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  • Brainstorming Blue Not Green

    Entering a green event run by Fortune Magazine in Orange County sets the stage for a few things – an audience of senior executives and government policymakers as well as a myriad of engaging debates and panels that spark ideas.  After three days at Fortune Brainstorm Green last month in Laguna Niguel, I noticed that […]

  • Why BP is a textbook psychopath

    It’s good to know that a full six-plus weeks after the BP rig explosion killed 11 workers and initiated the slow painful murder of the Gulf Coast economy and ecology, our ever-watchful federal government has decided to launch an investigation into whether BP actually did something criminal. Thanks for jumping on this, Uncle Sam. Of […]

  • Who are the 22% of Americans who view BP favorably?

    Citing a Rasmussen poll Greg Sargent took note of yesterday, which indicated that 22 percent of Americans currently have a favorable view of BP, Barbara Morrill at Daily Kos asks who these 22 percent of Americans are. Using the crosstabs from the poll (premium account required), I put together this chart to answer Morrill’s question: […]

  • How we can end our addiction to oil

    It’s time we moved on to something else, or this is going to kill us. Not only are world oil supplies running out, but what oil is still left is proving very dirty to obtain. We need to kick our oil addiction now if we expect to preserve any hopes of economic prosperity, or unspoiled […]

  • Black BP out of the web like BP blacked out the Gulf of Mexico

    If you’re feeling outraged but impotent about the effect of the oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico, the internet (or some paint and an ad poster) can offer a little catharsis. Web developer jess3 has created a Firefox plugin which splashes a bit of oil on every mention of BP on the web. Once […]

  • The fight over salt: Big Food vs. Us

    Salty dog Alton Brown The biggest loser in Michael Moss’s New York Times exposé of the food industry’s fight against salt restrictions isn’t the food industry. It isn’t government, either. In my view, the real loser is television chef Alton Brown: With salt under attack for its ill effects on the nation’s health, the food […]

  • Latest podcast: A close look at the “town that food saved”

    Ben Hewitt on his farm outside of Hardwick.Hardwick, a hardscrabble town in rural Vermont (pop. 3,200), once based its economy on a non-renewable resource locked up in its surrounding hillsides: granite. But then the granite ran out — taking the town economy down with it. More recently, the town has embarked on a wild experiment. […]

  • Wind electricity from flying energy generators cheaper and more reliable than coal?

    A technology that might provide clean electricity that is cheaper and more reliable than coal is ready for testing. Some of the world’s leading scientists think it will work. So why aren’t we spending a few million (not billion but million) dollars to find out? The basic idea: wind blows harder and more constantly at […]

  • Michigan: Where U.S. clean energy, emissions, efficiency policy really counts

    On Friday, May 21, President Obama gathered in the Rose Garden the chiefs of his transportation and environmental departments to take the next big step to leverage federal climate policy and clean energy investment to spur new job growth. The president directed Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to […]

  • Obama preaches green tech gospel to California choir

    Silicon Valley in the Internet age has not made for great presidential photo ops. The Valley’s computer-chip factories were off-shored decades ago and (Google excepted) the software giants that supplanted hardware companies just didn’t have the same pizzazz — T-shirted geeks writing code can’t compete with guys and gals in bunny suits tending big futuristic […]