offshore drilling
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Critical List: Humanity is locking in dangerous climate change; California has 1 GW of solar
The International Energy Agency says that within the next five years humanity is likely to fritter away its last chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. Also, the world's still giving more support to fossil fuels than renewable energy—six times as much, when measured in state subsidies. The Obama administration wants to open up offshore areas […]
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Critical List: Enviro groups sue over Keystone XL; Energy Dept. considered second Solyndra loan
The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Inc., and Western Nebraska Resources Council sued the U.S. for starting work preemptively on the Keystone XL pipeline.
The Department of Energy thought (but not that hard! Really!) about giving Solyndra an additional $469 million loan.
The mystery of why the FBI kept British environmentalist John Stewart from entering the country: Explained. Apparently the bureau was concerned he would super-glue himself to Sarah Palin.
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Critical List: Republicans plan to defund the environment; no one likes the EPA
House Republicans want to defund all kinds of environmental activity -- the EPA, the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service. You know, just anything having to do with the outside.
And the USDA thinks that bioengineered bluegrass doesn't fall within its regulatory sphere, which means companies could grow the stuff without any regulation.
Exposing mice to air pollution makes them dumber and more depressed.
So it's probably good for everyone that the EPA is putting new regulations on coal-fired power plants that should reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide by 73 percent and nitrogen oxides by 54 percent from 2005 levels. Should Republicans succeed in cutting the agency’s budget yet again, this action could be little more than an empty gesture, though. -
Critical List: McKibben's march on Washington; speeding up permits for offshore drilling
Bill McKibben invites you to come to D.C. in August and march on the White House over and over and over again. The goal is to convince the administration that siphoning Canada's tar sands through the Keystone XL pipelines is not a good idea and also to get heat stroke.
Transocean issued a report blaming BP for the Macondo spill. A Norwegian prosecutor issued a report blaming Transocean for $1.8 billion in tax evasion.
House Republicans don't care who was to blame for the Macondo spill; they just want the EPA to approve permits for offshore drilling more quickly. Bored with this spill! Let’s start on a new one! -
The New Yorker slams oil-focused Obama for letting the planet burn
We’re screwed.Check out Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker: When Obama took office, he appointed some of the country’s most knowledgeable climate scientists to his Administration, and it seemed for a time as if he might take his responsibility to lead on this issue seriously. That hope has faded. The President sat on the sidelines […]
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Denmark calls in armed commandos to fend off Greenpeace
Hippies near an oil rig! Send in the SWAT team! The Guardian is reporting that armed Danish commandos have been helicoptered onto an oil rig off Greenland, out of fears that Greenpeace activists will interfere with the rig’s deepwater drilling. Apparently Greenpeace has sent two ships to monitor the rig, owned by Scottish company Cairn […]
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Me, talking politics and oil subsidies [VIDEO]
Yesterday, I was on The Alyona Show, a sharp public affairs talk show run, oddly enough, by Russia Today. The topic was the politics around oil subsidies. Here’s the clip: I don’t have a ton to add, but here’s one point I was pondering on the bus this morning. You often hear people (like me!) […]
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Critical List: Reid, enviro groups talk air quality; DDT in Africa
Harry Reid met with Big Environment last night to strategize a defense of the Clean Air Act. Politico says a key point of debate was whether enviros should go after errant, but potentially vulnerable Dems on green issues during the next election cycle. Senators rejected a bill that would have sped up oil drilling, then […]
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Senate refuses to sign ‘We Heart Offshore Drilling’ petition
Well, here's one piece of good news coming out of D.C.: The Senate — including five Republicans — voted to reject a bill that would have expanded offshore drilling. Of course, that might be because there are already plenty of new drilling permits being issued (53 shallow-water permits under the new post-Gulf spill regulations), so […]