We are about to be deluged with news reports that the U.S. is suddenly awash in decades worth of cheap, abundant supplies of natural gas and oil. Why? Because the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has recently released a preview of their 2014 forecasts in which they predict energy trends within the U.S. through 2040. […]
Nelson Mandela, who died last month at age 95, was sentenced to life in prison in 1962 because he fought for justice, equality and democracy. He was finally released 27 years later, in 1990. South Africa’s racist apartheid system fell and Mandela served as president from 1994 to 1999. The tributes after his death rightfully […]
Monday, I was asked to take part in an online discussion on Capitol Hill as to whether Congress should extend renewable energy tax credits. Well, in some ways, this discussion is putting the cart before the horse. Most importantly, are incentives for renewable energy sources achieving their goals? In the case of solar, the answer […]
The final result from Washington State’s ballot initiative to label genetically-engineered foods was painfully close. A mere two percentage points (38,000 voters) made the difference between yes and no. Similarly, last year in California, the Yes side lost by a narrow margin. Also in both states, early polling showed a strong lead, which was then chipped away at […]
Four years after the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s frank admission that “most members of Congress, like most Americans, oppose the practice” of mountaintop removal mining, “and we may not yet fully understand the effects of mountaintop removal mining on the health of our citizens,” West Virginia residents traveled to Washington, DC to make a special appeal to […]
Will a death toll of 900,000 be the body count it takes for the public to finally say enough, already? Or will it also take another set of grisly photographs of maimed bodies, deformed skulls, misshapen mouths and twisted spines? The breaking news out of Wilmington, NC today has both. Unfortunately, this latest episode is […]
Nearly four years ago, long-time environmental activist and Kentucky-native Mike Roselle sat in the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, West Virginia, with one simple message: Mountaintop removal mining, the most egregious human rights and environmental violation tolerated in our nation, must be abolished, not regulated. A couple of days ago—four years after governmental inaction and continual mountaintop […]
Early November marked the 18th anniversary of the tragic murder of outspoken writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight colleagues by the Nigerian government. Saro-Wiwa and the others had waged a long campaign to stop multinational oil company Royal Dutch Shell from drilling in the lands of the Ogoni people in the Niger delta. […]
Imagine for a minute that for generations, you and your family lived on ancestral lands abundant with wildlife and a beautiful river running through it. Like every youngster born in your family, one of your elders took you out to the river and patiently taught you how to swim and fish in the warm summer […]