Latest Articles

McCain rails against Obama cap-and-trade plan

Sen. John McCain says he’s still a proud proponent of using a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, but he’s not going to back President Barack Obama’s climate agenda any time soon. McCain, coauthor of multiple cap-and-trade bills in the past, addressed an energy symposium sponsored by the Reform Institute on Tuesday. In his remarks, […]

Obama marks Earth Day with visit to Iowa wind energy factory

President Barack Obama made an Earth Day visit to Newton, Iowa, on Wednesday, where he toured a manufacturing facility that produces towers for wind turbines and touted his climate and energy agenda. Trinity Structural Towers, housed in a former Maytag appliance factory, employs dozens of former Maytag workers. “The choice we face is not between […]

Coal the culprit in rising emissions intensity

I wrote last week about a curious fact:  even though total CO2 emissions from the US electric power sector have dropped during the recession, the emissions intensity of the US power supply — that is, the amount of carbon per megawatt hour produced — actually inched upwards.  The decline in total emissions is good news […]

Let's make this Earth Day about cooperating

Cross posted at the NDN blog. Forty years have passed since John McConnell, a peace activist and plastics pioneer, proposed the first Earth Day at a Unesco conference in San Francisco as a way to focus attention on our role as stewards of the planet. In that period, environmentalism has grown into a worldwide passion […]

A multicolored good food movement

Photo courtesy of M J M, via FlickrAs the good food movement matures, its members have begun discussing its inclusiveness. This week, at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s ninth Food and Society Conference, speaker after speaker touched upon the topic of race and access to good food.  “Who is at the table?” asked Anim Steel, Director […]

Earth Day gets no respect

Grist hates Earth Day because it thinks every day should be Earth Day. I’ve got a different grievance, however. There’s no @#$&ing enforcement with Earth Day. Anyone can claim anything on Earth Day.

Biotech’s history of overpromising and underdelivering may be catching up with it

GMOs: false promise?km6xoTom Philpott’s post on USDA chief Tom Vilsack’s comments regarding biotech deserves a bit more attention. Vilsack was speaking at the first ever meeting of the Group of Eight agricultural ministers. I guess we have to consider it progress that the top ag officials from the eight largest industrialized nations finally decided it […]

Anti-wind now not just for NIMBY’s

Opposition to wind power used to be the province of NIMBY’s who quailed at the supposed intrusion into their viewsheds and soundsheds. No more. Wind power is big — its share of U.S. electricity reached 1.3% last year — and getting bigger fast enough to alarm the Far Right and other feeders at the trough […]

Taking Neil Young’s latest album out for a spin

In 2006, Neil Young released a powerful political album, “Living With War” — an 11-track screed against the Iraq misadventure and the folly of sending young people off to die in faraway lands. It felt immediate, like Young had recorded it in a hurry, harkening back to CSNY’s rapid-fire release of “Ohio” within a few […]

As House digs into climate bill, debate focuses on costs to American families

As the House begins serious debate on a climate bill, the biggest sticking point is shaping up to be how much it will cost average Americans. The Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday started four straight days of hearings on the draft climate bill sponsored by Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.). The legislation […]