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Farmers, Idaho utility embrace efficiency and demand response

Four decades ago, when Sid Erwin began his career as an inspector at the Idaho Power Company, a string of new hydroelectric plants was pumping out power faster than locals could buy it. Soon enough, Mr. Erwin recalls, the utility began sending representatives to rural areas, urging farmers to use more electricity when irrigating their […]

State of the Union: Inefficient

The State of the Union is in a few hours, and folks are abuzz about what the president will say. Count me among those who are expecting a strong push for clean energy to create jobs and jump-start our economy, but I wonder if the president will spend much time discussing where we are right […]

Is there going to be a bipartisan climate, energy security, clean air and clean energy jobs bill thi

  I wouldn’t want to mislead readers into thinking that it will be easy to get a climate bill this year.  Fundamentally, the politicians simply don’t understand the urgency on the climate science side, and they don’t understand it is a winning political issue with both progressives and independents in every single poll — unlike, […]

U.S. slips in Environmental Performance Index

Researchers at Columbia and Yale released a new Environmental Performance Index ranking 163 countries on a broad variety of indicators—basically, how well they protect their people’s air, water, natural resources, and ecosystems. Surprise, surprise, Scandinavian and Northern European countries do well. So does Costa Rica, the country that shut down its military in 1949 and […]

The future of farming and food at the Eco Farm Conference

Last week I went to California for the 2010 Eco Farm Conference — a three-day organic farming extravaganza featuring big names (and big influences of the organic agriculture movement) such as Wes Jackson, Frances Moore Lappé, Deputy Security of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan, and a ton of folks who are part of an ever-growing and expanding […]

Mounting stresses, failing states

After 50 years of forming states from colonies and from the Soviet breakup, the international community is focusing on the disintegration of states

The death knell for comprehensive cap-and-trade

I’ve resisted writing the obligatory “what Scott Brown’s victory means for the climate bill” post, mainly because the real answer is Nobody Knows and Everyone’s Full of Sh*t. What pundit wants to say that? Certainly everyone in the DC Village agrees that the Mass. special election was the Biggest Thing Evar (unlike, say, the Oregon […]

How innovative financing is changing energy in America

Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, has taken off like wildfire since the concept was first introduced in Berkeley, Calif. in October ’07. PACE allows private property owners to pay for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects through an addition to their property tax bill, overcoming the high upfront costs that prevent most property owners […]

SmartPlanet is not going green

SmartPlanet is a newish venture from CBS Interactive. It promises to cover many of the topics that Grist readers (and staffers) care about. But there’s no mention of “green” on its About page, and barely a mention of “eco.” That would not have been true just a year or two ago. Finding ways to talk […]

Palin urges America to stay addicted to oil

In 2006, President Bush famously said in his State of the Union:   Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology … By applying the talent and technology […]