Grist | Topics | 620 Results

RESULTS		Results 326 – 350 of 620
Page:1 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 25
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Dave's First Law of Sustainability Politics Sustainability doesn't just happen	David Roberts	20 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Tom Friedman is fond of the theory that high oil prices will drive investment in renewables and spur reform in corrupt governments. He's not alone -- some peak oil types believe that oil price spikes will force us to do the very things that will save us from global warming. This has always struck me as dangerous folly. Nothing good in politics happens automatically. Regress is the path of least resistance. Progress must be fought for. To wit, I commend you to Drake B ...
Topics: energy, oil, renewable energy (all these topics)

Regular oil cleaner than ethanol Saving and restoring forests better for climate than switching to biofuels	Glenn Hurowitz	20 Aug 2007	Gristmill
A new study in the journal Science ($ub req'd) validates what many have been saying here in Gristmill: Biofuels, especially those from the tropics, are far worse for the planet than regular old crude oil. The study finds that we could reduce global warming pollution two to nine times more by conserving or restoring forests and grasslands than by razing them and turning them into biofuels plantations -- even if we continue to use fossil fuels as our main source o ...
Topics: biofuels, climate, deforestation, energy, ethanol, greenhouse-gas emissions, oil, rainforests (all these topics)

There's Cash in Them There Fires Oil fires in Nigeria can be source of cash for impoverished residents		20 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
There's Cash in Them There Fires Oil fires in Nigeria can be source of cash for impoverished residents Some residents in Nigeria's oil-rich river delta have resorted to setting fires to an oil pipeline to force companies like Shell to pay citizens to enter the area to put out the fire. One of the most recent blazes, which was extinguished only about two weeks ago, raged for 45 days, sickening nearby residents and polluti ...
Topics: air pollution, news, Nigeria, oil (all these topics)

BioWillie pens a biodiesel book	Sarah van Schagen	19 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Willie Nelson is talking about biodiesel again. This time in book form, and the result is On the Clean Road Again: Biodiesel and the Future of the Family Farm. The 90-some-page pocket-size book (it's like a li'l Willie you can carry with you everywhere!) is divided into two parts: the past (or the history of petroleum) and the future (in Willie's world, that's biodiesel). Thankfully there's also an afterword to talk about the other future ... you know, wind and ...
Topics: biofuels, books, celebrity, energy, green living, oil (all these topics)

Making do without Substitution isn't the solution to peak oil	JMG	17 Aug 2007	Gristmill
The growing recognition that the world is at or nearly at the all-time peak of conventional oil production (meaning from that point on, oil flows will inexorably decline at some unknown rate) has prompted a furious search for replacements, all intended to keep the high-carbon, high-flying, automobile lifestyle going. Like crack addicts warned of a future shortage, we are literally searching the corners of the Earth to figure out how we're going to get our fix when times is ...
Topics: energy, oil (all these topics)

The latest from peak oil land: ponies and lollipops! Except not really	David Roberts	17 Aug 2007	Gristmill
I don't do much writing about peak oil here. It's horrifically depressing, for one thing, and for another I doubt I could add to the comprehensive work being done at the Oil Drum and elsewhere. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. If you're like me and you only tune in to the issue occasionally, check out the latest from Michael Klare over at TomDispatch: "Tough oil on tap." It's a nice, fairly concise roundup of the latest reports and news from the peak ...
Topics: energy, oil (all these topics)

Um, If It's Not Too Much Trouble? EPA suggests wishy-washy compromise in Indiana BP permit mess		15 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
Um, If It's Not Too Much Trouble? EPA suggests wishy-washy compromise in Indiana BP permit mess Officials from the U.S. EPA have stepped in to quell the furor over a controversial permit the state of Indiana granted to a BP refinery. The permit will allow BP to discharge more ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan -- at legal limits, but increased over previous amounts. Residents and politicians in Indiana, Illinois, M ...
Topics: Big Oil, energy, Indiana, news, oil (all these topics)

Oopsy Daisy Alaskan study says 2 million gallons of oil, seawater spilled over 10 years		13 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
Oopsy Daisy Alaskan study says 2 million gallons of oil, seawater spilled over 10 years Did you hear about the 2-million-gallon spill in the Alaskan tundra? No, you didn't, because it happened slowly, from different sources, over the course of 10 years. A study by the state's Department of Environmental Conservation says spills on the North Slope between 1995 and 2005 included a 994,40 ...
Topics: Alaska, Big Oil, energy, news, oil, oil and gas drilling, wildlife (all these topics)

I had no idea Two crazy environmental stories via podcast	Maywa Montenegro	12 Aug 2007	Gristmill
I've been catching up on a backlog of podcasts this week (I haven't used my iPod in weeks; in New York City you almost feel alien if you walk the streets without cables in your ears). From one of my favorites, the NPR Environment podcast, two surprising stories.The first is from their excellent Climate Connections series, created in conjunction with National Geographic. Who knew that Nigeria's natural gas flares are so big they can be viewed from space? As horrify ...
Topics: energy, energy efficiency, natural gas, Nigeria, oil (all these topics)

The CEO of Ford Motor Co. ...	David Roberts	10 Aug 2007	Gristmill
.. wants a roughly $6-per-gallon tax on gas. That's the only way, he says, Americans will stop "demanding" gas-guzzling cars. No comment.
Topics: business, energy, oil (all these topics)

That Sounds Perhaps Not So Clean In need of a new solvent, dry cleaners turn to petroleum		10 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
That Sounds Perhaps Not So Clean In need of a new solvent, dry cleaners turn to petroleum As dry cleaners stop using the solvent perchloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen that's being phased out in California, New York, Toronto, and elsewhere, some are choosing a surprising replacement: petroleum-based solvents. Um ... what? Turns out petroleum was the solvent of choice in the industry's early years, un ...
Topics: Big Oil, fashion, greenwashing, health, news, oil (all these topics)

Engines could easily gulp less gas MIT lab rats cook up a less wasteful gasoline engine	Elsa Mary	03 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Don't hum the requiem for the gasoline engine just yet. MIT brainiacs say it's easier than imagined to flip a car between the usual gas-guzzling state to a low-pollution, ultra-efficient mode. The researchers have tested a system that can run on a quarter less than the usual amount of gas without needing any fancy fuel. With the flick of a switch, the setup alternates between regular, spark-triggered combustion and experimental homogeneous charge compression ignitio ...
Topics: cars, energy, fuel efficiency, green living, oil, placemaking (all these topics)

Pick your poison Ranking oil companies from evil to even more evil	Sarah van Schagen	01 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Get pumped: Sierra has updated its guide to choosing the least-evil gas stations. And they've condensed it to fit in a handy travel-sized package: a rearview-mirror air freshener, which could not be more appropriate considering how gassy Americans are. (We consume some 400 million gallons of crudeness a day!) Below, the top eight oil companies ranked from evil to even more evil:Top of the Barrel BP Sunoco Middle of the Barrel Royal Dutch Shell Chevron Va ...
Topics: business, energy, oil, shopping (all these topics)

Against a gas tax It's not the same as a carbon tax, and it's not cool	David Roberts	31 Jul 2007	Gristmill
I've noticed that lots of people talk about a carbon tax and a gas tax as if they're interchangeable, or the same thing, or connected parts of some larger package. That's bad. Please stop it. A carbon tax is just that: a tax on carbon content. It could take numerous forms, but it's generally agreed that the best would be to tax as far "upstream" as possible -- as close as possible to the sources of carbon-heavy fuels -- so as to minimize the number of taxe ...
Topics: carbon tax, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, oil (all these topics)

BP, coal plants dump mercury into Great Lakes Enemies of the human race	Jon Rynn	27 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Last week, I put up a post explaining that BP will be increasing their dumping of toxic waste into the Great Lakes. Congress overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning BP's dumping -- a resolution sponsored by Rahm Emanuel, a powerful Democratic Congressman. Now, thanks to some fine investigative reporting by the Chicago Tribune, we find out that BP has been dumping mercury as well, and will continue to do so: Federal records analyzed by the Tribune show B ...
Topics: business, coal, energy, mercury, oil, toxics, waste, water pollution (all these topics)

Twenty-two Hours of Darkness and Two of Light California utility commits to massive solar buy, B.C. deals with oil spill		25 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Twenty-two Hours of Darkness and Two of Light California utility commits to massive solar buy, B.C. deals with oil spill Call it the light and dark sides of the energy industry: yesterday, as news spread that a major California utility will make a ginormous solar buy, a British Columbia neighborhood was drenched in crude oil spewing from a broken pipe. Related? Only ...
Topics: British Columbia, California, energy, news, oil, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

More of NASA's James Hansen on Old King Coal How coal CO2 is different from oil CO2	Joseph Romm	24 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Our top climate scientist has sent out a really, really long email (where does he find the time?), mostly discussing comments on his recent essay on coal. I think Hansen is the clearest thinker on climate among the top scientists in the field, so I will reprint the email, breaking it up into several postings. The first one addresses "Coal-CO2 versus Oil-CO2": My statement that releasing a coal-CO2 molecule into the air is more harmful than setting ...
Topics: climate, coal, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, James Hansen, oil (all these topics)

