Latest Articles

Fighting Coal Ash, Bureaucracy and Confusion

As I have mentioned on this blog before, the Environmental Protection Agency is currently holding public hearings at sites around the country to hear your input on draft regulations for the disposal of toxic coal ash. This week’s blog post comes from Sierra Student Coalition Apprentice Margaret Hoerath, who writes about an activist who travelled […]

District energy 101

District energy is a big deal, and like most of our energy system, it's subject to a host of inconsistent and/or mutually contradictory regulations. Good policy would fix those inconsistencies. Problem is, lawmakers just don't understand it. So let's break it down.

Feds lease prime solar land, but nary a panel is in sight

Congress set aside millions of acres for solar farms. Not one panel has been erected. Also, Greenpeace v Facebook and Tea Party v climate change

Oil-platform explosion in the Gulf. Yes, another one.

It's unclear whether the platform is in danger of sinking or whether the explosion may had set off underwater oil leaks. The platform, 20 miles west of the massive April explosion and leak, wasn't actively producing oil at the time of the accident.

Big Oil rallies to save Big Oil

A nationwide series of rallies kicked off in Texas this week urging Congress to block legislation proposed in the wake of the BP oil disaster that would regulate the oil and gas industry more strictly and eliminate tax breaks. The organizer of the Rally for Jobs events? The American Petroleum Institute (API), with help from […]

Help! I have vampires on the farm

This year's mosquitoes are sucking all the life out of summer on a farm in Nebraska.

Richard Burr: objectionable and vulnerable

In my depressing-ass post yesterday, I noted that Lisa Murkowski's departure from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would leave Richard Burr (R-N.C.) as the ranking Republican. Burr, I said, "seems unobjectionable." It has been pointed out by certain interested parties that despair is no excuse for abandoning standards altogether. As it happens there is plenty about Burr's record to which one might reasonably object.

How will you keep walruses from learning to fly?

That's what I consider the core message to be of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's cute animated video about climate change's effects on sea creatures. See what I mean.

Avett Brothers play benefit show; give me excuse to write about them

Y'all know I love The Avett Brothers something fierce. It's rare that they wander into Grist's purview, so I don't usually get a chance to write about them. However! They recently played a benefit for Terra Nova Community Farm in Portland, Ore. That sounds like something our own Tom Philpott would love!

Bill McKibben tells Letterman why he's bringing solar back to the White House

Bill McKibben chats with David Lettermen about 350.org, his book Eaarth, and a new tour to bring rooftop solar back to the White House (Jimmy Carter installed panels; Ronald Reagan took them down; and students from Unity College in Maine, where they've been stored, are traveling to Washington to have them put back up). Hard worker, this guy.