A year ago the American people voted for change. Central to what persuaded them was then-candidate Barack Obama's promise of a new way of thinking about energy and the environment, a restored respect for scientific integrity, and the leveraging of clean energy to jump start the American economy, rebuild the...

This post is long -- but it's one of my most heartfelt, so I hope you'll bear with me.

As I write this, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has begun deliberation on the Clean Energy Act, the major omnibus climate and energy bill that Committee Chair Barbara Boxer...

The California legislature is poised, it appears, to pass a new bond act that will finance changes in the state's water system. The combination of an outmoded system, mismanagement of basic ecosystems, climate change, and the current drought have created what The Economist  describes as "an economic and political...

It's really quite amazing. The main response at Tuesday's opening hearing of the Senate Environment Committee on the Clean Energy Act was that its 2020 goal -- a 20 percent reduction in U.S. emissions of greenhouse pollution -- was over-the-top ambitious. Senators, both Republican and Democrat, expressed grave concerns that...

NRDC and Sierra Club are members of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, supporters of the clean truck program.

"Cancer alley."  That's what many Southern Californians call the 23-mile rail and truck corridor connecting our nation's largest seaport to massive distribution centers east of Downtown Los Angeles.  In California...

The intriguing thing about a conference chock full of present and former officers from the Army Corps of Engineers is that you get all the data you need, but you have to connect the dots yourself. At sessions focused on Hurricane Katrina during the Ecumenical Patriarch's Eighth Religion, Science...

Folks ask me, almost daily, "How is Obama doing?" My answer usually comes in two parts. At one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Executive Branch (even with still-incomplete teams in place) is moving with stunning speed on environmental and energy issues to make "change that works." For example, earlier this...

Richmond, VA -- Term limits -- particularly single terms -- make for very bad government. The Commonwealth of Virginia is unique -- it's the only state that has never allowed a governor to be elected for a second consecutive term, a tradition that reflects Thomas Jefferson's supposed aversion to executive...

San Francisco -- At some point we should stop letting blatantly absurd claims and lies pass unnoticed just because "everyone knows that big oil and coal don't tell the truth." So I'm periodically going to blow the whistle.

Here are two recent examples of whoppers that should have generated massive...

If you're worried about global warming, it's been a confusing week. Midweek, 150 major business executives blitzed Capitol Hill, arguing that the Congress needs to pass effective climate and energy legislation. But, in private lobbying meetings, more problems cropped up with senators who are not happy with the distribution of...

Two days ago, a district court judge upheld the results of a vote six months ago in Andrews County, Texas, about whether to use $75 million dollars in taxpayer bond receipts to construct a low-level nuclear waste dump here. The vote was agonizingly close: 642-639. There were ballot irregularities,...

It is emblematic of the past eight years that, when EPA Administrator Jackson explained, first at a dinner in San Francisco and then at Governor Schwarzenegger's Climate Summit in L.A., that her agency was actually going to use the Toxic Substances Control Act to protect Americans from dangerous chemicals,...

In a huge victory for America's fisheries and rivers, a broad spectrum of environmentalists, utilities, farmers, Native American nations, fishermen, and public agencies agreed yesterday to restore 300 miles of North America's most important salmon grounds. Four dams on the Klamath River -- Iron Gage, Copco1, Copco2, and J.C. Boyle...

San Francisco -- As the Senate slogs forward, and the Chamber of Commerce drags its feet, and the U.S. disappoints the rest of the world at the Bangkok climate talks, it's easy to get discouraged. But at the end of the day, all the hot-air CO2 emitted in political speeches...

Last night was the opening segment on PBS of Ken Burns's six-night celebration of our national parks -- America's Best Idea. Beginning with the spectacular opening quote from John Muir superimposed over some of the most gorgeous outdoor images ever shown on television, it was a heart-stopping and inspirational two...

New York, NY -- President Obama's speech to the UN yesterday made it clear that the United States is emerging as the biggest obstacle to a successful climate summit in Copenhagen. The speech repeated the President's previous policy commitments but failed to call on Congress to make a decisive break...

Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner anticipated the perils of climate change. There won't be less water in a warmer world -- total global precipitation may well increase. But the water will come at less predictable times, with more droughts and floods, less storage in ice and snow, and...

The White House, Washington, D.C. -- I mean, how cool is it to be watching a special one-hour excerpt from Ken Burns's 12-hour PBS special on the National Parks in the White House screening room with President Obama, Interior Secretary Salazar, three Park Service Directors, and a select group...

Washington, D.C. -- The Supreme Court has just finished hearing oral arguments about whether it should overturn 102 years of precedent and rule that corporations have the same right to spend money to influence elections that citizens possess.

The Court stunned most observers back in June, when it asked...

Amid the dismaying news of Van Jones' resignation and the delays in Congress on climate legislation, it is too easy to overlook the actual progress on the ground. In the past two weeks alone, we've taken several really major steps forward to a clean-energy future. One, driven by the Sierra...