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  • Prez pumps up the volume on climate-bill push

    Pump, pump, pump it up. Photo: Mike Schmid via FlickrAt last, Obama brings the love:  The president’s public display of affection yesterday for Senate climate and energy legislation made sponsor John Kerry (D-Mass.) happy. And Obama’s gambit to frame a vote for the bill as a vote against Evil Big Oil may be the only […]

  • A ‘BP spill bill’ instead of a climate bill? [UPDATED]

    Update below Will Democratic leaders try to merge climate legislation with politically popular get-tough-on-BP measures? This morning Politico hints as much: the strategy now will be to include climate provisions in a BP SPILL BILL tightening industry controls, on the theory the bill will be hard to oppose. No such bill exists yet; this is […]

  • Brainstorming Blue Not Green

    Entering a green event run by Fortune Magazine in Orange County sets the stage for a few things – an audience of senior executives and government policymakers as well as a myriad of engaging debates and panels that spark ideas.  After three days at Fortune Brainstorm Green last month in Laguna Niguel, I noticed that […]

  • Ohio Coal Plant Linked to $30m in Annual Economic Damage

    This post was co-written by Nachy Kanfer, Associate Field Organizer for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Ohio. We regularly dispute Big Coal when they say coal is not bad for the environment – now we have another example of how this dirty, outdated power source is costing jobs and damaging the economy in […]

  • In new ad, BP’s Tony Hayward thanks U.S. for ‘strong support’

    Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The foreign oil giant BP has launched a new series of advertisements to contain the damage to its reputation and stock price from its uncontrolled disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In a television advertisement that aired nationally this morning, BP CEO Tony Hayward promotes how his corporation is running […]

  • The Senate climate bill gives EPA authority over both old and new coal plants

    Yesterday I explained how the American Power Act would both curb and expand EPA’s authority to clamp down on greenhouse gases (to net positive effect, or so I argued). I ended with this teaser: Now, there is one extremely good reason to want to preserve Clean Air Act stationary source tools for greenhouse gases: America […]

  • Why BP is a textbook psychopath

    It’s good to know that a full six-plus weeks after the BP rig explosion killed 11 workers and initiated the slow painful murder of the Gulf Coast economy and ecology, our ever-watchful federal government has decided to launch an investigation into whether BP actually did something criminal. Thanks for jumping on this, Uncle Sam. Of […]

  • Who are the 22% of Americans who view BP favorably?

    Citing a Rasmussen poll Greg Sargent took note of yesterday, which indicated that 22 percent of Americans currently have a favorable view of BP, Barbara Morrill at Daily Kos asks who these 22 percent of Americans are. Using the crosstabs from the poll (premium account required), I put together this chart to answer Morrill’s question: […]

  • Domestic offsets in the American Power Act: preserving the integrity?

    This post was co-written with Sasha Lyutse. NRDC staff have posted assessments of a number of key elements of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act discussion draft. Here, we’ll take a closer look at the domestic offsets program. I’ll give a brief overview of the program, as outlined in Part D of the bill (Sec. 731-741), […]

  • Sustainable seafood takes center stage at Seattle dinner theater

    Servers and stowaways at Bounty!Photo: Amani Ellen LoutfyAt Seattle’s Café Nordo, the wait staff quotes Jack London, the soup is served from fish tanks, and there’s enough alcohol to ease the pain of the BP oil spill momentarily. Nordo’s odd coupling of an oceanic musical production, “Bounty! An Epic Adventure in Seafood,” with a five-course […]