Latest Articles

NYT: Temporarily relax regulations to allow Big Three’s European models in the U.S.

The Big Three make high-quality, fuel-efficient cars. No, really, they do. They just sell them in Europe — Ford Ka, anyone? And now that $15 billion of the the $25 billion designated in the 2007 energy bill to provide funds for fuel-efficiency retooling will likely serve as loan guarantees to keep GM and Chrysler solvent, […]

Pressure rises for a reform-minded USDA pick

The Obama transition team is taking its time mulling candidates to head up USDA. That’s a good thing, considering the generally dismal names that dominate the circulating short-lists. Meanwhile, the temperature is rising around Obama to pick a real reformer, not a business-as-usual politician or outright industry flack. The latest: New York Times op-ed pundit […]

Obama’s environmental team is centered around a long-time Gore acolyte

When Obama and Biden met with Al Gore on Tuesday, they were purposefully bland about what was discussed. Now that Obama has revealed his green team, it appears they may have been asking Gore’s blessing. Of the four environment/energy appointees announced (or leaked), three worked in the Clinton/Gore EPA, and one, Carol Browner, was a […]

Host a Change is Coming house party this weekend

Change is Coming … to a house near you! This weekend across the nation, community organizer-types, average Americans, and heck, maybe even you (!) will be flocking to “Change is Coming” house parties to keep up that whole “democracy isn’t dead” thing. By asking people to host these events in their communities, Obama’s campaign manager, […]

The Stephen Johnson story

Anyone interested in understanding not only Bush’s environmental legacy but the Bush Era simply must carve out the time to read "Smoke and Mirrors," a blockbuster series on the EPA put together by Philadelphia Inquirer. Go. Read it. There’s too much in it for a facile blog summary, but I do want to comment one […]

Origins of cereal linked to religion, vegetarianism

The mental_floss blog has an interesting piece on the origins of cereal. Only a short bit of it is eco-related, so I’ll post that here (emphasis mine): Meat Is Murder (on the Colon) During the early 19th century, most Americans subsisted on a diet of pork, whiskey, and coffee. It was hell on the bowels, […]

Notes from Stone Barns’ ‘Young Farmer Conference’

There’s a social movement cropping up in fields and markets across the country — America’s next generation of farmers are stepping up to the pitchfork. Young, excited and energized, they’re facing many challenges, but also reaping many rewards. To celebrate this burgeoning interest in farming, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Tarrytown, New […]

For some families, the holidays are all about the grub

  This is the holiday season in just about every culture. I was born and raised a Unitarian Universalist, thus of the Judeo-Christian background, so in my house it’s Christmastime. For some folks, Christmas is about peace and good tidings. For others it is a joyous celebration of the birth of their savior. In my […]

The transportation story at the heart of a history-making crisis

There’s a remarkable graph that has starred in blog posts and news stories with some regularity over the past year. It shows vehicle miles traveled in America over the last quarter century or so. For most of the period, the line rockets upward, straight and true, preparing to blast off the page. But then the […]

EPA unveils ‘most wanted’ list of environmental criminals

The U.S. EPA this week unveiled a new website listing its “most wanted” environmental criminals, people accused of everything from illegally disposing of hazardous waste to smuggling Freon and other ozone-depleting substances into the United States. Remarkably, no one employed by the Bush administration appears on it.