As the December 1 comment deadline approaches for the Obama administration's proposed Clean Power Plan, Friends of the Earth is launching a series of blog posts on Daily Kos explaining the rule's deficiencies and how it could be made even more effective at reducing carbon emissions.
The first post, by Climate and energy campaigner Kate DeAngelis, now up on Daily Kos, explains the importance of a carbon tax in reducing power plant emissions.
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Below is an ongoing timeline of developments regarding the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors. Check back for news updates as they happen.
While the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Air Act 111(d) regulation did not explicitly allow a carbon price, it acknowledges the need to consider a carbon tax before the final rulemaking. Allowing states to implement a carbon tax as a means of complying with the rule makes economic and environmental sense. It is also within the EPA’s legal authority in implementing the Clean Air Act. The secret to lower emissions and higher revenue is a…
There is no doubt that climate change is going to cause widespread social disruption. Nevertheless, focusing too hard on the national security aspect probably isn’t the best idea. Higher walls are not a solution to climate change. Neither is demonizing refugees and other frontline victims as security threats.
Unfortunately, this over-emphasis on security has been all the rage this week following a report from the largest single consumer of oil on the planet, the…
Friends of the Earth International has just released its most recent assessment of the suite of carbon-trading forestry policies known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD. The report, "The great REDD gamble," is available for download here.
One of the best websites out there documenting REDD and carbon forestry from a critical perspective, REDD Monitor, has just published a summary of the arguments in the FoE International report. So,…
A coalition of environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, sent a letter today to Secretary of the Department of the Interior Sally Jewell and Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, calling on them to ensure the costs of carbon emissions are taken into account in their agency decision-making processes. The letter was prompted by a recent decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado that found the…
In April of this year, I visited a pair of villages in Bengkulu, Indonesia, where the Indonesian palm oil company PT Sendabi Indah Lestari (PT SIL) -- a company that allegedly supplies palm oil to Wilmar International -- was engaged in ongoing violence to dispossess the villagers of their land. Now, the landgrab has taken a dramatic turn.
On September 12, two farmers in Seluma district, Bengkulu province were arrested for harvesting palm oil fruit from trees they…
This blog post has been adapted from a statement made by Harriett Crosby, Friends of the Earth board member and General Mills shareholder, at the company’s shareholder meeting on Tuesday, September 23, 2014.
Thank you, Ken. It’s so good to be here with you today.
My great grandfather, John Crosby the third, Honest John, cofounded General Mills with Cadwallader Washburn in 1877. It was then known as the Washburn Crosby Company. Honest John…
In light of this week's U.N. General Assembly and Climate Summit, 118 groups from 37 countries urged U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (1) to ensure that private finance is not counted as international climate finance, and (2) to work against the greenwashing of private investment, particularly in the exponentially-growing green bond market. The Secretary General had named green bonds as one of a handful of areas in which the summit was expected to deliver major outcomes;…
Today we celebrate six years of successful campaigning against the Keystone XL pipeline. Every day we succeed in keeping fossil fuels in the ground is a victory for humanity and our planet. The fact that we have resisted this long is a testament to the strength and determination of frontline communities and national activists.
Science 101 tells us that we cannot address climate change if we continue investing in fossil fuel infrastructure. Although the president…