Latest Articles
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Great article in the NYT
Periodic Grist contributor Gregory Dicum has an article in today's New York Times that does a great job of telling the story behind solar's explosive momentum. With state incentive programs closing the cost gap, homeowners make the investment for a variety of motivations. The article manages to work in quotes citing reasons that range from foreign policy ...
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An interview with California environmental adviser Terry Tamminen
Terry Tamminen is a compact, affable man. With his bluntness and lack of pretense, it’s easy to see why Arnold Schwarzenegger trusted him. The California governor brought Tamminen on as his environmental adviser in 2003, elevated him to secretary of the state EPA, and then appointed him a senior cabinet adviser in 2004. In part […]
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More from Lester Brown on ethanol and food costs
Worried that no one's going to post on ethanol today? Let me ease your troubled mind ...
The world may soon be facing the highest food prices in history, according to Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute. The group released a missive today that says increased corn demand caused by the ethanol boom will dramatically raise food costs in the near future:
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An interview with Australian politician and rabble-rouser Bob Brown
Bob Brown goes to great heights to protect his homeland. Photo: Rainforest Action Network Bob Brown looks a caricature of an Australian senator: a bit disheveled in a rumpled gray suit, unfashionable glasses, and a goofy grin. But a little rumple goes a long way. In a career that has spanned three decades, Brown has […]
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Wallaby Darned
Australia says it’s warming faster than much of the rest of the globe They lost the Croc Hunter, were besieged by wildfires, got slammed by a cyclone, and now this: research from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology indicates that Down Under is warming faster than the global average. Our condolences, mates. While global temps have […]
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Knock Us Over With a Feather
Exxon spent millions fostering climate-change confusion, report says Echoing recent claims made by Britain’s top science group and others, the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists has issued a report slamming ExxonMobil for paying big bucks to mislead the public about climate change. OK, they’re small bucks by mega-profitable Exxon’s standards; still, the “modest but effective” […]
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Where Credit is Due
Democrats take control of U.S. Congress, vow energy-fund reallocation Here at Grist, we’re advocates of multipartisan cooperation and fans of progress, no matter what its origins. But as the Democratic-led, greener-seeming Congress takes over today, we’d like to allow ourselves a whoop. Whoop! One of the Dems’ top priorities is an energy package that will […]
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Is required green development smart public policy?
Here's a potentially good idea about which I'm rather ambivalent: rules requiring in-city developers to include robust landscaping features such as green roofs and vegetation-covered walls. It's easy on the eyes, but it may not be smart public policy.
To begin with, it's unclear how much burden Seattle's cutting-edge new rules would impose; and it's unclear how much benefit they'd achieve. But if most developers are skeptical -- and they are, at least according to this article -- then policymakers should listen very carefully.
Burdening developers with additional layers of regulatory complexity, especially here in regulation-heavy Seattle, may not be such a hot idea. Those regulations tend to reduce the viability of further in-city development or raise the cost. Either is bad.
No, I haven't been reading Milton Friedman over the holidays. It's just that when it comes to urban development, I'm not sure that we need a lot of elaborate new policies and procedures. In some case, we simply need less red tape.
Here's why ...
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The latest beneficiary of biofuel subsidies: industrial feedlot operators.
So far, a huge amount of the government’s lavish support for biofuel has ended up on the bottom line of Archer Daniels Midland, the king of industrially produced, environmentally ruinous corn. Now another type of model corporate citizen is in line for a cut of the action: huge-scale confined-animal feedlot operation (CAFO) players like Tyson […]
