Latest Articles

Obama to pick NJ DEP commissioner Lisa Jackson to head EPA

Lisa Jackson. Lisa Jackson is Obama’s pick to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, sources close to the transition confirm. Jackson, who’s been working on Obama’s transition team for the EPA, has served since 2006 as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In that position, she’s overseen implementation of the state’s climate […]

Nancy Sutley, tapped to head CEQ, garners praise from fellow Californians

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 spokesperson said Wednesday. Combined with the expected nomination of Steven Chu from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to be energy secretary, her appointment would give the Golden State two […]

Obama’s energy and environment appointments unveiled

President-elect Barack Obama has not yet officially announced his choices to fill key environmental posts in his administration, but the word is now out on the street. Transition-team officials say that Lisa Jackson will head the U.S. EPA, Steven Chu will be secretary of energy, Nancy Sutley will head the White House Council on Environmental […]

Browner to get the nod as Obama’s top energy and climate adviser

Carol Browner. It’s looking increasingly likely that Carol Browner will be tapped to serve as “energy czar” in the Obama administration. The Washington Post first reported it Tuesday night, and now other outlets have gotten similar word from inside sources. No official word from the transition staff, however. The position does not yet officially exist, […]

Likely Obama DOE head talks about climate change and renewable energy

Here’s Steven Chu, the likely Obama pick to head the Department of Energy, talking about climate change and renewable energy at the National Energy Summit in Nevada this summer: (Via Brad Plumer, via Brad Johnson.)

International youth call out Merkel and Tusk in Warsaw

On the day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly announced that she would block needed reforms to the European Union’s climate package, a crowd of 200 people from more than 20 countries loudly called her and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to task outside the prime minister’s residence in Warsaw. The rally began less than […]

My father installed a solar system and radiant-heat floor in his barn

A couple of years ago, my folks retired. Pops ripped out the bottom of the barn on the old family farm, set up a woodshop, and got to work. Check out his stuff here. Nice, eh? I’m pleased to say that Pops’s pots are now solar heated. With no urging from yours truly, he installed […]

Transit ridership up; everyone agrees it should be funded

This week the Washington Post reported that mass transit ridership is rocketing upward — "the largest quarterly increase in public transportation ridership in 25 years" — even in the face of falling gas prices. This correction that now sits atop the story is amusing: This article about an increase in mass-transit ridership incorrectly said transit […]

Where does your food come from?

I wanted to recommend a story on Emmett Duffy’s Natural Patriot blog about where fast food comes from. This is not a topic I normally post on (or actually know that much about), but I loved this post because it’s a profound message combined with some interesting science.

Bob Lutz: Fuel-efficient cars, like global warming, a crock of sh*t

“At $1.50 per gallon, the American public wants sport utilities and large pickup trucks.” — GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, going off-message from his boss Rick Wagoner’s pledge before Congress to implement “a dramatic shift in the company’s U.S. portfolio” toward “more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers”