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O Conserve All Ye Faithful

London’s big Christmas tree powered by fuel cell This year, Christmas is getting an eco-friendly boost in London. All 648 energy-efficient light bulbs on the massive Christmas tree bedecking Trafalgar Square will be powered by a hydrogen fuel-cell generator in lieu of the traditional fossil-fuel-powered beasts used in years past. Roughly the size of a […]

Bush’s pick to head the USDA is a big ethanol booster

At a White House ceremony last week announcing the nomination of Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns (R) to succeed Ann Veneman as agriculture secretary, President Bush called his pick “a strong proponent of alternative energy sources, such as ethanol and biodiesel,” later adding that “in a new term, we’ll continue policies that are pro-growth, pro-jobs, and […]

Lights

Looking for some environmentally friendly -- yet full of holiday cheer -- lights for your tree/house/yard/plastic reindeer this season?  MetaEfficient recommends LED.

Diesel

Green Car Congress compares four Honda Accords -- a hybrid, a clean diesel, and two sedans -- and comes to a rather surprising conclusion: "The outcome: the Accord Diesel (using petroleum diesel) offers the lowest fuel consumption and the lowest CO2 emissions, even surpassing the Accord Hybrid."

UPDATE: Here's a follow-up post comparing different versions of the Honda Civic.

Stevie Nix

Interior Deputy Secretary Griles resigns The No. 2 official at the Interior Department, Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, yesterday became the latest Bush administration appointee to announce he’s jumping ship come January. Under investigation during nearly half his tenure at Interior for ethics violations stemming from his uninterrupted $284,000 annual payments from his former employer, […]

Would You Like to Come Up for a CO2 Cap?

Bipartisan energy-policy panel calls for CO2 caps The notion of imposing mandatory restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. continues to gather steam among those with no power to impose them. A privately funded panel of energy experts — including Republicans, Democrats, academics, environmentalists, and energy-industry representatives — wrapped up two years of study today […]

Suit of Harmer

Automakers sue California over greenhouse-gas emission regs The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers filed suit against California on Tuesday, charging that the state’s new regulations on greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles (requiring a roughly 30 percent cut by 2016) amount to the imposition of new fuel-economy standards, which is the feds’ purview. The Schwarzenegger administration has pledged […]

Buenos Hot Aires

U.S. professes bafflement at international ire over climate change “I’m not sure why we’re considered the ‘bad boys’,” said puzzled U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson at this week’s U.N. climate change convention in Buenos Aires. The conference — the last such meeting to take place before the Kyoto Protocol goes into effect in February — […]

Umbra on Christmas trees

Dear Umbra, Please settle our office dispute. Which is better for the environment: real or fake Christmas trees? Some believe that cutting down juvenile trees, displaying them for two weeks, then throwing them in the garbage is destructive, wasteful, and highly unfriendly to the environment. Others say that the Christmas-tree business keeps land that would […]

The people on top of our oil

It was published the day before the election, so it didn't get the attention it should have, but it's worth your time to go back and read Daniel Glick's piece in Salon about Bush's renewed push to drill in Alaska's Northeast National Petroleum Reserve and the threat it poses to the Eskimo way of life. NPR-A is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's less-celebrated cousin, but at 23.5 million acres, it's the largest chunk of public land in the U.S. It's worth some attention, and so is the life the Eskimos there have lived for hundreds of years.