The Issue
Energy
The Environmental Working Group's hard-hitting energy investigations hold energy producers accountable and point the way toward conservation and cleaner energy. EWG scrutinizes drilling and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil, use of ethanol to power vehicles, wood-burning electricity generation, uranium mining and nuclear power.
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The Latest on Energy
That's right. Turning everything off when you leave the house isn't enough. To ensure that you aren't losing energy to phantom currents, either unplug devices when not in use or use power strips that can accommodate many plugs and cut energy flow to them through one main switch. And watch out for those cell phone chargers. Only 5% of the power drawn by cell phone chargers is actually used to charge phones. The other 95% is consumed when the charger is left plugged in with no phone attached to it.
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Several years ago, concerned by the time and energy South African women spent fetching water from distant, often polluted sources, Trevor Fields decided to do something. Fields teamed up with an inventor to produce the PlayPump—a children’s merry-go-round, that when spun, pumps water from below ground to an above-ground storage tank. Each PlayPump costs about $14,000, but operating costs are nil since the pumps are run by kidpower.
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Chevy is back it at with another ridiculous ad strategy. Since their "make your own" Tahoe advert was a flop, Chevy and John "whatever-my-middle-name-is-today" Mellencamp have teamed up to try a new angle--capitalizing on American icons like Rosa Parks and MLK, and tragedies like 9/11 and Katrina, to sell their new Silverados.
Read MoreIn the September issue of Fast Company, author Charles Fishman begins his story like this: Sitting humbly on shelves in stores everywhere is a product, priced at less than $3, that will change the world. Soon. It is a fairly ordinary item that nonetheless cuts to the heart of a half-dozen of the most profound, most urgent problems we face. Energy consumption. Rising gasoline costs and electric bills. Greenhouse-gas emissions. Dependence on coal and foreign oil. Global warming.
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Britain’s Royal Society, of which both Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were members, has asked Exxon Mobil to stop financing groups that create a “false sense somehow that there is a two-sided debate going on in the scientific community,” about the effects of global warming.
Read MoreCulminating a hike of several hundred miles, West Virginia grandfather Ed Wiley will arrive in Washington tomorrow to ask the federal government to help where his local officials’ resources fall short. Wiley, a former coal industry contractor, wants to see Marsh Fork Elementary moved from its current location, just yards from a coal silo he says makes kids sick--informal surveys indicate that many of Marsh Fork’s 220 students do have asthma or chronic bronchitis.
Read MoreThis summer, kids will be getting toy Hummers with their Happy Meals thanks to a new McDonald's promotion to bring “the fun and excitement of Hummer vehicles” to “McDonald’s youngest guests.” In a time of record gas prices, when even our oil-friendly leader has admitted that America is "addicted to oil," it seems a bit irresponsible for McDonald's to be advertising the Hummer to its youngest and most impressionable customers.
Read MoreThe U.S. would have imported about 20 percent less foreign oil in 2005 if automakers met federal fuel efficiency or miles per gallon (MPG) standards based on real world driving conditions.
Read MoreAs many of us celebrated the 50th birthday of our nation's highway system and the 230th birthday of America with a roadtrip, it's a good time to ask how we plan to get around for the next fifty years. Even greenies like me are not going to stop driving, so as a nation we'd better figure out how to stabilize gas prices.
Read MoreThis shot was submitted by Susan A. from Dallas who would like to remind us that: "While consumers are paying record-breaking high prices for gasoline, former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond got a $400,000,000 compensation package in 2005."
Read MoreCongress and the Bush Administration have done nothing to solve the USA's addiction to fossil fuels. Even worse, they are subsidizing Big Oil at a time of record profits.
Read MoreAmericans in 50 metro areas will pay $83 billion more for gasoline this year at $3 per gallon, compared to the prices they paid in February 2003 — and even more if prices continue to rise as expected, says a new Environmental Working Group (
Read MoreWhether or not you agree with the Bush Administration on energy policy, one thing is clear: when a President brings up the need to become energy independent in a State of the Union address, public debate increases. And as Martha Stewart says, "that's a good thing."
Read MoreIt depends on what your definition of "import" is. Turns out the president was simply, well, exploiting American anxiety when he vowed during his State of the Union speech to break our addiction to Middle East oil in coming decades.
Read MoreThe Bush administration continues to combat the country's energy problems with industry giveaways, now allowing oil and gas drilling permits on public lands to be issued without environmental reviews or citizen comment.
Read MoreConstruction on 9,500 new oil and gas wells in western Colorado is creating erosion and runoff that's clogging towns' irrigation systems and raising cleanup costs.
Read MoreDrivers in sprawling southern cities with few transportation options are forced to send more of their gasoline dollars abroad, including to Middle East oil producers where an unknown amount of oil money flows to anti-American extremists.
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