Latest Articles

More and more voices joining 350.org’s Prez to Poland campaign

Students and faculty at Barry University invite the prez-elect to Poland.   You can count the hours until the election is over, which means the debate has been reduced to its basic elements: Who’s a socialist? Who’s a plumber? Who’s ahead? But against that backdrop, one large group of people — voters here in America […]

White House begins review of controversial EPA rule

With a new president-elect only days away, the Bush administration is racing to push through 11th-hour, polluter-friendly rules. The Washington Post flagged some of the most egregious examples in a front-page story, Friday. The latest to pop up is what the Bush EPA opaquely describes as the “increment modeling” rule. It is now under review […]

NYC cabs don’t have to bump up fuel efficiency, judge rules

New York City cab drivers will not be forced to go green, as a federal judge on Friday smacked down a municipal plan to make all new taxis achieve at least 30 miles per gallon by 2012. U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty ruled that fuel-economy standards should be up to the feds, not cities.

Consumer spending going down, down, down

Consumer spending saw its biggest drop in four years in September. Too bad it takes a devastating economic crisis to get people to buy less sh*t.

New McCain ad highlights him and Obama agreeing on global warming

The McCain campaign just released a new ad entitled “Obama Praising McCain,” which focuses on Barack Obama’s past praise for the global warming bill that McCain authored with Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). It features this remark from Obama, at a hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee in January 2007: “The right approach begins with […]

Think tank says price on carbon more effective research driver than targeted subsidies

Robert Fri, former deputy administrator of the EPA and the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, former president of progressive think tank Resources for the Future, says the government isn’t very good at doing energy research, and that a price on carbon would do more to stimulate productive energy research than targeted grants for specific […]

Ethanol industry craters; investors take a bath; world probably fails to learn lesson

VeraSun, one of nation’s largest ethanol producers, mulls bankruptcy. Ethanex Energy files. Alternative Energy Sources shuts down. E3 Biofuels files. A trend? Seems so: It was an American dream that has failed to become a reality. For much of the last decade, enthusiasts from President George W. Bush down have touted corn-based ethanol as something […]

From Vacation to Vampires

Step off, beach Vacation then: waves, resorts, and stolen kisses. Vacation now: crime waves, last resorts, and stolen sand. Thanks, climate change! My bottle is a temple One million bottles of beer in the temple, one million bottles of beer … Courtesy Siambaan.com Whatever floats your boot Look, a schwimmhausboot! Sure, it has zero emissions, […]

Sun, baby, sun

Earlier this week, I was at a solar meeting at the Arizona Biltmore, a schwank golf resort in Phoenix. During the meeting, McCain’s advance team poked their heads into the room. Apparently, the room we were using — the Casa Grande room of the convention hall — is the very same room where McCain is […]

Don’t get too used to those low oil prices

This can’t be good: Output from the world’s oilfields is declining faster than previously thought, the first authoritative public study of the biggest fields shows. Without extra investment to raise production, the natural annual rate of output decline is 9.1 per cent, the International Energy Agency says in its annual report, the World Energy Outlook, […]