The Angry Progressives: April 15, 2007

A new McDonald's restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, shows that the green-building model can work for the tens of thousands of of fast-food restaurants nationwide.

Brazil has vowed to increase its production of ethanol, defying calls from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to scale back its output.

The largest solar power plant in North America will soon be providing electricity to an Air Force base in the Nevada desert.

Although the field is still relatively young, engineering issues concerning plug-in hybrid electric vehicles received a great deal of exposure at this year’s SAE 2007 World Congress.

Oregon's gays and lesbians would win the benefits of marriage and protections against discrimination under landmark bills approved Tuesday by the Oregon House. The two measures are expected to win approval in the Senate and be forwarded to Democratic Governor Kulongoski, who plans to sign both bills.

Stanford students have pledged to fast until the university commits to a living wage without restrictions. Student activism at its best. Check Mother Jones for regular updates on their progress.

The House marked Tax Day on Tuesday by approving new protections against some of the modern-day dangers facing taxpayers, including identity theft, deceptive Web sites and loan sharks.

Latinos and immigrant-support groups said they are appalled at a University of Iowa College Republicans event Thursday that would pit "illegal immigrants" against the "border patrol" in a game of capture-the-flag. Should they really be shocked? Republicans, no matter how old they are, can't help but be anti-Latino.

The tax burden in the U.S. is shifting away from the rich, to the point where in a few years it could change from being progressive to effectively flat, a new study says. Just how Bush, the GOP, and their corporate cronies like it.

This NYT editorial takes Bush to task for having "reneged on his promises to Katrina’s victims."

New York City officials announced that the city will be providing free software to doctors who treat hundreds of thousands of people. And defying the usual pattern of wealthy patients benefiting first from technological advances, the city is starting with the poor.

The world is currently producing more oil annually than it is replacing with new reserves, according to a new survey of global liquids reserves published by Energy Intelligence.

On the eve of the first U.N. Security Council debate on global warming, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett warned U.S. businesses to invest in carbon-free technology or lose out to Europeans. This is where blockhead global warming deniers miss the big picture. They claim that working to help protect the world from global warming will cost jobs and hurt the economy (suspend for a moment the irony of what a strong economy would do when the Earth is uninhabitable). On the contrary, what Europe and Asia, as well as some investors the U.S., are telling us is alternatiev energy is the next "internet boom" in terms of new jobs and a new sea change in technology and innovation.

Oakland, CA topped a list of U.S. cities using renewable energy, with 17% of its power coming from solar, wind and geothermal sources.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, joined by Democratic U.S. Congressman Ed Markey, announced a set of initiatives designed to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on petroleum.

One antidote to cleaners that harm the environment are "green" products, nontoxic substances that can effectively disinfect and maintain sanitation in homes and workplaces, the use of which has been increasing over the past 10 years.

The U.S. military is increasingly focused on a potential national security threat: climate change.

Western North Carolina, like the rest of the state, could take the first steps toward energy independence in the next decade, pumping homegrown fuel for vehicles instead of importing foreign oil.

Millionaires are piling seed capital into young firms developing green technologies, seeking better control over what happens to money they invest to help improve the environment.

Condolences to the Virginia Tech family after yesterday's massacre. We'd like to encourage our readers to use this forum to express their sorrow.

The Angry Progressives