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Climate psychology in cartoons: clues for solving the messaging mystery

Illustration courtesy Ian Webster/CREDFor the climate-change message to finally sink in, for the 64 percent of Americans who don’t believe in the problem (according to a recent Pew poll) to start changing their minds, the place to begin might be the local high-school gym. Have a respected teacher—maybe from the science department—lead a public presentation. […]

What does recent Senate drama on the climate bill mean? Peak Boxer

There’ve been some weird goings-on in Congress around the Kerry-Boxer clean energy bill over the past few days. So let’s take a step back and try to get a handle on how the story is unfolding. In the House, the development of the Waxman-Markey bill was a relatively orderly process. Waxman took control of the […]

Congressional watchdog issues update on coal ash regulation efforts

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still does not know the exact number of coal ash dumps at the nation’s power plants, but it’s moving ahead with plans to regulate them. Those are among the findings of a report [PDF] released last week by the Government Accountability Office on the status of EPA’s efforts to improve […]

Why developing countries cannot afford failure in Copenhagen

The African delegation insisted today in Barcelona that its decision to walk out on negotiations Tuesday was necessary in order to jolt the intransigent European Union and other developed nations to move forward with serious discussions, rather than obstruct progress by bringing only lofty rhetoric and no numbers to the negotiating table. The plan seems […]

Gaming cap-and-trade: Should we worry?

Worries about “gaming” or market manipulation sometimes crop up as an objection to cap-and-trade, often with reference to recent shenanigans in the financial markets. Some fear that a cap-and-trade system could be manipulated to artificially raise — or lower — permit prices to generate profits for a few at the expense of consumers. While distrust […]

Tracking where senators stand on climate legislation

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Paul Krugman Versus Matt Taibbi

I love reading Matt Taibbi. I mean, who else puts together a sentence like this?: The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. Funny and righteous at the same time. Good stuff. But in a piece he […]

Is the U.S. Chamber changing its tune on climate, or just its tone?

On Tuesday, the U.S. Chamber sent a letter to Sens. Boxer (D-Calif.) and Inhofe (R-Okla.) about the climate bill. It seemed to be singing a new tune on climate policy, leading Sen. Kerry to wonder whether the letter reflects a real change in the Chamber’s position.  While we welcome the U.S. Chamber’s desire to sound […]

Lindsey Graham rebukes fellow Republicans: ‘The green economy is coming’

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. While other Senate Republicans led by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) boycott action on the climate crisis, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has chosen a leadership role. In a press conference today with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the author of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, and Sen. Joe Lieberman […]

Salazar cowboys-up to fight global warming

With all eco-eyes focused on the action (or, more properly, inaction) on a climate bill, other critical components of a clean energy economy can be overlooked. That was the case on Monday as the dominant news story concerned speculation about whether Republican members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works would show up […]