Articles by Grist staff

Working on Their Gulf Swing

Most of the goings-on of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force are cloaked in secrecy — but one outed meeting, held a little over a year ago, sheds light on how the task force functioned. In early February 2001, Cheney met with representatives from Shell Oil and Anadarko Petroleum, who pressed the veep to […]

For Heaven’s Sake

There’s a new voice in the debate over President Bush’s energy policy: God’s. Religious groups in the United States are increasingly invoking the word of God to oppose drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, support stricter fuel-efficiency standards, and call for increased reliance on renewable energy. The National Religious Partnership for the Environment, a […]

For Peat’s Sake

As a source of fossil fuel and gardening compost, peat bogs, those eminently British landscape features, are highly in demand — so much so that some environmentalists fear they are in danger of disappearing. But that danger might be staved off for a while, thanks to a multi-million dollar plan to use taxpayer money to […]

Surf’s Up, and So’s My Dander

Dude, I thought surfing was, like, a non-motorized sport. Motorized personal watercraft (PWCs) are making waves in the surfer community — and riling environmentalists and some surfing purists. At Maverick’s, a prime surfing spot south of San Francisco, hardcore surfers use PWCs to tow themselves out to giant waves. Critics say the watercraft are noisy, […]