In a big step forward to protect Americans’ health and well-being, EPA is announcing today a two-year plan to set clean air standards for power plants and oil refineries, the two largest industrial sources of the dangerous pollution that drives global warming.   

Following on the heels of the Obama administration’s breakthrough clean car standards, EPA is now taking the next logical steps under the Clean Air Act and...

Updated: December 22, 2010

NRDC supports federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act. We believe this is a sensible approach that would ensure a minimum federal floor of drinking water protection in the more than 30 states where oil and gas production occurs. 

Opponents of such regulation claim that hydraulic fracturing has never caused any drinking water contamination. They say this because incidents of drinking water contamination where hydraulic fracturing is considered as a suspected cause have...

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Calcars.org founder Felix Kramer tells the plug-in hybrid story in this re-post.  For background, see “...

Last week Nature published a study, “Greenhouse gas mitigation can reduce sea-ice loss and increase polar bear persistence” (subs. req’d).  The journal had a pretty sensational cover, with a polar bear and the compelling headline, “Staying Alive:  Cut greenhouse-gas emissions now we can still save the polar bear.”

...

Sidewalk prophets of doom and Washington lobbyists know the best time to hype an “end of the world” story is just before the world is scheduled to come to an end.  But the sidewalks are littered with the placards of doomsayers whose predictions flopped. 

That’s why industry lobbyists have been pushing so hard right now for a vote in the lame duck Senate to block EPA from doing its job to protect our health...

EnergyNow's Ashley Bernardi recently asked me to list some of 2010's top energy stories, along with what could make headlines in 2010. I thought I'd share them here & ask for your feedback in comments below. 

These two little videos are amazing, each covering centuries of time with dazzling, rapid-fire graphics.  While watching them takes a few minutes each, I promise those will be highly entertaining and informative minutes.  First, for the optimistic view, I offer "Swedish academic superstar" Hans Rosling, illustrating nothing less than the story of global development over the last 200 years.  Enjoy:

As the White House convenes the first ever forum on environmental justice today, millions of pounds of explosives detonating across the historic ranges and communities in our nation's first frontier of Appalachia, it might be easy to slip into a state of despair over the future of besieged coalfield residents.

Yet, as we head into another winter of discontent in the coalfields, Judy Bonds, the indefatigable Goldman Prize-winning activist in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, always gives me a reason to...

Following from the Cancun climate negotiation session you might be asking: “how is this agreement different than the one agreed in Copenhagen just one year before”.  Besides the quick answer—length of pages—there are some important differences in terms of substance and process.  Each of these gives the Cancun agreements more life than the Copenhagen Accord and creates a foundation from...

Bjorn Lomborg’s effort at mass miscommunication, Cool It, looks like it will go down as one of the great box office bombs in history.

According to Box Office Mojo, in its first month (from 11/12 to 12/12), the movie made a whopping $61,967.  Last Sunday, for instance, the movie played in 10 theaters and made a total of $279.  Ouch!  You don’t have to be a statistician like the Danish delayer...

That bold statement may seem like hyperbole, but there is now a very clear pattern in the scientific evidence documenting that the earth is warming, that warming is due largely to human activity, that warming is causing important changes in climate, and that rapid and potentially catastrophic changes in the near future are very possible. This pattern emerges not, as is so often suggested, simply from computer simulations, but from the weight and balance of the empirical evidence as well.

The great cryo-scientist Lonnie Thompson has a...

The international climate agreement reached in Cancun, Mexico established a foundation from which to build greater international action on global warming.  But a key sub-story is also the spirit that countries brought to Cancun.  Countries came to Cancun, with a desire to work together and find common ground on the greatest challenge that faces humanity – addressing global warming.  We’ll need that spirit to continue as we have a lot of work ahead. 

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Recent signs of economic recovery suggest that we will soon increase energy consumption and perhaps the price of commodities such as petroleum. Usually, upward price movements stimulate spirited discussion over new energy technology and that can be a healthy thing.  In the past we have addressed cost increases through beneficial technologies that not only foster energy security, but also climate security. But sometimes, high energy prices induce very bad ideas.  Liquid coal, for instance, has been touted as a way to replace gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.  There is nothing...

Early this morning, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa gaveled home an agreement by over 190 countries which came together and demonstrated a renewed commitment to the fight against global warming. The Cancun Agreements* are a detailed set of visionary, yet pragmatic principles that make important strides to begin implementing the agreement reached in Copenhagen last year.  The countries gathered in Cancun made progress on emissions reductions, greater transparency, forest preservation and...

China and the U.S., the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, played key roles in the Cancun Agreements, the pact on climate change that nearly all the world’s nations just adopted here in Mexico.  Both countries have worked hard in Cancun to set a positive tone in their public statements and avoid the fingerpointing that has plagued earlier climate conferences.   As late as yesterday, however, the two countries were still at loggerheads in the negotiating room, both insisting that the other country move forward first on their top issues.  This...

NASA released its monthly global temperature data, revealing November was easily the hottest in the temperature record.  The “meteorological year” — December to November — was also the hottest on record.  Calendar year 2010 appears poised to be the hottest on record.

These records are especially impressive because we’re in the middle of a strong La Niña, which would normally cool off temperatures for a few months (relatively speaking), and we’ve been in...

By CAP’s Richard W. Caperton

Wednesday afternoon, the co-chairs of the UN High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing – Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway – described why meeting the financing commitments of the Copenhagen Accord will be “challenging but feasible.”  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon shared their assessment.

The Advisory Group was formed to identify ways to meet the Copenhagen Accord pledge that developed countries will provide $100 billion of climate...

If you look at the numbers alone, the tax cut deal looks to have robbed Republicans blind….

If you’re worried about stimulus, joblessness and the working poor, this is probably a better deal than you thought you were going to get. “It’s a bigger deal than anyone expected,” says Bob Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

I agree with Ezra...

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At the one week point of the global warming negotiations here in Mexico, countries face a critical decision.  In one week they will have to decide: can they accept the agreements that are on the table or not?  This isn’t just a simple decision about whether or not each country has negotiated hard enough, moved the other side far enough, or gotten the “best deal”.  This is a decision about whether countries want to...

Today is the 5th day of the global warming negotiations that are happening here in Mexico.  In previous videos I've discussed the mood in Cancun and the progress that we are seeing on transparency.  In this video I discuss how countries are trying to find solutions -- both in the climate negotiations and by taking practical steps to reduce their emissions.

We are seeing countries like...

Editor's note: "Roadmaps to New Power" will be a series of interviews with activists, residents, entrepreneurs and industry analysts about current plans and visions for a just transition to clean energy and sustainable economic development in coalfield communities around the nation.

Living on the frontlines of arguably the nation's most important coal mining battle--the battle of mountaintop removal vs. wind energy on Coal River Mountain in West...

Why Does Cancun Matter?

Unlike Copenhagen, this year’s climate meeting in Cancun, COP-16, is not expected to result in a comprehensive legally binding agreement. However, countries could use...