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Sunny Size Up

World’s largest solar power plant planned for Portugal The world’s largest solar power station, which would cover over 600 acres and could produce up to 116 megawatts of electricity, is planned for an economically depressed yet sun-drenched corner of Portugal. The almost $550 million project, if approved by the Portuguese government, would effectively reclaim an […]

Got to Admit, It’s Getting Brighter, It’s Getting Brighter All the Time

Global dimming reversed in past decade; now brightening again So, remember that big hubbub about “global dimming” a while back, whereby particulates (e.g., smog) in the earth’s atmosphere were reflecting light and taking the edge off global warming? Yeah, well, funny story: That’s not happening anymore. Two new papers in the journal Science show that […]

Copying company pledges to reduce emissions.

Today Xerox became the latest corporation to announce voluntary reductions of their greenhouse gas emissions. They pledged to reduce their emissions 10 percent by 2012, or 100,000 tons a year.

The EPA wants us to clean up our houses; too bad they’re not doing their part.

On World Asthma Day -- May 3rd if you missed it -- the EPA urged the 20 million asthma sufferers across the nation to clean their houses. According to its press release, 70 percent of people with asthma could better manage the triggers that set off an attack.

Unfortunately for asthma sufferers, the last trigger on EPA's list is ozone, which is hard to control without the EPA's help. Insted of helping "better manage" ozone, the EPA has weakened controls on the industrial pollution that forms ozone, adopted rules that will delay ozone clean-up from power plants for over two decades, sought to extend ozone cleanup deadlines through policies, rules and legislation, and issued rules allowing states to weaken and eliminate even existing ozone control measures. (More here on the Bush EPA clean air record.)

Now I'll admit that the dust bunnies are usually winning the cleaning war in my house. But if the EPA expects me to better manage asthma triggers, I expect it to do its part too. It could start by using the law to inject a little responsibility into polluting industries.

JPMorgan nods to sustainability

This is progress:

Time to change the way you do business

Hmmm ... maybe those Reapers were onto something after all?

DETROIT - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its corporate credit ratings to junk status for both General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., a significant blow that will increase borrowing costs and limit fund-raising options for the nation's two biggest automakers.

Shares of both companies fell 5 percent or more after Thursday's downgrades, and the news sent the overall market lower.

The decision by one of the nation's most respected ratings agencies comes as the two iconic American automakers are losing market share at home to Asian automakers, seeing sales soften for their most profitable models and are facing enormous health care and post-retirement liabilities.

The credit ratings agency said its downgrade of GM's long-term rating below investment-grade status reflects its conclusion that management's current strategies may not be effective in dealing with the automaker's competitive disadvantages.

My free advice to Ford and GM: spend more time and resources innovating and less time fighting against CAFE standards.

Breaking a Bad Habitat

More problems uncovered with habitat conservation plans The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has published parts two and three of its special series on habitat conservation plans (HCPs) and, suffice to say, the story didn’t get any cheerier after part one. A proposed 9.1 million-acre HCP in Washington — which would cover the bulk of the state’s private […]

Knock on Wood

Researchers suggest wood as source for ethanol production Wood could one day join corn as a major source of ethanol, with the production process feeding off a by-product of paper mills. Researchers from the State University of New York estimate that bio-refineries built in already existing paper mills could produce some 2.4 billion gallons of […]

Doom and Bloom

Most Mother’s Day flowers are far from green Oodles of Americans will buy flowers for their moms for Mother’s Day (that’s this Sunday, you slackers), but not many will consider the environmental impacts. Conventionally grown flowers “are such a high-value crop that it takes a huge amount of pesticides to make them perfect,” said Pesticide […]

Oil Really Is a Lubricant

Diverse groups, unlikely allies join fight for energy independence Military officials, environmental activists, and others from across the political spectrum are speaking up about the need for radical change in American energy policy. Over the last year, a number of labor groups and think tanks have joined the chorus, releasing detailed plans for reducing oil […]