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Northeast states’ regional carbon trading system goes live this week

The nation’s first carbon cap-and-trade program starts Thursday, when power plant owners in 10 northeastern states submit sealed bids to buy allowances to emit greenhouse gases. Two other regional programs are to follow, assuring that nearly half of the United States will be covered by carbon trading programs — with or without leadership from Congress […]

Republican oil guru says McCain doesn’t have a clue about drilling

If you follow peak oil — and if you don’t, you will be bitchslapped by reality — then you know of Matt Simmons. I was introduced to him several years ago by my former boss at the Energy Department. Back then, Simmons was merely one of the savviest financiers in the oil services business, who […]

Dems will let offshore drilling ban expire

House Democrats, out-stubborned by Republicans, will allow the 26-year-old congressional ban on offshore oil and gas drilling to expire on Sept. 30. Dems will not attach a provision to ban offshore drilling to a stopgap spending bill that’s expected to swiftly pass Congress and be signed by President Bush. The prez had made it clear […]

Chrysler to offer electric car by 2010, full lineup of EVs sometime after

Automaker Chrysler announced Tuesday that it too is jumping into the electric-car fray, aiming to roll out its own electric vehicle in the United States by 2010, followed soon after by a full line of electric and/or plug-in hybrid vehicles. If the company meets its intended deadline, 2010 will be a busy year for electric […]

EPA slipping up on pollution control from factory farms, report says

The U.S. EPA has failed to control pollution from factory farms and has also been sluggish in determining risks to human health from huge concentrated animal-feeding operations, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. In recent years, the GAO said, consolidation in the livestock industry has spawned more and more factory farms […]

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.