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Obama’s pledge on the border wall

Barack Obama’s victory is good news for reversing one of the great environmental and humanitarian crimes of the Bush era: the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The wall, about 280 miles long, is a disaster for the wildlife, landscape, people, and economy of the American Southwest. It prevents highly endangered species like jaguars (U.S. population unknown), ocelots […]

T. Boone Pickens’ wind-power plans becalmed

T. Boone Pickens’ plan to build a gigantuous wind farm in Texas is being held up thanks to a drop in natural-gas prices and the credit crunch. “With natural gas prices where they are, you can’t kick off a wind project, you’re not economical,” Pickens said on Tuesday, adding the next day, “When you’re talking […]

Seven post-financial-crisis opportunities for healthier economies

Are there silver linings to the dark cloud of the financial crisis? It is a truism in our politics that only a crisis produces real change. So, looking on the positive side, what might we hope this crisis will bring forward? Here are seven outcomes worth seeking: 1. For decades, anti-regulation market fundamentalists have argued […]

Mustache Q&A

There’s an interesting Q&A with Tom Friedman up on Huffington Post. Check it out. DB: I was just reading the chapter in your book titled "205 Ways To Save The Earth." Do you ever wish that "green" hadn’t become stylish? TF: Yes and no. When something becomes a fad, it has an upside and a […]

Automotive industry provides $13 million jobs, generates $10 billion in tax revenue

This post is a response to Joseph Romm’s post, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems,” on the future of the American automotive industry. —– Most Americans rely on their cars to drive to work or leisure but never realize the auto industry is important to their pocketbooks, too. When the economy sinks, consumers delay purchases … starting […]

Umbra on cookbooks

Dear Umbra, I am trying to eat local foods within the seasons, but most of my cookbooks include ingredients from multiple seasons in a single recipe. Can you offer any cookbooks or advice for finding more seasonal recipes? Yours locally (and in season or preserved), Katie Somerville, Mass. Dearest Katie, Good for you — and […]

Google’s CEO is the one person who can engineer the transition

No position under the next administration will be more important for the economy, the environment, and national security than energy secretary. And no one fits the position as perfectly as Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Schmidt recently told the New York Times that he’s not interested in the role of "chief technology officer" in an Obama […]

Down the bureaucratic rabbit hole with the Corps of Engineers

In a post last week on the bureaucratic inflighting over Louisiana’s coastal restoration efforts, I took a “the system’s broken” point of view. Chris Macaluso, a spokesman for the state’s coastal restoration efforts, sent me an email that elaborates on some of the ways the system is broken. The state government — which ought to […]

Navy can use sonar despite risk of whale harm, says Supreme Court

Photo: bbum In a big setback for whales and environmentalists, the U.S. Supreme Court has yanked restrictions on sonar use in Navy training exercises near the California coast. The court, which split 5-4, didn’t quibble with the Navy’s own estimates that sonar can lead to substantial and irreparable harm to whales. However, the majority opinion […]

A potentially game-changing development in concentrated solar PV

In the Toronto Star, Tyler Hamilton takes a close look at a cool new company, Morgan Solar, which has developed a potentially revolutionary form of "concentrating photovoltaic" solar technology. It’s intended to be simple and cheap enough to make solar ubiquitous, particularly for the developing world. Here’s the nut: Morgan Solar has come up with […]