The President continues his stealth green initiative—tightening fuel economy standards for cars and trucks
carbon footprint
Clean Coal Canceled Thanks to Poor Policy
If Congress had the wherewithal to establish a robust energy and climate change policy, there might have been a transformative bit of construction underway right now, next to the towering Mountaineer coal power plant, in New Haven, West Va. Mountaineer, like nearly every other coal plant in the world, pours tons of carbon into the …
Frack: Is Shale Natural Gas Worse for the Climate Than Coal?
Natural gas is riding high. Long an overlooked energy source, gas is suddenly front and center in the energy picture—in a presidential address, in the business world, on the cover of Time magazine. That’s mostly due to shale gas—new deposits of natural gas found throughout much of the country, and tapped via hydraulic fracturing. …
What’s the Cost of Shifting Away from Nuclear Power?
The news from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan just keeps getting worse. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that at least a “partial meltdown” seemed to be happening, and today the U.S. government advised its citizens to stay at least 50 miles away from the Fukushima plant. The worst-case scenario—a release of a large amount …
Why Men Are Worse for the Planet
A guest post from TIME’s Tara Kelly:
There’s a long history of research that reveals women are the greener gender-at least when it comes to their attitudes and preferences. But now a study published by France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economics shows that the fairer sex’s environmental conscience may actually …
Electronics: Why Your Mac May Not Be as Clean As You Think
If, like me, you’ve contracted an unbreakable addiction to Apple products, then this really is the most wonderful time of the year. As always, Steve Jobs has timed the release of some new products for the holiday season, including the ultra-light MacBook Air which—full disclosure—I’m typing this blog post on right now. Add that to …
Energy: The Future Will Be a Gas
That was one message from yesterday’s Energy Innovation 2010 summit at the National Press Club in Washington, put on by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Breakthrough Institute. And it came from a high-level source: Nobel Prize-winning physicist Burton Richter. Richter—who helped put together a group of 34 …
Transportation: GM Goes Green, Gets Green
When executives from General Motors visited the trading floors of JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley—the two firms handling the auto company’s initial public offering—they were given a standing ovation from the bankers. Maybe the rest of us should join in. Less than a year and a half after the company declared bankruptcy and …
Water: New York City Wants to Make Water Fountains the Norm
You remember water fountains, right? If your grade school experience was anything like mine (Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Class of ’93!), you’ll recall getting your water not from a plastic Evian bottle, but straight from the ceramic fountain—usually kid-sized. The same went for parks, museums and public buildings—water fountains were …