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The Thrilla in Chip Gilla

Kick in some cash, so we can keep on kickin’ Did you think we were going to let you skate by without reminding you about our end-of-the-year fundraiser? We’ve got to win you over so we can keep the green news rolling. As part of our New Year’s Solutions package, we’re offering “New Thrills” today, […]

Owening Up to Their Mistakes

California’s Owens River runs again after nearly a century The most ambitious river habitat restoration in the West kicked off this week, as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa turned a knob on a dam and allowed water to flow through. The dam, built in 1913 to direct water into an L.A. aqueduct some 250 miles […]

Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Science

U.S. EPA shifts pollutant-review process, mixing policy with science The U.S. EPA continues to suck Big Oil’s dipstick: Yesterday, the agency announced that its air-pollutant reviews, formerly conducted solely by staff scientists, will now incorporate recommendations from its political appointees. Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock insisted the shift will bring “air rule-making into the 21st century,” […]

Totally

This passage from Amanda's interview with Richard Branson really resonates with me:

Follicularly, that is

Whether or not he wins the Oscar, Al Gore can take some small measure of pride in having the thirteenth best-selling book at Amazon.com this year.

If he'd cultivated a righteous 'stache, he could have made it to No. 2.

Reflections on the state of organic from an old pro

Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation and a longtime presence in the world of California -- and national -- organic farming, published a provocative essay recently on where organic came from and where it's headed.

He discusses the hidden history that brought organic regulations into the USDA (which I also talk about in Organic Inc.) and suggests where organic needs to go. Most of all, he provides a much-needed perspective on the debates engulfing the organic world right now, which are leading some consumers to question its worth:

Inhofe rides out of town with a final blast of dumbness

Departing Senate Environment Committee chair Sen. James Inhofe -- who's gone from sinister to pathetic with dizzying speed -- held one final hearing on global warming and the media the other day.

Yawn.

Plumb Crazy

U.S. EPA considers delisting lead as an air pollutant That sound you hear? It’s jaws dropping everywhere in response to the U.S. EPA’s announcement that it might stop regulating lead as an air pollutant. Citing the fact that concentrations of the toxic heavy metal in the air have dropped 90 percent since 1980, and using […]

The ethanol game

Here is an article I found in the Renewable Energy Access bulletin asking for further government subsidization of cellulosic ethanol so it can compete with other subsidized biofuels.

It gave me an idea. I looked up some statistics to see how much oil the Prius fleet has saved and compared it to how much ethanol is consumed. Turns out that the 500,000 Priuses sold save about five to seven times more oil annually than all of the corn ethanol consumed in the United States.

The enduring attraction of apocalyptic predictions

I'm sure I'll eventually forgive Toby Hemenway at Energy Bulletin for writing -- before I did, and better than I could have -- a cogent and eloquent analysis of the apocalyptic bent of those concerned with peak oil. His piece should be read by environmentalists not obsessed with peak oil as well.

An excerpt: