Climate Politics

One Step Forward, Two Scoots Back

Updates from yesterday’s Senate energy-bill debate Highlights of yesterday’s energy-bill proceedings: The Senate voted to double the amount of ethanol to be added to the nation’s gasoline supply by 2012, from 4 billion to 8 billion gallons. Florida Sens. Mel Martinez (R) and Bill Nelson (D) successfully blocked attempts to end the congressional moratorium on […]

Between a Bush and a Warmed Place

G8 climate statement edited into submission to appease U.S. An action plan on climate change being prepared for July’s G8 summit has been substantially weakened in the lead-up to the meeting, the latest leaked draft anemic even by the not-terribly-strenuous standards of, uh, the last leaked draft. References to “setting ambitious targets and timetables” for […]

An interview with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels on his pro-Kyoto cities initiative

A Nickels’ worth of free advice … Meet the pied piper of one of the most exciting green grassroots uprisings to hit the U.S. in years: Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels (D). He’s managed to get roughly 300 mayors nationwide — from the Northwest to the deep South and everywhere in between — to agree that […]

The Man From NIMBY

Wind-resistant senator owns land near proposed Mass. wind farm Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has been blowing hard against wind power, a position that’s mystified both his Senate colleagues and wind-industry advocates. Alexander introduced an energy bill earlier this year that included grants for solar and other sources of clean power, as well as incentives for […]

Amending Fences

Energy bill goes to Senate floor amidst bipartisan hopes With the public up in arms about gas prices and President Bush breathing down its neck, today the Senate begins consideration — again — of the Moby Dick of modern-day politics: the energy bill. The House already passed a version, attacked by greens and fiscal conservatives […]

Who’s Minding the Shore?

Senate measures threaten to open U.S. coasts to drilling The battle to open up U.S. coastal waters to oil and gas drilling is escalating, with supporters in Congress pushing a number of pro-drilling bills and amendments. An energy-bill provision up for debate this week would mandate the first complete oil and gas inventory of all […]

Environmentalism and liberalism shouldn’t be joined at the hip.

A couple of quick prefatory remarks -- several readers interpreted my earlier posting as an attack on liberalism. That was not my intent at all: While I am not a liberal, as the saying goes, "Some/most of my best friends are liberals." The only goal of the previous posting, and the one that follows, is to suggest the harm that comes from automatically coupling liberalism with environmentalism.

In my previous post, I discussed our movement's international problems. But back in America, we're not doing much better. When the American environmental movement began, Lake Erie was on fire, the bald eagle was on the verge of extinction, and L.A. was choking on its own smog. When environmental regulations seemed to reduce these problems, the public was all for them. But as regulations multiplied, environmentalism became associated in many minds with costly regulatory expenditures, failed Superfund clean-ups, and lots of bureaucratic red tape. Big government enviroliberalism took over a grassroots movement.

Why should liberalism be the Siamese twin of environmentalism? If I am pro-life, against affirmative action, or for private accounts in Social Security, does that mean I don't care about protecting forest ecosystems or saving blue whales?

Bond Ambition

Missouri senator delays small-engine pollution regulation, again Small engines have a big impact — when you use a standard gas-powered lawn mower for an hour, you’ve spewed as much pollution as 50 cars driving 20 miles each. Nevertheless, someone builds those small engines, and that means jobs — specifically, jobs in Missouri, or more specifically […]

Gore is transforming into fiery climate evangelist

Al Gore. Photo: The House Policy Committee. Al Gore, once derided by the right as a stiff, wooden Ozone Man, is now recasting himself as the fiery, headstrong Climate Avenger — a blunt and passionate spokesperson about what he calls “a collision between our civilization and the earth.” He is currently in negotiations to play […]

Nothing to See Here, Folks

White House defends revisions of scientific reports on climate change The White House scrambled into damage-control mode after The New York Times revealed yesterday that a former oil lobbyist had revised scientific government reports on climate change to enhance the appearance of uncertainty. Pushed in a press briefing to respond to charges that the edits […]