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Umbra on e-books

Dear Umbra, I have noticed that digital book readers have started to enter the market and wonder if they are more ecologically sound than conventional books. I am interested in buying one but suspect that they are full of metals that damage the environment in their production. Also, they would use up energy when in […]

L.A. Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley may head up Obama’s Council on Environmental Quality

Nancy Sutley. Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley is expected to be appointed to head President-elect Barack Obama’s White House Council on Environmental Quality, a transition team member told me Wednesday. Sutley has a long but mixed track record in California on environment and energy policy, according to several people who have worked with and […]

Missouri Senator says Obama will have to delay his cap-and-trade program

At a panel yesterday morning hosted by National Journal, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill (D) made some comments about Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal that are strikingly off-message. Or are they? The panel was focused on Obama’s first 100 days. McCaskill — a key Senate ally of Obama’s and the first female Senator to endorse him in the […]

A roundup of reports I ought to read but in reality have only skimmed

So many reports, so little time! Greenpeace: The True Cost of Coal It’s well-known that coal’s price is artificially low, since many of its costs — health maladies, climate change, polluted water, etc. — are externalized. But how much do those externalized costs add up to? This report delves into that subject in great detail. […]

Speculation on Granholm and Reicher as possible picks for energy secretary

The internets are abuzz with speculation that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) is going to be tapped as secretary of energy (see here, here, and here). She’s meeting today with Obama’s transition team to discuss energy issues. Michigan Messenger has a longer piece about the Granholm rumor that’s worth checking out, including info on her […]

Food Fight snags documentary honor

For those of you who don’t get quite enough of my writing, you can see me holding forth on the big screen! That is, if the documentary Food Fight finds a distributor. I hope it does; I hear it’s good. (I do get quite enough of my writing, and I’m repelled by the idea of […]

Low donations and diminished endowments will hinder green movement

It’s the end of the year, and if your inbox is anything like mine, you’ve received a deluge of end-of-year donation requests from your favorite nonprofits. On behalf of my brethren nonprofit directors, let me share some insight into current nonprofit funding dynamics before you hit the delete button. First, this was an extraordinary election […]

Utility strikes deal with green groups allowing new coal plants to proceed

Luminant, the largest utility in Texas, struck a deal this week with Public Citizen and the Sierra Club in which the company agreed to use “maximum achievable control technology” to ensure the lowest possible emissions of mercury and other pollutants from two new coal-fired generating units now under construction in the state. In exchange, the […]

City announces plan to develop next-generation electricity grid

The city of Austin, Texas recently announced a smart grid project. Smart grids, you may recall, are one of the core elements of the Grand Climate Plan. Although the Austin project isn’t the first such effort in the country, officials hope that the city will be able to move faster than others, because Austin actually […]

Energy Dept. calls for threefold expansion of Yucca Mountain nuke dump

In a report to Congress, the U.S. Energy Department this week recommended expanding by up to three times the amount of nuclear waste to be buried at the planned Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada. The agency also recommended delaying a decision on whether to commission another large nuke-waste dump elsewhere in the country, […]