Latest Articles

Scientific models predict continued decline in Washington Post circulation

OK, the Washington Post’s circulation will probably keep declining even in the unlikely event their coverage of global warming improves. But my headline is at least as scientific as the WP’s latest climate piece “Scientists’ use of computer models to predict climate change is under attack.” Memo to WashPost: Scientists use of computer models to predict/project climate change […]

St. Louis votes for better transit, despite Tea Party campaign

Here’s some good news: St. Louis citizens want robust mass transit, and they’re willing to pay for it. Despite a Tea Party opposition campaign, St. Louis County voters on Tuesday approved a half-cent sales tax increase to stabilize and eventually expand the region’s ailing transit network. The measure passed by a monstrous 24 point margin. […]

A lesson from California’s bad ballot measure

California’s nascent cap-and-trade program appears to be threatened by a ballot measure that is both substantively idiotic and yet diabolically clever. Basically, the measure would suspend implementation until California’s unemployment rate declines to below 5.5 percent. Financial backing comes from oil companies and other big polluters. Shocking, I know. Anyway, it’s a stupid idea on […]

Don Blankenship’s record of profits over safety: ‘Coal pays the bills’

Cross-posted from The Wonk Room. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.After the worst coal mining disaster in at least 25 years, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is facing long-overdue scrutiny for his record of putting coal profits over fundamental safety and health concerns. Blankenship, a right-wing activist millionaire who sits on the boards of the U.S. […]

Hansen calls climate change "predominant moral issue of the 21st century," slams Congress

  UPDATE:  Hansen just won The Sophie Prize (see below). The country’s top climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, writes in HuffPost: The predominant moral issue of the 21st century, almost surely, will be climate change, comparable to Nazism faced by Churchill in the 20th century and slavery faced by Lincoln in the 19th century. Our fossil fuel […]

Larry Summers and Carol Browner say Obama won't budge on placing a price on global warming pollution

  UPDATE:  Summers entire, amazing speech, “The Economic Case for Comprehensive Energy Reform,” is reposted below. White House aides Larry Summers and Carol Browner insisted that the administration was willing to bend on several key issues, including the mechanism for pricing carbon and increased domestic energy exploration. But both said the president would not budge when it […]

Irony-gate 2: Modern day Tea Partiers outsource denial to Lord Monckton – a British peer!

No, really you can’t make this stuff up — unless you are an anti-science disinformer like Monckton.  Straight from “FreedomWorks” Tabitha Hale: As you have probably surmised, there will be a large round of Tea Parties coming up on April 15th. There will be large names, even larger crowds — and honestly, organizers would be unable to […]

Exxon Mobil paid no federal income tax in 2009!

The joke goes, The economy is so bad Exxon Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.  If only. Turns out the economy is never really bad for the oil giant, and the last thing they would want to do is cut off support to members of Congress who allow them to pull off the remarkable trick of […]

The war against carbon starts now

  Readers are always asking what can been done to cut carbon beyond pushing for the bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs bill.   I’m launching a new series aimed at the kind of serious action people can push for at a local and state level — and even at a national and global level — […]

What would Reagan do about climate change?

  You are worried about what man has done and is doing to this magical planet that God gave us. And I share your concern.  What is a conservative after all but one who conserves, one who is committed to protecting and holding close the things by which we live…. This is what we leave […]