Uncategorized Archives

State of the Union: President Promises A Clean Energy Future

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama rightly spoke about the importance of growing a clean energy economy. Dedicating a chunk of his speech to the promise of the clean energy sector of the economy and the necessity for us as a nation to invest in this sector, the president…

Monday Reads: The Pigs and Toilets Edition

As anyone who has been lucky enough to pass by a factory farm can attest, Confined Animal Factory Operations (or CAFOs) bring a certain…fragrance to the surrounding environs.

Trading Clean Energy for a Lump of Coal

The Union of Concerned Scientists has a snazzy new interactive slideshow on its website, highlighting states that are bypassing opportunities to ditch dirty coal and embrace clean energy. The slideshow is both interesting and an office-safe distraction good for at least a five-minute break from your spreadsheet formulas. Go ahead, call it up on your…

Mark Rey, Green Lobbyist?

Thanks to an email from my old friend George Alderson, I nearly dropped my teeth the other day. You may remember. In the gallery of baddies service in the G.W. Bush administration, the one most reviled by the environmental movement—or certainly one of the most reviled—was Mark Rey, Under Secretary of the Department of Agricuture,…

MTR Mining Update: Watching the Groundswell for Change

Movement to stop the destruction picks up after historic EPA action on MTR

Friday Finds: Celebrity Frackdown

Celebrity disses hydraulic fracturing Forget traipsing around a creepy island with Leonardo DiCaprio. Actor Mark Ruffalo recently went on a much more daring crusade in his latest roll as a passionate environmental advocate speaking out against the practice of hydraulic fracturing, according to HuffPo. After attending an NYC event called “Fracking and Its Effects: A…

Oil Commission Warns Drillers To Slow Down and Wise Up

Despite obvious differences, the icy Arctic Ocean and the warm, deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico have an important commonality: we aren’t prepared to safely drill for oil in either place. Last year’s Gulf spill – which killed 11 rig workers and fouled waters that nourish ecosystems and economies alike – is a harsh…

Tr-Ash Talk: Please, Not in Their Backyard

(This is the latest in a weekly series of 50 Tr-Ash Talk blogs discussing the dangers of coal ash. Earthjustice hopes that by December 2011, the third anniversary of the TVA coal ash spill, the EPA will release a coal ash rule establishing federally enforceable regulations ensuring the safe disposal of this toxic waste.) The average home…