At its final hearing venue on the most recent edit of its regulations over gas hydrofracturing in New York State in the Marcellus shale area, the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation found itself confronted with a well-informed, articulate and hostile citizenry who filled the 1000-seat Tribeca Performing Arts Center in downtown Manhattan. There were,... Read More...

Last week, Scott Stringer, the Borough President of Manhattan in New York City, called and presided over “Transportation 2030,” a convocation of city officials, administrators, directors of NGO’s, authors and others whose focus has been moving the public around New York City — and elsewhere. The issues, like the City itself, were monumental: how... Read More...

One litany that is sung at every convocation of Republican presidential hopefuls is that the EPA must go; it is environmental regulations that are strangling our industrial might and keeping it from employing every American who wants a job. None of the candidates refer to the regulation-free era before the Clean Air and Clean... Read More...

With climate change bringing unprecedented storms to many sections of the country, a lot of homeowners are probably dreaming of installing their own electric power systems as they sit waiting for the restoration of their electricity at the end of downed power lines. Their timing is not far off: solar power is moving into... Read More...

Last month, Thomas DiNapoli, the Comptroller of the State of New York, wrote in the Huffington Post that “short term profits at the expense of environmental protection and human rights often cost companies more in the long term.” He was not talking as an environmentalist, but as an investor, part of his job as... Read More...

Several years ago, the crusty Texan entrepreneur, T. Boone Pickens, who has successfully owned and sold oil, natural gas and wind power, saw water as the source of his next gusher. He formed the Mesa Water Company and spent much of the early 2000’s buying up tens of millions of dollars worth of water... Read More...

It is flatulated, it is belched, it emanates from excrement and urine, and there is an awful lot of it being produced every day by over six billion humans and about as many farm animals – not counting fowl. While the world is pointing its wavering finger at carbon dioxide as the chief culprit,... Read More...

Would you pay $3.25 more a month for your electricity, if you knew that by doing that you would prevent any more mountains from being removed to mine their coal? The people who are fighting to keep coal companies from removing Blair Mountain in West Virginia would sure like to hear that you would.... Read More...

The Obama administration has made some notable moves on improving the environment, but it has also made some serious concessions to industrial and political opponents who claim that environmental regulations are costing jobs. So the best that can be said about the Obama’s pros and cons on the environment is: it’s a draw! Some... Read More...

A year ago, Stephen Swift, a local Honolulu businessman ostensibly engaged in hazardous waste disposal, found himself jailed for two years for failing to dispose of quantities of perchloroethylene, commonly called Perc,. Instead of taking it to the local hazardous waste disposal site where it would have been safely disposed of for a fee,... Read More...