Articles by Adam Browning

Drink beer, fight climate change

Many efforts to fight climate change involve some kind of sacrifice. This invention, however, merely requires the drinking of lots and lots of beer. I see it as a game-changer in the debate over the best way to incentivize a solar market.

Or how to prove you’re even dumber than your opponents

There are a lot of things I miss about Bill Clinton. "Triangulation" is not one of them.

For those unfamiliar with the term, triangulation is the political strategy by which a candidate takes the stupidest ideas of his/her opponent and adopts them as his/her own, thus depriving one's opponent of a monopoly on stupidity and dispelling any misconception that you might be a candidate of substance and principle.

If you remember, after the spectacular rise of the charismatic Bill Clinton, political consultants identified "triangulation" as the key to his victory. A cynical person might say that's because consultants can make more money telling would-be candidates how to triangulate than how to be as charismatic as Bill.

Anyway, that's what I think is behind Hillary's embrace of the gas-tax holiday. Beh.

Shorter ‘stache

Shorter Tom Friedman: "Tax the things we don't want, don't tax the things we do want, and don't be so freakin' stupid."

Amen to that, though his fantasy solution of George Bush being the one to "get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise" is a bit odd. Those waiting for that to happen might find this illuminating.

I suggest that Tom atone by joining this very excellent organization.

Renewable energy standard passed in Ohio

Ohio gets 87 percent of its electricity from coal (and the rest is mostly nukes), putting it in the upper echelon of coal-using states in the nation (No. 2 behind Texas, to be precise).

And that, friends, is about to change, because yesterday the Ohio Legislature passed a renewable energy standard requiring utilities to provide 12.5 percent of Ohio's electricity from clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar by 2025. This bill has a solar-specific requirement that will result in about 594 MW of solar in the Buckeye State. Not too shabby! Kudos to Environment Ohio and the thousands of other activists that worked hard to make it happen.

Next, the bill lands on Gov. Strickland's desk. If you like, take a moment to email the governor to thank him for making clean energy a top priority and encourage him to take the final step of signing this bill into law.