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Big Three auto execs pledge to become greener, more profitable

In a desperate, collective plea for up to $38 billion in government aid, executives from Detroit’s Big Three automakers told a Senate committee on Thursday they would start to crank out smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and streamline their businesses to stay afloat. “Now we are absolutely committed to exceeding our customers’ expectations for quality, fuel-efficiency, […]

BLM unveils rule change to undermine Congress’ veto of mining projects

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday announced a rule change that attempts to eliminate Congress’ power to veto mining projects on public lands. A 1976 law currently allows Congress to intervene to stop mining projects when “an emergency situation exists and extraordinary measures must be taken to preserve values that would otherwise be […]

Sales of popular hybrid vehicles plunged in November

Sales of popular hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius and hybrid Honda Civic fell significantly in November, due to a poor economy, higher upfront costs for hybrids, and significantly lower gas prices nationwide. Hybrid Honda Civic sales fell some 68 percent last month while figures for the Toyota Prius show that its sales plunged about […]

Test-tube flesh, coming soon to a hot dog near you

In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night. —– Dear Lou, I hear that PETA has come out in favor of the development of test-tube meat. What’s up with that? I […]

Shell greenwashes with a full-page WaPo ad

Shell’s Mad Men win the 2008 award for the most unintentionally ironic greenwashing ad. On Monday (and again today), Shell ran a full-page ad in the Washington Post on carbon capture with this image: Yes, Shell is apparently trying to catch CO2 with a net! Let’s hope they have better luck than either the Bush […]

Dear media,

Today Obama’s people confirmed that your fake story from yesterday is in fact fake. Better luck next time.

Canadian Parliament suspended, PM Harper survives … for now

The situation in Ottawa has passed, for now. The Governor-General (representing Her Majesty Elizabeth II) has granted Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s request to prorogue (or suspend) Parliament, meaning that the confidence vote that had been scheduled for Monday will not happen for now. This is a day of firsts, as this is the shortest […]

What will make Obama a great president? Part 2

Future historians will inevitably judge all 21st century presidents as failures if the world doesn’t stop catastrophic global warming. If global warming exceeds 5°C (or even 3°C), then we will head inexorably toward an ice free planet with widespread desertification, sea levels rising 6 to 12 inches a decade for centuries, the oceans turning into […]

Bank of America will stop funding mountaintop-removal mining

In a big win for environmentalists, Bank of America agreed Wednesday to “phase out financing” to coal companies “whose predominant method of extracting coal” is mountaintop-removal mining. Green groups recently persuaded several BoA execs to visit ravaged Appalachian mountains. Ironically, the U.S. EPA just this week approved a rule change that makes mountaintop removal easier.

Biogas out of … can’t say

Here’s an example from the New York Times of turning doo-doo into gold: At the electricity-from-manure project here in Sterksel [Netherlands], the refuse from thousands of pigs is combined with local waste materials (outdated carrot juice and crumbs from a cookie factory), and pumped into warmed tanks called digesters. There, resident bacteria release the natural […]