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  • Halliburton secret spurs investigation into gas-drilling practices

    Louis Meeks’ well water contains methane gas, hydrocarbons, lead and copper, according to the EPA’s test results. When he drilled a new water well, it also showed contaminants. The drilling company Encana is supplying Meeks with drinking water.Abrahm Lustgarten / ProPublicaThere’s a scandal brewing about hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a revolutionary process for extracting natural […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Politics

  • Policy fixes to unleash clean energy, part 6

    Having outlined ideal utility policy in part 5, we move now to ideal environmental policy. As a reminder, this is not the policy that could be accomplished tomorrow given political realities, but rather the long-term goal we ought to shoot for. If the only thing that mattered was good environmental policy guided by responsible principles, […]

    Sean Casten Politics

  • Arizona introduces bill to redefine renewable standard to include nukes

    In Arizona, a new bill has been introduced that would kill renewable energy progress in the state. HB 2701 would establish a legislative version of the Arizona Corporation Commission’s regulatorily-implemented Renewable Energy Standard of 15% by 2020, but with some tragic differences. For one, the bill would redefine renewables to include large hydro and nuclear. […]

    Adam Browning Politics

  • To reduce nitrogen pollution, we need new farm policies

    California dairy farmer Joey Rocha. Photo: Stephanie OgburnTurlock, Calif. — Joey Rocha tends 2,800 cows at his Central Valley dairy. That may sound like a large herd, but in California, Rocha is a mid-sized dairy producer. Taken together, California’s dairy cows produce more than 100,000 tons of manure every day. Rocha and his fellow dairy […]

    Stephanie Ogburn Politics

  • Gates Foundation ignores reality, hypes latest GMO ‘vaporware’ instead

    Another day, another misguided announcement from the Bill Gates Foundation. This time, it’s hyping a new GMO press release project from DuPont’s biotechnology arm, Pioneer Hi-Bred (via the Des Moines Register): Pioneer Hi-Bred is joining with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help scientists in Africa develop genetically engineered corn varieties that would allow […]

    Tom Laskawy Politics

  • Carbon capture and storage: A piece of the puzzle

    In his recent blog, David Sassoon calls President Obama’s creation of a task force for a Carbon Capture and Storage Strategy a big victory for the coal industry. Let me offer a few thoughts on why I believe this task force actually is a step forward for all of us who want to put an […]

    Dave Hawkins Politics

  • Corporate farming to trump saving salmon?

    What’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) up to? Under pressure from Stewart Resnick, billionaire corporate farmer & major campaign donor, Feinstein is attempting to put a legislative limit on how much water from the California Bay-Delta system goes to rescuing the region’s endangered fisheries. It would quite literally erase biological science & replace it with political […]

    Miles Grant Politics

  • The Climate Post: Melting ice makes slippery slope

    First things first: Several high-profile exits from the climate conversation — Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) from the Senate; BP, Caterpillar, and ConocoPhillips, from USCAP; and chief climate negotiator Yvo de Boer from the U.N. — were widely reported this week. None of these stories carry as much long-term significance as the under-reported-on difficulty of many major […]

    Eric Roston Politics

  • Iraq veterans: Support troops by passing clean-energy bill

    The Operation Free tour brought U.S. veterans Matt Victoriano (left), Robin Eckstein, and Patrick Bellon to Seattle last week to call for clean-energy legislation.Grist photo/Jonathan HiskesAs a tanker driver in Iraq, U.S. Army veteran Robin Eckstein saw firsthand the risk that fossil-fuel dependence posed to American troops. She drove a water truck in convoys with […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Politics

  • On the one year anniversary of the Recovery Act, clean energy leaders celebrate jobs and savings

    The Recovery Act, a key component of America’s tectonic shift away from foreign oil, should be celebrated for what it has saved — jobs, money and energy. By making smart investments in clean energy technology and cutting taxes for 95 percent of Americans, the Recovery Act kept America on track to double our renewable energy […]

    Ed Markey Politics