Latest Articles

What U.S. leaders could learn from a 13-year-old

Under the blunt title “Ethanol is Stupid,” a letter in the Concord Monitor makes a cogent case against corn-based ethanol: Most ethanol is made from corn. However, that corn must be supplied in enormous quantities, and corn is used in much food for humans and animals. If we use corn for fuel, more will need […]

Appeals court ruling closes Clean Air Act loophole

Green groups won an important victory for clean air last week when a federal appeals court ruled that chemical plants, refineries, and other industrial sites are still subject to pollution limits even during equipment malfunctions and when plants start up or shut down. Some refineries and other sites have used the Clean Air Act’s start-up, […]

Air in 46 U.S. metro areas exceeds allowable soot levels

Over 100 million people in the United States, nearly one-third of its population, live in metro areas that violate federal standards for daily soot pollution on at least some days, the U.S. EPA said this week. However, missing from the EPA’s list of officially sooty areas — and thus exempt from further enforcement actions to […]

EPA declares waste from oil-shale production ‘non-hazardous’

Waste products from oil-shale development are not hazardous and thus would not have to be treated as such, the U.S. EPA ruled this week, thereby lowering the costs of developing oil-shale deposits on public lands in the U.S. West.

Nancy Sutley is expected to be effective at CEQ, even in Carol Browner’s shadow

Nancy Sutley and Barack Obama. Washington wags may wonder who will be top green dog in the Obama White House — flashy “energy czarina” Carol Browner or shy, retiring Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley — but folks who know Sutley say there’s nothing to worry about. Sutley is supposed to be the president’s […]

‘Repower, refuel & rebuild America’

A new ad campaign from LCV, trying to build support for a bold green agenda from Obama:

Falling out of love with cars

Jon Rynn suggested that this comment to another thread be posted, so, by request, a repeat for the holidays! I would have posted it yesterday but we had a long power outage as a winter storm caused a transformer to blow up, putting several thousand of us without power. It was a fitting problem to […]

An antidote to Kunstler?

Sharon Astyk has graced these pages. She is the anti-Kunstler. Whereas JHK can get people gritting their teeth and swearing by quoting "Reader’s Digest," Sharon has a way of making everyone feel warm and friendly … even when she is writing or saying things every bit as grim as anything from JHK. I saw her […]

Governator on 60 Minutes

Arnold Schwarzenegger talks with 60 Minutes about his state’s financial troubles and green initiatives:

Time magazine on ‘top 10 food trends’

Proving yet again that everyone’s obsessed with food, Time has included the edible stuff in its Top 10 Everything of 2008 lists. The mag’s “Top 10 Food Trends” list is interesting reading. Bottled water and local food are out. "Nanny-state food regulations," salmonella saintpaul, and recession dining are all in. Actually, local food isn’t really […]