Erich Pica

Growing up, I used to race my station wagon down country roads, pushing the limits of the engine, my safety and bystanders' safety on the road beyond reason. It was stupid. Fortunately, I learned several lessons about a car's engine.

First, when your car's engine light starts flashing without...

Lately we've all been hearing a lot about Occupy Wall Street (or Occupy Oakland, DC, San Francisco, and many places in between). Many are calling it the Tea Party of the Left, with its focus on unemployment, corporate greed and crony capitalism. I just call it opportunity.

I recently spoke...

Like most kids, my nieces and nephew love to draw. The walls of my office are covered in their artistic interpretations of our last trip to the Zoo or me walking them to school.

One of their favorite ways to showcase their talent is connect-the-dot books. As an adult,...

The budget debate in Washington, D.C. threatens to be disastrous for programs that protect our air and water, preserve our natural places and reduce our global warming emissions. The terms of this debate place environmental organizations and activists in unfamiliar territory. Tax reform, discretionary spending caps, offset spending cuts, reconciliation,...

Last week, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission met to hear recommendations about the future of America's nuclear plants after Japan's nuclear crisis. The nuclear industry, which just a year ago had been wildly optimistic about the prospects for a "nuclear renaissance," is now hobbled by concerns over the...

It's a scene that has become all too familiar in recent months: thick, black oil washing up on some shoreline as workers in protective gear try to stop its spread. The most memorable, and most destructive, recent oil spill occurred last April in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the...

The number on every driver's mind right now is $4.

Gas prices are hovering around $4, and are well above that in some areas. However, there are some other, much bigger numbers that also merit attention:

$10.7 billion. $7.2 billion. $6.3 billion. $6.2 billion. $3 billion.

Those massive...

The terrible pictures and continuing news coverage coming from Japan since the devastating earthquake and tsunami almost three weeks ago have reminded many Americans about the dangers of nuclear reactors.

Today, more and more Americans are realizing that nuclear power should not have a part to play in the...

We all know a Fred Upton.

He's the coworker who was your friend until he got promoted and "went corporate." He's the athlete who played to bring a championship to his home town before following a larger contract to a bigger city. He's the buddy who was always around until...

The state of the union is questionable. There is oil in our oceans. There are toxins in our air. The country is in debt. Millions of people are unemployed. And politics in Washington threaten to keep us from doing anything of consequence.

In his State of the Union address last...

Delegates from around the world are gathering in Cancun for international climate negotiations this week and next, and a storyline is developing that might surprise many Americans.

President Obama has done a better job than his predecessor at addressing climate change at...

Why Congress should let a major biofuels tax credit expire this year

Though its name may be little-known, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) is not a little subsidy: taxpayers pay more than $5 billion (a number that's increasing) to

On Tuesday, October 5, the White House announced that President Obama plans to install solar panels atop the First Family's living quarters in 2011 to heat water and supply some electricity.

This symbolic gesture is a big deal. We need a climate and clean energy communicator-in-chief -- and by installing...

Last week's deadly pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California, described by the local fire captain as like "a 747 had landed on us," sends yet another flaming signal that fossil fuels are inherently dangerous and destructive.

The pipeline disaster, which has killed at least four people...

Record-setting temperatures in Russia, floods in Pakistan: It's tempting to categorize these as simply fluke weather events. And many media outlets are doing just that. But to do so is a disservice to the public. Acting like ostriches won't help us solve the problem. The media should be helping to...

Update: Faced with a lack of support, Majority Leader Harry Reid decided today to push a vote on a legislative response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster to September.

The decision of Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring a scaled-back "spill bill" to the Senate floor instead of a...

After President Obama signed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act last week, Congressman Pete Stark (D-Calif.) advanced the theme of financial (and moral) responsibility by introducing the Investing in Our Future Act (H.R. 5783). This smart new legislation would place a tiny levy on...

Yesterday marked the 80th day that oil has been hemorrhaging into the Gulf of Mexico from the site where BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and took the lives of 11 workers. If our country learns one lesson from this tragedy, I hope it's this: that we

BP's CEO Tony Hayward is testifying before Congress today, and his company's egregious record of putting workers' lives at risk and imperiling ecosystems in pursuit of steeper profits is sure to be a centerpiece of the hearing. Rightly so.

BP's bucking of safety protections and

While this year's 40th anniversary of Earth Day in the U.S. was fraught with equal parts horror at the escalating oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico and equal parts disappointment with Congress's failure to produce a strong climate and clean energy bill, hope sprung from...