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WaPo editorial reflects lazy resort to gas tax as answer to carbon troubles

The Washington Post has an editorial on the challenges of addressing global warming that contains this passage: To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen dependence on fossil fuels, there must be a price on carbon. A cap-and-trade system is the easiest way to integrate into an international regime, but its pitfalls are legion. A gas […]

A united environmental community gets attention from the Obama team

Enviros come together to pitch Obama on green plan. Green groups in D.C. seem downright giddy about all the signals they’re getting from Obamaland thus far. From appointments to key posts to his pledge earlier this month to “launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy efficient,” there’s a lot of anticipation that […]

Mainstream mags are getting over green

Pop quiz: Mainstream magazines are ditching the whole “green issue” thing in 2009 because: green is soooo 2006, 2007, and 2008 eh, those issues never sold that well they’re incorporating green into stories on a regular basis, so who needs a special issue in these tough economic times, the sweater-belt budget has shriveled up all […]

They all crush ‘clean coal’: Stanford study, part 1

When we last met Stanford professor Mark Jacobson, he was explaining why you shouldn’t buy a diesel car if you care about global warming. His new myth-busting study finds the following “Total CO2-eq of Electricity Sources”: (CSP is concentrated solar power, but I prefer solar baseload to that ambiguous acronym. CCS is carbon capture and […]

Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar picked to head Interior Department

Ken Salazar. Photo: Mike Disharoon Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of interior, rounding out the energy and environment team formally introduced by President-elect Barack Obama on Monday afternoon. The Obama camp has not officially announced the pick, but transition officials have confirmed it. Salazar has served in the […]

No. 1: ‘It’s not guaranteed we have a solution for coal’

Obama formally named Steven Chu his nominee for energy secretary at a press conference Monday afternoon. Here are the top five reasons he is one of the best cabinet picks in recent memory: 5. His “views on climate change would be among the most forceful ever held by a cabinet member.” He said last year, […]

Obama officially announces his green team

Barack Obama. Barack Obama officially rolled out his green team at a press conference on Monday afternoon. “In the 21st century, we know that the future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked to one challenge: energy,” said Obama. “The team that I have assembled here today is uniquely suited to meet the […]

Oliphant and Washington Post ignorantly smear GM and plug-in hybrids

I think this is worthy of an email campaign — this time to the Post (see below). There’s nothing wrong with mocking GM. It is a target-rich environment that has gone the extra mile and painted a bunch of bull’s-eyes on itself. To fire at GM and hit yourself instead thus requires a special kind […]

Obama touts new green energy economy while introducing green team

Obama just got done officially announcing his energy and environment team. A few things that jumped out at me: Not for nothing: the guy’s a rhetorical Jedi. Unless I’m mistaken, the term "clean coal" was not uttered once. Of Steven Chu, he said: "His appointment should send a signal to all that my Administration will […]

U.S. negotiating team in Poznan dodges questions on Bush’s climate inactivism

Below is another dispatch from the climate talks in Poland by CAP Senior Fellow Andrew Light, first printed in WonkRoom. —– In one of the more surreal moments of this year’s U.N. climate change talks, Bush’s chief environmental adviser blamed Russia for the Bush administration’s climate change obstructionism. The U.S. negotiating team featuring James Connaughton, […]