Latest Articles

ACEEE was doing state-level efficiency studies before state-level efficiency studies were cool

Everyone’s buzzing about the new study out of UC-Berkeley showing that California’s energy-efficiency measures have created 1.5 million jobs and saved residents $56 billion in energy costs since 1972. (See Joe Romm’s breakdown, or Brad’s.) Turns out efficiency works! While it’s on everyone’s mind, I’d also direct your attention to "More Jobs and Greater Total […]

With backing from enviros, Rep. Tom Udall vies for Senate seat in New Mexico

Tom Udall. New Mexico Democrat Tom Udall is battling for a vacant Senate seat in a race that enviros are watching closely this year — just like his cousin in Colorado. Republican New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici is retiring this year, and Udall is facing Republican Rep. Steve Pearce in a contest to fill the […]

Fate of House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming up in the air

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the start of the 110th Congress, is set to dissolve at the end of the month, reports The Hill. The authority and the funding granted to the committee expires at the end of next week, and it’s […]

Bush admin will rush review of comments on endangered-species plan

The Bush administration will carefully consider the 200,000 non-form-letter comments it received on its recent plan to muck with the Endangered Species Act. And by “carefully consider,” we mean 15 reviewers will chug through ’em in just four eight-hour days. That means each reviewer, each minute, must peruse seven comments, some of which are tens […]

Umbra on straw-bale homes

Dear Umbra, Do you recommend building straw bale homes? And/or can you insulate an existing home with straw bales on the outside of the home and then finish it using siding, wood, or stucco? I wonder why this renewable, economical, and easily available resource is underused and undervalued … am I missing something? What do […]

Short-term cost assessment skews the CW on carbon regulations

Joe says Andy Revkin’s article on the candidates’ climate plans is reasonably fair, and I suppose I agree. It’s fair as a representation of conventional wisdom, if not particularly accurate as a representation of reality. (That’s not Revkin’s fault — claiming one side in a dispute is correct, while both the other side and the […]

Regulating CO2 via the EPA would be a hugely significant move for the next president

Kate says: The Wall Street Journal spazzes out about Obama adviser Jason Grumet’s assertion that a President Obama would fight climate change under the Clean Air Act if Congress doesn’t move to address the issue within 18 months. In what may be a historical first, I actually think the WSJ editorial board is right about […]

Sierra Club launches new pushback campaign against coal propaganda

More like this please: CoalIsNotTheAnswer.org

U.S. agrees to debt-for-nature swap to preserve Peru rainforests

In a bid to preserve some of Peru’s biologically diverse rainforests, the United States agreed this week to a $25 million debt-for-nature swap with the country, Peru’s second since 2002. Over the next seven years, in exchange for erasing millions of their debt, Peru will fund local non-governmental organizations dedicated to protecting tropical rain forests […]

Wal-Mart lays out more environmental goals for itself, suppliers

Huge-mongous retailer Wal-Mart is back at its favorite activity of all time (besides counting its money and sprawlin’, of course): setting environmental goals for itself and its suppliers. At a company confab in Beijing, Wal-Mart execs promised a host of eco-improvements in the next few years. Soon, they said, suppliers will have to be certified […]