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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, champion of the environment and clean energy, dies at 77

Kennedy, the last surviving brother in a unique American political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died late Tuesday night at his summer home on Cape Cod after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. He was 77. He was a great champion of progressive causes, and his death is a great […]

Sen. Landrieu’s plan to export Louisiana’s coastal destruction to Florida

While Louisiana struggles to restore coastal wetlands ravaged in large part by decades of oil and gas drilling, its senior senator is leading the effort to lift the ban on drilling off Florida’s Panhandle. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is the lone co-sponsor of legislation sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to open up new […]

Chuck Grassley does not believe in the threat of anthropogenic climate change

Chuck Grassley In a Tuesday conference call with Iowa agricultural reporters, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offered some state-of-the-art Republican doubletalk on climate change (maybe he read it in Glenn Beck’s book). This is worth reading in full, in part to admire the blithely inconsistent muddle of it all, but also in part to marvel at […]

Is it time to get rid of phone books?

When was the last time you looked up something in the phone book? What did you do the last time you got a free phone book dropped off on your doorstep–did you recycle it? If you’re like most people these days, your answers to those questions are probably “I don’t remember” and “No.” WhitePages, an […]

EPA: Chemicals found in Wyo. drinking water might be from fracking

This story was written by ProPublica reporter Abrahm Lustgarten. Federal environment officials investigating drinking water contamination near the ranching town of Pavillion, Wyo., have found that at least three water wells contain a chemical used in the natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing. Scientists also found traces of other contaminants, including oil, gas or […]

Tell USDA to add urban farming to the Ag Census! Deadline is Friday.

If you care about eating healthy food, you are probably already hard at work to build a better food supply for yourself.  You already know that raising food in our cities will be increasingly important.  Yet getting political support for this requires making a convincing case, and this means having compelling numbers.  The federal Census […]

US Chamber of Commerce calls for ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’ on climate change

Cross-posted from Wonk Room. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the 97-year-old organization that bills itself as the “voice of business” — wants to put climate science on trial. As the Environmental Protection Agency nears a final ruling that manmade global warming endangers the public health and welfare, “the chamber will tell the EPA in […]

Pachauri’s call for 350 ppm is breakthrough moment for climate movement

Amazing news just arrived at 350.org headquarters. Rajendra Pachauri is the U.N.’s top climate scientist. He leads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which every five years produces the authoritative assessment of climate science. Its last report, in 2007, helped set the target of 450 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the […]

Tree-sitters do environmental regulators’ job

In a stunning blow to mountaintop removal blasting operations in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia this morning, two fearless protesters scaled massive trees and unfurled banners from their 80-foot-high platforms. Within 300 feet of the Massey Energy’s Edwight mountaintop removal blasting site, above Pettry Bottom and Peachtree in Raleigh County, W. Va., the […]

GOP team at American Energy Alliance runs ‘Energy Town Hall’ oil bus tour

American Energy Alliance staffers Kevin Kennedy, Patrick Creighton, and Laura Henderson on tour in Pennsylvania. All are former House GOP staff. Cross-posted from Wonk Room. The American Energy Alliance (AEA), a new polluter front group, is touring the nation to smear President Barack Obama’s clean energy reform agenda. Employees riding the “American Energy Express” bus […]