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House Democrats unveil their energy package

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday unveiled an official version of the “Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act,” the House Democrats’ version of energy legislation slated for consideration next week. The bill would allow drilling 100 miles off the Atlantic coast and Florida’s Gulf coast; the buffer zone could be reduced to […]

A 9/11 SAT quiz

Hurricane Katrina is to global warming as 9/11 is to ________.

Let’s hear it for floor area ratio

There’s an interesting exchange going on between Kevin Drum and Matthew Yglesias regarding the reasons that some communities may or may not be walkable. It seems that the Woodbridge section of Irvine, where Kevin Drum lives, is quite walkable, but hardly anyone does it. Yglesias seems to feel that if an area is made fairly […]

Snippets from the news

• Sarah Palin sought millions in earmarks to study seal DNA. • Peak oil could help solve climate change, says study. • World Bank yanks corruption-tainted pipeline funding from Chad. • New book considers the ethical complexities of saving the environment. • Israeli contractors may have to plant a tree when they cut one down.

Some Palin energy expertise

ABC has released some excerpts of its interview with Sarah Palin, which will air tonight and tomorrow night. Asked if it would be worth it to go to war with Russia over the invasion of Georgia: [Putin’s] mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming from and through Russia, that’s a dangerous position […]

Market for natural personal-care products booming in spite of economy

Despite an economic slump, eco-friendly personal-care items have Americans sitting up and paying attention top dolla. Sales are booming despite high food and energy prices, and analysts predict the products’ popularity won’t ebb anytime soon. Chicago-based research firm Mintel reports that sales of natural personal-care products rose 12.5 percent last year to an inflation-adjusted $465 […]

Weighing the costs and benefits of increased offshore drilling

The following is a guest essay from Michael A. Livermore, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Regulation at New York University School of Law and author, with Dean Richard Revesz, of Retaking Rationality: How Cost-Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect the Environment and Our Health. —– What is the cost of cheap gas? […]

New data show that 2008 organic food sales will reach $32.9 billion

As people from Haiti to Ethiopia are tragically struggling to cope with rising food prices, many are piecing together the reasons behind our recent price spikes. The culprits lie in everything from the switch to growing crops for biofuels to market speculation. The situation is complex and involves multiple factors. But as economists tally up […]

Without coal, the most catastrophic climate scenarios may not happen

NASA’s latest analysis of the intersection of peak oil and climate change argues that oil and natural gas alone probably won’t get us to 450ppm. If we can constrain our use of coal fairly quickly, we probably can avoid the worst outcomes — unless of course, the impact of reduced global dimming or methane from […]

A pipe dream

Data Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration From Architecture 2030