Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Can't you Hear me noggin

Ask Umbra on bike helmets 12
Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago When a cyclist wonders about the impact of her discarded helmets on the planet, Umbra suggests that she shift gears.
Free Pass?

Ask Umbra on buying carbon offsets 11
Posted 1 month ago Your power company wants to sell you offsets, but what are they doing with the money? Umbra explains how to find out, and whether it's worth the investment.
don't get in the way, congress!

Growth in renewable energy outpaces nuclear, fossil fuels 2
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago
With bunnies!

Everything you always wanted to know about EPA greenhouse gas regulations, but were afraid to ask 10
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority and the obligation to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. At a stroke, the politics of climate change were changed. The choice was no longer between legislation or no legislation -- it was between legislation or regulation. One way or another, climate pollution would be controlled by a federal program.

Most experts agree that EPA regulations will be complex and somewhat unwieldy. Industry believes they will be onerous and expensive. Conventional wisdom, at least initially, was that fear of regulation would drive utilities and manufacturers to the bargaining table, changing the dynamic in Congress. EPA was supposed to play the role of the big, silent goon in the corner, tapping his baseball bat in his hand.

That theory isn't holding up too well.
Notable quotable

If you’re not worried about melting permafrost, you should be 1
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
"If we lost just 1 percent of the carbon in permafrost today, we'd be close to a year's contributions from industrial sources. ..."
Meatheads

Meat, climate change, and industry tripe 1
Posted 3 months ago
A flack from the American Meat Institute recently downplayed meat's contribution to climate change. Tom Philpott sets him straight.
Small changes at EPA could have big environmental impacts 1
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
While climate change legislation works its way toward 60 votes in the Senate, President Obama's EPA has been quietly working on some serious revisions to the guidelines it uses to conduct cost-benefit analysis. Tweaks they might make to the powerful but low-profile Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses could have major impacts on the environment and could spur greenhouse gas reductions if the Senate fails to take action.
I can't believe I ate the coal thing!

Coal industry downplays prospects for CCS as it seeks more handouts in Senate climate bill 5
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
The coal industry got a lot of goodies in the House-passed energy and climate bill, but it's pressing for even more in the Senate version.
2 degrees of Earth bakin'

47 groups urge Obama to endorse 2-degree C warming threshold 5
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
A broad coalition of environment, science, and faith-based groups sent a letter to President Barack Obama recently asking him to pursue a goal of keeping global warming to less than 2 degrees in upcoming international meetings.
Waiver hello

EPA affirms California’s right to set tougher automobile emissions standards 1
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
The EPA announced on Tuesday that it will grant a waiver for California and 13 other states to set automobile emission standards that are higher than national ones. The move is important symbolically, even though it isn't likely to lead to emission reductions in the next few years.
MoveOn up

MoveOn asks members whether it should launch major campaign to strengthen climate bill 8
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
The progressive activist group MoveOn is trying to rally its 5 million members behind an aggressive campaign to strengthen the climate and energy bill that passed the House last week.
We don't want to know about your crap

Factory farms get the ultimate handout 5
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
An amendment in the 2010 Interior and Environment spending bill will prevent the EPA from requiring factory farms to report their GHG emissions -- a move that represents a blatant handout to large factory farms.
Calling all hoopties!

Congress gives green light to “cash for clunkers” bill; Obama to sign 6
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
After the Senate passed the "cash for clunkers" bill on Thursday, it's now headed to President Barack Obama's desk, and he's expected to sign it enthusiastically.
To reach a climate agreement in the near future, countries must look into the past 4
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
The second round of this year's climate negotiations have wrapped up in Bonn, Germany, and the chances of signing any global climate deal in Copenhagen this December look increasingly slim. Two major hurdles remain: the lack of political will by industrialized countries to commit to deep emissions cuts, and resistance to help poorer countries deal with climate change. What's beginning to change with this round of talks is how developing countries and climate justice movements frame these issues.
Dispatch from Bonn: Rainforest Action Network

The case for carbon speed limits 2
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
With the conclusion of this round of talks, negotiators have succeeded in creating a legal draft text that will be refined at the next round of talks in Bonn in August – now up to 200 pages from the original 50 created in Poznan - but we still are missing the critical fuel that we will need to continue the process all the way to Copenhagen: the political will to actually achieve emissions reductions, particularly on the part of the United States.
Dispatch from Bonn: Rainforest Action Network

Short term memory won’t cut it 0
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
Developed countries from Japan to the E.U. are failing to really seriously invest in the task at hand: reducing emissions. Instead, they seem to be trying their best to do as little as possible while getting the most possible credit for their actions. And that’s not even counting the U.S.
Organically grown offsets

A climate policy for agriculture that works 7
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
Not since Earl Butz's famous "hedgerow to hedgerow" comment of the 1970s have America's farmers been at such a turning point. The current climate legislation offers an unprecedented opportunity to rethink the way America farms.
The legislation

The scoop on climate and energy bills in Congress 2
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
What are the U.S. House and Senate doing about climate change and energy? Here's a rundown on legislation proposed in Congress this year.
How Much Does a Guilty Corporation Owe?

The Unsettling Case of Shell Nigeria 0
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
Offsets: Pissing the earth away 1
Posted 5 months ago
More than 2 and half years ago I wrote:

"Mommy, where do carbon offsets come from?"

"Well, you see sweetheart, when a major polluter and a consultant love money very, very much, they express that love in a special way. Nine months later, the consultant produces an extremely large paper packet."

Offsets -- the idea that big corporations can pay someone else to cut emissions on their behalf -- still fails as badly today as when that was written.