EcocentricOil
The issue has been a bit under the radar until recently, but the debate over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline—which could bring up to 800,000 barrels a day of additional Canadian oil sands crude to the U.S.—is heating up. Because the proposed pipeline would cross international barriers—funneling crude from Canada’s massive …
EcocentricCoal
Yesterday Tom Fanning, the CEO of the majority coal-powered utility Southern Company, made a few headlines when he told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a speech that the Obama administration has “virtually declared war on coal,” continuing:
The existing coal industry is under attack by some in America. Decisions are being made today
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EcocentricHealth
Crossposted from TIME’s Healthland
Bad news for women who like to get their hair severely straightened with the popular Brazilian blowout technique à la Jennifer Aniston: it may look good, but apparently it’s not good for you.
EcocentricHealth
I have a Going Green column today about the mercury testing I had done on myself, thanks to the Sierra Club. Turns out my levels were more than twice the recommended safety limit—most likely due to seafood consumption. But it’s not fish that are really at fault—mercury is emitted from coal plants, which then makes its way into …
EcocentricUncategorized
There was good news of a sort for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Congress on Wednesday. The Senate voted down several bills that would have blocked the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. That collection included one bill—co-sponsored by Republican Senators James Inhofe and Mitch …
EcocentricPolitics
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson—who has emerged as the Republicans’ favorite target as the party looks to dismantle environmental protections—sat down with us for a 10 Questions in this week’s issue. That interview was condensed to fit one page—click below for the full transcript:
EcocentricHealth
Cross posted from TIME’s Healthland
Plastics. They seem so…inert. Slow to erode or decay, with a biodegradation time measured in the hundreds of years, plastics appear cut off from the organic environment in the way that no other product is, safe and secure and sterile. Yet scientists have begun to learn that plastics are …
EcocentricPolitics
My weekly Going Green column is up on the Time.com mainpage. It’s an interview with Jim Rogers, the CEO of Charlotte-based Duke Energy, soon to be the most powerful utility chief in the U.S. Rogers formed key corporate support for cap-and-trade, but with the political chances of that looking slim, he’s favoring an R&D, innovation-focused …
EcocentricNatural Gas
If you watch the Academy Awards show on Sunday evening, you might notice Mark Ruffalo—nominated for Best Supporting Actor—and a number of other celebrities wearing a blue water droplet pin. The pins come from WaterDefense.org, a new campaign that is calling attention to the drinking water supplies that activists say are being …
EcocentricPolitics
It’s Budget Day in Washington, when policy wonks break out the calculators that have the “trillions” button and decide whether we’ll have six more weeks of winter, or six decades more of crippling budget deficits. Actually, today is the day President Obama released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2012, which you can explore in …
