Latest Articles

Bombshell: High and rising price for carbon pollution emerges as credible deficit reduction strategy

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation funded six groups from across the political spectrum to put forward plans addressing our nation’s fiscal challenges. All the plans are here. The Center for American Progress (CAP) plan, “Budgeting for Growth and Prosperity” [PDF], brings the deficit below 2 percent of GDP within six years and fully balances by […]

Need a new bike?

In honor of bike to work month, one lucky Grist fan is going to get a $500 gift certificate to a bike shop in their area.

Gas-price spikes burden the American economy while benefiting oil companies

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The struggles of families and businesses over the past seven years are linked directly to high profits for oil companies due to high energy-price volatility. A new report [PDF] from the Center for American Progress (CAP) finds that families and businesses are exposed to massive price swings for the vast […]

How to get to a fully renewable power system

How can we scale up the clean and phase out the dirty?What’s it going to take to substantially ramp up the amount of renewables in the electricity system? There are many nerdy discussions of that question on the interwebs, but lemme try to talk about it in reasonably non-nerdy language. There’s a certain amount of […]

Let’s balance the budget by charging for CO2

The Center for American Progress has released a plan that could balance the budget by 2030, lower some people’s income taxes, and cut carbon emissions 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. This isn’t just a Holy Grail, it’s an entire Holy Place Setting. The CAP plan proposes to eliminate the deficit mainly through taxes […]

Clean energy advocate gives a 'how to' clinic on rebutting fossil energy disinformation

Cross-posted from The Great Energy Challenge blog Over the past few months, I’ve made the case that dirty energy lobby plays a full contact game against clean energy, using lobbying and disinformation as business weapons to drive the idea that clean energy is “expensive, unreliable and not ready.” Cleantech, I’ve said, needs to step up […]

Military could use climate-killing ‘liquid coal’

By law, the U.S. military can't use fuels that have a worse climate impact than conventional oil. An amendment to a major military spending bill would rescind that law, allowing the U.S. military to buy oil made from, for example, West Virginia Sen. Joe "I literally put a bullet in the climate bill" Manchin's forthcoming […]

Pro-fracking ad accidentally reveals dangers of fracking

ExxonMobil has been running full-page ads that make underground hydraulic fracturing operations — the same ones responsible for massive environmental problems all over the U.S. — look about as threatening as a World Book encyclopedia illustration of a water pipe. The ads highlight the multiple layers of steel and concrete used to protect shallow aquifers. Too […]

NOAA’s terrifying tornado time-lapse [VIDEO]

By now, most of us know last month was the busiest April ever for tornadic activity; with May hosting the deadliest single tornado on record, the whole country’s talking about the Fujita Scale, core bursting, and Helen Hunt like it’s 1996. For those who refuse to even talk about the links between twisters and climate […]

The $200 backyard barbecue

This is what's going to convince Americans to invest in local food and alternative energy: the demise of the backyard barbecue. High gas prices are finally trickling down into U.S. food markets, and the red-meat-loving New York Post has calculated that an outlay of burgers, hot dogs, trimmings, potato salad, and ice cream will cost […]