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Speculators' Pogo Stick Sends Oil Prices Bouncing

What’s behind wild fluctuation in oil prices?

Fair Congressional Hearing or Puppet Show: You Decide

On Thursday morning, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, will begin a two-part hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) policies on mountaintop removal mining. The committee, chaired by Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) is calling the hearings “EPA Mining Policies: Assault on Appalachian Jobs – Part I and Part II.” Judging…

Dancing for Clean Air, Basque Style

Question: What happens when you mix Lady Gaga, clean air and a Basque flash mob? Answer: This video. Gipuzkoa Zero Waste, a group organized against a waste incineration plant that will be built in San Sebastian, Spain, spent seven months organizing the song and dance routine—which is set to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Bad…

Tr-Ash Talk: Another Lo-o-o-ng Delay

As we wait for federal standards to regulate coal ash, it seems that some states are following suit with delays on their standards as well. In Albany, the Environmental Conservation Commission announced plans to “carefully” examine an already long-delayed proposal to ban coal ash altogether (the federal proposal would regulate it as a hazardous waste)…

Asthma Awareness Month Begins with Sobering Reality

Asthma Awareness Month kicked off with grim news. The New York Times reports today that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that finds almost one in 12 Americans and one in 10 children are suffering the effects of asthma. The report showed that African-American children are most acutely affected, with nearly…

On World Asthma Day, a Visit to the White House

Alex Allred and her family are surrounded by cement. Not concrete, which is made from cement, but the big industrial facilities that crush and heat limestone to make cement. She lives in Midlothian, TX, an area known locally as “The Cement Capital of Texas,” a distinction that Alex and her family cannot appreciate. Her son…

This Is What Asthma Feels Like

In the words of asthma sufferers, asthma feels: “Like you’re in a pool of water. You can’t breathe. And when you try to breathe it don’t work.” “Like you put a pillow over your face and pushed it. It’s horrible! You feel desperate because you can’t breathe.” “Like you wish you could still be playing…

Air Pollution Sickens, But It Also Unites

The Clean Air Ambassadors who arrived yesterday in Washington, D.C. have some amazing stories to tell, and I spent the better part of yesterday hearing them. Alexandra Allred from Midlothian, TX described a day she spent outside with her son Tommy—a day when he didn’t suffer his usual respiratory issues and could play carefree, like…

50 States United for Healthy Air

More than half of U.S. residents—154 million people—suffer from polluted air that is often too dirty to breathe. This troubling statistic comes by way of the American Lung Association’s most recent State of the Air report. In 366 counties across the country, residents are inhaling dangerous levels of ozone pollution and fine particles, which are…