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We are down the rabbit hole

Holy snot! Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (yes, that Ted Stevens) is sponsoring a bill to increase CAFE standards — the very standards he voted to eliminate in 2002. This is Stevens we’re talking about, so an ulterior motive is a mathematical certainty. I suspect he’s making deals or at least trolling for good will to […]

I still think Lieberman’s a turd

… but I was never torn about whether to support Joe Lieberman. Here’s what he’s up to now: Lieberman was praising Bush as a “great leader” for bucking American opinion, as expressed in the 2006 election, in his determination to double down in Iraq. Lieberman then said something incredible: Even those opposed to the surge, […]

Warming seas beget dying fish, GM unveils plug-in hybrid, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Better Not, Pout Happy Feat It’s All Sarovar Their Day in Cote Mercury Retrograde Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: One Nation, Under Terry Step It Up A Sight for Soar Eyes Everything Auld is New Again Matching Wits

To race

Gore’s refusal to jump in or completely rule out a presidential run is driving Beltway journalists to distraction, forcing them to fill up column inches saying absolutely nothing. They want their horse-race story! This "I’m really trying to get the message out about global warming" thing is just … no … fun.

It’s cool

More interesting details on Chevy’s wicked new quasi-electric kinda-plugin Volt from EcoGeek.

The nuclear bomb that almost blew up

Sometimes old news deserves attention: Ari Berman, of the lively Notion blog at The Nation, posts that we recently nearly saw an accidental nuclear detonation at the one plant for decommission and retirement of nuclear weapons in this country, run by Pantex in Amarillo, Tex.

He writes:

In March 2005, a nuclear warhead almost exploded in Texas. The near miss accident occurred in Amarillo, when workers at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant bungled the dismantling of a W-56 warhead, a weapon 100 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.

This emerged after a less-provocative-but-still-troubling story from Ralph Vartabedian at the L.A. Times, who revealed that the U.S. Department of Energy fined Pantex $110,000 for violations revealed after the incident, and has launched an investigation.

Sounds reasonable. But at the same time, the DOE declared that it had "confidence that Pantex will continue its outstanding work, while keeping stringent safety and security policies in place."

So why investigate?

Umbra on burning trash

Dear Umbra, We recycle and compost as best we can, but we are still left every week with some trash. Up to this point we’ve dutifully hauled it to the local dump, which then trucks it away to some landfill. My husband has recently discovered that, since we live outside of city limits, we are […]

The first installment in the wonkiest interview ever

A few months ago, I interviewed Terry Tamminen, author of Lives Per Gallon and, until recently, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top environmental adviser. We talked for well over an hour about a wide range of topics. An abridged version of the interview ran in Grist, but I thought some of the ultra-geeks here on Gristmill […]

John Amos, eco-geographer and head of nonprofit SkyTruth, answers questions

John Amos. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I’m president of SkyTruth, a nonprofit I founded in 2001. What does your organization do? SkyTruth puts into practice that old cliché, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” We use photos of the earth taken from orbiting satellites and airplanes to help people see — […]

Saving gas the non-hybrid way

A nice story from Mother Jones this month on "hypermilers," people who use all kinds of wacky techniques to maximize fuel economy: