interview

Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity answers questions

Kassie Siegel. What’s your job title? I work for the Center for Biological Diversity as director of the Climate, Air, and Energy Program. What does your organization do? The Center for Biological Diversity works to protect imperiled plants and animals, the wild places they depend on, and, by extension, our own well-being. We are probably […]

The first step in international action

DR: If you were emperor for a day — or just president of the U.S. — what would your international approach be? TT: No. 1 is to lead by example. When Tony Blair came can sat down with Arnold and I before the summit, he took us aside and said, "Look, what you are doing […]

China got troubles

DR: Bush’s token response to global warming is to argue for clean coal and nuclear power. To the extent he’s involved in any international discussion, it’s the Pacific pact, a trade deal with these emerging markets for old coal and nuclear technology. TT: Bush jumps in a long list of presidents of both parties who […]

It’s all about oil, baby

DR: You say pretty openly that Iraq and a good chunk of our defense spending — about half total federal expenditures now — is about oil. Not very long ago that was written off as a hysterical lefty conspiracy theory. TT: Certainly with respect to Iraq, as the excuses get peeled away one by one, […]

Let’s wonk it out

DR: On our site there are many people highly skeptical about biofuels. For lots of reasons: corn ethanol barely breaks even on energy balance. It’s an environmental nightmare, with nitrogen fertilizers in the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. It is a commodity sector governed by a few massive multinational corporations, which are lavished […]

We will wonk you

DR: You’re a big supporter of hydrogen, which is a storage medium for electrical energy. Moving our transportation infrastructure to hydrogen means offloading the power burden from oil and liquid fuels to electricity sources — predominantly natural gas and coal. How is that an environmental gain, to go from oil to coal? TT: It isn’t, […]

The wonkitude continues

DR: Over the past few years, the environmental movement has been in a period of self-flagellation about its ineffectiveness on the biggest issue of our time: climate change. You’ve been on both sides of the NGO/government divide. Do you have any words of wisdom on what environmental groups are doing wrong, or could do better? […]

More wonky interview

DR: What happened with Prop. 87 [the Calif. ballot initiative to tax oil company profits]? TT: Well, it failed. It’s amazing what $97 million of misleading advertising from oil companies will do, even against $50 million from proponents. And to be honest and fair, not all of it was misleading. Some of it was true. […]

The first installment in the wonkiest interview ever

A few months ago, I interviewed Terry Tamminen, author of Lives Per Gallon and, until recently, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top environmental adviser. We talked for well over an hour about a wide range of topics. An abridged version of the interview ran in Grist, but I thought some of the ultra-geeks here on Gristmill […]