Latest Articles

Court tosses federal rule that limited air-pollution monitoring

States can enact tougher-than-federal monitoring requirements for air pollution from factories and power plants, after a federal appeals court tossed out a U.S. EPA rule keeping them from doing so. Primary plaintiff Sierra Club celebrated the victory; defendants were the U.S. EPA and the American Petroleum Institute, which should seem like an odd pair, but […]

The First Law of Conferences

As a conference Q&A session goes on, the chances of a crotchety, long-winded, eccentric old guy standing up and asking a quasi-question that runs on for over five minutes and confuses everyone approaches one.

Either we’ll be green or we’ll be poor

The United States trade deficit is threatening to upend globalization as we’ve known it. The rise in the price of oil has been leading to a similar result: an international trading system in which there is much less trading. Now, that may actually be a good thing, in the long-run, but in the case of […]

California won’t ban BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups

With 22 legislators abstaining, the California Assembly voted 31-27 Monday not to ban chemical bisphenol A in baby products. BPA is one of those things you’d like to keep out of your kid; the bill would have banned it from bottles, sippy cups, and other containers for tots. Legislators also voted 36-33 (with 11 abstentions) […]

T. Boone Pickens lays out his plan to a progressive crowd

Famed oilman T. Boone Pickens gave the morning keynote at the National Clean Energy Summit, in what might have seemed hostile territory. "I don’t see anyone here from my party," said the longtime Republican and funder of the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry. "I’m making new friends. That’s good." And make friends he did […]

Google.org invests in geothermal energy

Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the search giant, has announced a $10.25 million investment in geothermal energy technology. The money will back two start-up companies that specialize in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), the process of pumping water underground to crack hot rocks and use the resulting steam to power a turbine and create electricity. “EGS […]

Reid and Dems’ Stockholm Syndrome

Ugh. Harry Reid is onstage saying, in a single breath, that new drilling won’t do any good, and that the Gang of 10 energy compromise — which contains new drilling — is a wonderful thing. And he’s praising his “friend” T. Boone Pickens to the sky. When, I wonder, was the last time anyone paid […]

Summit sprint

The summit has a jam-packed schedule today — I talked to one of the organizers from CAP and he said "it’s because people kept wanting to talk!" I’ll try to keep up throughout the day.

Now that farmers have gotten big or gotten out, it’s up to alternative farmers

In “Dispatches From the Fields,” Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America’s agro-industrial landscape. —– Since the early 1970s, if not before, U.S. farm policy has hinged on the mantra, “get big or […]

Note to media: Enough with the multiple hedges on climate science!

In an otherwise fascinating story on the growing “icebreaker gap” in the rapidly defrosting Arctic Ocean, NYT reporter Andy Revkin writes: Even with the increasing summer retreats of sea ice, which many polar scientists say probably are being driven in part by global warming caused by humans, there will always be enough ice in certain […]