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Will Deadly Air Pollution Settle in Virginia?
Jamestown, VA is a fixture of American history. Founded more than 400 years ago, it was the first permanent English settlement in what became the United States. Today, not far from there, The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative is looking to make history of a different kind. It wants to build what would be the largest…
Read MoreThe Death Of The Automobile
Friends of the Earth New Zealand has just published a short, dense booklet that no one will want to read but that everyone should. “Cars at the End of an Era–Transport Issues in the New Zealand Greenhouse” by Dr. John Robinson makes a very convincing case that the days of both the private automobile and…
Read MoreLife, Liberty and the Right to Breathe
Nobody gets through a day without breathing. Not executives in the coal-fired power and cement industries, which are polluting our air daily. Not the legion of lobbyists they hire to patrol the halls of Congress in defense of dirty air. And not the members of Congress who, hand-in-hand with these special interests, are marching the…
Read MoreColorado Roadless Areas on the Chopping Block (Again)
Colorado is the most populous, developed state in the Rocky Mountain West. Despite all the cities and towns, highways, oil rigs and second homes, about 4.4 million acres of roadless national forest remain. And that’s in addition to the 3 million-plus acres of existing wilderness. These roadless lands – which safeguard clean water, wildlife habitat and recreation –…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: EPA Delays Leave Americans at Risk
Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released final assessment reports that detail the structural integrity of 38 coal ash dams. The agency began inspecting coal ash dams in May 2009, and EPA contractors have, to date, completed assessments of 228 dams. Of these 228 coal ash dams, EPA inspectors gave a rating of “poor” to…
Read MoreThe Good, the Bad and the Melting
Some good things happened this last week at the Arctic Council ministerial meeting in Nuuk, Greenland, but the sense of urgency to protect the world’s last great wilderness from the ravages of resource extraction – and to slow Arctic warming and melting – was lacking. Among the good things that happened in Nuuk: Not only…
Read MoreMelting of Greenland A Warning For The Planet
From the Kangerlussuaq airport, at 67 degrees North in Greenland… It’s four hours to New York and five to Moscow, but only three to the North Pole. People are speaking Danish and the language of the Inuit people. I’m writing at the airport on my way home from the Arctic Council ministerial meeting, held in the capital, Nuuk, about…
Read MoreLives Threatened by EPA's Indefinite Delay on Clean Air
Shame on the Environmental Protection Agency. Yesterday afternoon, the agency decided that it would postpone indefinitely a new health standard finalized a few months ago that would reduce toxic air pollution from industrial boilers. These small power plants are used at larger industrial facilities like oil refineries and chemical plants—more than 13,000 of them are…
Read MoreWhat Bill Gates Should Know About Solar Energy
Former Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates gave a talk last month at TED on Climate Change. His overall point was dead on—we need big solutions for a big problem. And he’s a man who is willing to back what he speaks about financially. But it was interesting to see him dismiss the small steps in a somewhat cynical fashion, characterizing home installations of solar panels as an ineffectual fad for the rich.
Read MoreUnplugged: Reading the Fine Print on New TV labels
A law that took effect last week requires new televisions for sale in retail showrooms to carry yellow Energy Guide labels, allowing consumers to evaluate and compare how much energy different models use and how much they cost to operate each year. My colleague Liz Judge blogged about the impact of these labels previously. The…
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