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• Cash for caulkers at a profit!

  Create jobs, reduce lung disease, and help solve the climate crisis at zero cost

  Posted 9 Feb 2010 10:14 AM By Gar Lipow

  As economic stimulus moves back onto the table, why not consider zero cost opportunities to create jobs, opportunities that would reduce lung diseases, and greenhouse gas emissions as a side effect? Read More

• the limits of voluntarism

  Are utilities’ plans for shoring up hazardous coal ash dams good enough?

  Posted 9 Feb 2010 9:10 AM By Sue Sturgis

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released action plans submitted by 22 coal-fired power plants to improve the safety of the massive dammed surface impoundments where they store toxic coal ash, but environmental advocates question whether the plans do enough to protect the public from disaster. Read More

• Cheaponomics 101

  The hidden costs and benefits of things we take for granted

  Posted 9 Feb 2010 11:38 AM By David Roberts

  Raj Patel has an interesting list of "things that aren't as cheap as you think," with an always-welcome reminder that many industries and social practices have costs that don't appear in the sticker price. These "externalities" are offloaded to the public; they represent, in effect, enormous subsidies. Free marketeers hate market-distorting subsidies, right? For the most part it's a great list. To make it perfect I'd remove one and add one. Read More

• chewing the scenery

  Michael Pollan video on Democracy Now

  Posted 9 Feb 2010 11:08 AM By Tom Philpott

  Pollan and Amy Goodman talk Food Inc., swine flu, agribusiness backlash, and more. Read More

• the evening news

  CBS News previews its no-holds-barred report on antibiotics in livestock

  Posted 9 Feb 2010 10:51 AM By Tom Laskawy

  Oh, boy. This one has blockbuster written all over it. Tonight, the CBS Evening News is broadcasting the first in a two-part series on the use of antibiotics in livestock (some background here). Katie Couric previewed the report this morning -- and it looks like a doozy. Watch it here. Read More

• Something old, something Newsom

  San Francisco sets the PACE 1

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 6:13 PM By Adam Browning

  Today, San Francisco Mayor Newsom signed the final piece of legislation necessary to get the city's PACE (municipal property tax financing for energy efficiency, renewables, and water conservation) program off the ground. Read More

• convention without representation

  Any hope for meaningful U.S. climate policy? A somewhat positive view 4

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 5:16 PM By Robert Stavins

  The current conventional wisdom ­– broadly echoed by the news media and the blogosphere – is that comprehensive, economy-wide CO2 cap-and-trade legislation is dead in the current U.S. Congress, and perhaps for the next several years. Watch out for conventional wisdoms! Read More

• Cafeteria Confidential

  What’s for breakfast at school today? 13 teaspoons of sugar 1

  Posted 4 Feb 2010 4:02 AM By Ed Bruske

  Yesterday I stopped by the cafeteria at my daughter's school here in the District of Columbia -- H.D. Cooke Elementary -- and this is what many of the kids were having for breakfast: A package of sugar-glazed cookies called Kellogg's Crunchmania Cinnamon buns; chocolate- or strawberry-flavored milk; grape juice. Read More

• Firing blanks

  Four stories that should have changed the media narrative ... but didn’t 19

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 2:55 PM By David Roberts

  One of the most frustrating things about covering national energy politics is that conventional wisdom in D.C. never seems to change. Narratives there are a) completely at odds with the rest of the world's and b) absolutely impenetrable. Case in point: there were at least four stories last week that should have changed the narrative, but none of them made a dent. Read More

• Raw Milk Battlefield Stories

  Whatever happened to the government’s war on raw milk? Just a shift in tactics

  Posted 5 Feb 2010 10:59 AM By David Gumpert

  The fact that the heavy-handed intimidation operations against raw dairies have abated over the last couple years shouldn't be mistaken for a letup in the federal and state campaign against raw milk. Earlier assaults on owners of small farms generated enough unfavorable publicity that federal and state authorities have opted for a less distasteful approach. The emphasis now is on ever-closer regulatory oversight of raw milk sellers and distributors, as well as court actions. Read More

• Don't bet on it

  What are the chances of a cap-and-trade system being established in the U.S. this year?

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 12:49 PM By Lisa Hymas

  16.9 percent, according to Intrade.com, an online betting site -- down from 59 percent last summer, but up from 12.7 percent late last month. Read More

• NEXT STEPS

  Walking: A simple focus for the Smart Growth movement 2

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 12:04 PM By Jonathan Hiskes

  Sure, walkable neighborhoods help the climate, public health, and public safety. But people at last week's Smart Growth conference talked about how they simply liked being in places that were built to the scale of people, not autos. Read More

• The organic movement is a civic process, not a set of standards [corrected] 5

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 12:03 PM By E. Melanie DuPuis

• Obama admin launches new Climate Service and climate.gov 1

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 11:27 AM By Agence France-Presse

• Lobbyists rush to block EPA action on climate change

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 11:15 AM By Marianne Lavelle

• U.N. climate chief raises the temperature with racy novel

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 10:07 AM By Agence France-Presse

• To flourish, school gardens need more than photo ops 1

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 7:00 AM By Sarah Bernardi

• The unheralded significance of the Audi ‘green police’ ad 38

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 1:16 AM By David Roberts

• A new American environmentalism and the new economy 2

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 5:00 AM By Gus Speth

• Ask Umbra on engagement rings, straws, and napkins 6

  Posted 8 Feb 2010 12:00 AM By Umbra Fisk

• Palin bashes ‘cap and tax’ and commends Obama on nuclear 11

  Posted 7 Feb 2010 1:44 PM By Lisa Hymas

• The little solar that could 10

  Posted 5 Feb 2010 3:09 PM By Todd Woody

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