Gristmill Blog
gristmill.com
New Jetta performs exactly as expected
By biodiversivist
I just encountered a typical lay media puff piece about the 2009 diesel Jetta, which won the Green Car award this year.
Did you know that the next generation of diesel-powered cars and SUVs is 98 percent cleaner than diesels sold just two years ago?
No, but I also didn't know...
What to expect when you're expecting an increased Democratic majority in the Senate
By Kate Sheppard
TAPPED's Tim Fernholz posts a list of the first 10 bills that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning to move on in the 111th Congress, according to Democratic aides. Energy and environmental issues will be addressed by some of the legislation, including the...
The market myth
By David Roberts
If I could persuade everyone in America to read a single paragraph, it would be the second 'graph in Dean Baker's new piece in the Boston Review: "Free Market Myth."
Here it is:
In general, political debates over regulation have been wrongly cast as disputes over the extent of...
Amtrak arrests its own contest participant
By JMG
Getting a grip on climate chaos is going to require a functioning rail system -- one that people will willingly use.
Would such a system arrest photographers participating in its own annual photo contest?
Every time Amtrak falls apart -- which typically occurs on days ending in "y"...
Obama's USDA search: not over?
By Tom Philpott
Obama's nomination of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as USDA chief is turning into a strange saga.
First a crew of Big Organic execs join forces with a few activists to launch an enigmatic Web site to "support Vilsack" -- even though he's a shoo-in for confirmation.
Now comes...
Huff Po blows it
By Andrew Dessler
This post was co-written with David Roberts.
Recently Harold Ambler, climate crank and proprietor of TalkingAboutTheWeather.com, published an essay on Huffington Post replete with gross factual errors about the science of climate change.
Word is that this was an editorial...
Spitzer seeks plug-in stimulation
By Kate Sheppard
Newly minted Slate columnist Eliot Spitzer (yep, that one) has some deep thoughts about, ahem, stimulus. He says the big bucks should be spent on transforming the economy rather than on repairing the bridges, buildings, and other infrastructure of yesteryear, and he names two...
Why is dirty coal winning?
By David Roberts
Two Stanford scholars have taken to the pages of Newsweek to pen a piece on "clean coal" that embodies all the pretzel logic surrounding that subject.
It's called "Dirty Coal Is Winning" -- and the reason dirty coal is winning, we're told, is that we're not dumping enough money...
'More energy'
By David Roberts
If you think of U.S. energy policy in Freudian terms, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour represents the pure, unbridled id. His energy strategy for the state? "More energy."
If you're wondering what that means, he spells it out:
Mississippi has large deposits of lignite coal,...
Wait and Pelosi
By Kate Sheppard
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday said she has enough votes in the House to pass cap-and-trade legislation aimed at curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, but she's not certain Democrats will be able to do that in 2009.
"I'm not sure this year, because I don't know if we'll be...
Support Vilsack?
By Tom Philpott
A group of NGO chiefs, activists, and Big Organic executives have launched a website and petition to support Tom Vilsack, president-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead USDA.
Participants in the site, known as supportvilsack.com, include Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the...
Bennet connections
By Kate Sheppard
While we don't know much about the environmental stances of newly appointed Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D), we do know that the man who will fill Ken Salazar's seat has at least one interesting tie to the green community.
His wife, Susan Daggett, is an environmental lawyer...
Exclusive analysis, Part 1
By Joseph Romm
A new study [PDF] puts the generation costs for power from new nuclear plants at from 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour -- triple current U.S. electricity rates!
This staggering price is far higher than the cost of a variety of carbon-free renewable power sources available today --...
Team of rivals blah blah
By David Roberts
Last week John Broder wrote in The New York Times about contrasting views on climate policy among two top Obama administration officials: economic team leader Larry Summers, who favors "safety valves," slow phase-ins, and caution, and climate/energy czar empress Carol...
Lost in translation?
By Joseph Romm
An AP report is generating headlines around the world:
Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy ...
According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells...