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What’s the deal with Republican attacks on the tire gauge?

I’ve had a few pundit types ask me what the deal is with the kerfuffle over the tire gauge. What’s the attack here on Obama? That pumping your tires is elitist? That it’s unbefitting a commander in chief to recommend auto maintenance? Apparently Republican attacks have become so baroque that they are now impossible for […]

Guess which ‘alternative energy’ lobby is biggest?

Between the start of the year and June 2008, the oil and gas industries spent $52.21 million lobbying Congress. Alternative energy industries spent $11.39 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And look who’s tops on the alternative energy lobbying pile, with more than double the expenditures of the next on the list: American […]

Beijing skies vary days before Olympics

Monday: Taken from a Beijing apartment on Aug. 4:

Tuesday: Proving that the weather and pollution levels are completely unpredictable, the weather of Aug. 5 was sunny and clear:

A silver lining to all this pollution pandemonium? After the Olympic games China will start to monitor two pollutants not currently figured into the Air Pollution Index: ozone and small particulate matter PM2.5.

And James Fallows of the Atlantic reports that at least one of the new four subway lines in Beijing works smoothly.

House Republican deep thought of the day

I’ve been trying to pick my favorite quote from the festival of fatuous puffery that is John Boehner’s “House Republican Uprising Live Blog.” I think I may have found a winner in this doozy from Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.): I went to the nearest gas station and talked to people pumping gas to see what the […]

McCain says he’d end his vacation from Congress to ‘drill here, drill now’

Originally posted at the Wonk Room.

In eastern Pennsylvania yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) repeatedly argued, "We need to drill here and we need to drill now." His invocation of the slogan of Newt Gingrich's right-wing 527 corporation, American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF), was coupled with the following call for Congress to "come back to town and come back to work":

Congress should come back into session, and I'm willing to come off the campaign trail.

McCain's call for action on behalf of Big Oil and right-wing billionaires hardly jibes with his record of absenteeism on major votes. In fact, McCain has been on the campaign trail and fundraising circuit a tremendous amount this session, missing far more votes than any other member of Congress. His vacation from his elected duty has included some of the most important legislation considered by Congress:

The Hilton energy policy

Snippets from the news

• Pizza Hut will deliver “all-natural” pie with organic tomatoes. • Alaska sues over polar-bear listing. • Exposure to Agent Orange doubles veterans’ risk of prostate cancer. • California public utilities unlikely to make renewable-energy goal. • Affordable housing goes green. • Clean-tech investment still going strong.

How to green your grocery list

Make your list and check it twice. Lately, the world news has been filled with stories of hungry people struggling to feed themselves as food prices rise dramatically. Even in the U.S. and other wealthy countries, where the situation is not as dire, people have been altering their eating and spending habits to adjust to […]

‘They take pride in being ignorant’

Obama smacks back against GOP “tire gauge” mockery:

Efficiency now, 10 percent renewables by 2012, and one million plug-in hybrids by 2015

Senator Barack Obama has fulfilled the promise of his earlier climate plan with a detailed and comprehensive "New Energy for America" [PDF] plan. Yesterday, he gave a major speech on this plan in Lansing, Michigan.

This is easily the best energy plan ever put forward by a nominee of either party:

• Increase Fuel Economy Standards: Obama will increase fuel economy standards 4 percent per each year while protecting the financial future of domestic automakers ...
• Invest in Developing Advanced Vehicles and Put 1 Million Plugin Electric Vehicles on the Road by 2015: As a U.S. senator, Barack Obama has led efforts to jumpstart federal investment in advanced vehicles, including combined plug‐in hybrid/flexible fuel vehicles, which can get over 150 miles per gallon of gas ... [more details below]
• Partner with Domestic Automakers: Obama will also provide $4 billion retooling tax credits and
  loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that the new fuel‐efficient
  cars can be built in the U.S. by American workers rather than overseas.
• Mandate All New Vehicles are Flexible Fuel Vehicles
• Develop the Next Generation of Sustainable Biofuels and Infrastructure
• Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard: ... The standard requires fuels suppliers in 2010 to begin to reduce the carbon of their fuel by 5 percent within 5 years and 10 percent within 10 years.
  

This is the only way to jumpstart an end to our addiction to oil in a climate friendly way. Indeed, an accelerated transition to plug-in hybrids and electric cars -- a core climate solution -- must be the cornerstone of any serious effort to dramatically reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. That is the crucial litmus test for any presidential candidate's energy independence or clean transportation policy.

As for the test of a candidate's grasp of electricity policy, energy efficiency is obviously the only cheap power left and a limitless resource and the core climate solution. Obama understands energy efficiency in a way few other major politicians do, as his plan makes clear: