Latest Articles

How personal actions can kick-start a sustainability revolution

Step it up! Small is the new big.The environmental movement is divided over the importance of small steps — are they a critical starting point or a distraction from needed policy and institutional changes? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but will small changes add up to the kind of […]

How to talk to your friends about climate change

I may soon end up walking the streets of Boston with a sandwich board and a tinfoil hat. I know you’ll all remember me fondly when that day comes, and stop to say hello and maybe buy me a sandwich. But in the meantime, with my wits still somewhat collected, I’m going to tell you […]

Earl Pomeroy (D-Global Warming Denial)

Cross-posted from Wonk Room. In a bald attempt to defend coal industry profits, Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) has joined a predominantly Republican push to overrule the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific finding that greenhouse gases are dangerous pollutants. Earlier this month, Pomeroy introduced the Save Our Energy Jobs Act (H.R. 4396), which would rewrite the Clean […]

Cleantech execs learn to lobby

Dirty energy lobbyists long ago mastered the art of lobbying on Capitol Hill, as evidenced by their copious government subsidies. Now clean energy companies are playing catch-up. Jim Snyder at The Hill reports on executives flying in to Washington to learn about the happy ways of our capital: The executives mostly represent clean-energy companies and […]

Kentucky lawmakers demonstrate how to defend dirty coal subsidies

Cross-posted from Wonk Room. President Barack Obama’s 2011 budget would cut $2.28 billion in coal subsidies over the next decade. These $228 million-a-year cuts are dwarfed by the $545 million-a-year subsidies for carbon capture and sequestration technology, which Obama insists on calling “clean coal technology.” How are Kentucky lawmakers responding to this effective doubling of […]

Pulling carbon out of the air (and out of coal smokestacks) just might be possible

Admittedly, no one thinks clean coal is oxymoronic and misleading more than I do. That said, we do appear to be hell bent on funding carbon capture and sequestration systems for coal-fired power plants. The real problem with CCS, of course, isn’t so much the capture part as the sequestration part. What do you do […]

Alabama dump taking TVA’s spilled coal ash declares bankruptcy

The landfill in Perry County, Ala. that has been taking coal ash spilled from the failed waste pond at Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant has declared bankruptcy — a move that leaves a planned lawsuit to halt the dumping up in the air. Arrowhead Landfill owner Perry-Uniontown Ventures I LLC, also known as Perry County […]

Oscar smiles upon ‘Food, Inc.,’ stiffs ‘Mr. Fox’

Food, Inc., Robert Kenner’s hard-hitting exposé of the food industry, has snagged a Academy Award nomination in the “best documentary” category. (Full list of nominess here; Food Inc. is up against another food politics-themed film, The Cove.) This is a significant development. I know people in the food world who have taken a blase approach […]

Obama talks about ‘clean coal’ and solar during YouTube Q&A

During Monday’s YouTube Q&A session, President Obama was asked why he supports “clean coal” and nuclear power at the expense of cleaner forms of energy. A group of young activists from the Energy Action Coalition posed this question: “President Obama, record numbers of young people elected you in support of a clean energy future. If […]

Bill Gates thinks about energy innovation

Bill Gates has written on his blog that we need “innovation, not just insulation” in order to reduce CO2 to manageable levels. His motivation is robust, but his thinking is … far from clear. Because he’s Bill Gates, this is sure to attract attention, but even if he weren’t, this is worth talking about. It […]