Latest Articles
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WTFood: McNuggets have a little too much in common with Silly Putty
Photo: fuxoft via FlickrDrooling over those food-like substances!Moms across the nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief every time their toddlers pop Silly Putty in their mouths with the news that that childhood mainstay is not completely unlike another one: McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets. As it turns out, these two amorphous items share the yummy-sounding […]
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How hot is it? Hot enough to shave your cat?
How hot is it? Hot enough to shave your cat?Photo: Jennifer PredigerWelcome to summer. We’re having a heat wave here in the Northeast that’s breaking records. Some sizzling places recorded temps of 103 degrees F yesterday! And more of the same is expected today. The Big Apple is broiling. Four of the five boroughs of […]
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Remember when the blizzards killed global warming?
Here in the crock pot they call the East Coast, local news stations are rolling out video from those days last February when we were all snow, all the time. But they keep leaving out the best part — clips showing some of our favorite rants about how two feet of snow proved proved global […]
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Greening — and feeding — the city with a ‘garden block’
It looks like one of the main take-aways from the Congress for the New Urbanism 18 conference is something being labeled “agrarian urbanism.” Fast Company is calling it the “new new urbanism” and Treehugger has described the notion as the next phase in the evolution of this 30-year old movement. New Urbanism leader Andrés Duany, […]
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With cap-and-trade on the ropes, what’s the next move for greens?
The final fate of the climate/energy bill is uncertain. There are signs Senate Democrats may yet try to advance a price on carbon, perhaps a limited system that only covers utilities, but it remains a heavy political lift. It’s a safe wager cap-and-trade won’t make it over the finish line. So let’s look ahead: What […]
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Fannie and Freddie are clueless in smacking down PACE
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued guidance yesterday that drew a line in the sand against municipal energy financing, a.k.a. Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs. These innovative initiatives provide energy-efficiency retrofits for homeowners that are repaid through a property tax assessment. Since homeowners falling behind on payments must repay their PACE assessment before […]
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Holiday weekend brings good news — and bad — for clean energy
The Fourth of July isn’t quite Earth Day but it’s becoming a favored holiday for companies and policymakers to declare energy independence, as was the case this past weekend. Cypress Semiconductor, kicked things off when T.J. Rodgers, the company’s chief executive, declared at a press conference that the Silicon Valley chipmaker would go completely off […]
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Fannie and Freddie to clean-energy program: Drop dead
Grist has been covering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s attack on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), a promising tool that helps homeowners finance green improvements to their properties. Here’s the latest: On Tuesday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ended their radio silence nine weeks after sending cryptic letters warning lenders against permitting the use of […]
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New Clean Air rule to tame the coal plant monster
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Today, the Obama administration proposed a sweeping plan to reduce power plant emissions that cross state lines and kill tens of thousands of Americans every year. The proposed Clean Air Transport Rule replaces the Bush administration’s so-called Clean Air Interstate Rule that was shot down by the courts because it […]
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BP offshore oil board game: Seemed like a fun idea at the time?
Back in the ’70s, BP decided to market a family board game by the name of “Offshore Oil Strike,” boasting the “thrills of drilling” as well as the “hazards and rewards.” I mean, Monopoly worked out pretty well for the Wall Street tycoons even in the midst of the Great Depression, right? On the other […]
