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No. 1: ‘It’s not guaranteed we have a solution for coal’

Obama formally named Steven Chu his nominee for energy secretary at a press conference Monday afternoon. Here are the top five reasons he is one of the best cabinet picks in recent memory: 5. His “views on climate change would be among the most forceful ever held by a cabinet member.” He said last year, […]

Oliphant and Washington Post ignorantly smear GM and plug-in hybrids

I think this is worthy of an email campaign — this time to the Post (see below). There’s nothing wrong with mocking GM. It is a target-rich environment that has gone the extra mile and painted a bunch of bull’s-eyes on itself. To fire at GM and hit yourself instead thus requires a special kind […]

U.S. negotiating team in Poznan dodges questions on Bush’s climate inactivism

Below is another dispatch from the climate talks in Poland by CAP Senior Fellow Andrew Light, first printed in WonkRoom. —– In one of the more surreal moments of this year’s U.N. climate change talks, Bush’s chief environmental adviser blamed Russia for the Bush administration’s climate change obstructionism. The U.S. negotiating team featuring James Connaughton, […]

ACCE pulls down clean coal carolers from its site

Bye-bye, Miss American Pie. Drove my Chevy to the levee, But the levee was under a half mile of rubble from a mountaintop that had been decapitated … OK, I’m no Don McClean, but then neither is the ACCCE (American Coalition for Clean Coal Euphemisms?). We’re still two weeks from Christmas, but the coal industry […]

Earth Hour hopes to reach a billion people in 2009

It looks like Earth Hour — the one hour a year when everyone turns off their lights as a symbol of concern over global warming — is going to be huge this year. Seventy-four cities in 62 countries have already committed, and organizers are hoping to reach a billion people in 1,000 cities by the […]

Serena’s cautionary tale

On Oct. 18, 1929, just days before the stock market crash, Thomas Wolfe published his monumental novel, Look Homeward, Angel, unveiling the machinations behind small town life in western North Carolina. It took Wolfe several years to return to his Asheville hometown, and when he finally took his first glimpse of the Blue Ridge in […]

Why carrots and sticks are not interchangeable

David Roberts challenges carbon tax advocates. He says GHG policy should “penalize the emission of GHGs and reward the prevention of GHG emissions. Sticks and carrots.” As someone who thinks neither a carbon tax nor cap-and-trade can be the primary means to solve global warming, I’ll take on Roberts’ challenge just because it offers an […]

CNN on energy efficiency and waste-energy recycling

The coolest thing about this story? They called us. The word is getting out there!

Bush admin exempts farms from reporting toxic fumes

In yet another late-in-the-game not-so-green move, the Bush administration on Friday issued a regulation that exempts factory farms from having to report to the government about releases of hazardous air pollution from animal waste.

The Golden State gets tough on diesel-truck pollution

California’s air regulators cracked down on diesel pollution from heavy-duty trucks on Friday, adopting tough new rules that will require older trucks to be retrofitted or replaced starting in 2011. Diesel trucks are currently responsible for a third of the state’s smog.