric announced the retirement of six coal boilers.  As I’ve said with other […]

The hardware formerly known as Grist

Today at Grist we celebrate the end of our transition from our co-located infrastructure to the cloud.

IKEA subsidiary accused of cutting down centuries-old trees

Shoppers might pay next to nothing for those cheapy cheap tables and chairs and bookshelves at IKEA, but the planet pays a much higher price, Environmental Leader reports. According to a forest conservation nonprofit, an IKEA subsidiary is clear-cutting forests that are hundreds of years old. [The Global Forest Coalition] — an alliance of NGOs […]

Closing the Gap: International Global Warming Actions for 2012 (Part 3)

In Durban, South Africa countries agreed to: launch the negotiations on a new legal agreement to be adopted in 2015, move forward implementation of the agreements reached in Cancun, finalize the negotiations on the second round of the Kyoto Protocol, and address the gap between what the science demands and the current actions that countries […]