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A look at Ralph Nader’s environmental platform and record

Updated 22 Aug 2008 Ralph Nader. Though Ralph Nader is running as an independent and not under the Green Party banner this time around, he still has some serious small-G green cred (at least among those not still livid over his alleged role in Gore’s 2000 presidential defeat). In the heyday of his consumer advocacy, […]

The money we’ve spent on the five-year Iraq War could have shifted the world to renewables

Today is the five-year anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. I don’t have a whole lot to say about it that other people haven’t said better. I would just stress one point: People frequently fret that we can’t afford the measures necessary to fight climate change. That is false. We are an enormously […]

Hillary Clinton gives tepid response on question about mountaintop-removal mining

Hillary Clinton was asked about mountaintop-removal mining in an interview on West Virginia public radio (mp3 link) this morning. Her answer was, in my eyes, terribly disappointing. Here it is: I am concerned about it for all the reasons people state, but I think it’s a difficult question because of the conflict between the economic […]

Roger Pielke Jr. defends his absurd delayer post … by quoting a global warming denier

Seriously! In a post ironically titled "You can't make this stuff up" (actually, you can -- that's what most deniers do), Roger Pielke, Jr. responds to my last post (which challenged his absurd defense of the "Earth is cooling" nonsense) as follows:

And people wonder why some people see the more enthusiastic climate advocates akin to religious zealots.

Who are these "some people" Pielke cites? Go to his link -- it's none other than NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who became famous in the climate arena for saying:

A roundup of news snippets

• Democratic lawmakers are criticizing the Bush administration’s plan to ease pollution reporting requirements for factory farms. • A global water crisis is right around the corner, says the U.N. • Shell Oil wants to quintuple the amount of oil it produces from Canada’s tar sands. • The ports of L.A. and Long Beach have […]

On oil and the dollar, Bush and McCain acknowledge their own cluelessness

This post was originally published at the just-launched Think Progress Wonk Room, the new public policy rapid-response blog of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Brad Johnson, the climate specialist for the Wonk Room, was a writer for Hill Heat.

Skyrocketing gas prices are crippling the budgets of Americans, as Bush has newly discovered. But he doesn't have a solution. Nor does Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Bush's every response to energy problems is to drill for more oil and blame China. McCain has a more evolved position: his solution is to drill for more oil and build nuclear power plants, and blame China and terrorists. But neither will address a major culprit in the recent shocking spike in oil futures and gas prices -- the collapse of the American dollar due to a vicious circle of shortsighted right-wing economic policies.

Senate candidate shows energy policy promise; rocks at parties

Oregonian candidate for U.S. Senate Steve Novick seems refreshingly up on energy issues:

But is he electable? Well, they say Bush got votes because people perceived him as a guy they could relax and have a beer with:

Postal service and direct mailers join together in a pro-junk-mail campaign

A number of state legislators are introducing bills that would allow residents to block junk mail, and the group ForestEthics recently launched a campaign calling for a Do Not Mail Registry. This sounds appealing to most everyone with a mailbox, but is loudly opposed by direct mailers and the U.S. Postal Service. The Direct Marketing […]

With global wheat stocks at all-time lows, a killer fungus looms

Remember awhile back, when a fertilizer magnate raised the specter of global famine? He said: If you had any major upset where you didn’t have a crop in a major growing agricultural region this year, I believe you’d see famine … We need to have a record crop in 2008 just to stay even with […]

Wind farms get sponsored

It seems that if you have enough money, you can slap your name on any ol’ thing: stadiums, theaters, sporting events, and now wind farms. When John Deere Wind Energy opens its eight-turbine, 10 megawatt wind farm in Texas this May, it will be setting a precedent by allowing Steelcase, a furniture company out of […]