Alaska

The Climate Post: Primaries move GOP to the right (on climate)

Read about the GOP primary results, new sources of green energy, upcoming climate change impacts, Dilbert, and more.

Christopher Mims Politics

Seven reasons BP would like to forget last weekend

It’s been 81 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank in the Gulf.Photo: U.S. Coast GuardIt should have been a good weekend for BP. Its latest plan to staunch the geyser — lowering a tighter cap over the spewing pipe — is ahead of schedule, and its two relief wells, which could stop […]

Randy Rieland Technology

Obama admin announces Alaska drilling. What could go wrong?

“One of the most frustrating things about the Obama administration is the tendency of its leaders and communicators to project a message that’s absolutely demoralizing to progressive political activists,” writes left-of-center blogger Matt Yglesias. Demoralizing? I don’t know what he’s talking about: The Interior Department today announced plans to open 1.8 million acres of Alaska’s […]

Jonathan Hiskes Politics

‘Hands Across the Sand’ protests are a hit [SLIDESHOW]

Code Pink forms the words “End Oil” on Venice Beach, Calif.Photo: Lisa SmithlineProtesters gathered in 860 locations around the world on Saturday, June 26, to protest offshore drilling and call for clean energy. The events are being billed as the largest protests against offshore drilling in history. Although they had an expected anti-BP feel, Hands […]

Grist staff Culture

Will Obama admin allow Shell Oil to do to Arctic waters what BP did to the Gulf?

This essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. —– Polar bear approaching Bowhead remains from a previous year’s hunt, Bernard harbor outside Kaktovik, 2001.Photo: Subhankar BanerjeeBear with me. I’ll get to the oil. But first you have to understand where I’ve been and where you undoubtedly won’t go, but […]

Subhankar Banerjee Climate & Energy

Saudi oil cheaper than American oil

To offshore drilling advocates, the oil-soaked birds washing up on the Gulf shore are a regrettable sacrifice in our pursuit of a higher calling: energy independence. Oil is a nasty business, they admit, but to them, offshore drilling is better than continuing to buy our oil from hostile countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. […]

Glenn Hurowitz Climate & Energy

Shell moves forward with Arctic drilling without a backup plan

We’ve all seen the horrifying footage of the oil leaking, leaking and still leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. And we’ve watched as BP’s CEO Tony Hayward has made such ludicrous statements as the Gulf is a big place, there really isn’t that much oil if you compare it to all that water. What’s more, […]

Emilie Karrick Surrusco Politics

How offshore drilling will affect the Alaskan wilderness

First let me set the scene. Alaska’s Arctic Ocean is vast, even as oceans go. During the summer months, Arctic waters lap up against pebble-lined shores for miles along endless miles. In the winter, that water stops lapping because it turns into ice that is so beautiful and important to the Inupiat Eskimo people, who […]