Latest Articles

Obama announces new efficiency initiatives as part of big clean-energy push

President Barack Obama doesn’t think he can solve global warming by changing his f**king light bulbs, but he’s going to do it anyway. More importantly, he’s going to change the light-bulb industry. Obama unveiled new energy-efficiency standards for lighting and appliances on Monday — the latest in a string of energy-focused announcements and events for […]

Washington Republican helps swing climate bill vote

The American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka the Waxman-Markey bill) narrowly passed in the House late Friday thanks to eight bold Republicans who hopped the fence. And one of them is Washington state’s very own Dave Reichert of the 8th District (which includes Mercer Island, Bellevue, and surrounding areas). Some 44 House Democrats, mostly […]

Lovelock warns climate war could kill nearly all of us, leaving survivors in the Stone Age

I don’t typically lay out what might be called a “worst-case scenario.”  I tend to focus on piecing together what the scientific literature says would happen if we stay anywhere near our current emissions path – Hell and High Water – since, that “business-as-usual” scenario should be motivation enough for action. Would some 10°F total […]

Nobelist Krugman calls climate science denial by House conservatives “a form of treason”

Some have asked whether I’m using too-tough language against those devoted to delaying or blocking action needed to stop catastrophic global warming.  Actually, most of the time I think it is too mild, a point underscored by a terrific NYT column from Nobel-Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, “Betraying the Planet.” Krugman’s writing on climate has gotten […]

Obama needs to outline his yardstick on global warming

A coalition of major U.S. groups called for the Obama admin to outline its global warming "yardstick." How will the administration measure our efforts?

Will and Watts embrace a proud former shill for a man convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges

Denial makes strange bedfellows. Two of the leading sources of anti-scientific disinformation on global warming – George Will and Anthony Watts’ blog WattsUpWithThat – have embraced a man, Robert Bradley, who proudly shilled for Enron CEO Ken Lay, who was convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges in 2006. Watts and I, you may recall, got […]

The U.S. House of Representatives approves landmark (bipartisan!) climate bill, 219 – 212.

UPDATE:  My Salon piece, “One brief shining moment for clean energy” is up.  We do need to savor moments like these, since, as I note in that article, given modern conservative ideology, which is 100% anti-conservation, “the country can only contemplate serious environmental legislation when we have the unique constellation of a Democratic president and […]

EPA ‘suppression’ story grows, despite shoddy science in report

Dizzy by now?Courtesy katiew via FlickrThe peculiar story of a “suppressed” report at the Environmental Protection Agency continues to grow, despite the fact that the agency appears to have done nothing worse than holding its employees to professional standards. The charge spreading through the news media is that the EPA quashed an internal report because […]

House GOP still repeats petroleum industry falsehood about CBO findings on gas prices

The House GOP loves to repeat falsehoods about climate and clean energy action (see “MIT Professor tells GOP to stop ‘misrepresenting’ his work and inflating the cost to families of cap-and-trade by a factor of 10” and then again three weeks later, MIT Professor says GOP “misrepresentation” of his April 2007 study to project costs […]

Big media beats it from clean energy bill and even Farrah’s death gets bigger play

The U.S. House of representatives is debating landmark climate and clean energy legislation now – starting with the debate on the rule which limits total debate on Waxman-Markey bill to 3 hours, which means we should get a final vote by the end of the day. The Waxman-Markey bill would dramatically shift the direction of […]