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North Carolina governor calls for better regulation of coal ash dumps

North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) has endorsed legislation that would increase oversight of the state’s coal ash dumps, the massive surface impoundments that power companies use to store the toxic waste left over after burning coal. Responding to watchdog pressure, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently disclosed the locations of 44 “high hazard” ash […]

Lithium: Are “blood batteries” next?

The strategic minerals debate is back-but starring some new rocks. One that has received much recent attention is lithium, which is used in cell phone batteries, as well as those under development for electric cars. Turns out lithium isn’t found in too many places. Around 50 percent of known reserves are in Bolivia, underneath some […]

Ask Umbra on green burial

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, At bedtime last night, my significant other remarked that when her time comes she would like to be disposed of in an earth-friendly way, rejoining the soil and not mummified forever in chemical preservatives. Is this even possible and legal? And how about the fiery alternative (no, […]

The Giving Tree

If you have children, you are probably familiar with The Giving Tree. Our version is a Stella cherry tree. My neighbor, Farmer Breakfield, allowed me to plant it on his property in the side yard between our houses way back when my first born was not yet a year old. It was just a stick, […]

100 nuclear plants: The answer?

  Architecture 2030 will post a better answer on Grist next week. Stay tuned … UPDATE:  Here’s the answer.  

Coal industry downplays prospects for CCS as it seeks more handouts in Senate climate bill

The coal industry got a lot of goodies in the House-passed energy and climate bill, but it’s pressing for even more in the Senate version. At a Senate hearing on the future of coal hosted earlier this week by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio), representatives from utilities and coal companies told lawmakers […]

Rep. Rahall to leap out of a plane on behalf of coal

West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall (D) plans to leap out of an airplane to show his support for coal. Yes, really. This comes via Ken Ward Jr., who posted Rahall’s press release on the big event. It is sponsored by Friends of Coal, and will honor the military and law enforcement too (that’s a lot […]

Is China winning the clean energy race?

Photo: Elizabeth Thomsen Today, in global talks, in the Senate, on the street, you still hear a murmur here and there about “not doing anything until India and China sign on.” And this previously pervasive attitude, however obsolete, may already be coming back to bite industrialized nations. Indeed, the big honchos in the West may […]

[UPDATED] Sen. Bernie Sanders cries “monopoly” in a collapsing milk market

Got milk monopoly? UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive. In a NYT article last Saturday, describing the considerable  resistance anti-trust chief Christine Varney is already experiencing in her attempt to toughen enforcement, came this nugget: At the request of some lawmakers, notably Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, Ms. Varney is examining whether small agricultural […]

As MRSA gets worse, the FDA discovers antibiotic abuse on factory farms [UPDATED]

Incubating chickens–and what else? FarmSanctuary.org In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages of the meat and livestock industries. UPDATE below. ————————– A bill now circulating in the House, sponsored by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D.-NY), would limit the amount of antibiotics that can be used on factory animal farms. There’s good news and bad […]