The prospect of working for NRDC brought me back to NY following a 2-year stint in London and Paris getting my Masters degree in Public Policy. I miss Paris every day but more and more, I know NY is home. Besides, a politics junky like me wouldn’t miss such a challenging, exciting, opportunity-filled time in the U.S. for anything.
Apart from that, I just moved to Harlem so life these days is pretty much about exploring my new neighborhood, working on my yoga, attempting to cook fresh food daily from scratch and trying to live healthier and greener little by little. Next on the agenda: a worm box to recycle organic waste at home – yikes!
Posted January 25, 2012 by Sasha Lyutse in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
Last summer, EPA temporarily exempted the carbon emitted from burning biomass from pollution standards under the Clean Air Act and convened a panel of scientific experts to advise it on crafting rules for the treatment of biomass. Last week, that...continued→
Posted January 17, 2012 by Sasha Lyutse in Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
Last weekend, my fellow Frugal Feasters and I took part in the fanciest Feast yet. This time, our host really raised the technical difficulty bar! His menu reads like something straight out of a posh restaurant: Mushroom and onion bruschetta...continued→
Posted December 23, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
I turn 30 this weekend. That means that for my whole life, the corn ethanol industry has been receiving federal subsidies. From the Energy Tax Act of 1978, which gave ethanol its first tax exemption, to the American Jobs Creation...continued→
Posted December 22, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Health and the Environment
I wrote last month about how my friends and I decided to take up Slow Food USA’s $5 Dinner Challenge. Once a month, we’d gather for a home-cooked dinner that was well-balanced, including a protein, dark leafy green and a...continued→
Posted November 16, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment
So much is being written about food these days, it’s hard to keep up. But one recent OpEd by NY Times columnist Mark Bittman really jumped out at me. In the post called Shared Meals, Shared Knowledge, Bittman echoes a...continued→
Posted September 7, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
Our forests work hard for us every day, absorbing and storing vast amounts of carbon. This makes forests one of our best defenses against global warming, one we Americans rely on to offset 13% of our annual greenhouse gas emissions...continued→
Posted June 28, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency issued labeling requirements for fuel pumps dispensing E15—a blend of gasoline that contains up to 15% ethanol. This announcement follows up on EPA’s expansion earlier this year of a partial waiver allowing E15 to be...continued→
Posted June 9, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
In a post earlier this week, I talked about the Renewable Fuels Association’s new ad campaign in Washington D.C. promoting corn ethanol on the basis that it reduces gas prices. The claims in that ad—namely that ethanol reduced the average...continued→
Posted June 7, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
UPDATED June 8th to correct an error made in the original post. I wrote last week that we could soon expect the corn ethanol industry, faced with growing bipartisan calls to end corn ethanol subsidies, to start playing on consumer fears about...continued→
Posted June 1, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
There aren’t many things NRDC and Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma agree on, but the need to shift biofuels incentives towards newer, cleaner advanced biofuels is one. Last week, Senator Inhofe introduced legislation that would broaden the Renewable Fuel Standard...continued→
Posted May 25, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Moving Beyond Oil
Last week, Conservation International (CI) released a new study that examines ways biofuels can be produced without threatening biodiversity or food security. CI used spatial mapping to identify overlap among potential biofuel crop cultivation zones and areas of high biodiversity,...continued→
Posted May 3, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Today, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Tom Coburn have joined forces across the aisle to introduce legislation that will completely eliminate the main corn ethanol tax credit—known as the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit or “VEETC”—before year-end, as well as end...continued→
Posted May 2, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
Today NRDC and our partners are calling on all concerned citizens to learn about the risks of using the wrong types of biomass for energy and to tell EPA not to allow power companies to use the worst types of...continued→
Posted April 18, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
The world is currently experiencing the second surge in global food prices in three years, leading to food shortages and political unrest in many regions. With media and governments increasingly scrutinizing the causes of volatility in world food markets, it’s...continued→
Posted April 12, 2011 by Sasha Lyutse in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with NPR’s Mitra Taj for a Living on Earth piece about seeing an end to corn ethanol subsidies this year and the potential to put in place policies that help develop and...continued→
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