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Coal-nundrum and Ex-gas-peration

Recently, I met with the CEO of a utility to discuss how to get at carbon reduction goals. He asked two insightful questions. The first was, “Why doesn’t the natural gas industry support climate legislation?” One of the key points turned up in the utility’s analysis of future supply is that we’re going to have […]

Summer reading

I generally don’t read business books.  Eight years of government work–TQM! ISO9000! ISTJ–and I had enough acronymn-based solutions for a lifetime.  But Adam Werbach sent me his latest, Strategy for Sustainability, and darned if I didn’t spend half my trip home from visiting my folks reading it, and the other half scribbling notes in my […]

Decision to dump TVA’s spilled coal waste in Alabama community sparks resistance

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a plan last week to dump 3 million tons of coal ash that spilled from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in eastern Tennessee in an impoverished, largely African-American community in Alabama — and the decision is sparking resistance among local officials and residents who don’t want the toxic […]

Top 10 reasons the Senate should strengthen and pass the Waxman-Markey bill

This post first appeared on the NRDC Switchboard site. It is vital to enact comprehensive energy and climate legislation this year — to help deliver economic, energy, and climate security.  As President Obama has said, the choice is “between a slow decline and renewed prosperity; between the past and the future.”  The time to act […]

Ask Umbra on paperback writers

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Hi Umbra, I’m in the book business, and there are many who try and make sure books never make it to landfills and are donated to worthy causes. However, I have been wondering for some time about the environmental impact of such authors as Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts, and […]

Nuclear + cap-and-trade = bipartisan climate bill?

Getting a climate bill through the Senate with some Republican support might be easier than many observers think, but only if it comes with provisions providing a big boost for nuclear energy. That was one takeaway from Tuesday’s Senate committee hearing on climate change legislation, the first of a series that the Environment and Public […]

California net metering bill progresses

Just to follow up on a previous thread, AB 560 (the bill to lift the net metering cap in California) passed a key hurdle today, passing out of the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications committee by a vote of 9-1. The bill was amended–instead of lifting the 2.5 percent cap on net metering to 10 […]

Seattle Storm WNBA team shoots 3’s for trees

Photo: otakuchick via FlickrEvery three-point shot made by a Seattle Storm player this season will be a slam dunk for a local forest. Through a partnership with Carter Subaru, a local car dealership that promises to plant trees for every test drive, the Seattle Storm were able to plant 154 trees last year as part […]

Rural county asks EPA chief not to make it ‘The Ash Hole of Alabama’

Kingston, Tenn., coal ash spillThe Environmental Protection Agency is still figuring out what to do with the millions of tons of coal ash that spilled through a broken levy levee in eastern Tennessee last December. But it looks like much of it may be shipped to Perry County in central Alabama, where residents are none […]

Rethinking food production for a world of 8 billion

In April 2005, the World Food Programme and the Chinese government jointly announced that food aid shipments to China would stop at the end of the year. For a country where a generation ago hundreds of millions of people were chronically hungry, this was a landmark achievement. Not only has China ended its dependence on […]