Latest Articles
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48% of Americans Think BP Knowingly Violated Oil Drilling Regulations
The new Economist/YouGov poll is out (previous polls here), and it includes several questions on the disaster in the Gulf and offshore drilling. Of particular interest, 48% of those who are familiar with the spill think BP knowingly violated oil drilling regulations in advance of the disaster. Just 20% disagreed and 32% were not sure. […]
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Why BP’s really glad this week is over
1. Saturday, May 29: The Kill is gone: After a week of raising hopes that maybe, just maybe, it had found a way to plug the hole, BP calls off its top kill/junk shot gambit. At first, the process of shooting “mud” and pieces of golf balls, tires, and perhaps kitchen sinks, seems to the […]
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Strengthening clean energy competitiveness through the America COMPETES reauthorization
This post was co-authored by Mark Muro and Rob Atkinson, and originally appeared at The New Republic. Having passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 28, the America COMPETES Act, America’s flagship competitiveness legislation, will soon be debated in the U.S. Senate. The Act was originally passed in 2007 in response to mounting concern […]
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Junk-food advertising moves online
One of several games for kids on the Trix websiteHere’s more compelling evidence that food companies, putative key “partners” in the battle against obesity, aren’t exactly acting in good faith. They may talk about calorie-cutting partnerships and donate money to healthy-living initiatives — but they don’t put their real money where their collective mouth is. […]
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A closer look at the Clean Air Act provisions preempted by the Senate climate bill
I’ve argued that the Senate climate bill takes away some EPA powers under the Clean Air Act but overall gives the agency more power, and specifically that the bill preserves EPA authority to regulate both new and old coal plants, which is the power it most needs. Now let’s take a closer look at the […]
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Me, on BloggingHeadsTV with Andy Revkin
A few days ago I did a BloggingHeadsTV episode with Andy Revkin, formerly environment reporter for The New York Times, now senior fellow at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University. (He still writes the indispensable DotEarth blog in NYT.) We talked about the oil spill, nationalizing BP, the climate change bill, […]
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The absolute worst thing that could happen with the oil spill, according to Michael Bay
If blockbuster film director Michael Bay had anything to do with it, the expanding oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico would hail the Armageddon and Matt Damon would be wearing top hats and taking junk shots at Pearl Harbor. At least, according to genius webcomic xkcd. (Move over, James Cameron!) ——————————————————————————————————————————————– Like what you […]
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Ditching shopping carts one-ups bans on plastic bags
Why would we want to teach our little rascals that shopping carts and cars don’t go together?Sean Dreilinger via Flickr Creative CommonsCalifornia may think it’s bag-ass for its progress toward banning plastic shopping bags. However, Sydney, Australia’s city council is pushing the limits of grocery-getters by telling a small supermarket to park its shopping carts […]
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BP oil heading toward Atlantic? Looks that way
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo: This nightmarish model comes from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which predicts that BP oil “might soon extend along thousands of miles of the Atlantic coast and open ocean as early as this summer.” “I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘Will the oil reach Florida?'” NCAR scientist Synte Peacock said in […]
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‘Green’ California utility PG&E attacks local renewables
California’s largest electricity provider — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. — has gotten some understandable love from the environmental world recently. It’s part of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an enviro/business alliance calling for a national climate plan. It told off (and quit) the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for hating all over clean energy and […]