BP means 'bad pollution' for the Great Lakes It's easy being not green	Jon Rynn	20 Jul 2007	Gristmill
Sleeping Bear Dunes, Lake Michigan. In an effort to keep expanding the flow of oil, companies such as BP have been trying to extract oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, which is like trying to drink coffee after you've dumped it into sand. The process is so energy-intensive that there is talk of putting the world's largest nuclear power plant on top of the tar sands in order to heat them up enough to use them, and lakes of toxic water have been created t ...
Topics: business, Chicago, oil, toxics, waste, water pollution (all these topics)

Mystery ads	David Roberts	19 Jul 2007	Gristmill
There's a series of very strange political videos out recently on YouTube. They parody Republicans, but purport to be campaign ads for Rudy Giuliani. Nobody knows who's making them, or why. So mysterious! This one's mildly amusing on global warming and oil: (h/t: reader KW)
Topics: climate, elections, energy, oil, politics, Rudy Giuliani, video (all these topics)

Eureka! I've discovered a phenomenal waste! Shell and Nat Geo team up to create 5.4 million pieces of trash	Erik Hoffner	18 Jul 2007	Gristmill
A rant: I'm a big National Geographic dork, so it pains me to kvetch about the ton of crap that comes with each issue. Once relieved of its 'recyclable' plastic baggie, the fumes usually make me want to hang it on the clothesline for a while to air out, and I would, except a zillion junky inserts would festoon the lawn (excepting the sometimes great map supplement). But this month's garbage haul topped it all, as a promotional DVD tumbled to the kitchen floor. Ca ...
Topics: green living, movies, oil, waste (all these topics)

Here's wishing you plentiful petroleum	David Roberts	18 Jul 2007	Gristmill
I give you Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey of gas prices: I'm hoping that consumers will see through the rhetoric about consuming less, demanding less, as faulty. It is not a given that consuming less will be good for our economy or for our personal freedom. It is not even established for our environment that we [should] deprive ourselves of gasoline for our personal mobility as well our commerce. And to suppose that it is good to do that, and pret ...
Topics: energy, oil (all these topics)

Beyond Pathetic BP allowed to increase waste discharges into Lake Michigan		17 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Beyond Pathetic BP allowed to increase waste discharges into Lake Michigan The ugly (and imaginary) conflict between environment and economy has reared its head in Indiana, where state and federal regulators granted exemptions that will allow oil giant BP to discharge more waste from a refinery straight into Lake Michigan. You may recall that BP is moving "Beyond Petroleum." Bu ...
Topics: Big Oil, business, Indiana, insanity, news, oil, water pollution (all these topics)

Replacing Oil With, Uh, More Oil National Petroleum Council pictures life after conventional crude		17 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Replacing Oil With, Uh, More Oil National Petroleum Council pictures life after conventional crude There's a new voice in the crowd shrieking about waning oil supplies: the National Petroleum Council. OK, they're not actually shrieking. But in a draft report released this week, the group -- headed by former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond -- confirms that conventional crude oil supplies ...
Topics: Big Oil, biofuels, coal, energy, energy efficiency, natural gas, news, oil (all these topics)

Study: Raising mileage standards creates jobs Contrary to what you might have heard	Joseph Romm	16 Jul 2007	Gristmill
A new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists finds: Increasing the average fuel economy of Americas new autos to 35 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2018 would save consumers $61 billion at the gas pump and increase U.S. employment by 241,000 jobs in the year 2020, including 23,900 in the auto industry ... The study is available here. According to the analysis, nearly $24 billion of the gasoline savings would become new revenue for automakers in 2020paying for the ...
Topics: cars, energy, fuel efficiency, oil (all these topics)

Whence It Came On biodegradable products	Umbra Fisk	11 Jul 2007	Ask Umbra
Dearest Umbra, With biodegradable corn-plastic products like clothes hangers, credit cards, and trash bags, we are led to believe there are good alternatives to plastic that can be thrown out guilt-free. But doesn't all trash get put in landfills that are then hermetically sealed to prevent the bad contaminants from leaching out, but hold in the things that would have been composting otherwise? I thought that was the reason to co ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, energy, green living, oil, recycling, shopping (all these topics)

Page:1 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 25		Results 326 – 350 of 620

Stories About: oil