Media

NYT: Confronting Keystone Again

Today, the New York Times published an editorial on TransCanada’s new application for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline:

It is far from clear whether one of the new routes proposed by TransCanada would involve less potential damage in the case of a pipeline spill. And a route change does not alter other fundamental concerns. There has never been any doubt that extracting oil from tar sands is a dirty, energy-intensive process that damages landscapes, ...More

Climate Change Threatens National Security

The other week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared global warming a national security threat, a statement in line with the military’s recent focus on sustainable, renewable energy.

“The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security,” said Panetta. “Rising sea levels, severe droughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

The military has addressed the issue of ...More

Wrecking Wind

Clean energy opponents aren’t satisfied with handing outsized subsidies to dirty energy companies and giving polluters free rein any more. Now they’re trying to build fake grassroots activism to wreck havoc on the wind industry.

In a confidential strategy memo unearthed by the Guardian UK, self-styled “wind warriors” have planned to use “subversion” to create the appearance of a grass-roots movement against wind power. The ideas included teaching anti-wind curriculum in schools and creating “dummy” ...More

The Cost of Killing Clean Energy

The New York Times recently published an editorial on the possible end of clean energy tax credits –and the job-killing consequences.

During the recession, [the clean energy industry] was one of the few sectors to add jobs. Costs of wind turbines and solar cells have fallen over the last five years, electricity from renewables has more than doubled, construction is under way on the country’s first new nuclear power plant in decades. And the United States ...More

Fighting Citizens United

With the disastrous Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United, corporations are now able to funnel huge sums of money into political campaigns supporting their interests and bottom lines over the interests of the American citizen.

As the federal agency charged with protecting investors from corporate abuse, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) should require corporations to disclose their political spending –and they can, if we pressure them. Big Oil is spending millions to support ...More

Arnold’s Green Party

The environment is not a partisan issue.

In a call to his party, Arnold Schwarzenegger has published an op-ed criticizing the current rigidity of the many members of the Republican party, pointing particularly to environmental issues. Said Schwarzenegger:

It's time for the Republicans who are so bent on enforcing conformity to ask themselves a question: What would Ronald Reagan have done? He worked hard to maintain a welcoming, open and diverse Republican Party…

To succeed, Republicans ...More

Corporations Jump Ship

Thursday’s release of a Heartland Institute billboard campaign comparing those who believe in global warming to Ted Kaczynski sent immediate waves of horror, shock, and disgust across the world. Within a few hours, the campaign had raised such a fury of negative response that the climate-denier organization announced its intention to pull the billboards, though the organization has yet to offer an apology for its highly offensive campaign.

The Heartland Institute’s inflammatory shock tactics and ...More

Absurd and Offensive

The Heartland Institute has launched their most offensive campaign yet. The climate-denier thinktank has placed a series of billboards around Chicago comparing anyone who believes in global warming to mass murderers and terrorists in what the UK Guardian calls “possibly one of the most ill-judged poster campaigns in the history of ill-judged poster campaigns.”

The group’s own press release veers into absurdism:

Billboards in Chicago paid for by The Heartland Institute point out that some of the ...More