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New New Deal

The Campaign for America’s Future on the possibility of a new New Deal:

E-waste scandal on 60 Minutes

60 Minutes will be airing a segment on the global toxic trade in e-waste tonight. Here’s a preview story and video.

Chinese Premier: Rich nations should ditch ‘unsustainable’ lifestyles and stop buying our crap

OK, maybe Premier Wen didn’t say that last part: BEIJING (AFP) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday that rich nations should alter their lifestyles to help tackle global warming, at the start of a two-day meeting on climate change, state media reported. “The developed countries have a responsibility and an obligation to respond to […]

William Shatner speaks out against global warming

And again I say: Shatner!

Obama mulls Energy Security Council

The latest, according to "sources close to the transition," is that Obama is thinking of creating an Energy Security Council, modeled on the National Security Council. This was, of course, one of Hillary Clinton’s signature proposals, though she called it the National Energy Council. Interestingly, the idea seems to be coming from John Podesta, who […]

The intellectual bankruptcy of conservatism: Heritage even opposes energy efficiency

Conservative think tanks remain oblivious and impervious to the facts. They cling to global warming denial and delay even in the face of the remarkable advances both in scientific understanding about global warming and in clean technology solutions. They provide the foundational misanalysis (disanalysis?) for the entire conservative movement — although “movement” must be the […]

A very long review of Friedman’s latest book

Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded condenses much of what has been written in blogs, science journals, and books about the “Energy-Climate-Era,” as he calls it. Though he’s a little late out off the starting blocks, Friedman’s contribution has great value, because it will reach people who only read books on bestseller lists — and then […]

Q. Does daylight savings time save energy?

A. According to this UC Berkeley Energy Institute study [PDF], DST does not save energy. Usage goes up about 1 percent, mostly due to people calling other people to tell them to change their clocks. A better solution would be to just have permanent summer.

Nader’s challenge

“Whatever you think of Nader’s jeremiad, it is exceedingly timely. Democrats are on the brink of losing their old excuses for timidity and retreat. If the election produces stronger majorities in Congress and a president who has promised big change, Nader’s analysis will be tested in the clearest terms. For the first time in thirty […]

Green investment does create jobs

Robert Pollin has issued a direct rebuttal, “Green Investments and Jobs,” to the Heritage Foundation’s lame “debunking” of Green Recovery, a study Pollin co-authored for the the Center for American Progress. My line-by-line response to the disanalysis by Heritage’s Donald Kreutzer is here. Pollin, co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at U. Mass-Amherst, concludes: […]