Latest Articles

State Supreme Court rules utility cannot offset emissions

Just when US federal climate policy looks like a possibility, Seattle's prospects take a turn for the worse. The Washington Supreme Court just ruled that Seattle City Light -- the first (and only?) major utility in the nation to achieve climate neutrality -- can no longer use ratepayer money to buy emissions offsets.

Luckily, I think this problem can be fixed fairly easily. But before I get to fixing things, I have a small rant to get off my chest.

According to the court's reasoning, offsets are not sufficiently related to the utility's core business of generating electricity. I'll leave the legal parsing to be debated by the lawyers, but I will make two remarks.

First, almost all of City Light's power comes from hydroelectricity, which in turn comes from dams that rely on rivers that are fed by snowmelt. And -- I think you know where I'm going here -- climate change is very bad for snowpack. It's like this: no snow, no electricity.

So here's a simplified version. Global warming reduces the city's access to electricity. So the utility zeros out its contribution to global warming. But then the courts say that the activity is not sufficiently related to supplying electricity.

That noise you just heard was my head exploding.

Of course there are heaps of other sources of climate-changing emissions too. But City Light can't very well do anything at all about those. All it can do is bring its own contributions to zero and thereby create a national (and even international) model of sustainable power generation. In fact, its leadership was probably much more important than its emissions cuts. But no more.

The rant continues after the jump.

And other adventures in touching celebrities

I thought my closest brush with fame this week would be nearly taking out James Redford with a boom mic last night. But then I accidentally touched him inappropriately, and later, cornered his father. Son Redford presented Everything’s Cool at the special pre-screening last night, giving a glowing account of the film and announcing the […]

On the road as Everything’s Cool debuts in film’s biggest deal

Greetings from Park City, Utah, where it’s cold, but not as cold as it used to be, and where Mormons and film nuts coexist peacefully each year in the name of independent filmmaking. I’m here this week covering the premiere of Everything’s Cool, the new film on global warming. I’m double-timing, reporting for Grist and […]

Massachusetts rejoins the NE climate pact

Whether Mass. is the most liberal state in the union is open for discussion. But I can tell you that ex-Governor Mitt Romney really pissed a lot of us folks off two years ago when he pulled the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the first multi-state program to reduce carbon emissions. But as of today our new guv has us back on track -- it feels good to be moving in the right direction again!

Ace grassroots group Mass. Climate Action Network has been pushing for Governor Patrick to also signal his support for selling 100% of the program's pollution permits to electricity generators (probably through an auction), with the proceeds invested in energy efficiency and other consumer benefits. This wish seems to have come true, too.

Good show for an ex-Texaco man! Today's signing was one of Gov Patrick's campaign promises; another is improving the state's flagging economy with growth of the renewable energy sector. Keen to see where this goes ...

Sincerely,
Thrilled

Lomborg whines

Al Gore cancels interview with hostile newspaper editor and tired shtickster Bjorn Lomborg. Editor and Lomborg throw tantrum on Wall Street Journal op-ed page. Addendum: I don’t know how much it will end up costing to substantially reduce our global greenhouse gas emissions. My strong suspicion is that in the long-term it will have a […]

Somerby

Any writer who tells you they don’t care about their work being recognized is full of sh-t. That said, I try not to get too concerned about who is and isn’t reading or linking to my stuff. I figure I just plug away and if I express a perspective that resonates with people, it will […]

Maverick chef Ann Cooper aims to spark a nationwide school-lunch revolution

Even the most intractable pathology can disappear, sometimes relatively quickly. A sign above a water fountain proclaiming “no coloreds” would cause any American to flinch today. Just half a century ago throughout the South, such abominations formed a banal part of the built landscape. Ann Cooper puts a fresh spin on school lunches.Photo: Chronicle/Craig LeeI […]

Debating the ‘new middle’

On Monday, NYT reporter Andy Revkin and I appeared on EcoTalk, an Air America radio show. The subject was Andy’s now-notorious piece on the "new middle" in the climate debate and the huge uproar it sparked. You can listen to the show by going here, or directly link to segments one, two, and three. I […]

A single-issue movement won’t cut it

David Roberts has been writing about environmental talking points. But I think that skips a step. We need to examine what kind of politics the talking points are intended to contribute to.

I don't think I have to persuade anyone reading this blog to forget about informed, competent insiders trying persuasion from the inside. Romm tried that with both government and business since the early '90s. Al Gore spent decades as a Senator and Vice President of the U.S. playing insider baseball on the issue. Amory Lovins has been pursuing the "appeal to rational business self-interest" strategy since 1976!

The only thing will make change is a bunch of ordinary people getting together and exercising their democratic rights as citizens. And it is not just us dirty hippies saying that. Non-hippie former VP Al Gore says:

It’s all happening

A nice little Reuters story emphasizes the implicit point of my two political posts this morning, as well as my Tom Paine two–parter: this is going to be a huge year for climate change. Consider: Tons of action in Congress. Scientists have moved the Doomsday Clock forward on the basis of climate change. The upcoming […]