After years of debate and negotiation, the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site finally appears to be going forward. But there is considerable doubt as to its economic viability, writes Eliot Brown.

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In a recent piece in Wired, Clive Thompson suggests that the solution to the problem of texting while driving is not to stop texting, but to stop driving. The popularity of texting is a good reason to support public transit.

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State legislators in Illinois have lifted a 23-year ban on building nuclear plants within the state.

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Spain's high speed rail system is consistently beating out airlines for inter-city travel. But it's not through low prices.

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WalMart made an offer to purchase a plot from a family in Frankenmuth, Michigan, but withdrew the offer when the City Council rezoned the land for a limited building size. The family sued, and a federal judge awarded them $3.6 million.

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In Seattle, the street names were settled a century ago. Naming alleys and other unnamed civic features is a way to reclaim urban spaces and enhance heritage. Kurt Cobain Way, anyone?

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Do certain kinds of people - students, elderly, environmentalists - choose to ride transit because of who they are? Or does the proper infrastructure make the difference?

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The public image of Pittsburgh is of a dirty, industrial city, but the city has been at the forefront of sustainability for some time.

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The Colorado River Delta is in tough shape once it ventures into Mexico. But now, a group of NGOs and local governments are showing how the sensitive area can be kept clean.

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The American Dream is a concept that's had a rough go for the past few years. A new survey shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans don't think that dream can become reality.

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In Sydney, Australia multiple groups of commuter bicyclists have gotten organized and adopted routes with scheduled stops calling themselves a "bike bus". The brilliance is the purposeful combination of the age-old tactic of safety in numbers, social interaction, and...

Pabst Farms is NOT brilliant. It's yet another exurban zone of tacky strip malls and low-grade McMansions. Well, is has a few minor merits - a bit more greenspace than average, for example. But basically it's another tragic waste of...

Take a look at this. I don't know anything about Tulsa, but this is one of the most well thought out urban renewal ideas I've seen in a while and to see it coming out of the bible belt is...

There's little I can say about this other than it's awesome. A welcome maship from google....

Rubber Sidewalks seem to be taking off. The city of Boston may start requiring them - article here. That's a pretty bold step for something relatively unproven, but will be very useful for other cities to watch and represents the...

This article's gotten a lot of play and it sound's like a truly brilliant idea: Make sidewalks out of recycled tires - it's cheap, they apparantly last longer, they are easier on the feet, they don't have freeze/thaw issues in...

One of my biggest complaints about my alma matter, Washington University in St. Louis, was the severe lack of interaction between the students and the city of St. Louis, which was always just a stone's throw away. St. Louis is...

LA County has placed solar panels on two key bus depots in the San Fernando valley. The panels should save the system $185k a year in electricity costs. Plus, it's a cool public display of solar potential. For a bigger...

The Milwaukee Connector is a project to build a decent - Caen style transit system in Milwaukee. It looks like a darn good idea, and ought to be considered. I worry that this time of transit system won't be a...

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen regarding transit. Muni Haikus. A website devited to Haikus about the various bus lines in San Francisco. Some of them are brilliant, some are painful. Kind of like Muni....

This is truly brilliant. A group in San Francisco concerned witht the lack of greenspace in the city recently asked the question: As long as you put money in the meter, who's to say a parking space has to have...

The Government of Canada, in partnership with IBM and UN-HABITAT, have put together a 72-hour online event in preparation for the World Urban Forum, to be held enxt summer in Vancouver. It's called "Habitat Jam" and it'll basically be a,...

This website, ipodsubwaymaps.com, is one of the coolest, most useful web technology apps I've ever seen. William Bright has put a tremendous amount of effort into creating astonishingly accurate subway maps that you can download onto your iPod for handy...

I have a feeling this is more novelty than preacticalisty, since a cell phone could probably charge itself off a car's idling motor without any added deleterious effects. Nonetheless, here's a taxi with a wind turbine on the roof that...

San Francisco: On extraordinarily rare occasions the opportunity presents itself to develop a piece of land in ideal, truly brilliant fashion. Treasure Island is a former military facility on landfill in the middle of San Francisco Bay. It's laid largely...

I normally like Alaska Airlines. They're generally very nice, and in the case of a major delay (during which we had to turn around and return to the airport of departure) they were polite and professional. No big deal. To...

I know I'm not the first person who's complained about these things, but my respect for TSA security is so low I could scream. Twice recently I've had these idiots rummage through my bag in search of liquids and when...

I really love Google Maps. There's one problem with it though. When you search for something and get a typo, you typically get a left-hand sidebar with suggestions about what you might have done wrong. This is vaguely useful,...

JetBlue is a wonderful airline - they are hip, polite, and have cool features like live TV on the flight. However, their frequent flyer program, true blue, is a failure. Why? Because miles expire after one year. As a result,...

I never wanted to get into this battle, but I have to throw it in - Boeing's large jets are superior to those of Airbus, at least the Air France variety. Why? One and only one reason - the central...

A USB device is suppose to connect intelligently to your computer without any hassel. Not printers. If the even come with a USB cord (some printers actually make you buy this separately), you inevitable have to install an entire CD...

Northwest Airlines will now charge $15 to travelers who want to specifically reserve an aisle seat at check-in. Article here. This idea is so stupid it's gotten me to write something on my neglected blog (which takes a lot these...

