Latest Articles

Bill Clinton says smart energy policy could have avoided the financial meltdown

Henry Farrell has an interesting account of a discussion session Bill Clinton held with a group of bloggers. This jumped out: Clinton’s basic argument was that the [financial] crisis was one of an overleveraged Wall Street system which emphasized the volume of transactions, and in which people were rewarded for chasing risky deals, and in […]

Why he picked Sarah Palin, carbon queen

This is a guest essay from Chip Ward, author and board member of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. It was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. —– Despite the media feeding frenzy, we still may be asking ourselves, “Just who exactly is Sarah Palin?” Mixed in with the Davy-Crockett-meets-SuperMom […]

GM flack misuses Thomas Kuhn’s philosophy of science (!) to defend Lutz climate skepticism

As I’ve said before, I don’t care if GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz doesn’t believe that human beings are causing climate change. It’s GM’s behavior that deserves our scorn, not the mental states of their executives. But (per Kate below) the defense of Lutz offered by GM’s Tom Wilkinson cannot stand. God knows what a […]

Senate passes renewable tax credits on the ninth attempt

The Senate today overwhelmingly approved a massive tax package that mashes together incentives for renewable energy with support for traditional energy sources less beloved by environmental groups. The Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, sponsored by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), would extend the investment tax credit for solar energy for […]

Snippets from the news

• “Clean coal” could be economically viable by 2030, says report. • E.U. lawmakers may back off plans to cut CO2 emissions from cars. • Tide power pushes forward. • EPA chief lied to Congress, says Sen. Boxer. • Zookeeper of famous polar bear Knut has died.

Diversion of Great Lakes water will soon be illegal

If you don’t border the Great Lakes, keep your grubby hands out of ’em. That’s the general message of a bill that would bar any major water diversion from Lakes Erie, Ontario, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, unless all eight lake-bordering states approve. The so-called Great Lakes Compact, which has passed Congress and heads to the […]

Madam I’m Adam

Adam the first: Credit crunch could take shine off efficiency improvements Adam the second: … it’s a great time to be in the efficiency business. Explain yourselves, Adams!

Taking the red tape out of green power

Adam Stein predicts that the financial meltdown will cool the ardor for carbon legislation, and I agree. But that doesn’t mean that policymakers will throw up their hands. Here are my predictions. One, the framing will shift from making fossil fuels more expensive (e.g. putting a price on carbon, a carbon tax, etc.) to making […]

Palin’s climate skepticism is irrelevant

The Washington Post‘s Juliet Eilperin writes a piece on Sarah Palin’s climate skepticism that seems, like so many articles in this genre, to dance around something obvious. In the piece, upon finding out that Palin doesn’t believe in anthropogenic climate change, one Alaska enviro is quoted saying "now I know why" Palin fought emission reductions. […]

Western states announce proposal for cutting GHG emissions

Participants in the Western Climate Initiative on Tuesday announced specific plans for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The seven states and four provinces will initiate a cap-and-trade program, establishing a carbon market that applies to industries and utilities by 2012 and transportation, heating, and other fuels by 2015. The proposed […]