Articles by Grist staff

Hawaii lei’s out ambitious clean-energy plans

Hawaii’s largest utility has lei’d out plans to help the state source 70 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. Hawaiian Electric Co. has promised to never break ground on another coal plant (yippee!) and will convert existing fossil-fuel generators to local-crop biofuels. Just pour that piña colada in your tank, Hank! “It’s […]

Government report criticizes U.S. plans for carbon dioxide burial

The following is a guest essay from Peter Montague, executive director of the Environmental Research Foundation. —– In the U.S. today we burn coal to make half of all our electricity. This coal emits about 1.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, which is 33 percent of all U.S. CO2 emissions [XLS].[1] CO2 […]

Green groups lose court battle to force Canada to abide by Kyoto Protocol

Green groups Friends of the Earth and Ecojustice Canada lost their court bid Monday to force the Canadian federal government to abide by a national law passed last year requiring the country to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets. As a signatory to the Kyoto treaty, Canada agreed to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions to 6 percent […]

EBay to ban sales of ivory on its website

Online auction giant eBay announced Monday that it will ban sales of ivory via its website starting next year due to concerns that it is helping to fuel poaching of endangered elephants. The announcement was made ahead of a report [PDF] released Tuesday by the International Fund for Animal Welfare that tracked online wildlife-product commerce […]