By Mary Ellen Ternes Whether you buy in to climate change or not, September 2009 was more riveting than fiction. Michael Crichton’s State of Fear didn’t capture the combined U.S. legislative, executive and judicial branches’ apparent fait accompli regarding climate change regulation. This feels more like “The West Wing” meets “The Pelican Brief” with a  Read more »

By Mary Ellen Ternes In the process of moving to a new house over the past few weeks, I began to regret all of the unwise purchases made when I moved into my old house five years ago. Perhaps the frustration of sorting through countless poor consumer choices is the perfect inspiration for writing about  Read more »

By Mary Ellen Ternes I have to apologize to my little black dog, Mack. He’d jog beside me all day long if he could keep running in the excess lawn sprinkler water that creates ephemeral (bordering on intermittent) streams along our streets. Sorry, Mack (I’ve got a biscuit for you), but considering the energy required  Read more »

By Mary Ellen Ternes Did you know that as much as we love natural gas in Oklahoma, according to the Department of Energy, Oklahoma’s electric utilities rely on about twice as much coal as natural gas? We know Oklahoma produces a lot of natural gas – about one-tenth of the total U.S. natural gas production,  Read more »