Latest Articles

Tom Friedman on “What They Really Believe”

If you follow the debate around the energy/climate bills working through Congress you will notice that the drill-baby-drill opponents of this legislation are now making two claims. One is that the globe has been cooling lately, not warming, and the other is that America simply can’t afford any kind of cap-and-trade/carbon tax. But here is […]

Reid plans debate on bipartisan bill “sometime in the spring”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today confirmed that floor debate on a sweeping energy and global warming bill that will be sold to the American public in part as an economic stimulus measure will be held early next year. “We’re going to try to do that sometime in the spring,” Reid told reporters when […]

Time: “The science of climate change grows more dire.”

“World leaders say Copenhagen to be a steppingstone to final climate deal,” as I wrote on Sunday.   Here is an excerpt from Time magazine’s take on the matter, “World Leaders Put Off a Climate Change Treaty,” by Bryan Walsh: If there is a bright side, however, the deliberate downshift in expectations for Copenhagen could make […]

General Motors to start repaying government loans

The NY Times story has one of the true glass-is-half-full headlines of our times: G.M., Citing Progress, Reports Loss of $1.15 Billion But these days, you take good news where you can find it, and the rest of the story is certainly a pleasant surprise:   General Motors, whose very survival was in doubt this […]

Winning the clean energy race: a new strategy for American leadership

By Teryn Norris & Devon Swezey You know the world is changing when the president’s first trip to Asia is defined by a new U.S. foreign policy dubbed “strategic reassurance” – convincing China that the United States has no intention of containing its growing power or endangering its foreign investments. As the New York Times […]

So long and thanks for all the fish

There was some hope recently that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the organization charged with managing the Atlantic tuna fishery, would listen to its own scientists and ban commercial Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing so that the species might survive. Nope: Environmentalists on Sunday warned bluefin tuna was on its way to […]

Solar’s rapid evolution makes energy planners rethink the grid

Photo courtesy OZinOH via Flickr California’s ambitious goal of obtaining a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 has spawned a green energy boom with thousands of megawatts of solar, wind, and biomass power plants planned for … the middle of nowhere. And therein lies the elephant in the green room: transmission. Connecting […]

The road to Copenhagen

Subtle but important shifts in global warming positions announced by U.S. & China

China and the U.S. announced on Tuesday a Joint Statement (available here) and a package of agreed actions on clean energy. This meeting between these two countries that account for around 40 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuels couldn’t come at a more critical time in efforts to secure a strong international […]

U.S. and China announce plan for collaboration on clean energy and climate change

Cross-posted from Climate Progress. Co-written by Julian L. Wong of the Center for American Progress. Obama and President Hu Jintao together at a reception before the formal state dinner in Beijing.Photo: whitehouse.govTuesday, a comprehensive plan for U.S.-China cooperation on clean energy and climate change was announced in Beijing by President Obama and President Hu Jintao. […]