energy soapbox

It’s been sometime since I’ve had the opportunity to post here. In my absence, a number of things have happened; the most notable being my move from Clovis, California to Fort Collins, Colorado. Since the move, I’ve continued to support renewable energy and have recently written a letter on the subject to various newspapers across [...]

The Seattle Times reports that a number of states are lining up to sue the federal government in order to get them to stop dragging their feet about federal emissions standards for automobiles. It’s interesting that they have finally realized that turning to legal resources is probably one of the only ways to get the [...]

Someone once told me — perhaps in a far more eloquent way — that we should pursue that which makes us happy; that if something fails to make us happy, and should be abandoned.  As I think about this statement, I wonder whether or not this idea is directly applicable to the idea of sustainability.  [...]

The New York Times wrote recently on conflict between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Minerals Management Service.  In brief, these two agencies plan to implement two different policies that will impact the polar bear population.  The Fish and Wildlife service intends to list the polar bear population as endangered, while the Minerals Management [...]

Thomas Friedman in the New York Times today set off a stink bomb when he claimed that Toyota has been backing American automakers in resisting higher fuel economy standards. The Union of Concerned Scientists responded with a campaign almost immediately - below is the text of my submission for that campaign. The first [...]

Living in Seattle at the moment is both weird and a bit scary. Scary because the Washington State Department of Transportation is currently ramping up to a major shutdown of a portion of Interstate 5 just south of downtown Seattle for major repair work between the 10th and 29th of this month. This [...]

You can likely expect some sort of coherent write-up on some of the following articles of recent interest to me:

Make This Earth Day Your Last! (originally posted in April)
eco-ratings for cars: all things (finally) considered (originally posted in May)
From the March 3, 2007 edition of the Seattle Times: First, we educate all the lawyers

I see [...]

If you live in or around Fresno, be sure to mark your calendars for May 17th, 2007 for the Fresno Bike Coalition’s Bike-2-Work Day 2007!
Teams are coming together from local businesses and there will be prizes. Walk, bike, or take the bus (rides are free for participants on FAX and Clovis Stageline) to work for [...]

Very slowly (since somewhere around early December), I’ve been absorbing Elizabeth Royte’s book Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. This is a wonderful book that makes me think a lot about my freshman year in college, when I did, in fact, follow the trail of my own trash. But that’s another [...]

2006 was a banner year in increasing awareness about sustainability, the importance and significant impact of energy policy, and increasing governmental support for sustainable approaches to living. Actually, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times beat me to calling 2006 the year of green:
“. . . I think the most important thing to happen [...]