(Source: Wikipedia/Creative Commons) When it comes to energy and economics in the climate-change era, nothing is what it seems. Most of us believe (or want to believe) that the second carbon era, the Age of Oil, will soon be superseded by the Age of Renewables, just as oil had long since superseded the Age of […]

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(Source: woodleywonderworks/Flickr/Creative Commons) Agriculture is the largest contributor to water pollution in the U.S., dumping millions of pounds of nitrogen and phosphorous into the nation’s waterways each year. But as the problem worsens and government scrambles to find a solution, a program offering regulatory exemptions to farmers who voluntarily take cleanup steps is getting terrible […]

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(Illustrations by Edel Rodriguez) Our June investigative report on a Texas courtroom battle over “estrogenic-active” chemicals in consumer plastics is part of a much larger story involving compelling evidence that the plastics industry is hiding the toxicity of a product used in millions of American homes every day. Consider. The Eastman Chemical Company has spent […]

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(Image source: Benoît Deniaud/Flickr/Creative Commons) Nelly was wider than she was tall (about five hands or so), and kind of a jerk. She was old, and some brat (me) was always trying to put a saddle on her and play National Velvet in her paddock. But Nelly had that infuriating and endearing quality that most […]

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In summer 2011, a year after bp capped its disastrous Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and the national media had moved on, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) received a letter as unexpected as it was urgent. Michael Robichaux, a Louisiana physician treating individuals made sick by the disaster, explained: “This has been […]

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