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Coal plants don’t create the jobs they promise, study finds
Coal-fired power plants sicken and kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, especially those (generally low-income, often minority) Americans who have the misfortune of living near them. So why would any community allow a coal plant to be built in its midst? Indeed, why would communities pay enormous amounts of money in bribes development […]
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Peak Oil, not Libya, is the reason you’re paying more at the pump
The further into the post-carbon age we grind, the more mainstream the notion of peak oil becomes. Long derided because it runs contrary to the only two things more American than football and corn syrup — that would be endless economic expansion and our right to commute 90 minutes a day, should we so choose […]
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Senator from Louisiana wants to drill for oil in Alaska
David Vitter (R-La.) has 28 cosponsors on a bill in the Senate that would block EPA climate regulations (par for the course), expand offshore oil exploration (how soon we forget), and … open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. It's the political football that just won't go away. If this country is around […]
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Solar could save Minnesota schools millions
This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Currently, Minnesota’s public schools spend approximately $84 million per year on electricity costs, money diverted from the classroom. But a bill to make clean, local energy accessible now (CLEAN) could help the state’s public schools use […]
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Me, on TV, talking Obama’s energy plan [VIDEO]
Yesterday I appeared on The Alonya Show, a political talk show on the RT (previously Russia Today) global news network, talking about Obama’s new energy plan: If I’d known I was going to be on TV, I might have showered. And put on a decent shirt. And shrunk my enormous head. One thing I’d add: […]
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Small number of senators ready to act like grownups
In the midst of a hair-pulling, face-scratching tussle over the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases, a number of senators are looking into reviving 2008’s bipartisan “energy gang.” The last gang crumbled under bickering about high gas prices — but not before swelling its ranks to 20 senators, and putting forth a bipartisan plan that […]
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Where does Obama stand on climate change?
Obama didn’t say much about climate change in his speech yesterday, even as he laid out some ambitious energy goals. This leaves the media and activists guessing at what his next move will be — he’s a sort of Schroedinger’s President, who can be interpreted as a climate hawk or a climate wuss. Here are […]
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Obama needs to stop propping up inefficient cars and dirty coal
We’ve got to clean up our cars, and do away with some clunkers.Photo: Mary Anne EnriquezCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. President Obama today renewed his call to move America forward by reducing our dependence on imported oil and dirty coal at a Georgetown University speech. Meanwhile at the other end of town, members […]
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The safest place in Japan right now might be inside a nuke plant
Just 75 miles from where workers try to stave off nuclear disaster at Fukushima, another nuke plant is doing double duty as a tsunami shelter. The nuclear facility at Onagawa is currently home to 240 people displaced from the local town, who are hanging around watching TV and making phone calls while they wait to […]
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How to get cleaner cars and use less foreign oil
This post was coauthored by Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope and League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski. It was cross-posted from the Center for American Progress. America is suffering from another oil price shock less than three years after prices hit a record of $147 per barrel in July 2008. Over the past month, […]
