Latest Articles

Harkin wants to boost land conservation

Here’s some reasonably heartening news from CQ.com: The Senate is prepared to write a dramatically different farm bill than the version the House passed last week. The Senate debate will not happen until September or later. For now, Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has promised to increase funding for land-conservation programs far above House […]

Back(ground) in black

It's called Blackle -- a black version of Google -- and according to this blogpost, it could save 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year globally:

Senate Majority Leader vows opposition to Nevada coal plants

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has occasionally been viewed with suspicion by enviros, thanks to his friendliness with the mining industry. This should help patch things up: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada sent a letter this week to four companies telling them not to build planned coal-burning power plants in his […]

A look at Barack Obama’s environmental platform and record

Updated 22 Aug 2008 In the early months of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, enviros were skeptical of his (now heavily qualified) support for coal-to-liquids technology and unvarnished enthusiasm for ethanol, but he earned their respect with his aggressive climate and energy plan. The plan centers on a cap-and-trade system that aims for 80 percent emission […]

Republicans get catty with each other

Wow, two Republicans representing two very different groups have been going after each other on the blogosphere with words and phrases like, "It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar" and "nasty-gram" -- OK, nasty-gram isn't a word, but what do you expect from CEI?

Liquid Dreams

Could “renewable petroleum” be coming our way? Picture a liquid fuel that is derived from the same feedstocks as cellulosic ethanol (switchgrass, sugarcane, corn stover) but contains 50 percent more energetic content and is made via a process that uses 65 percent less energy. Unlike cellulosic ethanol, this fuel can be distributed via existing oil […]

We Wouldn’t Kid About This

Environmental problems kill some 4 million kids a year, WHO says Gloom and doom alert: About 4 million kids younger than age 5 die every year due to environmental problems including air pollution, water pollution, and chemical exposure, according to a new report from the World Health Organization. In fact, more than 30 percent of […]

Will Santa Be Evicted?

Russia stakes claim to North Pole waters and deep-sea oil and gas In the next few days, Russia plans to launch tiny submarines some 14,000 feet under the North Pole’s sea ice to take geological samples and gather data — the first such journey to carry people to the North Pole’s sea bed. And while […]

Hayden Hamilton, CEO of GreenPrint, answers questions

Hayden Hamilton. What work do you do? I’m the founder and CEO of GreenPrint. How does it relate to the environment? We recently launched GreenPrint software which analyzes each page of every document sent to the printer and looks for typical waste characteristics (like that last page with just a URL, banner ad, logo, or […]

Umbra on feeding birds

Dearest Umbra, Every winter I take pleasure in putting out birdseed to feed the backyard wildlife. I purchase the easily available, run-of-the-mill, found-at-my-local-hardware-store type of seed. My question is, in the big picture … am I doing more harm than good? If the feed I am using is grown conventionally, am I doing a greater […]