Can you say ‘Sprawl’? Walmart’s Biggest Climate Impact Goes Ignored

Date: 29 Nov 2011 | posted in: Retail | 2 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Even as Walmart has been hyping its supposed environmental epiphany, it has continued to unroll vast, low-rise supercenters at breakneck speed. Since 2005, Walmart has added more than 1,100 new supercenters, almost all built on land that hadn’t been developed previously.… Read More

Instead of Cap and Trade, Cap and Dividend

Date: 29 Jan 2010 | posted in: Energy, From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 1 Facebooktwitterredditmail

A new and vastly improved climate change policy has come out of nowhere to capture the imagination of state and national policymakers: "Cap and dividend." It works like this: Step one, impose a carbon cap. Step two, auction off all carbon allowances. Step three, return most of (if not all) the revenues generated to all households on a per capita basis.… Read More

New Proposed Climate Change Bill in Washington Is Simpler and More Equitable

On Sept. 22, in a speech to 100 world leaders gathered at the United Nations to discuss climate change, President Barack Obama declared the U.S. “determined to act.” But at the same time, word began to circulate on Capitol Hill that the Senate might be equally determined not to vote on the climate bill any time … Read More

Neighborhood Stores: An Overlooked Strategy for Fighting Global Warming

Date: 19 Aug 2009 | posted in: Retail | 2 Facebooktwitterredditmail

So far, the public debate about cars and climate change has been dominated by fuel economy. But driving has been growing at such a rapid pace that even a big advance in fuel economy is likely to be wiped out by ever more miles on the road. This is where local stores come in.  Dozens of studies have found that people who live near small stores walk more for errands and, when they do drive, their trips are shorter. … Read More

Why Does the Much-Touted Climate Bill Look Like It Was Stolen From the Republican Playbook?

Date: 8 Jun 2009 | posted in: Energy, From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Most environmental leaders and Democratic Party officials argue that we should support the Waxman-Markey carbon cap and trade bill (American Clean Energy Security Act) no matter how imperfect because it represents an important small step forward.  In this commentary by David Morris, he concludes that the bill would be acceptable if it was stripped of its cap and trade provisions. Retaining the cap and trade provisions and he sees it as a giant step backwards that may well hobble further progress in federal efforts to combat climate change for years to come.

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ILSR’s Minnesota Carbon Tax Shift Archives

In the 1990s, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and other energy activists in Minnesota undertook an effort to get Minnesota to adopt a billion dollar "tax shift" that would have raised the cost of energy while reducing taxes on income and/or property. ILSR was integrally involved in the design of the legislative proposal and examined the impacts on various sectors of Minnesota’s economy. Below you will find the archive of the materials that were prepared to support the initiative. Over several years, the proposal was debated extensively but never enacted into law. … Read More

David Morris speaks on the Challenge of Going Green in a Recession

Date: 27 Apr 2009 | posted in: Energy, From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

On Sunday, April 26, David Morris addressed a crowd hosted by the DFL Education Foundation, on the challenges of developing renewable energy in a time of economic turmoil.  His remarks follow:

I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this distinguished audience this evening.  My charge is to address the question, “Can We Be Green in a Recession?”  Or as the teaser for this meeting puts it, can we be green without green?

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