This takes the cake. It's a bus that drives around Rio de Janiero. It's full of exercise bikes, and I guess you're supposed to get exercise and enjoy the view. Of course, Rio Already has fabulous weather, and apparantly, decent...

According to the South China Post, some Chinese cities are moving to ban electric bicycles in favor of automobiles. Europeans have the luxury of hindsight in this regard, and are ironically reinstating pedestrian and bicycle dominance in urban areas. The...

Chicago: I suppose this is more of a rant than a useful comment, but there are a few things in it worth thinking about. Bear with me. First of all, United Airlines insists on claiming that it has "direct" flights...

Chicago: As much as I think the current administration's attitude toward passenger rail is atrocious, I recognize that some Amtrak lines may indeed be less worthy of government support than others. If cuts must be made, let them be to...

Hong Kong: These photos were sent in by 'DickStock' from Hong Kong (thanks!). They show a dead-end door at the International Finance Centre that is labeled as a fire exit. The door literally opens into what is essentially a closet......

Your Imagination: I've been seeing these weird billboards around town for a wihile. They have a photo of this weird hairy beast-thing that looks like a Jeep with the word "Esuvee" in big letters. For the longest time I couldn't...

San Francisco: I just got ripped off big time. I was late to catch a train to Berkeley so I ran down into a BART station only to find out that the next train wasn't for 20 more minutes, so...

The Bank: This has nothing to do with sustainability, but sometimes I have to vent. I typically take $120 out when I visit ATMs that are not owned by my bank. The reason is that it minimizes the loss I...

Earlier this week, Lisa Zelljadt from Point Carbon wrote of her company's new ''Carbon 2010'' report, which is a worthy attempt at covering the complex set of variables involved in creating and sustaining markets for carbon allowances. The report quantifies the responses from their proprietary data and marketing survey of approximately 1,500 carbon professionals who [...]

Investment in renewable energy grew in 2009 in wind and biofuels – despite most of the world’s economy being mired in recession, according to a new Clean Energy Trends report from market research firm Clean Edge, Inc. The third pillar of clean energy, solar power, saw revenues shrink, but only because of a crash in [...]

Eco-friendly LA is about to put its money where its mouth is. A proposal by LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would raise electricity bills 8.8% to 28.4% to pay for an ambitious clean energy initiative. The rate hikes would be implemented by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP), and must be approved by its [...]

Why are Champagne bottles so darn heavy? To fool us into thinking we’re getting more than we are? To be handy in un petit bar brawl? No! Because of their excitable contents, Champagne bottles must withstand 6 Gs of force (most humans black out at 5 or 6 Gs), and thus are thicker-walled than normal wine [...]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has outlined plans, announced last year, to place new restrictions on products designed to prevent flea and tick infestations on cats and dogs. The agency is taking action because in 2008 it received nearly double the number of reports of adverse reactions and, in some cases, death, in dogs and cats [...]

While petroleum companies have announced record profits as of late, a new study published in Energy & Fuels has some startling news. Using an improved forecasting model, researchers from Kuwait University and Kuwaiti Oil Company predict that conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. “Peak oil” refers to the point at which oil production reaches [...]

The rollout of the highly touted Smart Grid ran into another buzz saw this week, this time in Texas, when a hundreds of consumers showed up at a town hall meeting, and the Grand Prairie City Hall, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, complaining that their recently installed wireless Smart Meters were responsible for higher electric [...]

By John Warrilow When it comes to creating a business worth selling, a values-based business is just like any other- it needs to serve a demonstrated need and have a strong financial foundation, to boot. Here are eight steps to put your triple bottom line business on the market and find a willing buyer. 1. Identify a [...]

We have all experienced it–you buy a gadget at your favorite store, and you have to pry your new toy out of obnoxious plastic packaging that is about the size of your car’s windshield.  It seems as if the smaller an electronic gadget becomes, the laws of physics become more defied:  that new tiny smartphone [...]

TerraCycle produces very cool consumer products from recycled food packaging. But for businesses trying to grow revenues in this ''soft recovery'' the coolest thing about TerraCycle is its creative business strategies for generating top-line revenue results with attractive profit margins. How it engage its customers is what makes TerraCycle's strategy unique. For example, it ''up-cycles'' Capri [...]

By Elizabeth (Lisa) Zelljadt, Senior Analyst, Point Carbon Every morning Mike walks into his London office and logs on to the Intercontinental Exchange, where he and most of his colleagues do all their work. He surveys the news for major political developments related to greenhouse gas emissions, then checks current and forward prices of fuels, and [...]

Here's a news flash of sorts: ExxonMobil (XOM), the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas company, has barrels of money and plans $28 billion in capital spending this year and about $25-$30 billion each year thereafter through 2014. The company made more than $19 billion last year and generated cash flow of $28.4 billion. Flush [...]

By Dan Kalafatas, President, 3Degrees It is tempting for environmental market advocates (like myself) to gnash their teeth as climate change misinformation and standard Washington gridlock continue to delay passage of climate change legislation that would create a national carbon market. However, in doing so, we are ignoring a bright light amidst the darkness - [...]

Lisa Jackson is making strong statements about environmental justice. Are they typical Obama administration bluster or do they represent actual changes at the E.PA.?