Articles by Sarah Laskow

Can luxury car brands market green vehicles?

Luxury car brands have a problem. They want to be green, honest! But luxury, according to The New York Times, means "bigger, stronger, faster." None of those adjectives translate into "fuel economy."

They're trying, though! Aston Martin, for instance, turned a tiny Toyota smart car into the fancy Cygnet, which has 1.3 liter engine. Mercedes is working on smaller cars, some with hybrid or electric engines. Lexus has a "compact luxury hybrid hatchback" (whatever that is).

California will ban BPA from baby cups

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that bans bisphenol A from baby bottles and sippy cups sold in the state, starting in July of 2013. The Environmental Working Group had been pushing the law, which is called the Toxin-Free Infants and Toddlers Act and requires that manufacturers sub in the "least toxic alternative available" for hormone-disrupting BPA.

Critical List: Texas drought creating baby animal shortage; Keystone XL doc on Oscar shortlist

The Texas drought has meant fewer births of adorable baby animals. Maybe the new climate lobby can include all of the internet.

Also joining the climate fight: yuppies and freelancers. Starbucks is worried about the future of its business model, as rising temperatures threaten coffee crops.

Democrats aren't the only ones who back clean energy projects that don't end up saving the world. Orrin Hatch, for instance, backed a company trying to develop a hybrid Hummer, which collapsed under the weight of its own irony.

China wants to dominate the global wind-turbine market, as well as the solar market.

The EPA doesn’t regulate farm dust, it regulates air pollution

One cardinal rule of American politics is "Thou shalt not piss off the farmers." (Remember how farms were going to get a free pass on cap-and-trade?) Conveniently for Republicans, earlier this year, air monitors in Arizona found high levels of particulate matter in the air, and the EPA traced it to farms and had to work with farmers to minimize the amount of dust their work was creating.

Now, Arizona is very, very dusty place, and particulate matter is a hazard to air quality. But for what a reasonable person can only assume were political reasons, Republicans started claiming that the EPA was going to start imposing "farm dust" regulations on Midwestern farms, and now they are trying to get Congress to vote against "farm dust" regulations.

Of course, these "farm dust regulations" don't govern farms or dust in particular.