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Wow

Aside from being substantively misleading, this is just really, really awful. Doesn’t CEI have enough money to hire a video editor?

Conventional energy vs. renewable energy

This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

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As all eyes turn toward Texas this week in advance of the Democratic primary, we will see a state that is beginning its transition to a new energy economy. Texas is grappling with a shift the entire nation faces -- and as usual, it's doing it on a big scale.

When it comes to energy and to carbon emissions, Texas is a place of superlatives and contrasts. It has more solar, wind, and biomass resources that any other state; but it's also No. 1 in total carbon emissions.

It is the ancestral home of Big Oil, but it also hosts the world's largest wind farms. It has a very successful renewable energy portfolio standard, but it also has two nuclear power plants in the pipeline to provide power to its rapidly growing population.

A year ago in a watershed deal, a private equity firm working with environmentalists arranged a $45 billion buyout of the state's largest power producer, TXU. As part of the deal, eight of 11 planned new coal-fired power plants were cancelled. However, as many as nine new coal plants remain in the pipeline.

In Texas, we see a contest between conventional and renewable energy resources, and between the past and the future.

Dems touch on green issues at debate in crucial primary state of Ohio

Environmental issues popped up during a discussion of trade policy in last night’s debate between Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton said she would “renegotiate the core labor and environmental standards” of NAFTA. Obama agreed, saying, “I intend to make certain that every [trade] agreement that we sign has the labor standards, […]

After all the fuss, looks like we might get an extension of the 2002 farm bill

Photo: iStockphoto Remember the farm bill — the omnibus federal legislation that generated so much sound and fury last year? Like a downer cow slouching toward its executioner, the farm bill still lives, sort of. The House, Senate, and president are haggling over it, squabbling over the bill’s price tag and how it will be […]

Notable quotable

“So when it came time to vote on Dick Cheney’s energy bill, I voted no, and Senator Obama voted yes.” — Hillary Clinton, Ohio Democratic presidential primary debate

Notable quotable

"I helped to pass legislation to begin a training program for green collar jobs. I want to see people throughout Ohio being trained to do the work that will put solar panels on roofs, install wind turbines, do geothermal, take advantage of biofuels, and I know that if we had put $5 billion into the […]

Notable quotable

"We’re going to have to invest in infrastructure to make sure that we’re competitive. And I’ve got a plan to do that. We’re going to have to invest in science and technology. We’ve got to vastly improve our education system. We have to look at energy and the potential for creating green jobs that can […]

Roger Clemens doesn’t know what a vegan is

This is a couple of weeks old, but it is still awesome:

Solar photovoltaic cells are quite eco-friendly, says research

Are photovoltaic cells truly easy on the earth when manufacturing is factored in? If the question’s been keeping you up at night, rest easy: According to a solar-cell life-cycle analysis to be published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, they are.

Large water utilities form climate alliance

Eight of the largest water agencies in the U.S. have formed the Water Utility Climate Alliance to strategize about dealing with climate change. Together, the eight members provide water to more than 36 million people, whose slaked thirst is endangered by “diminishing snowpack, bigger storms, more frequent drought, and rising sea levels,” according to WUCA […]