Marcellus Protest/CC BY 2.0We've followed the effort in Vermont to ban fracking (now complete, the first state to do so) for some time, so I won't rehash it all beyond reminding people that considering the state's (very) limited natural gas resources, yes, it is all largely symbolic—and that symbolism is important.Since we've known that the ban has been coming for some time, the thing that really has caught my attention in all of it is not the ban itself but a statement by Governor Shumlin.AP re...

© AppleApple is taking great strides to disprove Greenpeace's accusations that its large Maiden, NC data center will be powered mostly by coal. Yesterday the company posted a new page to its website outlining the use of renewable energy at its data centers, revealing some exciting information.The company had already announced plans to build a 20 MW solar array installation and a 5 MW fuel cell installation at the NC data center, which will be the largest private solar array and the largest non-u...

Ethical Electric, a new venture by progressive activist Tom Matzzie, aims to transform how Americans get power. The company is electricity-delivery company that will provide 100-percent renewable electricity to its members, while also mobilizing them on progressive energy and climate action. in an interview with Good’s Sarah Laskow, Matzzie describes how he began working on Ethical Electric when his father, who had spent his life downwind of a coal-fired power plant, died of cancer in 2010: I’d...

By Eric W. DolanWednesday, April 4, 2012 22:33 EDT Actor Mark Ruffalo appeared Wednesday on MSNBC to discuss his campaign against hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, a controversial method of natural gas extraction. “Everywhere we’ve done it there has been contamination,” he said. “You have to ask yourself: ‘If we could do it safely, why aren’t we doing it? Why is this industry asking to be exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Hazardous Waste Act, the S...

Toyota Europe's Flickr page/viaA popular criticism of hybrid and fuel efficient cars goes like this: If your car is more fuel efficient, and you know you're saving money on gas, you'll be more inclined to drive more—thus negating any energy and carbon savings you had.Called the 'Prius fallacy', it's a variation of the 'rebound effect', which posits that any energy savings we gain from more efficient technologies will be promptly negated by our using more energy (either elsewhere, or by doing mor...

Ulrich Joho/CC BY-SA 2.0Word is in that the EPA's long-awaited rules on greenhouse gas emissions are finally going to be unveiled this week. The Washington Post reports: The Environmental Protection Agency will issue the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants as early as Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the proposal. The move could end the construction of new conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States.The proposed rule — years in the making and...

Upon receiving the latest bad climate news from scientists, I have composed a post that accurately reflects what our reaction should be. Stop reading now if you are offended by four-letter words, or by news that the world as we know it is quite likely to end in a number of decades.Fuck.Not that this is a surprise or anything. But scientists now say the planet is getting close to the point of being so fucked by climate change that nothing we do will be able to unfuck it. If greenhouse fucking gas...

Exxon Mobil, the most profitable of the big five oil companies, made $41.1 billion in profits last year. Although Exxon made 35 percent more profits since 2010, its estimated effective tax rate actually dropped. Citizens for Tax Justice reported Exxon paid only 17.6 percent taxes in 2010, lower than the average American, and a Reuters analysis using the same criteria estimates that Exxon will pay only 13 percent in effective taxes for 2011. Exxon paid zero taxes to the federal government in 2009...

Switch Off the Lights for Earth Hour 2012 March 31, 2012 at 8:30pm. Wherever you live. Come as you are! More than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011 alone, sending a powerful message for action on climate change. It also ushered in a new era with members going “Beyond the Hour” to commit to lasting action for the planet. Without a doubt, it’s shown how great things can be achieved when people come together for a common cause. So...

President Barack Obama’s visit to Cushing, Oklahoma, the “Pipeline Crossroads for the World,” took him to ground zero for climate disasters in the United States. Since 2007, Cushing alone has been hit by disastrous drought, severe summer storms, ice storms, and wildfire. The state of Oklahoma — home to the country’s most visible climate denier and oil industry apologist, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) — has the greatest density of disaster declarations in the country, an analysis by Environment America ...

