200,000 Letters In 32 Hours?

In what looks like an effort to rush through proposed rules to overhaul the Endangered Species Act, the Interior Dept. has said it plans on reviewing 200,000 public comments in just 32 hours, according to The Associated Press.

The agency actually received a total of 300,000 comments, but More…

Renewable Energy’s Uncertain Economic Future

With the price of oil dropping to around $74 a barrel — and gasoline prices, on average, falling below $3 a gallon — the alternative-energy industry may have something to lose. The drop in oil prices stems from the global credit crisis and the recession fears it has spawned.

The More…

State Legislatures: Climate Change Threatens State Economies

My previous post reports on a UC Berkeley study showing how California’s environmental policies have boosted that state’s economy.

The National Conference of State Legislatures, in conjunction with the University of Maryland and the Center for Integrative Environmental Research, is releasing reports that also show that economic and environmental More…

Report: California Energy-Efficiency Policies = Major Job Growth

Members of industry have long contended that environmental protections are incompatible with economic growth. That was one reason the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act didn’t get passed this year.

But a new economic study released today crunches some numbers and finds that environmental and economic interests are often aligned.

Conservation Scorecard Grades Congress

The League of Conservation Voters today released its 2008 National Environmental Scorecard, which rates members of Congress on energy and environmental issues.

Overall, says the group’s president Gene Karpinski in a press release, “in 2008, Congress went in the wrong direction” — that is, away from reducing our country’s dependence More…

Report: Federal Agencies of Two Minds on Freedom of Speech

Federal agencies have inconsistent media policies when it comes to allowing scientists to share information with journalists, concludes a new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit group issued a “report card” grading 15 federal agencies on their communication policies. Some agencies, it found,  “stifle communication” even if their policies encourage free speech. Other agencies simply have weak policies regarding communication with the media. More …

Greening Big Oil?

While walking around Washington, it’s hard to miss all the large Chevron ads. They are at bus stops and in metro stations, and they feature “everyday people” promising to conserve energy. “I will carpool to work,” one person in the ad says. “I will take the golf clubs out of More…

Conservation Groups Not Letting Bush’s Endangered Species Act Go Unnoticed

This is at least the fourth time I’ve heard someone refer to the Bush administration’s proposed regulation on the Endangered Species Act as the “fox guarding the henhouse.”

It’s not just because endangered-species workers love animal analogies. It’s because the new rule gives government agencies the power, sans oversight, to More…

Gore Group: ABC Is in Big Oil’s Pocket

The Alliance for Climate Protection, the environmental advocacy organization founded by Al Gore, says that ABC refused to run its TV spot promoting alternative energy.

ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover told the Guardian that the ad was too “controversial” to run during network-sponsored programs.

Windy Economic Times

The extension of federal tax credits for the production of wind energy could help boost the economies of some Indian tribes, reports the New York Times.

In South Dakota, the Rosebud Sioux tribe is working on a 30-megawatt wind farm that could bring some needed revenue for residents. Per More…