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Obama wins the endorsement of United Mine Workers of America

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) endorsed Barack Obama for president today, after a unanimous vote of the union’s National Council of the Coal Miners’ Political Action Committee. In a press release on the endorsement, the UMWA said they chose to endorse Obama over John McCain because of his plans to help working-class Americans […]

A new generation pilots the farm’s operations as it transitions to training others

Some Grist readers may have noticed that I’ve been writing on the blog nearly every day, while keeping up the Victual Reality column. How can I do all of that and farm, too? The truth is, I went full-time at Grist last November, when I took on the position of food editor. And to maintain […]

Green group highlights biz innovations

The Environmental Defense Fund has produced a new report highlighting processes, products, and technologies that are making the biz world more eco-friendly. The green group’s Innovations Review 2008 draws attention to developments good for both business and the environment. The report focuses specifically on innovations on the cusp: not yet widely implemented, but not still […]

Wired magazine bursts a blood vessel doing its contrarian thing

To your right, you’ll see the cover of this month’s Wired magazine. The premise of the issue is that climate change is now the only eco-problem that matters, but to solve it, we’ll have to slaughter the sacred cows of environmentalism. (2001 called. It wants its framing device back.) So what are these heresies that […]

Waxman is going to punch somebody

Wow, it looks like House oversight committee chair Henry Waxman is getting a little sick of EPA head Stephen Johnson: More here.

Small-town politics meets big-time energy crisis

Last night I went to the town meeting where I live, which — well, if you’ve never lived anywhere podunk enough to have a town meeting, you’re missing out. This one was just as I remember them from my childhood, though PowerPoint has replaced mimeographed pages: ambition, exhaustion, confusion, and the one crusty, bearded guy […]

Biofuel-bound grasses are often invasive species

As biofuel sources go, weeds and grasses are looked on with more favor than land-ravaging, food-price-raising corn and palm. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch-in-your-tank, says a paper presented by green groups at a United Nations meeting Tuesday: “Some of the most commonly recommended species for biofuels production are also major invasive […]

South America’s industrial-ag powerhouse eyes rainforest potash deposits

I’ve been writing for a while about industrial agriculture’s fertilizer problem — about how mass-scale food (and biofuel) production relies on finite, geopolitically problematic, and environmentally destructive resources to maintain soil fertility. (See posts here, here, and here.) Well, that story is heating up down in Brazil, an increasingly important hub in the global industrial […]

Boxer on new L-W amendment: ‘I think I have enough votes for the motion to proceed’

Barbara Boxer. Photo: Kevin Parry/ WireImage Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer held a press conference this afternoon to officially unveil the outline of her substitute amendment to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act that she began circulating on the Hill last week. Speaking to collected members of the press, the senator stressed the differences […]

Oregon and Kentucky vote; nation yawns and rolls over

In case anyone’s still paying attention, there were two more primaries today. Hillary Clinton scored a big win in Kentucky, with 65 percent of the vote to Obama’s 30 percent. But Obama looks poised to win Oregon, and says he’s reached the delegate threshold. Various media folks are reporting that he now has an “insurmountable […]