The Spectra Showdown in NYC

The “Spectra Showdown” is a chain of demonstrations against the Spectra Pipeline in New York. Day and night, activists have been keeping vigil, awaiting shipments of equipment to arrive at the construction site in Lower Manhattan at the Hudson River. Guest blogger Shannon E. Ayala reports from the scene: Activists are regularly attendant, from break [...]

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Playing Nice In The Sandbox: Feds Try To Inimidate Texas Climate Activists

I’ve been organizing campaigns and non-violent direct actions for a long time. Over ten years now. Most of the time, I hear stories about the screwed up things our government and corporations do and I take it in stride. Every once in a while, something pops and it gets under my skin. A lot. Case [...]

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What is “Clean” Energy Anyways?

Not natural gas. Researchers at Cornell University just released a study (pdf) that argues that using natural gas for energy actually causes more, not less, greenhouse gas emissions than coal. The reason that natural gas is so greenhouse gas-intensive is because of “fracking,” or hydraulic fracturing, the process required to extract natural gas from far [...]

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A Bad Year for Dirty Energy

April 5th is the one-year anniversary of the disaster at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine, in which 29 coal miners lost their lives needlessly thanks to Massey’s disregard for worker safety in its reckless pursuit of profits. It was also something of a kickoff for what would turn out to be a really bad [...]

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What Does Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown Mean for our Energy Future?

Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster have dominated headlines around the world since news broke last Friday. Thousands of people have died in Japan over the past few days, and many more are at risk of radiation sickness from the ongoing nuclear power plant meltdown. My heart aches for all of the families in [...]

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Our Local Dirty Power Plant Is Shutting Down

Here in San Francisco we just got some holiday cheer: After decades of  battling, the last remaining fossil fuel power plant in our city is going to shut down. Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced that Potrero Power Plant, operated by GenOn Energy, will close on January 1, and be fully decommissioned by February 28. The [...]

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Deep in the Heart of Dirty Energy and False Solutions

I just want Texas to be number one in something other than executions, toll roads and property taxes. -Kinky Friedman They say everything is bigger in Texas. And in the race to drive our environment and climate off a steep cliff, my home state of Texas is speeding ahead in a big ass Mack fucking [...]

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Challenging Green Corporate Power

Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle posted an article about California becoming “the center of renewable power development in the United States” as utility companies work toward the state-mandated 20% by 2010 renewable energy standard. Now that one of the primary goals of California’s landmark climate bill is on track, legislators are setting their sights [...]

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Grassroots Organizing Cools the Planet; A Letter from the Grassroots to 1 Sky

[A Letter from the Grassroots; written by grassroots organizations across the United States (including Grassroots Global Justice, Movement Generation, Indigenous Environmental Network, etc - full list at the end. The letter is a response to 1 Sky's public statement this August.] Sign the Petition To the Board and Staff of 1 Sky, We are grassroots [...]

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The Scale of Greenwashing

I think the first time I ever heard the word ‘greenwashing’ was in the late ’80s or maybe early ’90s after I saw a flier from McDonald’s about how they didn’t use beef from the Amazon. I brought the flier home to show my mother, an environmentalist, because I was so proud to show her [...]

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