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Better Late Than Clever

Democrats unveil plan to cut dependence on oil imports Yesterday, Senate Democrats presented a proposal to cut U.S. dependence on oil imports 40 percent by 2020. The Clean EDGE Act contains nary a mention of increased fuel-economy standards, gas taxes, or other such excessively bold proposals; instead, it proclaims that ethanol will save us all. […]

My Name Is Prince and I Am Gunky

Exxon Valdez disaster still screwing up Prince William Sound Wildlife in Alaska’s Prince William Sound is still threatened by oil spilled from the tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989. According to a new study by researchers at the National Marine Fisheries Service, some 100 tons of oil still pollute the sound shoreline and are potentially accessible […]

Chase to the Cut

House passes bill to speed up salvage logging A bill that would speed up salvage logging in national forests after fires and other natural disasters has passed in the House. Currently, a careful review of wildlife and forest health is required before timber can be salvaged and sold after catastrophes; proponents of the heftily named […]

Pat Michaels slanders Al Gore on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes

I just sent the following email to Fox News and Pat Michaels:

Local or organic? It’s a false choice

This essay was adapted from the book Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew. A couple of years ago, I visited an organic vegetable farm in southeast Minnesota, not far from the Mississippi River. Nestled in a valley that sloped down from rolling pasture and cropland sat Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables, a 40-acre farm. […]

Where’s tomorrow’s water?

We Canadians can be a prickly sort. So I for one wasn't particularly surprised to see that large majorities of us are opposed to selling water to the U.S. (This is the same country that's gotten extremely wealthy -- and abandoned its Kyoto commitment -- by selling the U.S. as much tar sand oil as we can make.) Still, Jim Margolis' recent article at The American Prospect has some interesting bits.

Now looms a U.S. invasion Canadians take more seriously. This one is real, and its target is more tangible -- their water. They think we're coming after it. They're right.

It isn't that the water wars are the talk of the nation; they were rarely mentioned in the recent federal election campaign. But the dispute bobs beneath the surface, a regular topic of conversation among the political elites. From the left, the Council of Canadians calls for a national water policy that would prevent "bulk water exports and diversions." From the right, former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed predicted that, "the United States will be coming after our fresh water aggressively within three to five years."

One newsmagazine here, Macleans, had a cover article last year about the American desire for Canadian water. And you can get an idea of the coming talking points from the right by the tone of the article:

But Canada, the most water-rich nation on the planet, wants no part of this new world. And that puts our priorities on a collision course with the needs of our biggest trading partner and most essential ally. Already the White House has mused about the need to open the Canada-U.S. border to water exports, and dozens of communities are lining up to reform a 96-year-old treaty that limits the amount drawn from the Great Lakes. This country is in a position to provide a solution that would yield enormous economic and humanitarian benefits for the entire continent, even the world.

Wow! Sign me up! After all, we're talking about feeding the hungry, feeding the poor, right?

Students tell Penn State they want Kyoto now!

Never let it be said that college students are only interested in cheap booze and the latest episode of My Super Sweet 16. OK, it can be said about some people (hello, freshman roomie), but never let it be said about these folks:

Penn State green group EcoAction has been pressing uni-prez Graham Spanier for two years to lower greenhouse-gas emissions and get PSU in compliance with Kyoto (Now!). Last month, the group staged a sit-in in the guy's office (and also, clearly, outside, as seen in the photo above from It's Getting Hot in Here). They also delivered about 4,500 signatures of support, including a string of thousands of signed letters delivered via a human chain into his office. Apparently, in a recent campaign, they planted 4,000 red and orange flags along a campus green area to represent the 4,000 students (10 percent of the student body!) supporting their cause -- in the process making a nice statement about wind power and creating a can't-miss-it visual display. Kudos, kids!

And speaking of creative visuals, 41 student teams recently competed in a sustainable design competition sponsored by the EPA and held on the National Mall. The P3 award -- for People, Prosperity, and the Planet -- includes funding up to $75,000 for the students to see their ideas to fruition.

The winning teams and their ideas, below the fold:

Kick the Oil Habit

To see a much more convincing and frightening video, head over to Kick the Oil Habit, a new campaign just launched by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. (Robert Redford will announce the campaign tonight on Larry King Live.)

For my part, I think they rely a little to heavily on gas-price hysteria on the problem page and ethanol on the alternatives page, but then, I don't have millions of dollars to research and craft these things, so I should probably defer to their judgment.

Let's hope it goes somewhere.

(Maybe Ana can drop by later and share more details about how the campaign was conceived and what its goals are.)

Environmentalism goes local

It's certainly not the first piece on environmentalism going local, but this WSJ story has some good stuff on rural and agricultural activism in particular. And I didn't know this:

The Sierra Club, based in San Francisco, has more than doubled the number of its local community organizers nationwide to about 100 from 40 over the past four years, while keeping its lobbying presence in Washington flat over the same time.

Move Thyself: Post script: The thievery capitulation

As if this guy didn't already have enough interesting stories about decades spent cycling essentially nonstop around the world, here's one more: