Latest Articles

Nuclear companies face reactor design problems, ethics questions

Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor design. Federal regulators have expressed serious safety concerns about the design for 14 of the nation’s 25 proposed new nuclear reactors, raising questions about the future of what the industry calls its “renaissance.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last month that Westinghouse failed to demonstrate that the building designed to shield its […]

Palin’s book spreads falsehoods about clean energy legislation

During the 2008 campaign, the Washington Post itself gave Sarah Palin its highest (which is to say lowest) rating of “Four Pinocchios” for continuing to “to peddle bogus [energy] statistics three days after the original error was pointed out by independent fact-checkers.”  That didn’t stop the Post from running a 2009 piece by her filled […]

Al Franken (D-Minn.)

Al FrankenSen. Al Franken wrote the following letter to a Grist reader in early November, expressing support for “comprehensive energy legislation” and a “national energy plan that keeps our country moving down a path to a homegrown economy with more jobs, more innovation, and more opportunities for investment.” The senator has been concerned about the […]

Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)

Dick Durbin In this letter to Grist reader and Illinois constituent Kevin Wolz, Sen. Dick Durbin signals strong support for the Kerry-Boxer climate bill: Dear Mr. Wolz, Thank you for contacting me regarding the creation of a national “cap-and-trade” program to address global warming. I appreciate hearing from you. Global warming is one of the most […]

Copenhagen news & views: follow all the latest

There were plenty of hints over the past month that world leaders would down-shift expectations for drafting a new, international climate treaty in Copenhagen next month. Still, when news broke over the weekend that key nations, including the United States, were planning to push a final treaty into 2010, it came as shock to climate […]

Why the USDA has no business overseeing conditions on factory farms, and more

In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries. —— USDA chief Tom Vilsack, with special friends: Will this guy ever get serious about the swine flu/swine farm link? Why isn’t the federal government seriously investigating the possible CAFO-swine flu link? I’ve posed that question several times recently, most […]

NASA reports hottest June to October on record

Fast on the heels of the hottest June to September on record*, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies reports that last month was tied for the second hottest September on record (after 2005). Unlike NOAA, which announced its October global analysis with a major “State of the Climate” monthly update, NASA just quietly updates its […]

Best. Review. Ever.

Freakonomics got super freaky. And super wrong. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner are to blame for the global financial crisis. See, back in 2005, they wrote “Freakonomics,” a wildly successful book brimming with interesting stories about why incentives matter and how actions have unintended consequences. Indeed, incentives do matter, and actions (or publications) […]

World leaders say Copenhagen to be a stepping stone

Some very good news on the international front, as the UK Guardian reports today: During a hastily convened breakfast meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from the moribund negotiations by aiming for a broad political agreement and postponing contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer…. The […]

The environMENTALIST contest

One of my guilty pleasures is the CBS crime show, The Mentalist.  One-time fake psychic Patrick Jane uses his powers of observation and deduction to figure out the answer to the mystery before everyone else. So here’s the contest for all you would-be environ-Mentalists.  Use your amazing powers of observation and deduction to figure out […]