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Organic food found to be healthier, jobs board debuts on Grist, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Dropping (Fatty) Acid This Rocks! And It Came to Pass Suffer the Little Children What Is This Feeling We’re Feeling? Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Seven Days, Seven Ways Giuliani on the Issues Strip Tease

Big Coal slimes Kansas governor Sebelius

The fossil fuel lobby is panicking. Kansas was recently the site of a bold repudiation of coal — Roderick L. Bremby, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, established a new precedent by denying a coal plant permit on the basis of CO2, with the full backing of Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius. Look […]

Bush vetoes water bill, Congress likely to override

True to his word, President Bush has vetoed a bill authorizing $23 billion in nationwide water projects. Chances are good that Congress will override his naysaying, perhaps even this week. Stay tuned.

‘Clean coal’ proposals are getting canceled right and left

Remember clean coal, vaunted savior of, um, coal? Turns out cost, unproven technology, and rising opposition to carbon emissions are conspiring to nip a lot of clean coal projects in the bud. This, of course, is just the latest piece of evidence that coal can’t hack it in a carbon-constrained market needs more subsidies.

Easy ways to cut your energy use, one day at a time

Grist prez Chip Giller appeared on NBC’s Today show on Monday, Nov. 5, chatting with Meredith Vieira about easy ways anyone can cut their energy use and help fight global warming. Follow one hint a day and you’re on your way! Day 1: Turn Down the Heat Here’s a quick, easy solution that will save […]

Sparks fly when the mayors meet the Congressfolk

The last event at this weekend’s mayors conference was a field hearing by the House global warming committee. The witnesses were: Mayor Bloomberg, City of New York Mayor Diaz, City of Miami, Florida Mayor Nickels, City of Seattle, Washington Mayor Palmer, City of Trenton, New Jersey Committee hearings tend to be pretty staid affairs, but […]

A lovely video on Time

Over on Swampland, Ana Marie Cox has a nice video on "the green gap" between the parties, triggering off Grist’s campaign coverage.

Do the experts know anything about oil prices?

Finally, after a four-month stretch in which oil prices rose from under $70 to over $95, oil industry analysts seem to have caught on that prices are rising. From Bloomberg news (emphasis added):

Twenty-one of 35 analysts surveyed, or 60 percent, said oil prices will rise through Nov. 9 ... Respondents [had] predicted price drops in the previous 16 weeks.

That's right, for each of the preceding 16 weeks, the consensus of oil industry experts was that prices would fall in the coming week. They were right five times, wrong 11 times -- and crude prices rose by over a third during the stretch. So much for expertise.

Over the longer term, the oil industry analysts haven't fared much better:

People open to lifestyle changes, fuel taxes to address warming, says poll

Four out of five people believe individuals must make personal lifestyle changes to address global warming, according to a BBC poll of 22,182 people in 21 countries. Also of note: Half of poll respondents favored a higher tax on oil and coal, while 44 percent would prefer their dirty fuels remain dirt cheap — although […]

The Congressional Budget Office savages the Lieberman-Warner approach to climate change pol

America’s Climate Security Act, the Senate climate bill offered by Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), offers enormous giveaways to the nation’s biggest polluters, in the form of billions of dollars worth of free pollution permits, which won’t be zeroed out until 2036. Last Thursday, while the bill was passing through subcommittee, the non-partisan […]