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A columnist thinks so

Over at Politico, Glenn Hurowitz argues that at key moments, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have sold out the public interest in favor of polluting industries in their states. He says they could stand to learn something from Bill Richardson and John Edwards, whose energy/climate plans are ambitious and powerful. I suspect that if you […]

My bike and kids

The Bike-To-Work-Week gods had plans for me ... even though I don't actually work.

On Mother's Day, May 13, a wheel fell off my stroller.

Walking is my main mode of transportation, and I love it. Even with its distance limitations, pushing a stroller felt like a safe alternative to driving and less annoying than taking the bus.

My daughters, 18 months and 3, are too old for us to justify buying another stroller and too young to walk the two-mile roundtrip to downtown, the playground, or the library.

Since I gave up driving almost a year ago, I've ignored the advice of cycling advocates, both on the web and in real life, because I thought walking served my family just fine.

Now, without a stroller, it was time to buy a bike. And a trailer that hooks onto the back. And helmets. And test drive it to the downtown vegetarian coffee shop for a breakfast sandwich.

And finally this week, I strapped in the girls for a ride to the playground -- and they loved it. Why, I think, did I wait so long?

Democracy in jeopardy

In a recent post about the timing of the Farm Bill, I talked about when things related to farm and food policy are likely to move in Congress. There is new information available now, and it's becoming increasingly clear that we all could be in serious trouble if we don't act now to voice our opinion about the state of our food system. Though pressure to consider major reforms in the bill is as strong as ever, events of this week are leaving me with much less hope that new leadership will lead to any positive change without a fierce shove in the right direction.

I shall speak now and then forever hold my peace

So, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) planned to introduce a bill to honor Rachel Carson — author of the seminal Silent Spring — on the 100th anniversary of her birth. Carson is, as non-psychotics know, a hero who did about as much as any human being in history to raise awareness, not only of toxic chemicals […]

LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, is introduced today

From Mashable.com:

Nonprofit organizations will be able to use LinkedIn as a platform for involving the LinkedIn community with their causes, leveraging the 11 million users that are present within the online community. Provided with this new feature are free badges to be placed on profiles, and registered nonprofits free job listings in order to find new members to join their teams. British rockstar James Blunt is already using LinkedIn to raise over $23,000 for Doctors Without Borders. Other featured LinkedIn for Good organizations include American Red Cross, the World Wildlife Fund and Unitis and Kiva, microfiance organizations.

The full story is here.

The Coal Shebang

California says yes to stricter vehicle emissions, no to dirty coal California keeps pushing to be the Greenest State Ever, No Seriously, Like Ever. At an EPA hearing Tuesday, state officials demanded permission to enact vehicle emissions rules that would be stricter than federal guidelines. Under the Clean Air Act, states can follow either federal […]

Hitting Them Where It Hurts

Rebels kill ranger in Congolese national park, threaten officials and gorillas Rebels attacked three ranger posts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park this weekend, killing one wildlife officer, wounding three more, and taking 13 hostages. While the human prisoners were released, the Mai Mai rebels still have hostages of a sort: […]

They Could Teach PBS a Thing or Two

United Nations meets pledge goal for Billion Tree campaign Six months after launching a “Billion Tree” campaign to fight climate change, the United Nations has gotten more than a billion tree-planting pledges from around the world, with around 14 million trees making it into the ground so far. “The challenge now is to tell the […]

Conservative critique of the carbon tax

This story contains two things: Evidence that when it comes to climate and energy policy, mainstream Democratic politicians (+ John McCain) are more or less in consensus: yes on "the need to enhance energy efficiency, introduce a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases, and incentivize clean energy technology,” no to a carbon tax. The worst argument […]

Regulatory infrastructure will be crucial

I was traveling last week and missed "solar's inevitable dominance."

I disagree. There is nothing at all inevitable about solar. Sure, the technological potential exists. But the problem is not technology. The technology works great. The problem is policy.

Right now, if solar panels were free -- handed out on street corners -- you still would not see market uptake anywhere near the technical potential. Why? Because we do not yet have the right regulatory infrastructure.

Let me give you an example. Last year, the Arizona Corporation Commission passed a huge increase in the state's renewable energy standard. It will require upwards of 2,000 MW of solar, and there's somewhere around a billion dollars worth of funding to help.

So what happens?