Latest Articles

Sen. Kerry to youth on climate bill: We’re gonna need your help

When John Kerry speaks, the kids listen up.Photo: Cliff1066 via Flickr Creative CommonsOn a conference call Tuesday night with young climate activists, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) served up several newsy tidbits, starting with his hint that sort-of climate news will come out of President Obama’s upcoming trip to China and that getting a bill through […]

A solar energy future: Maybe you can get there from here

Almost anything that happens in our nation’s capital can be explained by a quote from Alice in Wonderland. Usually, that’s a bad thing. In the case of the Solar Technology Roadmap Act which the U.S. House of Representatives passed last week, however, invoking Alice is all for the good. Lost in a land where nothing […]

Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) [UPDATED]

Robert Byrd Sen. Robert Byrd hated the climate bill that passed the House in June (more on that below), but he seems a little more open to the Kerry-Boxer bill being considered in the Senate.  As the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported just after the bill was introduced: [Byrd] said he was encouraged by the greater […]

George LeMieux (R-Fla.)

George LeMieuxNew Sen. George LeMieux — appointed in September by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) to serve through the end of 2010, finishing out the term of retired Mel Martinez — has yet to vote on any key legislation that might give us clues as to whether he would support the Kerry-Boxer climate bill.  He […]

Washington Post mocks Inhofe as "last flat earther"

It must be very lonely being the last flat-earther. Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, committed climate-change denier, found himself in just such a position Tuesday morning as the Senate environment committee, on which he is the ranking Republican, took up legislation on global warming. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was in talks with Democrats over a […]

The weak El Niño appears to be strengthening

Two weeks ago I blogged that NASA reports hottest June to September on record; NOAA says “weak” El Niño “expected to strengthen and last through” winter. NOAA’s National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center (and most other models) have been predicting for a couple of months that the weak El Niño would strengthen, but it hasn’t.  […]

Obama announces $3.4 billion in smart grid investments

The President said today that we’re having a debate “between those who are ready to seize the future and those who are afraid of the future.” ARCADIA, FLORIDA – Speaking at Florida Power and Light’s (FPL) DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, President Barack Obama today announced the largest single energy grid modernization investment in […]

Sen. Kerry downplays prospect of floor debate this year

  E&E News (subs. req’d) reports this morning: International attention on the Senate’s progress on the issue is heightened given the major U.N. climate summit to be held this December in Copenhagen, Denmark. Underscoring that point, Reid yesterday took a call from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “The secretary general emphasized the urgency of trying […]

CNN Poll: 6 in 10 independents support cap-and-trade

“Six in 10 Americans support a cap and trade” proposal to cut pollution, according to a new national poll,” CNN reports (details at the end).  The recent Pew Research poll also found strong support for climate action: Of course, the Pew poll got a lot of attention for what it said about media miscoverage of […]

Rural Electric Cooperatives: Efficiency measures more important

Here’s a  stunner from Climate Wire (subs. req’d) today: Rural electric cooperatives, which represent many small, coal-dependent utilities in the Midwest and raised a ruckus in the House debate, are eligible for a portion of allowances under the new draft. But at a conference last week, the head of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, […]