Uncategorized

Giant pond of coal ash escapes, floods Tennessee homes

A giant flood of coal ash — the toxic sludge left over after coal burning — broke through an earthen retaining wall at a plant in Harriman, Tenn., Monday. Five […]

TVA coal disaster is toxic wake-up call

An estimated 500 million gallons of coal-ash sludge are seeping along the I-40 Knoxville-Nashville corridor in eastern Tennessee, after an earthen wall gave way on Dec. 22 at the TVA […]

Politico lets shill get away with the basic dodge at the center of the ‘clean coal’ campaign

The "clean coal" PR people are running a scam. Thing is, it’s an obvious scam — easily exposed, easily debunked. Just because it’s obvious, though, doesn’t mean the media won’t […]

Gingrich summarizes the state-of-the-art delayer line

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to respond to this interview with Newt Gingrich, but to be honest, Gingrich’s sociopathic dishonesty fills me with such revulsion that I […]

The economy is an ecosystem, and industrial policy will help that ecosystem

Back in the 1980s, writers such as Robert Reich were advocating what was called an “industrial policy” — that is, the government should intervene in the economy and explicitly help […]

What U.S. leaders could learn from a 13-year-old

Under the blunt title “Ethanol is Stupid,” a letter in the Concord Monitor makes a cogent case against corn-based ethanol: Most ethanol is made from corn. However, that corn must […]

Air in 46 U.S. metro areas exceeds allowable soot levels

Over 100 million people in the United States, nearly one-third of its population, live in metro areas that violate federal standards for daily soot pollution on at least some days, […]

Falling out of love with cars

Jon Rynn suggested that this comment to another thread be posted, so, by request, a repeat for the holidays! I would have posted it yesterday but we had a long […]

An antidote to Kunstler?

Sharon Astyk has graced these pages. She is the anti-Kunstler. Whereas JHK can get people gritting their teeth and swearing by quoting "Reader’s Digest," Sharon has a way of making […]

New NOAA head will have plenty of work to do

President-elect Barack Obama’s appointment of Jane Lubchenco, an Oregon State University marine biologist, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could be a major positive step for protecting America’s […]