Articles by David Roberts

David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.

All Articles

  • Coal is the enemy of West Virginia

    I wrote a slightly snotty post about West Virginia recently, in response to Gov. Joe Manchin making coal the state rock. The point was that dependence on coal has produced more misery than benefit for West Virginians — nothing to celebrate. As it happens, at a recent event I had the opportunity to ask Manchin […]

    David Roberts Climate & Energy

  • Tom Friedman chats with Grist about the green challenge and globalization

    At a Grist gathering in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, we were pleased to host New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman for a chat on the state of green. Our intrepid video expert was on hand to tape the event. Friedman released Hot, Flat, and Crowded way back in October 2008 — before the worst […]

    David Roberts Technology

  • Friday music blogging: Deer Tick

    One of my happiest musical discoveries of the past year has been Deer Tick, a band originally out of Providence, Rhode Island. The band is sui generis — no description quite works. There’s a definite tinge of backwoods Americana, but also some raggedy low-fi freak folk, a little old-fashioned ’50s rock-and-roll, doo-wop, blues … it […]

    David Roberts Uncategorized

  • CBO: Household costs under Waxman-Markey likely much lower than report reflects

    Last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office answered some questions from Sen. John Kerry about its much-discussed report (PDF) on the costs of cap-and-trade. You’ll recall the report’s principle conclusion: a cap-and-trade program would reduce the deficit over the next decade. Despite that positive outcome, the report contained some scary numbers, like the fact that the […]

    David Roberts Politics