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  • Reviving national service in a big way

    This essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. —– Lately, our news has focused on tropical depressions maturing into monster hurricanes that leave devastation in their wake — and I’m not just talking about Gustav and Ike. Today, we face a perfect storm of financial devastation, notable for […]

  • Oilman learns a drill-only GOP hates alternative energy

    Lobbying for his plan to sharply ramp up renewables, the billionaire oilman has been brought face to face with the Big Energy Lie — the absurd notion that either John McCain or the Republicans in Congress actually believe in an “all of the above” energy policy. In my interview with Pickens last month, he was […]

  • Former President Clinton talks about the financial crisis and clean energy on ‘The Daily Show’

    Former President Bill Clinton was on The Daily Show last night talking about his Clinton Global Initiative, the financial crisis, and alternative energy — and how the nation’s financial situation might have played out differently if we’d dealt intelligently with energy issues years ago. Here’s the video:

  • Republican oil guru says McCain doesn’t have a clue about drilling

    If you follow peak oil — and if you don’t, you will be bitchslapped by reality — then you know of Matt Simmons. I was introduced to him several years ago by my former boss at the Energy Department. Back then, Simmons was merely one of the savviest financiers in the oil services business, who […]

  • Dems will let offshore drilling ban expire

    House Democrats, out-stubborned by Republicans, will allow the 26-year-old congressional ban on offshore oil and gas drilling to expire on Sept. 30. Dems will not attach a provision to ban offshore drilling to a stopgap spending bill that’s expected to swiftly pass Congress and be signed by President Bush. The prez had made it clear […]

  • Why he picked Sarah Palin, carbon queen

    This is a guest essay from Chip Ward, author and board member of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. It was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. —– Despite the media feeding frenzy, we still may be asking ourselves, “Just who exactly is Sarah Palin?” Mixed in with the Davy-Crockett-meets-SuperMom […]

  • Senate passes renewable tax credits on the ninth attempt

    The Senate today overwhelmingly approved a massive tax package that mashes together incentives for renewable energy with support for traditional energy sources less beloved by environmental groups. The Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, sponsored by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), would extend the investment tax credit for solar energy for […]

  • Diversion of Great Lakes water will soon be illegal

    If you don’t border the Great Lakes, keep your grubby hands out of ’em. That’s the general message of a bill that would bar any major water diversion from Lakes Erie, Ontario, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, unless all eight lake-bordering states approve. The so-called Great Lakes Compact, which has passed Congress and heads to the […]

  • Palin’s climate skepticism is irrelevant

    The Washington Post‘s Juliet Eilperin writes a piece on Sarah Palin’s climate skepticism that seems, like so many articles in this genre, to dance around something obvious. In the piece, upon finding out that Palin doesn’t believe in anthropogenic climate change, one Alaska enviro is quoted saying "now I know why" Palin fought emission reductions. […]

  • Al Gore, Wangari Maathai urge U.N. to tackle deforestation in next climate treaty

    Nobel Peace Prize winners Al Gore and Wangari Maathai urged United Nations countries on Monday to pay special attention to tropical deforestation in their next international climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Preserving forests, they said, will help local communities, fight poverty, and may substantially slow global warming since deforestation accounts for about one-fifth […]