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  • The Men Who Cried Wolf

    If a fire broke out in your office right now, would you know what to do? Would you know where to go? You likely would, thanks in large part to codes requiring fire exits and fire drills. Today, we accept these basic standards without even pausing; they are plain common sense rules government has developed […]

  • Regional cap-and-trade saves jobs and money

    This post originally appeared at Sightline’s Daily Score blog. I’m not big on parroting press releases, but I’m going to make an exception for Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the Northeast’s carbon cap-and-trade program. RGGI is quietly demonstrating that carbon markets can work wonderfully. So it’s too bad no one seems to be paying attention any longer. […]

  • ‘Fukushima 50’ are Japan’s Justice League; hopefully not its X-Men

    “Between 50 and 70 employees — now known in English as the Fukushima 50 — all in protective gear, were left at the plant to battle myriad problems. Some are assessing the damage and radiation levels caused by the explosions, while others cool stricken reactors with seawater to try to avert a potentially catastrophic release […]

  • EPA releases mercury safeguard to protect Americans

    We are happy to see the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today propose a critical air quality standard to protect Americans against life-threatening air pollution such as mercury and arsenic from power plants, which currently emit air toxics with no limits.  According to EPA, each year this new protection will save as many as 17,000 lives […]

  • This year’s Cleantech Forum: Less sexy, more efficient

    Looking for new ways to get in the cleantech game.Photo: emilydickinsonridesabmxIt’s a rite of spring, the annual Cleantech Forum in San Francisco. Venture capitalists, startup entrepreneurs, and various hangers-on gather at an upscale hotel to network, pitch, and hopefully clinch some deals. There are scores of these green biz conferences, of course, and after awhile […]

  • If Senate Dems ‘compromise’ with Rockefeller bill, EPA rules are screwed

    Can Senate Democrats snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory? Yes, that was a rhetorical question. Politico has them bumbling around again, “scrambling” to react to an attack on EPA climate rules that has been telegraphed for months. I don’t know how much of this is genuine fecklessness and how much is Politico’s enduring […]

  • Putting a price on a city’s streets

    Streetfilms has dropped the latest in its “Moving Beyond the Automobile” series, this time explaining the economics behind congestion pricing for automobiles. The idea behind congestion pricing for automobiles is really pretty simple: “One of the most precious resources in a city is space, and that space needs to be priced.” That’s how New York […]

  • House committee votes to deny climate change

    Click for a larger version [PDF].Written with guest blogger Kristen Bartoloni, Researcher for Progress Central. Today, Republicans in the House energy committee voted not once, not twice, but three times [all PDFs], against amendments recognizing that climate change is real, despite the broad scientific consensus that “climate change is happening and human beings are a major reason for it.” They […]

  • Koch-funded group mounts cut-and-paste attack on regional climate initiatives

    Fresh off last year’s successful defeat of federal climate legislation in the U.S. Senate, the oil baron Koch brothers and their dirty-energy buddies are now bent on dismantling one of the nation’s last hopes for doing anything about climate change in the near term: regional climate accords. Today, a total of 32 states are active […]

  • Poultry industry smothers immigrant farmers and abuses antibiotics

    In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries. ——— Cheap shot: a sale currently in effect at Randall’s stores in Texas. The U.S. meat industry offers some of the biggest bargains you can find: stuff like “boneless skinless chicken breasts” for just two bucks a pound; or a […]