Green Options

Jimmy: When we chose the recently-passed Senate Energy Bill for our Red, Green and Blue discussion this week, I really didn’t expect it to be such a great illustration of what not to do to secure our energy future. Since this is the same crew who left our last shot at reasonable immigration reform this decade to die on the vine, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

This bill is all about government and

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The most recent episode in the ongoing dispute over the London congestion charge, once again pits the Mayor against the American Embassy. A congestion charge of £8, around $16, is levied on private vehicles entering a central zone of the vast capital city of Great Britain during working hours from Monday through Friday. The American Embassy, among others, is located in the central zone but refuses to pay the charge for its fleet of vehicles.

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Late last week in a vote of 65-27, the Senate passed an energy bill that made progress in some areas but was stripped down in others.

The crown jewel was certainly a near-40 percent increase in fuel efficiency requirements for vehicles by 2020. For the first time, SUVs, vans, and small trucks fall under the same regulations as passenger cars. Each vehicle group must achieve a 10 miles per gallon (mpg) increase in fuel efficiency

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Photo Credit: Whitehouse.gov

Jimmy: Well… since President Bush is SOARING in the polls with his approval rating hovering in the 30% range I thought it might be interesting to take a look at his environmental record and his perceived Turn-Around on the environment, particularly on climate change.

As I have noted before Bush doesn’t always earn the enmity the environmental community harbors against him. One personal anecdote that

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Eaten in a school cafeteria lately? Chances are you'll be dining on processed, reheated food that helps tiny school lunch budgets stretch their pennies. In an attempt to make lunches healthier and more sustainable, the state of Oregon is taking significant steps towards increasing the amount of local food that goes into public school lunches.

One legislative bill, awaiting Gov. Ted Kulongoski's signature, that will limit caloric, sugar, and fat content of foods sold

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Image source: WikiMedia Commons: Photographer: Dider Gentilhomme

Editor's note: Fair Trade is a topic that GreenOptions.com has been covering for some time now, so we thought it might be interesting to debate from the progressive vs. conservative perspective. Brady and Alicia offer us some excellent background on the discussion. Now, it's Jimmy and Shirley's turn…

Jimmy: Although I am generally conservative on fiscal matters and would normally lean toward

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If lawmakers on Capitol Hill want to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that cause global warming, they will have to face another giant to make real progress: A government program, hailing from the Depression era, that sends billions of dollars of low-interest loans to rural areas to build coal plants. The Rural Electrification Administration was created in 1935 by President Franklin Roosevelt to bring electricity to U.S. farms. The mission has been accomplished, but the [...]

Happy Tax Day! It actually came late this year, though some of us still may be working down to the wire. Get things done fast and simply by going completely "e" with your taxes this year.

Last week, Bill Chameides, chief scientist at Environmental Defense, talked with Ira Flatow on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation: Science Friday about market-based policies to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a big contributor to the global warming problem.

Chameides argued that the fastest, most cost-effective way to reduce CO2 emissions is with a policy called cap-and-trade. This system tells big emitters – like powerplants, automobile manufacturers, etc – that

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Photo Credit: TCSDailyThere is a vast perception in the environmental community and the population at large that George Bush is a slash and burn industrialist who destroys the environment for pleasure. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bush’s environmental record, though highly criticized, is reasonable and right; and is contributing greatly to the well being of Mother Earth.

Much of Bush’s criticism comes from undoing many of the things Clinton/Gore never really

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Pennsylvania – quite the forward-thinking state when it comes to renewable energy development, especially wind – has passed a new state law ruling that wind turbines, like any other business equipment, cannot be counted by tax assessors.