As Europe Reels From E. Coli, Problems with Food Safety in the U.S.

As a scary E. coli outbreak spreads across Europe, health authorities in the EU are coming to grips with the fact that the transnational body may not be ready to investigate and stop a major foodborne illness. But surely we’d do better if a similar outbreak occurred in the U.S. Right? Maybe not. We’re lucky [...]

President Obama, Vaclav Smil and the Energy Budget

Speaking at George Washington University today on the nation’s finances, President Obama drew a line in the sand, promising to protect Medicare and Medicaid from Republican budget cuts. But at the same time, Obama didn’t play down the severity of the country’s debt woes, pledging to cut a combined $4 trillion from the U.S. budget [...]

How the War Against the EPA Has Helped Lead to a Budget Showdown

As I write this, House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama seem to still be engaged in last-minute negotiations to stave off a government shutdown. Will it work? I have no idea—this is one of those days when I’m glad that I’m not a DC reporter. But it’s worth noting that one of the [...]

Worried about the Federal Debt? Then You Should Be Worried About the Natural Debt Too

I have a Going Green column on the Time.com mainpage about the similarities between the federal debt every politician in Washington claims to be worried about, and the debt to nature that almost no one is talking about. They’re remarkable similar. As a country, we’ve run up a massive federal debt in part because we’ve [...]

Politics: Obama’s Budget Giveth and Taketh from Energy and the Environment

It’s Budget Day in Washington, when policy wonks break out the calculators that have the “trillions” button and decide whether we’ll have six more weeks of winter, or six decades more of crippling budget deficits. Actually, today is the day President Obama released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2012, which you can explore in [...]

Politics: The State of the Union Is All About Energy—Not Climate

Tonight’s State of the Union may be remembered as the moment when the White House stopped working on climate—and started working on energy. Of course, it’s not quite that simple. Whatever initiatives President Obama chooses to launch with his annual speech, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will likely keep working on greenhouse gas regulations, the [...]