May 6th, 2013

The Associated Press reports that oil and natural gas companies are using more solar power to provide electricity to power remote monitoring stations after the hydraulic fracturing crews have left.

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March 3rd, 2013

Dozens of people worried about the environmental effects of gas and oil drilling in the US, gathered at the Stop the Frack Attack conference in Dallas this weekend. Highlights included presentations by people whose water and land have been contaminated by fracking, and a Skype address by Gasland director Josh Fox, who urged people to “stand and fight.”

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January 23rd, 2013

Concerned about the heavy toll that carbon pollution is taking on the planet, students across the US are petitioning their colleges to divest from fossil fuels….By clicking on the link to their school, students are connected either to a petition they can sign, or a website for their campus group working for fossil fuel divestment.

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October 2nd, 2012

Beyond that brief mention at the Republican Convention when Mitt Romney won a laugh for quipping that Obama had promised to keep the oceans from rising, it’s impossible to name one other time when climate change dominated even 15 minutes of the daily election news cycle this past year.

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September 19th, 2012

Electric car supporters and companies have responded to a slap down by the Washington Post editorial board last week, which accused the Obama Administration of wasting money to help launch electric vehicles, such as GM’s Volt and Nissan’s Leaf.

The opinion piece “GM’s Vaunted Volt is on the Road to Nowhere Fast ” accused the administration both of having “paltry” goals for electric vehicles — 1 million by 2015 — and of spending too much money on subsidies for the new technology.

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August 31st, 2012

You know that argument about how the U.S. can’t really impact greenhouse gases because they’re spiraling out of control in other developing nations like China and India?
It’s illogical on its face, but that’s not stopping fossil fuel interests from pushing this idea.

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December 1st, 2011

ess than a month since the Obama Administration delayed the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline for at least a year, a group of GOP senators is trying to force the project to begin anyway.

The partisan showdown is led by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), minority chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. Supporters include 37 other senators, including those from Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, which would host segments of the 1,700 mile pipeline.

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March 30th, 2011

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Once again the U.S. finds itself caught in another “conflict” with petroleum as a backdrop. Whether you believe that we needed to intervene in Libya to protect innocent civilians, or that we’ve overstepped ourselves in the rush to protect our economic interests, you have to agree that Libya’s oil rich status makes it a “nation of interest.”

Is it really so difficult to know our motivations? Consider the parade of despots and the carnage caused by civil wars that we’ve been wiling to ignore. In Darfur. In Rwanda. (Also in selected Middle Eastern countries where despots make deals.) These nations have provoked no NATO military intervention. Notice their absence from the list of oil-producing nations.

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February 9th, 2011

The battle over climate change bubbled anew in Washington today as Congressional climate change skeptics, who want to restrict or remove the EPA’s authority to control carbon air pollution, presided over hearings on the issue.

The skeptics, led by Fred Upton, have said that the EPA does not have this authority, unless and until Congress directs and defines such regulation. Only then, should the EPA regulate the climate-changing carbon emissions from coal plants, oil refineries and auto and truck tailpipes.

Defenders of the EPA, though, point out that a core function of the agency is to assure that Americans have clean air and water, and that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA is responsible for setting standards around carbon pollution.

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October 26th, 2010

When the Prop 23 proponents launched their grenade to blow up California’s greenhouse gas emissions targets, they likely hoped that the measure would sail to victory during the traditional shakeup of midterm elections.

But according to a poll released Monday, it ain’t happening.

A new Los Angeles Times/ USC poll of likely voters shows that most do not agree with Prop 23, which would roll back California’s progressive carbon emissions standards. The poll found 48 percent opposed Prop 23, compared to 32 percent who were in favor. The remainder were undecided.

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September 13th, 2010

Still wondering where all the oil from the BP spill ended up? To the chagrin of those who would prefer to think it magically disappeared, scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico have uncovered a more unsettling answer in the form of a layer of oily sediment on the seafloor, stretching for dozens of miles in all directions from the blowout site.

“I’ve collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia.

Joye, aboard the Research Vessel Oceanus, is part of a team that left port on Aug. 21 to ascertain what happened to the more than four million barrels of oil that gushed from BP’s uncapped well. She describes seeing layers of oily material, sometimes up to more than two inches thick, covering the bottom of the seafloor. Right below it she finds much more typical seafloor mud in a layer that also includes recently dead shrimp, worms and other invertebrates.

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July 14th, 2010

Solar World AG, one of the largest solar PV manufacturers in the world with factories in California, Oregon and Washington, has scored a dream advocate for its products: J.R. Ewing. Actually, the spokesman is Larry Hagman, who played the oilman on the long-running Dallas series. Hagman reprises his oil baron role in an ad for Bonn-based Solar World, where someone obviously decided the possibilities were too rich to leave untapped.

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