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Dem presidential candidate calls on world to unite to fight climate change

Obama spoke at the Brandenburg Gate yesterday; 100,000 people were expected, 200,000 showed up. This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve […]

Voluntary programs not so effective, says gov’t watchdog

Shocker: Voluntary measures to reduce greenhouse gases don’t work so well, the U.S. EPA Inspector General’s Office said Thursday. Despite the Bush administration’s adoration of the word “voluntary,” such programs have “limited potential” to actually address pollution and climate-change concerns, said the report. Too often, industries decline to spend money to participate in such programs; […]

Got a question for Majority Leader Harry Reid?

Brave New Films is starting a web series called “Meet the Bloggers,” where Internet commentators get to ask questions of political types. It’s like “Meet the Press,” but with better questions from folks who spend all day in the weeds on this stuff. The series launched last week, and today’s episode features Senate Majority Leader […]

EPA to ban pesticide carbofuran from food in U.S.

In an unexpected move, the U.S. EPA announced Thursday that it will act to ban the pesticide carbofuran from food in the United States before next year’s growing season. The EPA said the pesticide can cause “nausea, dizziness, confusion, and — at very high exposures — respiratory paralysis and death”; the pesticide has also killed […]

Sen. Robert Menendez chats with Grist about climate legislation

Sen. Robert Menendez. In the Senate debate over the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act last month, Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) stood out as one of the most vocal advocates for making polluters pay to emit greenhouse gases rather than giving them free carbon credits. He also spoke up about the need to spend more on clean technology […]

Republicans block subpoena of EPA climate document, while Boxer releases choice excerpts

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has been foiled in her attempt to obtain and make public a U.S. EPA document on the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases, thanks to Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee that she chairs. The document in question is an endangerment finding that the White House refused to accept […]

Carbon Retirement sees opportunity in European allowances

Carbon Retirement -- you read it here first (or maybe second).

I don't normally endorse individual companies. But I have long thought European allowances were the best alternative to offsets and am delighted someone has made a business out of it.

The business opportunity is clear -- offsets suck. At a policy level, they can destroy the environmental value of climate legislation.

At a personal level, lots of vendors are selling very dubious offsets, including CCX. I can't imagine why you would waste your money on the most popular offsets, trees (certainly not a Northern forest -- heck, even offset seller Terrapass disses trees). And don't get us started on the other popular offset, RECs.

But I know some of you out there really want to be carbon neutral, and while you have bought 100 percent renewable power for your superefficient home that uses a geothermal heating and cooling system to replace natural gas, and you bought a Prius for the family car and you telecommute, you just haven't figured out how to avoid some driving and flying.

What to do? Buy real emissions credits from the European market and retire them permanently! Now that is the best idea since solar baseload.

Snippets from the news

• Voluntary programs to cut greenhouse-gas emissions not working, says watchdog. • Judge allows some haying and grazing on conservation land. • California requires ships to cut pollution. • Brooks introduces running shoe with biodegradable midsole. • Motor fuel made from waste gets running. • E.U. says level of BPA in baby bottles poses no […]

McCain spokesfolk say that offshore drilling is ‘the right thing for the environment’

The McCain campaign held a press call this morning with senior policy advisers Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Nancy Pfotenhauer on the candidate’s energy plan. The subjects of yesterday’s tanker spill near New Orleans and McCain’s canceled trip to an offshore rig because of Hurricane Dolly came up during discussion of McCain’s call for more drilling. “This […]

Canada protects B.C. caribou habitat

A giant tract of land in southeastern British Columbia will become protected habitat, the Canadian government and Nature Conservancy Canada announced Thursday. The so-called Darkwoods area, purchased from a private forester, adds up to 550 square kilometers of mountains, valleys, and wetlands (that’s 212 square miles, for metric-system hatas). The area is home to endangered […]