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House Republicans blow off biz leaders who want climate action

House Republicans are ramping up their campaign against the Democratic leadership’s climate and energy bill — and telling business leaders to get with the program or get out of the way. On Tuesday, a group of key Republicans hosted a summit on Capitol Hill to bash the Waxman-Markey bill as an “energy tax” that would […]

Ask Umbra on hydro power at home

Q. Dear Umbra, Please tell me you didn’t just imply that hydroelectric is a clean energy source. You didn’t just say that, did you? Brian K.Eugene, Ore. You’ve got the power in your hands.iStockA. Dearest Brian, In my recent column on living off the grid, I pledged to discuss micro-hydro as a power source for […]

Businesses struggle to profit from sewage sludge

Part 2 of Grist’s special series on poop. “We’re trying to get the pieces bigger — ideally the size of pencil erasers,” said John “Rus” Miller, handing me a plastic packet of a brown, dry, crumbly material with the texture of couscous and the odor of manure. That’s because it was manure — in the […]

The EPA holds corn ethanol accountable … sort of

In February 2008, a group of researchers led by Tim Searchinger of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School published a paper (PDF) in Science Express called, “Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land Use Change.” Their conclusion was startling: the government policy of supporting biofuel production, which had begun in the […]

U.S. pledges something or other on climate

Details aren’t in focus in this climate doc.Photo: circulating via FlickrToday U.S. negotiators promised “ambitious actions,” “robust targets,” and pretty much nada details in a proposal overdue to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The paper suggests a structure for the international climate treaty to be hashed out in Copenhagen this December—something the UNFCC […]

What do you get when you buy a nuke? You get a lot of delays and rate increases….

Progress Energy said Friday it has pushed back by 20 months its schedule for bringing on-line two planned new nuclear reactors in Florida, after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said its review of the plant site will take longer than expected. Progress also said it will spread out over five years certain early–stage costs for the […]

Barack gives biofuels the big thumbs up

[Update: While some may think this decision was a win for corn ethanol, House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson clearly does not. In fact, he is seriously ticked off about it. According to CongressDaily, Peterson responded to the indirect land use ruling as follows:  “You are going to kill the biofuels industry. You are in […]

Kansas, without coal-fighting guv, approves new plant

Not in Kansas anymore.That better be one helluva of a health care plan you’re drafting, Kathleen Sebelius, because Kansas already misses you. The state approved a new coal-fired power plant today, undoing a signature environmental accomplishment of former Gov. Sebelius, who left the state last week to become President Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human […]

Is ‘lifestyle change’ to be feared?

Brad Plumer has a nice little video over at TNR today, playing off Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski’s comment that meeting our climate goals will mean cutting back on consumption and consumerism — that is, it will require the dread “lifestyle changes.” Brad notes that efficiency and renewable power don’t necessarily force any lifestyle changes. (A […]

Memo to James Hansen: Your opposition to Waxman-Markey is ill-conceived and unhelpful

Climate Wire (subs. req’d) reports today: NASA’s leading climate scientist says he hopes that climate legislation proposed by Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman (CA) and Edward Markey (MA) to introduce carbon emissions trading to the United States fails. He says lawmakers should abandon cap-and-trade initiatives altogether and implement a simple carbon tax instead…. “Trading of rights […]