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Taking care of our own

Ah, I feel so proud:

Shortcomings in aid from the U.S. government are making New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin look to other nations for help in rebuilding his hurricane-damaged city.

Nagin, who has hosted a steady stream of foreign dignitaries since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August, says he may seek international assistance because U.S. aid has not been sufficient to get the city back on its feet.

(via ThinkProgress)

SD Senate passes drunk-cyclist-friendly bill

For all of you holding your breath (and your beer) for the day drunken cycling and horseback riding are finally sanctioned in South Dakota as a safer alternative to drunk driving, the latest update in the saga is that the state Senate passed a version of a bill on Monday that's just what the die-hard cyclist ordered.

Breaking news: Customers like hybrids that save gas

A Wall Street Journal story (yes, I know you can't read it, and I am truly sorry, deep in my heart sorry) attempts to explain the relative failure thus far of the Honda Accord Hybrid. It contains this tidbit:

A four-cylinder Accord EX sedan with automatic transmission is rated at 24 miles per gallon in the city, 34 highway. The asking price, with leather seats, is $25,500. The Accord Hybrid's asking price, for 2006, is $31,540 with freight charges. The rated mileage for the redesigned car is 25 miles per gallon in the city, and 34 highway.

I guess not much more needs to be said, huh?

As many folks have pointed out, financial savings are only one of many reasons folks might buy a hybrid. Just as important -- more important, I suspect -- are issues of identity. Driving a hybrid is an expression of values.

So Honda makes a hybrid that's virtually unidentifiable as a hybrid (you have to squint at the bumper), that offers little-to-no fuel savings. It just accelerates a little faster.

W, as the kids say, TF?

What’s the most energy-efficient crop source for ethanol?

Biofuel is the hot topic lately in the green blogosphere. There's legitimate dispute about the political and environmental wisdom of plant-based fuels, but at the very least everyone should be starting from a valid, shared set of numbers (oh, to dream).

In an attempt to offer up such numbers, I'm going to ... rip off somebody smarter than me. Namely, Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, and author of the recently released Plan B 2.0, which is the best big-picture summary of our environmental situation I've ever read (and I'm only 2/3 through it!). The entire thing can be downloaded for free from EPI's site.

There are two key indicators when evaluating various crops for biofuel: fuel yield per acre and net energy yield of the biofuel, minus energy used in production and refining. This table (taken from Chapter 2) compares crops based on the first indicator:

T-shirts are all sold out!

GM's Live Green, Go Yellow PR campaign to greenwash its ethanol efforts is off to a roaring start -- namely, "overwhelming demand" quickly exhausted its supply of free T-shirts. But never fear: "Please try again later -- they'll be back soon!"

The campaign tries to spin some good news out of GM's monumental financial woes. GM has already sold 1.5 million "flexible-fuel vehicles" -- principally those that burn an 85% ethanol mix -- largely thanks to a loophole in CAFE fuel-economy regulations that grants FFVs "extra credit." GM's truck-heavy vehicle mix has needed all the extra CAFE credit it could get in recent years, so it's on track to sell 400,000 FFVs in 2006, and all but two of the 11 FFV models are trucks. GM and Ford spent recent years riding high on booming truck sales, using loopholes to barely stay inside CAFE regulations without having to actually improve fuel economy.

Color Us Grateful

Do you work for Hewlett-Packard? Do you love Grist? We’re seeking Grist-loving Hewlett-Packard employees to help us get a new color printer via the company’s employee giving program. If you could lend us a hand, drop a line to emailE=(‘rmorton@’ + ‘grist.org’) document.write(‘‘ + emailE + ‘‘) . Thanks!

Well, They Had to Chop Something

BLM suspends funding for forestry research that contradicts Bush policy The Bureau of Land Management has abruptly suspended funding for a team of scientists who published findings undercutting a Bush administration timber policy. The Oregon State University researchers’ report, published last month in the journal Science, suggested that forests scorched in southwest Oregon’s 2002 Biscuit […]

That’ll Teach You to Put Pee in Frogs

Lethal frog fungus spread by pregnancy test, researchers suspect Weird non sequitur of the day: A skin fungus that’s killing off frogs worldwide may have been spread by a pregnancy test. Yeah, we got that same confused look. A few decades ago, African clawed frogs were used to detect pregnancy — with surprising accuracy. The […]

Money for Nothin’

Bush’s 2007 budget includes Arctic Refuge drilling, cuts EPA funding Unsurprisingly, greens will find little to love in President Bush’s proposed $2.77 trillion budget for fiscal year 2007. It calls for oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, estimating $7 billion in revenue by 2008 from leasing drilling rights — nearly triple the $2.4 […]

Singin’ in the Rainforest

Deal will protect vast Great Bear Rainforest in Canada We love the smell of vast tracts of protected rainforest in the morning. Smells like … victory. Today in British Columbia, Canada, a coalition including the provincial government, Native groups, forest advocates, and timber companies is expected to announce an unprecedented agreement to protect the 15 […]