politics

Seven ways a government shutdown will hurt the environment

During a government shutdown, federal law enforcement agents continue to work, but what about the people tasked with protecting the environment? Yeah, they all go home. Here's how things will go down if our leaders can't come to an agreement over the nation's uteruses:

Christopher Mims Health

Why Congress will destroy America sooner than touch oil subsidies

In a far-reaching, data-driven, and damning feature for the Huffington Post, lead Washington correspondent Dan Froomkin explains why Obama has found it completely impossible to eliminate subsidies to oil companies. These subsidies amount to up to $90 billion over the next 10 years — that's $90 billion that will be shouldered by every other taxpayer […]

Christopher Mims Energy

Monsanto cash helped fund bill to stifle whistleblowers in Iowa

Monsanto: See no evil, speak no evil in Iowa’s factory farms.Speaking of Monsanto, it turns out they are playing a role in Iowa’s proposed anti-whistleblower bill — a bill focused primarily on agriculture. Should the bill pass, it will become illegal to produce undercover videos at various types of agricultural facilities (as well as to get a […]

Tom Laskawy Agriculture

2012 Election: Newt Gingrich Talks Energy in New Hampshire

Cross posted from New Hampshire Primary 2012: Green Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was back in New Hampshire on Monday, where he shared his views on cellulosic biofuels and oil drilling in North Dakota with local talk show host Al Kulas: Al: “You mentioned in your talk that in Iowa unemployment was 2% because everybody […]

David Anderson Uncategorized

In honor of Glenn Beck leaving Fox, the top 10 dumbass things he said about the environment

What one man can accomplish in a few short years. Just let the crazy wash over you: Bill McKibben's climate change activism group 350.org is a communist plot March 2011 Winter disproves global warming March 2010 Beck peddles 'food insurance' kits: "More than peak oil or financial crash, I fear angry men armed to the […]

Christopher Mims Politics

Breaking: George Will takes the train, may have been collectivized

Its power is spreading.Photo: travisA few weeks back, as we wrote here, Newsweek columnist George Will wrote a screed against rail travel in which he made a startling suggestion about the true motivation behind the Obama administration’s support for rail transportation: [T]he real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ […]

Sarah Goodyear Cities

Is Obama’s weak-sauce energy policy just savvy political Kung-Fu?

For the next couple of years, Obama is playing defense on climate change, and that could explain the fairly tame energy policy he announced yesterday, says Ezra Klein of The Washington Post. Like the Kung-Fu masters of yore, he knows that he cannot hope to defeat his opponents in a frontal assault. These are, after […]

Christopher Mims Science

Reversing roles, farmers sue Monsanto over GMO seeds

Genetically modified seed giant Monsanto is notorious for suing farmers [PDF] in defense of its patent claims. But now, a group of dozens of organic farmers and food activists have, with the help of the not-for-profit law center The Public Patent Foundation, sued Monsanto in a case that could forever alter the way genetically modified […]