Latest Articles

Notable quotable

“It certainly appeared a year ago that we were going to have a national push on ethanol, and we wanted to have the vehicles ready. But we always knew that food-based ethanol would not be the answer. The shift to cellulosic ethanol has been slower than we were led to believe. If we don’t end […]

What will it take to reduce Washington state GHG emissions 10 million tons by 2020?

Earlier this year, the governor of Washington set an ambitious goal (PDF): reducing the state's greenhouse-gas emissions by 10 million tons by 2020. That would put the state's emissions back to about where they were in 1990 -- roughly an 11 percent decline, all told, from today's levels.

Of course, that's only a start. Real climate leadership will require reductions on the order of 80 to 90 percent by the middle of this century. Still, a 10-million-ton reduction in annual CO2 emissions seems like a tall order -- especially since the U.S. Census Bureau projects that the state's population will grow by 20 percent between now and 2020. Measured per person, Washingtonians' greenhouse emissions will have to fall by about one quarter by 2020 to meet the goal.

The Washington Department of Ecology recently asked us what it would take to meet that 10-million-ton goal. Based on emissions data compiled by the state (PDF), here's what we came up with:

Hybrid Chevy Tahoe wins “Green Car of the Year” award

The Green Car Journal has awarded the “Green Car of the Year” prize to … drumroll please … the hybrid Chevy Tahoe. An eight-passenger SUV not yet on sale? Whaaa? “People don’t think green when SUVs are concerned and for generally good reason, since SUVS often get poor fuel economy,” says Green Car publisher Ron […]

We have $100-a-barrel oil due to speculation and fear

As this Foreign Policy article points out, there is no fundamental rationale for the current prices; oil should be between $40-$60 a barrel, but because of speculation and fear the price has been driven up much higher. The peak oil people love to say "I told you so" when the price goes up. What are they going to say when the price goes down? I expect crickets.

Database on world’s 50,000 power plants launched, Florida coal plant scrapped

The Center for Global Development, a think tank in Washington, D.C., launched a database Wednesday (with maps!) containing all sorts of useful information on over 50,000 of the world’s power plants, quantifying their CO2 emissions as well as the energy they produce, their locations, and more. (It’s more exciting than it sounds.) For instance, power […]

How one group is convincing U.S. colleges to invest responsibly

It doesn’t take long to gauge the depths of Morgan Simon’s passion: you can hear it in her voice. Or what’s left of her voice, anyway. The first time I spoke with the activist, she apologized for being hoarse — a recent presentation at Grinnell College had taken its toll, she explained. But the next […]

Three new sites track individual power plants and your connection to them

Three excellent new sites went up in the last few days, all related to the single biggest source of CO2 emissions in the world: power plants. CARMA contains "the world’s most detailed and comprehensive information on carbon emissions resulting from the production of electricity." You can track power plants in any zip code or any […]

One movement

NYT author discusses recent story on climate ‘centrism’

On Tuesday, NYT environment reporter Andy Revkin published a piece called “Challenges to Both Left and Right on Global Warming.” The following day, I wrote a highly critical response: "Centrist dog food." With typical graciousness, Revkin offered to discuss the piece, so I took him up on it and we fired up a Skype chat. […]

Tracking Lieberman-Warner: A friendly spin?

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA): "This bill provides billions of dollars for coal. It's like a Manhattan Project for coal."

Noted without comment.