Into Wine: New Book by Olivier Magny Explores Terroirism, Soil Health and More

This is a guest post by French sommelier Olivier Magny, author of the new book, Into Wine: An Invitation to Pleasure.  When you like wine, and start to learn more about it, you quickly realize that the soil makes a difference. Studying how vineyards were farmed has helped me grasp that the importance of the soil actually […]

BC LNG Exports Blow Climate Targets Way, Way Out of the Water

This post is the second of a two part series. Read the first installment, Unreported Emissions From Natural Gas Blow Up BC‘s Climate Action Plan. Methane leaks from British Columbia’s natural gas industry are likely at least 7 times greater than official numbers increasing the entire provinces’ carbon footprint by nearly 25%. That’s like putting […]

Interview: Energy Investor Bill Powers Discusses Looming Shale Gas Bubble

On Sat., April 27, I met up with energy investor Bill Powers at Prairie Moon Restaurant in Evanston, IL for a mid-afternoon lunch to discuss his forthcoming book set to hit bookstores on June 18. The book’s title – “Cold, Hungry and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth” – pokes fun at the statement […]

The Death of ‘Sustainability’

This is a guest post by Glenn Hurrowitz, author and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. Can destroying a tropical rainforest be “sustainable”? Well, according to a decision taken yesterday by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the major industry-NGO body, this greatest of environmental crimes is now officially “green.” Palm oil plantations have driven […]

Koch Brothers, ALEC Attack Maine Renewable Energy Standards

Maine’s clean energy legislation has spurred more than $2 billion in local investment and created at least 2,500 jobs in the Pine Tree State. That isn’t stopping some state lawmakers from trying to weaken and kill these laws, as the local political puppets do the will of their fossil fuel masters, the Koch brothers. A quick […]

Obama's Former Communications Director's Firm Does PR For Keystone XL Pipeline, Tar Sands Rail Transport

Double-dipping is a “no go” in the real world of eating chips and salsa with a circle of friends but an everyday reality in the world of lobbyists and PR professionals.  Enter double-dipper Anita Dunn, former White House Communications Director for President Barack Obama who now runs the firm SKDKnickerbocker (Squier Knapp Dunn), a firm that “brings unparalleled strategic […]

DeSmog’s Graham Readfearn Joins Guardian Environment Blog, First Post Jumps to Guardian UK Front Page

On his first day joining the Guardian Environment blog, DeSmogger Graham Readfearn’s first post – How climate scientists are being framed – quickly gained traction and ended up featured on the Guardian’s UK front page. Bookmark the Environment Guardian blog, and keep your eyes peeled for Graham’s column, called Planet Oz.  Send him some praise […]

Keystone Kops: TransCanada Spent $280,000 Lobbying For Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline In First Quarter

TransCanada, the multinational corporation hoping to build the controversial northern half of the Keystone XL pipeline, spent over $280,000 on lobbying the U.S. government in the first quarter (Q1) of 2013, according to lobbying disclosure records. In addition to the $250,000 paid to Paul Elliott – TransCanada’s infamous in-house lobbyist and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s national deputy campaign manager during […]

While Exxon Spins on Mayflower Tar Sands Spill Cleanup, Oil Threatens Fishing Lake and Arkansas River

ExxonMobil would sure like you to think that everything is just fine down in Mayflower, Arkansas. That the roughly 5,000 barrel tar sands crude spill was regrettable, but the town will be soon restored to its unspoiled state. That, in terms of clean up, they’re totally on it. I mean, just look at their workers […]

Sand Land: Fracking Industry Mining Iowa's Iconic Sand Bluffs in New Form of Mountaintop Removal

This is a collaborative report by DeSmog’s Steve Horn and Mint Press News staff writer Trisha Marczak. Within immediate vicinity of a central battleground of the Black Hawk War of 1832, land rife with a resource necessary for hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is in the crosshairs of an industry prepared to turn the area into a battle […]