Speaking in Cushing, OK, President Barack Obama touted his administration’s record of a huge boom in the U.S. oil and gas industry, dismissing concerns about accelerating climate change: We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We have quadrupled number of operating rigs to a record high. We have added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the earth and then some. So we are drilling all over the place, right now. That’s not the challenge. That’s not th...

Wyoming: Upper Green River Valley/CC BY 1.0Air pollution caused by fracking may contribute to acute and chronic health problems for people living near (within a half mile) of natural gas drilling sites, according to a new study from the Colorado School of Public Health. Air pollutants around the drilling sites were measured at five times federal standards, adding to the argument for a stricter requirement for how far gas wells should be drilled from residential areas.The study, which was based o...

Coal trains in Wyoming. Photo: KimonBerlin via Flickr/CC BY 2.0Wyoming's Powder River Basin is home to 10 of the nation's largest coal mines. That coal is shipped across the country and then shoveled into some of our biggest, dirtiest power plants. Together, they generate 40% of the nation's electricity—and the pollution that spews forth as the coal is burned kills thousands of people every year. To get an uncomfortably precise idea of where it's having the most devastating impact, just look ove...

Scott Feldstein/CC BY 2.0Back in 2010 I argued that environmentalism was not socialist and that we all, right wingers and left wingers alike, have a shared interest in keeping our planet a hospitable place to live.We Must Reform Our EconomyBut I am increasingly aware that we can't avoid asking the big questions about what constitutes a sensible way to structure our economy. If we want to secure a prosperous future for our children, we must shape our political and economic systems so they encoura...

Sami Grover/CC BY 2.0When we posted our guide for communities and landowners on fracking, one of the most important recommendations was that people should go into any discussion of fracking with their eyes wide open, and preferably accompanied by a lawyer.It would seem that this observation would hold true not just for landowners and community members, but investors too. At least that's the case if Jeff Goodell of Rolling Stone is to be believed. In an incendiary piece entitled The Big Fracking ...

For the last two weeks, everybody's been talking gas. Just about all of the typical observations and allegations about prices at the pump have been made: They're going up! They might break records by summer! They might cripple the rebounding economy! It's all Obama's fault! Big Oil profits with high prices, so end its handouts!But there's one thing that isn't being addressed nearly as prominently as it should be—and that's the fact that a new report confirms that the Keystone XL would cause gas ...

Deegan Marie/CC BY-ND 2.0This is the second part in a series about what actually determines the price of gasoline. See the first part here.Financial speculationFinancial speculators gamble on the oil futures market, effectively spurring the market price to rise and fall apart from the laws of supply and demand. Experts assert that net impact has typically been the overinflation of the price of oil. The U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders recently penned an op-ed in CNN describing the impact this process...

The price of gasoline is one of the most important variables in daily American life. The vast majority of Americans own cars—there are some 240 million of them on the road—and rely on them to commute to work and for general transportation. Whenever gas prices get too high, it can cause an economic shock for hundreds of millions of people. So whenever those prices show signs of heading towards the $4 a gallon mark, a mild panic ensues. Typically, it arises from the genuine concern of ordinary cit...

NASA/Public DomainBelieve it or not, there are Republican climate scientists out there—but their elected leaders just won't listen to them.There's been a sharp rightward drift in the GOP since the rise of the Tea Party, and one of the issues they've hammered hardest is climate change. In the grip of the Tea Party GOP, it's become standard practice to proclaim global warming a hoax (see: Rick Santorum) to prove one's ideological purity.So for the last three years, the prospect of enacting the nee...

Mr Empey/CC BY 2.0The Alberta Oil Sands have been called "the most destructive project on earth" and now, there's a new item on the list of economic and environmental costs. Last year, Canada Wildlife Officers shot 145 problematic black bears in the region.A bad berry crop last summer and careless handling of food and trash at the miner camps have been blamed for the dramatic increase in bear encounters. In 2010, 52 black bears where shot."It’s a very disturbing fact to hear and it’s one more co...