| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Memo to T. Boone Pickens His energy plan is half brilliant, half dumb |
Joseph Romm |
08 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The Phone Call based on a true story Major cable network: What do you think of T. Boone Pickens' latest energy plan? Me: Half of it is great -- the big push on wind power. Heck, even the Bush administration says wind power could be 20 percent of U.S. electricity. But the notion that we would use the wind power to free up natural gas in order to fuel a transition to natural gas vehicles makes no sense. Why would we go to the trouble of switching our vehicle fleet f ... |
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| Topics: cars, climate, energy, natural gas, wind power (all these topics) |
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Toil Conservation How to green your day job |
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08 Jul 2008 |
From A to Green |
| Simple steps are the key to a greener office. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to waste we go. Nope, those aren't the lyrics the Disney dwarves belted out en route to the daily grind, but in today's world they're right on the money. Most skyscrapers, offices, and cubicles are eco disaster areas, squandering massive amounts of energy, water, and paper while spewing out toxins and trash. It's enough to make a person downright weepy (not to mention g ... |
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| Topics: business, climate, energy, green jobs, green living, greening biz operations (all these topics) |
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TGIT State workers in Utah will enjoy mandatory three-day weekends |
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07 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:16 PM on 07 Jul 2008 Starting in August, thousands of Utahns will begin enjoying mandatory three-day weekends. Some 17,000 government employees will switch to a compressed workweek -- four days a week, 10 hours a day -- as the state undergoes a yearlong experiment aimed at reducing energy and fuel costs as well as greenhouse-gas emissions. While employees of various U.S. counties and cities mandate a shortened week, ... |
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| Topics: business, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, innovation, news, progress, Utah (all these topics) |
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Polluter appeasement Should we question the patriotism of deniers? |
Joseph Romm |
04 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Independence Day may be the best day to ask ourselves -- what is the greatest preventable threat to Americans' life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness (LLPH). The answer is simple: human-caused global warming. Certainly there are other major threats to LLPH, the gravest of which is probably terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapon, in this country. Between Homeland Security and the Pentagon, we spend billions of dollars every m ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate science, energy, fossil fuels, holiday, politics (all these topics) |
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'There is no box' Lester Brown unveils plan for 80 percent cuts by 2020 |
Jon Rynn |
02 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Lester R. Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute and author, most recently, of Plan B, Version 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, released a new study today called 'Time for Plan B: Cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2020.' I was invited to participate in a conference call in which Lester explained many of the highlights of the plan; I will do my best to share what he said (any mistakes are my own). First, it appears that the only comprehensive plan to ... |
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| Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, public transportation, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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A Coal New World Landmark ruling halts Georgia coal plant on basis of CO2 emissions |
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30 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 2:38 PM on 30 Jun 2008 A Georgia coal plant cannot go forward until it receives an air-pollution permit limiting its carbon-dioxide emissions, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore ruled Monday. The ruling marks the first time a judge has used the Supreme Court's classification of CO2 as a pollutant to regulate emissions from an industrial source. Moore's decision overturns a p ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, climate, coal, energy, Georgia, greenhouse-gas emissions, litigation, news, progress (all these topics) |
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Hill heap A weekly roundup of greenish news from the Capitol |
Kate Sheppard |
27 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Some political news debris from this week: The League of Conservation Voters announced today that they've created the first green bundling site. This allows folks to donate en masse to green candidates around the country. LCV will direct the funds to the candidates it will support this year in Senate and House races. Just off his big Everglades restoration deal, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist hosted a conference on climate change. Crist's friend and Californi ... |
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| Topics: climate, Congress, energy, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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Humanity's meltdown Living on the ice shelf |
Guest author |
26 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest essay from Mike Davis, author of In Praise of Barbarians: Essays against Empire and Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb. It was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom's kind permission. ----- Farewell to the Holocene Our world, our old world that we have inhabited for the last 12,000 years, has ended, even if no newspaper in North America or Europe has yet printed its scientific obituary. This Feb ... |
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| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate science, economy, energy, international politics (all these topics) |
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Climate change ideas for On Day One Day four of the UN Dispatch-Grist collaboration |
Ideas for On Day One |
26 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The UN Dispatch-Grist collaboration rolls on today with a discussion prompt submitted by On Day One user teiki: A key to the massive use of fossil fuels in the U.S. is gross overconsumption. We use way more than necessary, through a combined dependence on the automobile and an infatuation with big, gas-hungry cars, trucks and SUVs., through wasted energy consumption in our homes and offices in everything from their construction to ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, energy efficiency, green building, green living (all these topics) |
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Mountain Madness New coal plant approved in Virginia, may fuel mountaintop-removal mining |
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26 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 11:53 AM on 26 Jun 2008 An embattled $1.8 billion coal plant slated for Wise County, Va., was granted pollution permits Wednesday by a state regulatory board, allowing construction to proceed. The company that will be building the 585-megawatt plant, Dominion Resources, promised local officials it would only source coal from within Virginia; that move is expected to fuel increased mountaintop-remo ... |
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| Topics: business, climate, coal, energy, news, Virginia (all these topics) |
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Great minds: Saudis prove EIA's point Offshore drilling has an 'insignificant' effect on oil prices |
Joseph Romm |
24 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I am glad that so many in the energy debate have picked up on one of the two messages from my previous post (see 'EIA to McCain: Drop offshore [drilling]'). But in listening to the radio and TV debates, I realize that some people have the impression that U.S. Energy Information Administration said offshore drilling might eventually lower oil prices. It did not. It found that allowing offshore drilling would have no significant effect on prices as far out into the fu ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, oil, oil and gas drilling, Saudi Arabia (all these topics) |
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Climate change ideas for On Day One Day two of the UN Dispatch-Grist collaboration |
Ideas for On Day One |
24 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Our weeklong collaboration with UN Dispatch rolls on today with a discussion prompted by On Day One user taylorshelton who suggests government subsidies for non-renewable energy should be eliminated. Eliminate all subsidies for traditional fuels (coal, oil and nuclear) and invest all energy-related funds into renewable energy resources like solar, wind and cellulosic ethanol with the goal of completely eliminating dependence on fossil fue ... |
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| Topics: Big Oil, climate, coal, energy, politics, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Nibbling the hand that supplies you Saudi Arabia to host summit on high gas prices |
Joseph Romm |
24 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Since when do we deal with our addiction by going to summits hosted by drug suppliers? Yet here is the Washington Post: 'Saudi Arabian Oil Summit Hopes to Isolate Cause of Price Rise' JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, June 21 -- Leaders from oil-producing and oil-consuming nations will meet here Sunday to try to pinpoint the reasons behind the rise in oil prices, which have doubled over the past year, and to find ways to bring them down. You cannot make this s ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, gas prices, oil, oil and gas drilling, politics, Saudi Arabia (all these topics) |
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Climate change ideas for On Day One A UN Dispatch-Grist collaboration |
Ideas for On Day One |
23 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This week marks the twentieth anniversary of NASA Scientist James Hansen's groundbreaking Congressional testimony on global warming, an event that put climate change squarely on the political agenda. In honor of the anniversary, UN Dispatch, On Day One, and Grist are partnering to discuss ideas the next president can adopt to take on climate change. We are joined by a panel of experts who will weigh in on ideas submitted to On Day One by every ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, James Hansen, legislation, politics, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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A Cambridge physicist's cooling summer treat
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JMG |
22 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Download 'Sustainable Energy -- Without the hot air' for free. You'll be glad you did. |
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| Topics: climate, energy, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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A hundred miles of mirrors Solar thermal can save us, but it needs public clamor |
Ted Nace |
22 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| [Editor's note: When this post was originally run, the phrase '100 miles by 100 miles' was changed to '100 square miles,' which is very different. The article has now been corrected (or rather, unmiscorrected) and the appropriate intern flogged; our apologies to Ted and Alex.] This post was coauthored with Alex Carlin, organizer of Let's Go Solar and instigator of the recent Environment America study (PDF), 'On the Rise: Solar Thermal Power and the Fight Against Global ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, energy (all these topics) |
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Hill heap A weekly roundup of greenish news from the Capitol |
Kate Sheppard |
21 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A few of this week's environmental happenings that I've been meaning to point out: Oilman-turned-clean-energy-evangelist T. Boone Pickens came to town to testify about the country's transmission problems that are preventing wind from becoming a major source of power. Pickens, who is attempting to build the world's largest wind farm in Texas, joined experts from the Department of Energy and wind-energy lobbyists in testifying before the Senate Committee on Energ ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, Muckraker, news, oil, politics, wind power (all these topics) |
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A huge tax increase? The GOP disinformation machine settles on an angle |
Ryan Avent |
20 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| It seems that another way that the GOP will try to win on this issue is by painting carbon pricing as a massive tax increase. This is just dishonest, though politically it's their best bet (assuming a complete lack of regard for actual outcomes). Let's all think back to the Lieberman-Warner debate, when Bush did his best to scare the crap out of everyone by arguing that L-W would increase gas prices 53 cents-per-gallon by 2030. In fact, it's difficult to imagine th ... |
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| Topics: carbon trading, climate, energy, gas prices, politics (all these topics) |
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Big bad boom Radioactive deja vu in the American West |
David Roberts |
20 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest essay from Chip Ward, author and board member of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. It was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom's kind permission. ----- In the American West, we take global warming personally. Like those polar bears desperately hunting for dwindling ice flows, we feel we're on the frontlines of the new weather regime. The West is drying up. For example, canyon-hugging conservationists ... |
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| Topics: business, climate, energy, environmental movement, nuclear power, politics, water pollution (all these topics) |
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The Grand Ostrich Party Conservative heads increasingly buried in sand |
Ryan Avent |
19 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Andrew Sullivan reads this Jim Manzi post (Conservatives are going to win on climate change! By doing nothing!) and says he's on board. He then proceeds to blow my freaking mind: The key will be private and public innovation of non-carbon energy, and possibly carbon capture technology. Frankly, however painful it is for many, the high price of gas is perhaps the best anti-global warming non-policy there is. Now, why is it that the high price of gas is the best an ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, fossil fuels, gas prices, politics, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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EIA to McCain: Drop offshore (drilling) Offshore drilling will have no impact on oil prices through 2030 |
Joseph Romm |
19 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| McCain has flip-flopped his position on offshore drilling, pandered to the oil companies, and embraced the exact same strategy endorsed by the man McCain is trying so hard to run away from -- President Bush. He must have a damn good policy reason: 'Tomorrow I'll call for lifting the federal moratorium for states that choose to permit exploration,' McCain said. 'I think that this and perhaps providing additional incentives for states to permit exploration off their co ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, John McCain, oil and gas drilling, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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More on the cost of GHG regulation Short-term high gas prices (hopefully) mitigate long-term environmental disasters |
Andrew Dessler |
18 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I have been reading Sean Casten's post on the economics of carbon pricing with interest. After some thought, here's my take. A carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system will, without question, raise the price of energy, at least in the short term. In the long-term, it may well be that technological developments lead us to new energy sources that turn out to be cheaper than anything we have today. But that's pure speculation. But in the short term, the costs of a c ... |
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| Topics: carbon trading, climate, energy, energy efficiency, gas prices (all these topics) |
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Mother Earth's triple whammy Why North Korea was a global crisis canary |
Guest author |
18 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest essay from John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies and the author of numerous articles on food policy and on North Korea. It was originally published on TomDispatch and is reprinted here with Tom's kind permission. ----- Gas prices are above $4 a gallon; global food prices surged 39 percent last year; and an environmental disaster looms as carbon emissions continue to spiral upward. The global ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, climate, energy, international politics, North Korea (all these topics) |
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Calamity Kaine Virginia Gov, possible veep, afraid of Big Coal |
Glenn Hurowitz |
17 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine set a new standard for politician mealy-mouthedness with a letter to his Virginia Air Board (tip of the hat to Raising Kaine for digging this one up). Although he asserts that his letter isn't about any particular decision, everyone outside the governor's office knows that the letter is about one thing: The proposed massive coal-fired power plant being planned for Wise County, Virginia. His bureaucratic opacity (PDF) is sure to be taught in gov ... |
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| Topics: climate, coal, energy, politics, presidential race 08, Virginia (all these topics) |
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Mixed messages McCain releases new climate ad ahead of speech calling for more drilling |
Kate Sheppard |
17 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| John McCain unveiled a new climate-change ad today -- hours before he's scheduled to give an energy speech in Texas that will call for building more oil refineries and lifting a federal ban on offshore oil and gas drilling. 'John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming, five years ago,' says the ad. 'Today, he has a realistic plan that will curb greenhouse-gas emissions. A plan that will help grow our economy and protect our envi ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, John McCain, Muckraker, news, oil, oil and gas drilling, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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