Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C. There’s something on which the oil and gas industry and I agree: there is a lot more to oil and gas than gasoline, electricity, and home heat. According to the American Petroleum Institute: “Thousands of products – from your toothpaste to your iPod®, your cellphone to your computer,…
The Susitna River Dam – A bad idea rises in Alaska
Noah Garrison, Staff Attorney, Santa Monica The Susitna River in Alaska charges icy, blue, sediment-laden snowmelt through a spectacular wilderness of tundra and boreal forest for 313 miles from its headwaters in the Alaska Range to the Gulf of Alaska. It drains an area larger than the states of Massachusetts or New Jersey and is…
Nobel laureates press EU leaders to classify tar sands as high carbon
Letter to European commission urges implementation of law that would label oil from tar sands as dirtier than other crudes Twenty-one Nobel laureates including South African anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu have written to European Union leaders urging them to implement a law that would label oil from tar sands as dirtier than other crudes. The…
Dangerous levels of radioactivity found at fracking waste site in Pennsylvania
Co-author of study says UK must impose better environmental regulation than US if it pursues shale gas extraction Scientists have for the first time found dangerous levels of radioactivity and salinity at a shale gas waste disposal site that could contaminate drinking water. If the UK follows in the steps of the US “shale gas…
Conflicting Reporting Systems May Hinder Companies’ Water Risk Strategies
This post originally appeared on Guardian Sustainable Business’s Water hub blog. Water risks such as floods, scarcity and pollution are increasingly chipping into corporate bottom lines. The financial sector is taking notice–and taking action. Calvert Investments asked Hanes Brands to evaluate its losses from cotton-supply shortages due to the 2011 US drought, determining that the…
Protecting the Environment By Reducing Regulatory Burden
David Goldstein, Energy Program Co-Director, San Francisco Protecting the environment often requires reforming how business is regulated by government. In some cases, this requires increased regulation. But this blog describes a major example of how it can go the other way. We all want smarter land use and transportation planning that can provide more affordable housing,…
How BuzzFeed May Teach You a Thing or Two About President Obama’s Climate Action Plan
Kelly Henderson, Climate Center Program Assistant, Washington, D.C. If you are under the age of 40 (give or take), you may occasionally visit an entertainment website called Buzzfeed to help alleviate some your daily stressers and give you a good five minute laugh at something that is likely completely irrelevant to the workload sitting on…