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Palin’s recipe for Baked Alaska

It was a surprise when Sarah Palin announced that she would step down as Governor of Alaska. But it isn’t so surprising that America’s biggest quitter doesn’t think Americans are up to the challenge of creating a clean energy economy supported by new industries, businesses and jobs. In her first act as “What the…??”-in-Chief, Palin […]

Ask Umbra on turpentine disposal

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where recently our city made a splash when our newly minted sewage system — which had been roundly celebrated for making the harbour swimmable for the first time in years — failed. Now we’re back to flushing it all into the […]

Sen. Voinovich stalls confirmation of EPA deputy, demands new climate-bill analysis

George VoinovichSen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) is holding up the confirmation of a deputy administrator at the U.S. EPA until the agency coughs up numbers on the House climate bill that are to his liking. Voinovich sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson [PDF] on Monday saying that he has placed a procedural hold on […]

Tennessee Republican comes out swinging against cap-and-trade bill

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a day after he announced that he is not willing to work with Democrats on a climate change bill and instead unveiled his own nuclear-power-heavy proposal, is going out of his way to be a thorn in the side of Senate Democrats. During two hearings on Tuesday convened to focus on […]

A tasting of nine “natural” root beers yields surprising results

Nothing hits the spot on a hot day like an icy glass of all-American root beer. (Okay, if you want to split hairs: Nothing hits the spot on a hot day like an icy glass of all-American root beer when you must stay sober.) The problem is that when you take your wilting self to […]

Will Iraq be a global gas pump?

This guest essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. —– Has it all come to this? The wars and invasions, the death and destruction, the exile and torture, the resistance and collapse? In a world of shrinking energy reserves, is Iraq finally fated to become what it was […]

E. coli and Campylobacteriosis: Why Obama’s USDA food-safety pick is so important

Side of E. coli with that burger?In Meat Wagon, we look at the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries. —————————– As I reported Friday, a man with a Big Ag background has emerged as the frontrunner for a still-empty USDA post called “undersecretary of food safety.” The holder of this position oversees the […]

Senate GOP: Nuke, baby, nuke!

Republicans in the Senate claim to have an “alternative” to the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act. (OK, so it was just Sen. Lamar Alexander, but we’ll accept his claim that he has some so-far-anonymous colleagues behind him). But on closer inspection, chances that their plans would affect clean energy or energy security seem […]

Sotomayor endorsement is an embarrassment

If there was ever a time when the U.S. Supreme Court requires a passionate, articulate and unabashed voice for the environment — another William O. Douglas — that time is now. Should Waxman-Markey die in the Senate and the EPA be forced to regulate carbon emissions, the matter will likely land before the Justices and […]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, ACES edition

A curious thing happened at Tuesday’s morning meeting of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee when the panel’s infamous climate-change skeptic, James Inhofe (R-Okla.), cited NASA climatologist Jim Hansen in his screed against the House climate bill. Yes, this is the same James Inhofe who once called climate change the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated […]