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U.S. House passes mine-safety legislation; Bush threatens veto

The U.S. House of Representatives passed new mine-safety legislation yesterday aimed at improving dangerous working conditions such as those that may have contributed to the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse that killed six workers and three rescue personnel last year. The bill allows independent investigations when accidents kill more than one miner, grants the Mine Safety […]

Notable quotable

“Conservation is great, but conservation does not equal growth. To sit out there and say people need to buy less and less heating oil, okay. Buy natural gas furnace, or any number of things, but if this country has always been about: ‘You need heating oil? It’s going to be there. You need gasoline? It’s […]

Got any ideas for a better Toxic Release Inventory system?

As the letter below indicates, OMB Watch has spent a lot of time on defense since the Supreme Court installed "W" (they use W so he can spell it properly) in 2000. The group fights for government openness and accountability and supports the nonprofit sector.

One of their campaigns has been to preserve the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), one of the most useful things ever to emerge from the era of unashamed environmentalism. Just knowing that the TRI was out there led corporations to huge reductions in toxic releases.

Naturally, gutting TRI was high on the Bush junta's agenda. But it seems like most of the bad ideas have gone away, and OMB Watch is now looking for ideas for making TRI even better, now that the Democratic majority runs Congress.

So get creative -- how would you like to see information displayed? What would be most useful for your town?

Wal-Mart will open more-efficient stores

Wal-Mart — ah, always Wal-Mart — has plans to open four stores that “will operate at a level that’s 25 percent more efficient than a traditional Wal-Mart supercenter,” according to a representative. The chain, which has a goal of someday having all of its 2,400 U.S. stores reach that level of efficiency, is using tricks […]

New transportation proposals to ease energy dependence

This is one of those weeks when it feels like things are changing fast. Here are two stories that caught my attention:

1. A panel organized by Congress -- the melodically-named National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission -- just called for higher federal gas taxes. In fact, they recommend a 40-cent-per-gallon hike. It sounds like the tax would go mainly to repair and maintain current road infrastructure rather than road expansion. The panel also recommended a bevy of other fees, including tolling, congestion pricing, weight fees, and so on. And they recommended big investments in transit and other alternatives too. (Via Erica at Slog.)


2. Meanwhile, British Columbia continues to lead. Not only is the province considering a carbon tax, but the provincial government just released a $14 billion transit plan. That's $14 billion just for transit. In fairness, however, not everyone in B.C. is thrilled by the proposal. As Andrew points out on the Livable Region blog, the transit projects may be delayed until after some major road-building work is completed.

Companies’ green record not important to MBAs, says study

Young professionals are our hope for the future, a generation that will value sustainability and push big employers to take environmental factors into consideration … right, guys? Right? Oh, uh, this just in: MBAs rank a company’s environmental record at the bottom of factors they use to select employers, says a new study. In a […]

How are you greening your suburban life?

Are you a green-living suburbanite? Do you want to tell your story to a major news organization? Even majorer than Grist?

Tell us about your creative green approaches to living in the suburbs. Have you replaced your lawn with switchgrass? Offered to install solar power for everyone in your cul-de-sac? Organized a carpool to a commuter-transit junction? Share your adventures below in comments.

Edwards puts the coal issue into the Dem debate

Below the fold, I’ve put the entire portion of the transcript from last night’s Dem debate that deals with climate and energy. It is to the candidates’ credit that they took a narrow, stupid question about Yucca Mountain and managed to expand it into a discussion of energy. JMG scolded me for not giving kudos […]

Leading Dem candidates talk nuclear power at Nevada debate

The three leading Democratic presidential candidates came together in Nevada last night for yet another debate. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama all wooed Nevada voters by voicing opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository, with Edwards taking his opposition a step further and coming out against all new nuclear construction. The highest drama […]

Nukes don’t replace oil

Over at the New Republic‘s blog, Adam Blinick writes: As it stands, nuclear power is the only environmentally friendly, economic, and efficient source of energy that can help the U.S. wean itself off foreign oil. For the record: Oil is primarily a transportation fuel. Nuclear power, in contrast, is a source of electricity. Ergo, nuclear […]