Latest Articles

Why electricity markets will never be (totally) free

Over the past few years, the U.S. electricity grid has begun a massive, underappreciated, and largely unintentional transition away from coal to natural gas. Because nobody decided on a shift to gas, or directed such a shift, many people have mistaken the transition for the outcome of a “free market.” It’s an easy mistake to […]

Harnessing the sun’s energy for water and space heating

Rooftop solar systems provide a simple, low-cost way to heat water and space.Photo: London PermacultureCross-posted from Earth Policy Institute. The pace of solar energy development is accelerating as the installation of rooftop solar water heaters takes off. Unlike solar photovoltaic panels that convert solar radiation into electricity, these “solar thermal collectors” use the sun’s energy […]

Pipeline power game: Why the GOP wants to humiliate Obama

There was only one last-ditch demand Republicans in Congress rallied around in the end-of-year budget negotiations that concluded today — a black line in the tar sands drawn by the conservative legislative machine. In order to approve a payroll tax-cut extension — a measure that the GOP’s tax-hating ranks already support in theory and that’s […]

Keystone cave? No, Keystone Kabuki.

The payroll tax cut extension deal, approved by the Senate 89-10 this morning, is being widely reported as including a requirement that the State Department act on the Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days. Talking Points Memo labels it a GOP win on Keystone, and Politico reports:Greens call out Keystone XL deal. However, David Dayen at […]

Green Christmas: Santa’s carbon footprint [INFOGRAPHIC]

We all know that with the end of December quickly approaching, Santa is busy getting everything set for his worldwide tour. Tim Allen’s, erm, Kris Kringle’s boots are mighty big, but the carbon footprint he leaves behind is even bigger. Ethical Ocean took a look at Santa’s environmental impact, and tried to see if they […]

Endangered lemurs becoming ‘bar snacks’

For who knows how many generations, the natives of Madagascar did not eat lemurs because they thought their ancestors forbade it. Now, and I am not making this up, they are praying to their ancestors to lift the ban, reports Sara Reardon at Science Now. Mostly because their kids, who are not big on ancestor […]

Death of ‘lightbulb ban’ greatly exaggerated

Congresscritters who love inefficiency, waste, and air pollution — or at least the money that comes from industries that do — attached a rider to the spending bill yesterday evening that will reverse an earlier law to phase out crappy old-style lightbulbs. The crazy thing is that the ban is still in effect, and the […]

New approach to climate deniers: Launch them into space!

Sir Richard Branson in his WhiteKnightTwo aircraft.Photo: Dave Malkoff This story has been corrected and updated since its original publication. See below for details. Here’s a new idea for how to deal with climate deniers: Blast them into space. The proposal came yesterday during a freewheeling panel discussion among California Gov. Jerry Brown, Virgin Group […]

America must not back down on sustainable energy

Clockwise from top left: Sens. John Kerry, Sheldon Whitehouse, Barbara Boxer, and Bernie Sanders.If you read just the headlines these days, you might think renewable energy in America is going the way of Solyndra. Don’t take our word for it: A recent headline from Fox News declared “ENTIRE Solar Industry on Brink of Collapse.” We […]

‘Brutal logic’ and climate communications

In a couple of posts last week — here and here — I laid out the brutal logic implied by the latest climate science (with credit to scientist Kevin Anderson for stripping away the rosy assumptions hiding in many of today’s common climate scenarios). To sum up: a rise in temperature of 2 degrees C […]