Latest Articles

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 […]

Cornerstone environmental law, NEPA, under fire in energy bill

When the energy bill sailed through the House of Representatives late last month, the media reported that it was the same old grotesquely corpulent package that the GOP leadership had previously tried — and failed — to pass through Congress four times in the last four years. This is true. But what flew under the […]

Live chat on habitat conservation plans

If you've been following the great Seattle P-I series on habitat conservation plans, you should tune in for a live online chat with one of the authors, Robert McClure. It happens at 12:30 (PST) today. You can submit a question now.

UCS on hybrids

Check two new projects on hybrid cars from the Union of Concerned Scientists: Hybridcenter.org, a source for consumer and technical information, and Hybridblog.org, which is, you guess it, a blog.

They also offer this HybridAction widget, where you can express your support for the CLEAR Act, recently offered up by Orrin Hatch.

(Via Mike Millikin, who is -- have I mentioned? -- this week's InterActivist.)

There are many, but not one knock-out.

Sorry to keep going on and on about energy policy, but ... there's a flurry of good points and confusion swirling about, so I'll jump in.

First, Matt the Prolific points to an NRO piece by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren on some strange misconceptions hovering around the energy debate in Congress.

Their principle point, which The Economist also makes this week, is this:

The hostility directed at "foreign" oil is ridiculous. The amount of oil we import has no bearing on the impact of world oil-market shocks on our economy. Even if the United States imported no oil at all (and we did not restrict trade), supply disruptions abroad would have a similar effect on our economy as if all our oil came from overseas. That's because oil is traded in global markets: Anything that affects supply or demand anywhere affects prices everywhere.

Thus, the national security argument that we should increase domestic oil exploration, drilling, and production is silly. To the extent Congresscritters are making that argument, they are doing so on behalf of the domestic oil industry. As long as our economy is based on oil, we are vulnerable to oil markets and the countries -- mostly in the Middle East -- that supply them.

Matt agrees, and concludes this:

TIME columnist feels safe endorsing energy independence now that the cool kids are on board.

Let me be honest: I loath Joe Klein. To me he represents everything that's wrong with the smug, self-satisfied, head-up-its-ass D.C. media establishment. Beltway opinion-makers live in a bizarre bubble of "conventional wisdom" that consists almost entirely of what they tell each other at cocktail parties and on Sunday-morning cable shows. They are consistently, grossly, embarrassingly manipulated by those in power -- the very ones they're supposed to be afflicting.

You couldn't find a better example than Klein's current op-ed in TIME.

The World Less Traveled

Greens shun cheap air travel, point to impacts of industry A small but growing number of eco-conscious Brits are turning away from cheap airfares and looking to other means of transport or forgoing planned vacations altogether in hopes of reducing their personal environmental footprints. Overall, aircraft-related carbon-dioxide emissions make up some 5 percent of Britain’s […]

Play Economisty for Me

U.K.-based weekly Economist exhaustively analyzes global oil situation Market-lovin’ U.K. weekly The Economist has a cover package on oil this week. The major topic, of course, is the recent spike in oil prices. The grumpy Economist editors are bothered by what they consider some pervasive myths. First, “energy independence” is a chimera as long as […]