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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
Could Byron Dorgan, the U.S. senator from North Dakota who just announced that he won't run again, be the next target for Growth Energy's New York Yankees-style spending spree for top DC talent?
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Climate change dominates the headlines this month, and that's likely to continue well in the new decade. But green issues don't stop there.
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WASHINGTON December 1 –The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said today that it will wait until mid-2010 to decide whether to grant a waiver request that would allow up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline. Growth Energy, an ethanol trade and lobby group, requested the waiver. EPA based its decision on the need to conduct more tests to determine the higher blend’s impact on engines. Under current federal rules gasoline can contain no more than 10 percent ethanol.
Read MoreThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it would wait until mid-2010 to decide on whether to grant a waiver request that would allow for the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline. Growth Energy, an ethanol trade and lobby group, requested the waiver. EPA based their decision on the need to conduct more tests to determine a higher blend's impact on engines.
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By Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group Midwest vice-president.
Growth Energy, a corn ethanol lobby group, is grossly exaggerating the economic benefits that a higher ethanol blend in the nation’s fuel supply would bring. The group claims that granting its petition to increase the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent would create an additional 136,101 “green jobs.”
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Taking steps to confront the threat of a warming planet would have the huge added payoff of making people healthier around the globe, a group of scientists have concluded in a unique package of new research papers.
The health “co-benefits” of cutting greenhouse gas emissions include significantly cutting rates of heart and artery disease, respiratory infections, strokes, various cancers, lung disease and dementia, the scientists found. They argue that the financial savings from these health gains could offset a significant portion of the economic cost of reducing emissions.
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Corn ethanol is far from an environmentally friendly fuel. While petroleum's pollution contributions are obvious and well reported, ethanol's are less clear. However, from chemical fertilizers and pesticides slathered on corn crops (which run off into rivers and streams and eventually end up in the Gulf 'Dead Zone') to the clearing of wildlife habitat, there is much to worry about.
Read MoreLast week saw the launch of a new web property by a coalition of environmental and business groups who take a dim view of plans to raise the ethanol content of gasoline to 15%. The site, Follow the Science, marshals the overwhelming scientific evidence to deliver a focused message to the Obama Administration and Congress to not raise the corn ethanol blend limit by 50%.
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Dusty Horwitt, EWG senior counsel, testifies on gas drilling and fracking before the New York City Council Committee on Environmental Protection Oct. 23, 2009.
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Whoops.
A study in the journal Science today got widespread news coverage by pointing out a major flaw in the way the world has been calculating the impact of biofuels use on the atmosphere’s greenhouse gas buildup and global warming.
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Associated Press (+ 60 outlets), Garance Burke
Published May 29, 2007
Some of the nation's largest farming operations are paying rock-bottom rates for the electricity they use to pump federally subsidized water to their fields.
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Central Valley Business Times
Published May 29, 2007
Some Central Valley farms are paying pennies for the electricity needed to deliver irrigation water, claims a report Wednesday from the Environmental Working Group, which describes itself as “a non-profit, non-partisan organization” that gets the majority of its funding from private charitable foundations.
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Capital Press, Bob Krauter
Published May 29, 2007
Central Valley farmers are amped up by a study that says they are getting cut-rate electricity from the federal government.
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The Fresno Bee, Mark Grossi
Published May 29, 2007
Farmers in the Westlands Water District are underpaying to the tune of $71 million annually on cheap electricity for federal water deliveries, says an environmental watchdog group.
Read MoreSt. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bill Lambrecht
Published June 14, 2007
There was hope for a cure down in the Louisiana bayous even as the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone expanded like a B-movie blob.
Read MoreFinding ways to reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions while producing enough energy to support economic development worldwide is this century’s preeminent challenge. We must meet this challenge while simultaneously reducing environmental degradation, poverty and hunger. The United States must make a sustained commitment to invest in and develop renewable energy sources that contribute to meeting these challenges.
Read MoreOn behalf of our millions of members and activists, we strongly urge you to oppose the Emerson Amendment (#019) and any other attempts to sidestep the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) process to assess the full lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels (including emissions from indirect land-use change).
Read MoreA slideshow on several key environmental issues.
Read MoreDevastating floods and bad weather in the Midwest are raising the tide of opposition against the renewable fuels standard. Groups that have been pressing lawmakers to reconsider federal supports for ethanol are now pointing to flooded fields in the nation’s cornbelt as further evidence the United States may struggle to meet the standard.
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