Media

Vermont Bans Fracking

Even as new fracking-related legislation advances in other states, Vermont’s governor has signed into law the nation’s first ban on the controversial natural gas drilling method.

Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin signed the law yesterday, citing concerns about groundwater contamination. In the coming generations, “drinking water will be more valuable than natural gas,” Shumlin said. “We have an abundance of [clean, drinkable water] in Vermont. We’re going to protect it at all costs.”

The dangerous gas drilling process ...More

More Than 1 Million Comments in Favor of Carbon Pollution Standards

More than one million people have spoken out in favor of reducing industrial carbon pollution by submitting comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in support of the proposed Carbon Pollution Standard for power plants. Though there is still over one month left for the public to comment, these one million comments are already record-breaking, representing the most comments the EPA has ever received on a proposed rule.

The League of Conservation Voters is part of ...More

Our Future Under ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’

America’s current trajectory takes us on a path with disproportionately increasing energy consumption, and skyrocketing carbon pollution emissions, reports The Center for American Progress. Big Oil’s profits are soaring while taxpayers continue to shell out billions each year in subsidies to those multi-billion dollar oil companies, and yet anti-environment lawmakers continue to push for open up our national lands and protected offshore waters to gas and oil drilling and to weaken the health and ...More

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