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From Bus to Busted

Stop! In the name of love On the rare occasion that a desperate chase ends in actually catching the bus, we always end up plopping our disheveled selves next to someone loud and smelly. To people who find love on public transit, we say: no fare! Photo: iStockphoto Par for the course A little birdie […]

Wind power gets a bad rap after the Texas blackouts

The Competitive Enterprise Institute's Iain Murray warns of the dangers of renewables:

While we're on the subject of renewables: here's further proof that wind power is no panacaea for the nation's looming electricity crisis. The wind dropped in Texas, and caused blackouts.

Indeed, an unexpected demand spike not met by coal-fired power plants wind power caused irreparable harm by unfairly favoring the unwashed masses over "large industrial customers who are paid to reduce power use when emergencies occur" on Tuesday. Tuesday was the very day nuclear, natural gas, and coal power demonstrated their unfailing reliability to 3 million Floridians. More Murray:

Meanwhile, in Denmark, wind turbines are exploding. Dramatic video (provenance uncertain, so may not be genuine) here. This follows the fatal collapse of a wind tower in Oregon last summer. They also come with environmental costs of their own.

Now, of course, all energy production comes with risks, but wind power has such a positive image that people think of it as completely safe, environmentally-friendly and reliable. That's not the case.

I, for one, would take mountaintop removal, mercury emissions, and global warming over dangerous wind power any day!

Clinton talks up clean energy at Houston energy summit

The Greater Houston Partnership held an energy forum Thursday to which all of the presidential candidates were invited and only one showed up: Hillary Clinton. Surrounded by folks from the energy industry, days before the crucial Texas primary, Clinton elected not to tell Big Oil what it wanted to hear. “I do not believe that […]

Monsanto uses child labor in its Indian cottonseed fields

Photo: iStockphoto Monsanto dominates the global seed industry and churns out $1 billion a year in profit. Investors are so enamored of its market power and profitability that they’ve bid up its share price by nearly 1500 percent since 2004. So why does Monsanto rely on farms that use child labor to cultivate its genetically […]

Has the east coast car-sharing company screwed up the west coast car-sharing company?

Late last year, the country’s two major car-sharing companies, west-coast Flexcar and its larger east-coast cousin Zipcar, merged and became, um, Zipcar. Flexcar fans were concerned about the effects of the merger. Sadly, Flexcar fangirl Erica Barnett reports that they were decidedly negative: more expensive, fewer cars, less friendly service, etc. Zipcar, what hath thou […]

ABEC ads in Ohio

Listen Play a creepy coal ad, by ABEC Speaking of fossil shenanigans, check out the blitz of advertising coal front group ABEC is running in Ohio in advance of the presidential primary there. I’ve been trying to pick the creepiest one, but’s pretty tough. I think the two winners are the audio ad to your […]

Greenpeace and others protest Heathrow Airport expansion

Greenpeace and other eco-activists have been protesting mightily against a planned third runway for London’s Heathrow Airport, which would demolish the nearby town of Sipson and, say activists, be completely counter to Britain’s ambitious carbon-cutting goals. The airport-expansion plan has brought significant opposition from both politicians and residents; the British government has yet to make […]

The EPA’s phony explanation of its rejection of California

After more than two months, the Bush administration today finally articulated its legal case for rejecting California's greenhouse-gas standards for motor vehicles. The argument is here.

It reads like something written up in the boardroom of General Motors or a law firm working for car companies. It even cites arguments made by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers as justification for the decision!

It's a phony argument designed to protect the auto industry -- and it's typical of the Bush administration to dump out bad news like this on a Friday to minimize media coverage.

Notable quotable

“Oh, yeah? That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that.” — President George W. Bush, upon hearing that numerous analysts are predicting $4/gallon gasoline

‘Responsible Resources’ is the new ‘sound science’

Oh goodness, there are fossil shenanigans going on everywhere you look. You have to read this article in The Hill with talmudic attention to detail to figure out what’s going on with this new "educational" group — "Responsible Resources" — formed by ex-House staffers. Here’s a hint: In its ad, Responsible Resources says, however, that […]