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Sarah Palin recounts recent Mensa meeting

“I knew that we’d be buddies when I met her when she said, ‘Drill here, drill now.’ And then I replied, ‘Drill, baby, drill’ and then we both said, ‘You betcha!'” — former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, on meeting Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.)

Senate Energy spox responds; more on fossil-fuel safety and our energy future

Yesterday I took issue with this quote from Senate Energy Committee spokesperson Bill Wicker, about the mine accident in West Virginia: “This is a mining accident,” says Bill Wicker, communications director for the Senate Energy Committee. “This issue involves the health and safety of our miners, not our energy future.” As I wrote, it seems […]

Meet America’s most extreme energy geeks

Photo courtesy PNNL via FlickrJet-engine wind turbines, fuel made from big batches of algae, enzymes that trap power plant CO2. Sound seriously far-fetched? They may be. But these concepts are fetching serious investment dollars from the Department of Energy. DOE Secretary Steven Chu — a Nobel Prize-winning inventor himself — has launched a new program […]

World Bank vote gives billions to coal

It's bad news for clean energy and our planet today, as the United States failed to follow its own global warming guidelines. The World Bank today approved a $3.75 billion loan to South African power utility Eskom to help build a 4,800 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Medupi. The funding would also facilitate plans for a second large coal plant in Kusile. The coal plants will be among the largest and most polluting worldwide.

Another tragic iceberg awaiting Massey’s titanic violations: Brushy Fork Dam

Hope must die last in the coalfields, as our prayers go out to the families of the missing four coal miners and the 25 killed in the recent Montcoal mining disaster in West Virginia. But as heroic rescue teams attempt to reach the missing miners, another potential disaster instigated by reckless Massey Energy regulatory violations […]

Weather Channel asks, "July in April?"

CP:  So it’s friggin’ hot in DC and much of the country. Audience:  How hot is it? CP:  It’s so hot that: I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walkin’. The robins are laying their eggs sunny side up. I saw squirrels fanning their nuts. Even meteorologists are doing stories about human-caused […]

I'm speaking Friday at Dartmouth on nukes and climate

For all you New Englanders, the details on the “Second Annual Great Issues in Energy Symposium” are here and below:   Friday, April 9, 2010, 3:00–5:15pm Spanos AuditoriumReception immediately followingFree and open to the public An informed view of societal energy challenges and possible responsive measures requires understanding nuclear energy and related issues. While construction of a […]

Ask Umbra’s Book Club: The three L’s — laziness, learning, and lawlessness

Dearest readers, I’ve so enjoyed reading all of your comments thus far about Dolly Freed’s Possum Living. The 9-to-5 grind, raising and slaughtering your own meat—stimulating threads. You know, I couldn’t help but notice how often Freed talks about the basis for her and her father’s lifestyle choice being that they are lazy. Tending a […]

Energy production vs. environmental protection: The partisan divide

Via Samantha Thompson, a new Gallup poll found that, for the first time in 10 years of polling, Americans prioritize energy production over the protection of the environment. Here is the key chart: While the chart is compelling, it falls short on multiple levels. 1. The options it presents are a false dichotomy. We have […]

Towns invest in smarter streets … in Mississippi

Two Mississippi towns want better options than auto-only streets, and now they’ve made it official. The towns of Tupelo (pop. 36,223) and Hernando (pop. 6,812) each passed Complete Streets legislation that ensures roads will be built and maintained for walkers, cyclists, and other forms of transportation—along with drivers. Yesterday St. Louis citizens voted to fund […]