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A cool head on Cape Wind

Ultimately, I come down against Bobby Kennedy on the Cape Wind issue. But I've been bothered by the strident, dismissive tone of some of the criticism directed against him by his fellow environmentalists.

My sentiments are expressed eloquently in a post by Tom Andersen, author of This Fine Piece of Water: An Environmental History of Long Island Sound. It's the most thoughtful thing I've seen written on this contentious topic.

Energy use matters as much as — or more than — energy supply

Of the many ideas Amory Lovins has pushed into our cultural dialogue, here's one of the most important, one that everyone involved in energy debates should take to heart:

It is not energy that people want; it is the services energy provides.

The obsessive focus of energy debates on supply -- nuclear or wind? clean coal or hydrogen? -- is so narrow as to distort. The way we use energy is just as important: How do we store it? Transmit it? Where do we live? How do we get around? How can the same services be provisioned with less energy? How much is wasted?

The whole energy system is the proper focus of our attention.

Not a new point, obviously, but worth repeating, as it leads to very different policy debates and outcomes.

Are FBI informants prodding people into committing ‘eco-terrorism’?

This is not a particularly new subject, but: When exactly does an informant cross the line into entrapment? As readers of my obsessive "eco-terror" blogging know, the big indictment brought recently against 11 people crucially turned on participants that were "persuaded" to act as informants. A closer look at an ongoing case in California that […]

Bill Ford axes a third of his workers, hailed as hero

Despite TIME's fellatial cover story and Wall Street's predictably giddy reaction, it is not in fact good news that Ford Motor Co. is going to sack 30,000 employees. CEO Bill Ford doesn't deserve the lion's share of the blame for this, since the decline has been going on for decades, but it nonetheless seems a little macabre to treat him like a hero. And upper management at Ford deserves a hell of a lot more contempt and pink slips than they seem to be receiving.

Anyway, I was brewing up a long post about all this, but over on Sciencegate, Paul Tullis did it for me. So go read what he said. Particularly this:

Concept gym floats on the Hudson River.

In response to the "silly question" asked of Umbra about human-powered gyms, alert reader Erin B. directed us to architectural visionary Mitchell Joaquim.

Enter the Human-Powered River Gym For New York City, the name of which gives all the basic information about it, the pictures of which are worth a thousand words. Or at least the 167 words of this post.

As writes Joachim:

This training protocol will exploit the inherent disequilibrium of floatation devices.  Often the average urbanite exercising at the gym performs controlled repetitive single plane movements using industrial fitness equipment.  All of this energy is summarily dissipated and ultimately exhausted for the sake of a single individual's wellbeing.  Other potentials exist to harness this vast human expenditure of caloric energy.

Translation: Running on the treadmill is boring and pointless. Exercising in a pod in the middle of the Hudson River is awesome!

The concept for this water-purifying, commuter-hauling, calorie-burning bundle of clean energy won third place in New York Magazine's Create a Gym competition.

The Fries Have It

Boston diner gets its heat from used veggie oil Restaurant owner Don Levy geared up for this year’s chilly Boston winter by getting rid of his furnace. Wait, it’s not as batty as it sounds: Levy replaced his old heating system with a boiler that runs on 100 percent vegetable oil — a readily available […]

F’d Troops

Whistle-blower says Halliburton supplied foul water to troops in Iraq Former employees of a subsidiary of Halliburton, the big military-services contractor once helmed by Vice President Dick Cheney, say the company exposed thousands of American troops and Iraqi civilians to sewage-laced water. Testifying yesterday before Senate Democrats, whistle-blower and water-quality expert Ben Carter said he […]

Kid Tested, Mother Appalled

Bush admin to accept pesticide testing on humans, and in some cases kids Enviros, public-interest groups, members of Congress, and even some government scientists are criticizing soon-to-be-released U.S. EPA rules on pesticide testing on humans. The regulations — leaked in advance of their formal unveiling, which could happen as soon as this week — would […]

Progress Report on energy and the environment

The Center for American Progress sends out a daily email, the Progress Report. Though obviously left-leaning, it's always fact-packed, and a great way to keep up on the day's news.

Progress Report is doing a series on the real state of the union, in advance of the President's speech.

Today's is on energy and the environment. Check it out -- lots of good stuff, familiar to Gristmill readers but nicely crammed into a few short paragraphs.

Enough is enough!

First melting polar ice caps. Then rising coastal waters. And then super storms. But enough is enough. Now, my Kentucky Bourbon is in jeopardy!

(Via TH)