Latest Articles

Starbucks brews global green-building plan, renovates Seattle shop

Photo: Sarah van SchagenStroll into the newly renovated Starbucks coffeehouse in Seattle’s University Village and the décor may feel more familiar than you’d expect. The menu boards are made from the chalkboards you may have scribbled on at nearby Garfield High School; the shelving is from old bleachers you may have sat upon; the leather […]

“Back to Petroleum”: BP shuts clean energy HQ, slashes renewables budget, dives into tar sands

The UK’s Guardian reports: BP has shut down its alternative energy headquarters in London, accepted the resignation of its clean energy boss and imposed budget cuts in moves likely to be seen by environmental critics as further signs of the oil group moving “back to petroleum”. Sad, but not terribly original or surprising (see “Shell […]

Confident Obama: Senate will pass climate bill, “we can do even more” than ACES’s targets

President Obama gave a very lengthy “must-read” interview to the several reporters Sunday in which he spelled out a great deal of his thinking on the climate bill (transcript here).  Since Senate passage of a climate bill depends crucially on Obama’s strong messaging and lobbying effort, I will excerpt the interview in two parts. The […]

Lost in the shuffle: Some efficiency policies weakened in Waxman-Markey bill

Last Friday, the House of Representatives passed a landmark climate and energy bill that would finally begin to address the climate crises and move us towards a rational energy policy in this country. There are many key efficiency provisions in the bill, including, Improved building energy codes Incentives for efficiency retrofits of existing buildings Incentives […]

Stop calling Americans “consumers”

I was at a small meeting on peak oil Friday – Executive Summary:  We’re peaking now! James Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, was there.  He is in the Mad Max/Lovelock/Wall-E school of dystopia, and so I have a number of disagreements with him (see “Why I don’t agree with James Kunstler about peak oil […]

Franken win means another likely Senate vote for climate action

Photo: Al Franken for SenateLooks like Al Franken may, at last, be sworn in as the newest senator from Minnesota, after more than seven months of litigation. The Minnesota State Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Democrat Franken narrowly won the race over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman back in November; and news breaking on the wires […]

Screwing up environment not so great for economy, studies find

Let’s take a look at a few studies that have come out recently and see if we can find a common thread. A West Virginia University researcher found that “coal mining costs Appalachians five times more in early deaths as the industry provides to the region in jobs, taxes and other economic benefits,” reports the […]

EPA affirms California’s right to set tougher automobile emissions standards

The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Tuesday that it will grant a waiver for California and 13 other states to set automobile emission standards that are higher than national ones — at least for the next two years. “The waiver affirms California’s authority to set the standards for the cleanest cars in the nation and […]

Food-safety legislation leaves gaping hole for meat giants

Yesterday’s post about JBS’ massive beef recall got me to thinking about the food-safety legislation creeping through the House: the other Waxman bill, H.R. 2749, or the Food Safety Enhancement Act The bill recently passed the passed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee and awaits consideration on the House floor; no vote is currently […]

Are the South and the Midwest splitting on energy?

There’s one interesting aspect of the Waxman-Markey vote worth highlighting in its own post. Ron Brownstein’s analysis contains this intriguing information: The sponsors also maintained substantial support for the legislation even in the Midwestern states expected to generate the most opposition because of their heavy reliance on coal for electricity. Overall 48 of the 60 […]