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Ford rehires truck manufacturers

News from the They Just Don’t Learn Department: Ford will rehire 1,000 workers to build its F-150 pickup truck, expecting boosted consumer demand in the face of falling gas prices.

Feds deny GM request for merger bucks

General Motors’ request for up to $10 billion to aid its potential merger with Chrysler was spurned by the Treasury Department, say sources; instead, the Bush administration will try to speed along implementation of a $25 billion loan to Big Auto to encourage R&D of fuel-efficient vehicles.

Biofuels reps ask EPA to exclude greenhouse gas emissions considerations from rulemaking

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release new rules soon regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard established last year under the Energy Independence and Security Act. The legislation required the EPA take into account the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from the production of various biofuels, including indirect emissions from things like land use changes. On […]

Gingrich talks up his new book on drilling

The American Enterprise Institute hosted an event with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich last week to promote his new book, Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less. Not surprisingly, most of the event focused on drilling, and there was also the anticipated admonition of a regulatory approach to limiting carbon emissions. Gingrich did seem to acknowledge […]

Will a new administration give us the ‘safest food supply in the world’?

How many times have we been told we have the safest food supply in the world? Do we really? I suppose it depends on the comparison. Somalia? Kenya ? Eritrea? In developing countries, close to two million children die every year from contaminated food and water. These countries don’t have much of a food supply, […]

Hansen et al: We must phase-out coal emissions by 2030 and stabilize at or below 350 ppm

In a few days, James Hansen and several other leading climate scientists will release a major new study, "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?" in the Open Atmospheric Sciences Journal. You can read a first draft of the study and my commentary on it here: Hansen (et al) ultimatum: Get back to 350 ppm […]

Climate change to cause ‘economic deserts,’ U.N. chief says

Parts of the world undergoing severe, sustained drought will likely have to be all but abandoned by humans because water shortages (caused by climate change and overuse of rivers and aquifers) will make them unlivable, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program warned this week.

Indonesian mud volcano caused by well explosion, geologists say

A faulty natural-gas well was the cause of the Lusi mud volcano in Indonesia that began erupting in May 2006 and hasn’t stopped yet, burbling up hundreds of gallons of mud each day and so far burying four towns and 25 factories, a meeting of geologists has concluded.

A look at House races with hot eco-angles

With all 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives up for reelection every two years, it can be hard to keep track of which races will have much of an environmental impact. Here’s a cheat sheet on some of the contests enviros are following most closely, based on the greenest (and least-green) candidates in […]

FDA advisory panel says agency should redo BPA risk assessment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should redo its flawed risk assessment that found the chemical bisphenol A is harmless, an FDA advisory panel said on Friday. The advisory panel’s finding is an amen to an independent assessment of the FDA’s findings released last week.