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The Climate Post: Grid, for lack of a better word, is good

First Things First: Cars, trucks, planes, and other things that go add more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than any other sector where end-users burn their own fuel. And transportation added more energy-and-climate headlines this week than any other sector, driven by an emergency congressional payout to continue the “cash-for-clunkers” program and General Motors’ promotional […]

North American feed-in tariff policies take off

Gainesville’s feed-in tariff program is limited to 4 megawatts of solar PV each year. The program is already fully subscribed through 2015 — a 24-megawatt commitment.Photo courtesy U.S. NRELClean energy advocates in Europe have long considered the feed-in tariff as an antidote to the industrial world’s fossil fuel dependency. Now, the United States and Canada […]

Climate-news poem: Tween-pop edition

Show them all the Jonas they possess inside. It’s easy to smirk at Selena and MileyThey don’t seem to work, and they’re far too smiley.And when they record a new eco-song,Who can afford to listen for long? But here is the thing us fogeys must know:When tween angels sing, even if the songs blow, The […]

Economist Greg Mankiw’s bottom line on climate policy: Government can’t do anything right

Gregory MankiwThe New York Times turned over some of its valuable opinion space to Harvard economics professor Gregory Mankiw last weekend, so that he could discuss the merits of various carbon policies. His record on that score is not great, and he doesn’t have any special training or experience on the subject, but as far […]

Big Oil holding ‘town halls’ on climate bill

Following in the footsteps of the corporate-backed protest movement against health care reform, a group founded and funded by business interests opposed to regulating greenhouse gas pollution is planning a series of rallies to oppose the climate legislation being considered by Congress. The Wall Street Journal reports that EnergyCitizens — an astroturf alliance funded by […]

Rep. Hechler to Greens: We need more hellraisers

While Big Coal continues to bankroll the largest public relations campaign of “clean coal” denial in recent history, former US Representative and historian Ken Hechler has issued an urgent wake up call to Greens and liberal Democrats: Tragic lessons in history remind us that the coal crisis and its deniers call for more hellraisers, not […]

National Association of Manufacturers claims climate bill would crush economy

In shocking news, water is still wet, the sky is still blue, and the National Association of Manufacturers is still predicting economic catastrophe if the United States acts against climate change. NAM, in partnership with the American Council for Capital Formation, released a new study on Wednesday of the climate and energy bill that the […]

Offsets remain off-putting to many experts intent on curbing CO2 emissions

The massive climate and energy bill now working its way through Congress would create a multi-billion-dollar market in carbon offsets, giving owners of agricultural and forest land the opportunity to profit as companies seek to offset their carbon emissions. Offset quality — ensuring that an offset represents a genuine reduction in greenhouse gases — has […]

Biochar as the new black gold

Special Series: What’s the deal with offsets?Photo illustration by Tom Twigg / GristImagine a system that can: (potentially) store billions of tons of carbon in soil for centuries; dramatically reduce agricultural waste, forest debris and some municipal solid waste, thus eliminating the production of greenhouse gases that result from their decomposition; generate energy to both […]

A test of six recycled-paper napkins

Apparently I have a confession to make: I was, until this time, unaware of the fascinating depth of the world of paper napkins. Word.osde8info via flickrTo begin with, there was my discovery that there are “lunch napkins” — the square, scratchy kind — and “dinner napkins,” the comparatively elegant, rectangular, softer kind. Seriously? I’d never […]