July 10th, 2012

ITHACA, N.Y. – No matter how you drill it, using natural gas as an energy source is a smart move in the battle against global climate change and a good transition step on the road toward low-carbon energy from wind, solar and nuclear power.

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March 27th, 2012

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to impose a limit on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants, a strict new regulation that could prevent conventional coal-fired power plants from being built. In new rules to be announc…

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January 20th, 2012

Groups protesting natural gas drilling have focused on the threat to water supplies. They point to the modern drilling or “fracking” methods, which shatter rock deep beneath the earth, opening fissures that threaten water stores; and they cite cases of wells being contaminated near fracking operations in Pennsylvania and Wyoming.
Now new research by three Cornell University scientists suggests that fracking could cause even more havoc with the atmosphere

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September 20th, 2011

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold three public hearings in September on the agency’s proposed standards to reduce air pollution from oil and gas drilling operations. The proposed standards would rely on cost-effective, existing technologies and practices to reduce pollution that contributes to smog and can cause cancer, while supporting the administration’s priority of continuing to expand safe and responsible domestic oil and natural gas production.

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April 6th, 2011

Clean air. Is it good for the economy or a drag on the economy?

That is the fair, but complex question under consideration in Congress this week, as several lawmakers try to conscript the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act. Their attacks on the EPA have come in the form of separate bills and as riders to the overall budget bill which must be passed in some form to keep the government operating. (Presumably the riders would skate through, though these riders are more like flares, which everyone can see coming.)

Those fighting the EPA’s plan to regulate carbon pollution — ok let’s just say it out loud Greenhouse Gas Emissions — say that it amounts to over-regulation, will cost businesses dearly and cut into their ability to hire employees. At its most frenzied, this argument seems to pit the EPA against the well-being of the U.S. domestic economy. It’s a worthy point for debate. But it’s been entirely overblown. And the flip side, the harm that can come from ignoring air pollution has been ignored. Is it possible that air pollution, which hurts people and communities could be the real enemy of businesses also?

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December 13th, 2010

Miles Grant, National Wildlife Federation

Is regular coal not dirty enough for you? Meet liquid coal fuel! Destructive to mine, water-intensive to manufacture, devastating to our climate at every step of the way – liquid coal is one of the world’s dirtiest fuels. Liquid coal production emits twice as much global warming pollution as gasoline & requires at least four gallons of water per gallon of fuel produced.

Today the National Wildlife Federation has learned the Senate version of tax legislation includes subsidies for liquid coal fuels. Section 704 of the Senate tax bill as written right now would extend the Alternative Fuel Tax Credit to liquid coal, giving a 50-cent tax credit for each gallon of liquid coal sold or used in a fuel mixture. While many senators have fought to include important clean energy provisions in the the tax package, the National Wildlife Federation strongly opposes expanding alternative fuel tax credits to cover dirty liquid coal.

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December 3rd, 2010

The world is meeting in Cancun this week to talk climate change. Is there any hope of a large-scale agreement on capping emissions around the world? Most pundits would say no.

Why can’t we agree to do something? The answers are varied and all contain some truth. There are, for example…

- The inherent challenges of tackling a problem so diffuse and long-term with responsibility laying with all 7 billion of us

- Psychological barriers to change

- A media that paints all issues as having two equal sides even if it’s 99 to 1
- Powerful, vested interests in the old, fossil-fuel-based economy

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November 8th, 2010

David Doniger (Photo: Matt Greenslade)

Texas, together with a slew of industry associations and right-wing groups, has brought a blizzard of lawsuits to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s initial steps to reduce the dangerous pollution that is driving global warming.

As President Obama said yesterday, EPA is carrying out its responsibilities under the Clean Air Act and the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA.

The lawsuits, I’ve observed, mainly serve as fashion accessories to dress up the big polluters’ lobbying campaign to attack the Clean Air Act and keep EPA from doing its job – a campaign we can expect to continue in the next Congress. But as fashion accessories, the lawsuits have a “see-thru” problem.

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October 14th, 2010

The EPA’s decision to increase the allowable percentage of ethanol in gasoline to 15 percent has ignited a fiery debate among America’s mega-industrial interests. Watching the Titans queue up on their respective sides of this issue has been almost embarrassing; there are so many nakedly exposed agendas and odd alliances.
What’s not so amusing are the serious environmental consequences of both the production and combustion of ethanol. But first let’s sort out the teammates.

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September 7th, 2010

New government labels are coming for cars and they could clearly send some vehicles straight to the head of the class, while others wind up just a grade away from detention.

These new labels, developed by the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Environmental Protection, are designed to make it clearer for consumers where a car stands on the spectrums of fuel economy, carbon emissions and energy use. The idea is to help people compare vehicles across types, which can be tricky under the current system, which displays a car’s EPA-figured gas mileage on the retail sticker sheet plastered to the side window.

One new label under consideration grades the vehicle for energy use and emissions.

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June 3rd, 2010

While some U.S. senators struggle to find a way forward on climate action, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has stepped into the fray to call for a time out.
Murkowski, in fact, has been in the fray for a while. And while she’s not alone — many others in Congress have said they’re more concerned about slowing government regulations than slowing climate change — she has recently distinguished herself as one of the strongest opponents of controls on carbon pollution.

Murkowski, a longtime, ardent supporter of oil drilling, has become more vocal in the past year in her efforts to keep industry free of strong environmental controls. In January, she proposed stripping the EPA of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. More recently, she’s lamented that the BP oil disaster has temporarily halted exploratory offshore drilling in the arctic planned by Shell Oil for this summer; a topic that even many conservative opponents of climate action have remained silent on in the face of the ongoing historic, despoiling of the gulf.

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April 12th, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports Outdoor footwear and apparel company Timberland says it reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 36 percent in 2009 over 2006 levels, citing improvements at its own facilities and a reduction in employee air travel. The company has set a goal of reducing emissions by 50 percent by the end of this [...]

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