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Issues: Moving Beyond Oil

Best of Green! NRDC Chosen "Best Political Watchdog" by TreeHugger!

April 8, 2010

Posted by Phil Gutis in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Moving Beyond Oil , Reviving the World's Oceans , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
bestofgreen, bestpoliticalwatchdog, edbegleyjr, nrdc, treehugger

On behalf of all of NRDC -- our Board, our Members, supporters and activists and, of course, our staff -- a huge thank you to the editors and readers of TreeHugger. This afternoon, the NRDC family learned that NRDC was...

Liquidity Traps and Clunkers

August 5, 2009

Posted by Phil Gutis in Green Enterprise , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
cashforclunkers, chevy, clunkers, economist, HHR, jackhidary, liquitytrap, smarttransportation

Late last month, we moved fast and became one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who trashed a clunker as part of the government's Cash for Clunkers program. Thanks to the government subsidy, we received more than $4,500 for...

Clunkermania Continues

July 31, 2009

Posted by Phil Gutis in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil

Tags:
cashforclunkers, chevy, newyorktimes

It felt good, I'll admit, to see the headline on The New York Times website last night. Apparently the $1 billion fund Congress had provided for the Cash for Clunkers program was almost exhausted. In less than a week, more...

A Car Named Fred

July 30, 2009

Posted by Phil Gutis in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil

Tags:
cashforclunkers, chevy, HHR

More than a year ago, I came out of the closet. (No, not that one. I’ve been out of that closet for decades.) I came out as an owner of a SUV, a hulking 1998 Ford Explorer that my husband...

The New Energy Economy: Stories from the Frontlines

January 21, 2009

Posted by Phil Gutis in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
ashokgupta, conservationservicesgroup, energyefficiency, environmentalentrepenuers, simplesteps, stevecowell

A few days ago, a tanker truck worked its way up my driveway and plugged into my propane tank. About a thousand dollars later, it pulled away and slipped off to make its next delivery. Nothing newsworthy there. That’s typically...

Breaking News: Utah Leases Blocked

January 17, 2009

Posted by Phil Gutis in Moving Beyond Oil , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
bushadministration, landleases, ricardourbina, sharonbuccino, utah

Update, 11:31 eastern, from the NRDC News Release: More than 110,000 acres of Utah wilderness will be protected from oil and gas companies as a result of a ruling last night by Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District...

Why We Need a Good Obama Speech and Soon

December 17, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Curbing Pollution , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
Changeinwashington, climatechange, energy, jimmycarter, obama

Call me a masochist. I've been doing some reading of Jimmy Carter's speeches lately and I'm struck by two points: he called for all the right stuff when it came to energy policy, but, and most importantly, he fell completely...

Google's Schmidt: "Solving Every Problem At Once"

December 2, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
cleanenergy, danreicher, economy, environment, ericschmidt, francesbeinecke, google, ralphcavangh, wendyschmidt

A few days ago, a bunch of us left NRDC's office and walked a few blocks downtown after work to hear a talk by Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. The event -- organized by NRDC Trustee Wendy Schmidt --...

Getting Preachy

November 30, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
automakers, climatechange, jameswomack, PresidentObama, washingtonpost

Maybe it's the start of the holiday season, which has long been recognized to increase stress. Or perhaps it was the news from India where terrorists killed almost 200 people and injured hundreds more. Whatever the cause, I've found myself...

Pink as the New Green

November 24, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil

Tags:
glass, insulation, newsweek, owenscorning, pink, pinkpanther, recyclebank, recycling

The imagery in this news release caught my eye: "the amount of waste glass diverted from landfills could form a two-lane glass highway that extends 1.3 times around the world." The news release came from Owens Corning, which produces "Pink"...

San Francisco to Detroit: Drop Dead?

November 22, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
automakers, betterway, bigthree, electriccar, infrastructure, michigan, oakland, sanfrancisco, sanjose

On the same day that congressional leaders threw in the towel on a bailout for the auto industry, three Bay Area mayors joined an innovative startup in backing a $1 billion plan to create the modern day Detroit. According to...

Yes We Can

November 5, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
buckscounty, changeinwashington, climate, election08, energy, fairlesshills, solar, ussteel, wind, yeswecan

I'm not much of a party guy so my husband, our laptops and assorted dogs spent last night  sprawled around our family room watching the election returns. We'd often speak over the drone of the talking heads to blurt out...

Oily, Day Two

September 18, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Curbing Pollution , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
bigoil, energylegislation, politico, tomfriedman

Day two and the feeling of being dunked in oil hasn't lifted. In fact, given the financial news rocking Wall Street and the soaring price of oil futures, I'm left feeling greasier than ever. The latest reports from Washington find the...

Oily

September 17, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Curbing Pollution , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
energylegislation, losangelestimes

I woke up feeling more than a bit greasy this morning. It was almost as if I someone had snuck into my bedroom and dumped a barrel or two of oil on me. And my shower didn't help all that much....

Substance Abuse and Promiscuity

September 10, 2008

Posted by Phil Gutis in Moving Beyond Oil , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
InteriorDepartment, oilindustry, scandal

"Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length." So wrote the Inspector General of the Department of Interior today in an eye-popping report decrying "a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" in the Bush Administration program charged with collecting...

Phil Gutis
Phil Gutis
Director of Communications
New York City
I'm NRDC's Director of Communications so Switchboard and NRDC.org are ultimately my responsibility. (Cheers or...
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