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California’s Mary Nichols doubts reports that Obama has settled on EPA pick

Mary Nichols, head of California’s powerful Air Resources Board, says she doesn’t believe unattributed news reports that she or Lisa Jackson, former commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, are (or are not) front-runners to be President-elect Obama’s nominee to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “I don’t believe either of those things, and […]

Grist video kicks off Global Day of Climate Action 2008

In honor of the fourth annual Global Day of Climate Action on Dec. 6 and the global climate talks currently going down in Poznan, Poland, Grist put together a little video to get everyone thinking about how they’re acting to change the climate — for better or for worse. We’re working with other green orgs […]

Conservation scientists push for Rep. Raúl Grijalva for Interior Secretary

A group of conservation scientists is pushing for Barack Obama to select Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) as secretary of the interior. The 58 scientists — who work for a variety of academic and conservation institutions — delivered a letter [PDF] advocating for Grijalva to Obama’s transition staff on Monday. “The position of Secretary of the […]

From Racy to Race

Strung out The students at Allegheny College are on clothespins and needles worrying about climate change. So they’ve hung their cares underwears out to dry … hey, is that a Hood Thong? Puddle stumper This guy is really hitting the pavement to raise awareness about climate change; hope he doesn’t get in over his head. […]

Healthcare/energy parallels

Commenting on an article by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, Jonathan Cohn says this: Reform, he notes, could eventually create a more rational health care system in which we don’t throw away so much money on administration, inefficient care, or unnecessary treatments. And less waste in health care means more money for other, more productive purposes. […]

Alliance for Climate Protection CEO Cathy Zoi talks clean energy

Alliance for Climate Protection CEO Cathy Zoi was part of the massive energy panel that Third Way hosted on Tuesday, one of several folks representing the environmental community. After the event, Grist caught up with Zoi to talk more about the organization’s new Repower America campaign, which aims to shift the U.S. to 100 percent […]

Christine Todd Whitman talks about greening the GOP and running the EPA

If Christine Todd Whitman had waited four years to publish her political memoir, she might have had this winter’s timeliest bestseller. The former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and New Jersey governor wrote It’s My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America to urge moderate Republicans, environmentalists included, […]

More misleading salvos in the great carbon tax debate

Professional lost-cause Ralph Nader has found another arena in which to unhelpfully intrude: carbon policy. On the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, no less, he argues for a carbon tax. I personally have no dog in the carbon tax vs. cap-and-trade fight. It seems pretty clear that either policy can effectively put a price on […]

In Washington D.C., car drive you

“Did you drive or did you have a driver? Did you drive a little and ride a little? And secondly, I guess, are you going to drive back?” — Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), during Thursday’s Senate Banking Committee questioning of auto industry executives, suggesting that the decision to leave private jets in Detroit and drive […]

Clean coal salesman Joe Lucas shucks and jives for NPR

This NPR story on clean coal is astounding. Pardon the long post, but I had to transcribe several parts of it so you wouldn’t think I’m making it up. The story begins with Al Gore making (and repeating several times) a single point: clean coal — insofar as that means coal power generation that has […]