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Obama details $5 billion plan to help restore Great Lakes

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed a $5 billion trust fund this week to clean up and restore the Great Lakes — a move that may help him win votes in Michigan and Ohio. The fund would be aimed at restoring area wetlands, cleaning up contaminated sediments, curbing the spread of invasive species, and fixing […]

Economists prefer Obama on energy and environment policy

Dilbert author Scott Adams commissioned a survey of 500 economists, asking them which candidate they prefer on a variety of issues. The results are … not very interesting. Short story: economists prefer Obama. Medium story: Democratic economists prefer Obama, Republican economists prefer McCain, and independents swing Obama (46-39 percent). Breakdown of the 500, drawn from […]

Passing the buck or paying the piper

We have just gone through a period in the U.S. when very little new public infrastructure was built (with the exception of wired and wireless telecommunications infrastructure). Led by a generation and a half of politicians and economic theorists — as well as our own inclinations — Americans have become used to believing that a […]

Google, GE team up to tout ‘smart grid,’ clean energy initiatives

General Electric and Google announced on Wednesday they’re teaming up to promote renewable energy, specifically geothermal energy and plug-in hybrids, and spur better investment and swifter government action to create “smart,” more efficient electrical grids. In recent years, both enormous companies have announced big green investments: GE launched its Ecomagination initiative in 2005 to expand […]

Oldest Utah newspaper: Bark-beetle driven wildfires comprise a vicious climate cycle

Deseret News, owned by the Mormon Church and “usually described as moderate to conservative” may have begun the slow march toward climate reality. A story this month titled, “Bark beetles are feasting on Utah forests” begins: A vicious cycle is brewing in Utah: Bark beetles are killing a lot of trees in the state. Dead […]

California air agency says cutting emissions will boost economy

California’s 2006 law requiring the state to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 would help boost its economy and save residents more money in the long term than doing nothing, according to a report by the influential California Air Resources Board. The state’s draft plan for reducing emissions focuses on requiring utilities to […]

Touting the Volt, GM exec denies anthropogenic climate change

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz was on the “Colbert Report” last night to talk about the new Chevy Volt, but a lot of the conversation ended up being about whether or not Lutz believes in anthropogenic climate change. Colbert, on the Volt: “This is tantamount to admitting that we have to do something about global […]

FDA releases guidelines for developing genetically modified animals

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will today announce guidelines for the development of genetically modified animals, a step on the road to their broad commercialization. The agency is expected to ask companies developing genetically modified animals to report a range of information about how they were engineered and how the alterations could affect the […]

Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales are pursuing dramatically different environmental strategies

Over the past decade, the current British government has taken a crack at devolution, giving Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales a level of operational government unseen for a century or more. The fledgling administrations of these three “devolved nations” have embarked on very different policy trajectories on the environment, among other policy areas. The sustainable […]

GOP VP candidate says she’d be in charge of McCain’s energy policy

At a rally in Ohio on Tuesday, GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told the crowd that she’d head up energy policy in a McCain administration.   “John and I, we’ve discussed some new responsibilities that I’m going to have as vice president,” Palin said. “First, I’ll help to lead the mission of energy security.” […]