I'm guessing you haven't read the 1000+ page climate bill, so you may be shocked to learn that despite everything that IS in the bill, one critical solution to global warming is missing: a mandatory minimum amount of energy produced by renewable energy like wind and solar power.

Good work EPA! In a 180 degree turn around from the Bush Administration policy, the EPA, under Lisa Jackson, has authorized California's Clean Air Act waiver, allowing them to regulate tailpipe emissions - a move they made initially in 2004, but battled with the Bush folks for 4 years over.

Last week the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), aka, The Climate Bill. And boy have there been a lot of upset people! The only people who actually seem into it anymore are Rep.s Waxman and Markey, ostensibly the crafters of the legislation.

Back in the mid-90's, as I was getting into professional environmental policy and activism work, I learned about Shell oil and Ken Saro-Wiwa. Ken was member of the Ogoni tribe in Nigeria, and led protests of Shell's activities in his village, and he was later executed by the government of Nigeria.

Forgive the nod to Salt-n-Pepa for the title of this post, but the NYT reports today that Rep. Waxman has made some serious concessions to the ag community on the climate bill.

I'm really excited for our next guest blog post. This time, it's from Willa Coffeey, the ED at Appalachian Voices, an excellent group that's done fantastic work to fight mountaintop removal mining. You can read more about their work at http://www.appvoices.org/.

Remember the chant rising up at the Republican Convention? They shouted "DRILL, BABY, DRILL!" and while we have a new administration, those cheers haven't been lessened in tone or volume.

A mere 20 years after the spill, we're seeing yet another ruling come down on the Exxon Valdez spill.

In what is becoming a sadly precedented move, the Obama administration completely failed to truly make an impact on mountaintop removal mining last week.

Can you imagine a world without state parks? I can't. Growing up, my family vacations weren't Disneyland. We simply packed tents and coolers and headed for the woods of upstate NY, where I developed my love of the environment.