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  • Oil rig disaster could soon be worse than Exxon Valdez

    Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Cross-posted from Wonk Room. The catastrophic gusher of oil unleashed by the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig last week is on track to quickly exceed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, an independent expert warns. An explosive burst of oil destroyed the exploratory rig 41 miles off the Louisiana coast on […]

  • Big Oil continues to see big profits, pollution while Americans get robbed at the pump

    This post was co-authored by Susan Lyon. I was out driving/just a taking it slowLooked at my tank/ it was reading lowPulled in a Exxon station/out on Highway OneHeld up without a gunHeld up without a gun – Bruce Springsteen Springsteen’s song could not be more true today. Big Oil is once again riding high […]

  • The worst week ever, brought to you by the fossil-fuel industry

    It’s a week to remember — or better yet, forget.  Who could have imagined such a confluence of terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad events, rounding up what has to be the most disheartening “Earth Month” ever?  In what may soon be the worst oil spill in U.S. history, crude is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico […]

  • Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on biking

    Dearest readers, Ready to shed the chill of winter and dust off your 10-speed? (Yes, cold-weather bike warriors, I’m aware that your bike never collects dust.) We all know biking is better for the environment than jumping behind the wheel (not to mention less expensive and healthier, assuming you follow the rules of the road). […]

  • The Climate Post: Mighty winds a-blowin’

    First things first: A high-stakes political drama unfolded after the Senate Majority Leader announced the body would consider immigration reform ahead of anticipated climate legislation. The surprise political move caused a key Republican to bolt the tri-partisan effort to craft a federal climate program. The episode has greatly intensified doubts that the U.S. will pass […]

  • Gulf of Mexico: from magnificent resource to industrial sacrifice zone

    Fire and a vast oil spill, on top of one of the globe’s most productive fisheries. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard The Gulf of Mexico is a magnificent resource: a kind of natural engine for the production of wild, highly nutritious foodstuff. Here’s how the EPA describes it: Gulf fisheries are some of the most productive […]

  • Take note, companies: Young workers want urban jobs

    Downtown ChicagoPhoto: Chicago Man via FlickrBusinesses ought to consider locating in walkable, culturally diverse city centers because that’s where young workers want to be, according to some liberal commie rag printed on recycled draft cards. No, scratch that, this argument comes from the Harvard Business Review. An article in the May issue opens with the […]

  • Something’s wrong when our best option is burning an oil slick

    Yesterday was a good day for an energy policy reality check. Because we are in a place where the environmentally responsible choice is lighting a giant oil slick on fire. And that really is the best option available to us right now. That’s how bad the situation in the Gulf of Mexico is. It is […]

  • Tragic oil spill = smarter climate bill?

    Several weeks before President Obama made the tragic decision to approve expanded offshore drilling, ten costal-state senators wrote a letter [PDF] to their colleagues John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) pressing the trio to keep expanded offshore drilling out of their now floundering climate and energy package. In the letter, the senators […]

  • Cape Wind decision may take green power national

    Offshore wind turbinePhoto courtesy phault via FlickrWhen Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced federal approval of the Cape Wind project on Wednesday, the media coverage tended to focus on the denouement of a nearly decade-long battle over the United States’ first offshore wind farm. And indeed, our East Coast cousins put Californians to shame when it […]