Politics

Do we have to choose between big or small clean energy projects?

The choice comes from the reality that financial resources are limited, the system of regulations and incentives are skewed toward big, centralized solutions, and choosing one strategy (long-distance transmission of centralized generation) necessarily reduces the money available and future prospects for expanded distributed generation.

John Farrell Energy

Silver linings behind Supreme Court's bummer clean air decision

This morning's Supreme Court decision in American Electric Power Co. vs. Connecticut is undoubtedly a setback for the environment. Yet there are two silver linings for environmentalists in today's opinion.

Ian Millhiser Politics

Standing up for the EPA: the panel that’s sweeping the nation

David Roberts joined a Netroots Nation panel that included Miles Grant, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, and Sen. Ben Cardin. You can watch it here.

David Roberts Climate & Energy

Republicans love bike and rail — so why don't Republican politicians?

Listen up, Limbaugh: It's not actually ridiculous for a Republican presidential candidate to take global warming seriously. Americans want solutions, like bike lanes and increased public transit, that will address climate change, and that's true across the political spectrum. In a recent poll, 74 percent of Republican respondents supported bike lanes, and 80 percent wanted more public transportation.

Jess Zimmerman Politics

Critical List: Senate could cut energy subsidies; organic lipsticks fail to meet criteria

Energy tax breaks are on trial in the Senate, amidst a weird vogue for Republicans opposing them. What are they planning?

People outside of Washington do believe in climate change, whatever their political beliefs. They also overwhelmingly support bike lanes and expanded public transportation. Even people who vote Republican like this stuff. Congresspeople, take note.

Cheap natural gas is making it hard for money-minded people to invest in renewable energy.

Sarah Laskow Climate & Energy

Dying to save the rainforest

At the end of May, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Mario do Espírito Santo, were killed. Both lived in Brazil's Amazon rainforest and had fought back against loggers illegally harvesting wood. Da Silva had expected death for a long time, but said he wouldn’t let that stop him: “[M]y fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest."

That same week, another activist, Adelino Ramos, was shot and killed. The week after that, an activist identified only as Marcos was shot. When witnesses tried to take him to the hospital, gunmen stopped them on the way and killed the wounded man.

Sarah Laskow Politics

Mass. Transit bans ad on Scott Brown’s vote to gut Clean Air Act

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ruled an ad highlighting Scott Brown's vote to gut the Clean Air Act is too controversial for riders.

Joseph Romm Climate & Energy

Farm pork not going anywhere

To read The Washington Post is to believe farm subsidies are headed for the chopping block. Not so fast. The subsidies aren't going anywhere after all

Tom Laskawy Food

EPA bashers aren’t protecting ‘jobs,’ they’re protecting polluters

The right has produced a veritable avalanche of lies about the EPA recently. Michele Bachmann said she'd rename EPA the job-killing organization of America. Nobody so much as blinked.