Lisa Margonelli

Lisa Margonelli is a writer on energy and environment. She spent four years and traveled 100,000 miles to write her book, "Oil On the Brain: Petroleum's Long Strange Trip to Your Tank." More

Lisa Margonelli directs the New America Foundation's Energy Productivity Initiative, which works to promote energy efficiency as a way of ensuring energy security, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and economic security for American families. She spent roughly four years and traveled 100,000 miles to report her book about the oil supply chain, Oil On the Brain: Petroleum's Long Strange Trip to Your Tank, which the American Library Association named one of the 25 Notable Books of 2007. She spent her childhood in Maine where, during the energy crisis of the 1970s, her family heated the house with wood hauled by a horse. Later, fortunately, they got a tractor. The experience instilled a strong appreciation for the convenience of fossil fuels.

The Retro Silliness of Our Green Trade War With China

The Retro Silliness of Our Green Trade War With China

A new tariff on Chinese-made wind towers will not aid domestic industry. In fact, it is likely to do the opposite. More »

The Keystone Pipeline Is No Victory for Environmentalism

The Keystone Pipeline Is No Victory for Environmentalism

At most, it's a symbolic victory. To ensure the end of tar sands oil, the government will have to enact measures make high-carbon fuel unprofitable. More »

Give the Gift of an Extra 10 Miles Per Gallon

Give the Gift of an Extra 10 Miles Per Gallon

Rather than giving an energy-guzzling device this holiday season, here are three ways to stuff a stocking with the gift of fuel efficiency More »

The (Illegal) Private Bus System That Works

The (Illegal) Private Bus System That Works

Brooklyn's dollar van fleet is a tantalizing demonstration of how we might supplement mass transit with privately-owned mini-transit entrepreneurs More »

Note to Obama: Try Channeling Michele Bachmann's Gassy Genius

Note to Obama: Try Channeling Michele Bachmann's Gassy Genius

There's no need to make energy promises you can keep: The key is getting people to listen to pledges you won't fulfill. More »

Is Releasing the Strategic Oil Reserve About Strategy or Pure Politics?

Is Releasing the Strategic Oil Reserve About Strategy or Pure Politics?

What problem are releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve trying to solve? More »

How High Gas Prices Could Help the Economy

How High Gas Prices Could Help the Economy

$4 gasoline and 9 percent unemployment may lead to increased fuel efficiency of commercial vehicles and help businesses grow.The two biggest numbers in American politics are gas prices, which remain over $3.79 for a gallon of regular in 19 states, and unemployment, which stands over 9 percent nationwide. Those numbers are obviously related. If we changed the politics of how we respond, we could actually begin to use one to solve the other. Last month saw a… More »

How to Create a Culture of Public Transit: The 'Marci Option'

How to Create a Culture of Public Transit: The 'Marci Option'

An exurban office park in California shows that we don't have to spend long commutes alone in our cars if we don't want to More »

How Rising Gas Prices Are Eroding the American Dream

How Rising Gas Prices Are Eroding the American Dream

Jeff Grant works two jobs but can barely pay his truck's gas bills—and it's begun to affect how he lives his life More »

Do American Drivers Get a 'Dictator Discount' on Gasoline?

Do American Drivers Get a 'Dictator Discount' on Gasoline?

With our notorious dependence on cheap gas, have we been the beneficiaries of an authoritarian markdown at the pump? More »

Forget About $5 Gas: $3 Gas Is Bad Enough

Forget About $5 Gas: $3 Gas Is Bad Enough

A former Shell CEO has everybody spooked over high gas prices come 2012, but what about the already too high prices right now? More »

Does $100-a-Barrel Oil Threaten the Recovery?

Does $100-a-Barrel Oil Threaten the Recovery?

As prices rise, having a heavily gasoline dependent economy sucks money directly out of American pockets More »

Obama's BP Oil Spill Commission Gets It Wrong

Obama's BP Oil Spill Commission Gets It Wrong

When the government allows safety violations on such a high scale it is rewarding companies who court danger More »

What's Really Wrong With the Smart Grid

What's Really Wrong With the Smart Grid

All the right interest groups love it, but how does the policy benefit American consumers? More »

Question for BP: How Close Are We to the Unthinkable?

Question for BP: How Close Are We to the Unthinkable?

If the casing of the spewing oil well is deteriorating, the flow of oil could increase and the situation could become much worse More »

Oil Spill Theater: Catharsis or Catalyst?

Oil Spill Theater: Catharsis or Catalyst?

The oil spill sparked a heated debate on oil policy, but rhetoric may not turn into action More »

The End of Magical Oil

The End of Magical Oil

The oil spill is starting to look a lot like the financial meltdown -- the product of unrealistic expectations, ridiculous risk, and lax regulation More »

7 Ideas for Armchair Oil Spill Regulators

7 Ideas for Armchair Oil Spill Regulators

The Gulf oil spill has Congress scrambling to tighten offshore drilling regulation. Here are 7 suggestions for how to start. More »

No Easy Villains May Mean No Easy Oil

No Easy Villains May Mean No Easy Oil

Unlike other disasters that could be blamed on a clear villain, the Gulf spill was the result of technology, individuals, companies, and circumstance. Which may make offshore drilling harder to justify in the future. More »

It's Time for a Moratorium on Oil Itself

It's Time for a Moratorium on Oil Itself

A case for using the political will generated by the Gulf oil spill to stop business as usual—by reducing our dependence on oil More »

The Biggest Story in Photos

Photos of Tornado Damage in Moore, Oklahoma

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