Articles by David Roberts
David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
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Okay, maybe not, but they’re showing signs of progressivity.
Today in Daily Grist we pointed to a story by Joan Lowy on the momentum building in the U.S. business community toward taking global warming seriously. And Monday, we noted a Joel Makower post making the case for environmental optimism based on action in the business world.
Via Gil Friend, an article in MarketWatch (protected behind a stupid registration wall, but there's always this) makes a broader point:
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The Air Force is the country’s biggest purchaser of green power.
Sitting atop the EPA's "Top 25 Green Power Partners" is ...
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Blocking Johnson’s confirmation is, indeed, just politics.
I agree with pretty much everything in this National Review Online column (words I never thought I'd say) by Jonathan Adler. Democratic efforts to grandstand around Johnson's confirmation are, in fact, "nothing personal ... just politics."
Thing is, as I alluded to here, politics is not "just" anything. Particularly in our media-saturated environment, politics -- symbolism, optics, strategy, maneuvering-- is vital. What we need is for concerns about good ecological stewardship to gain political weight and cachet. Weakening environmental protections needs to have a political cost, if nothing else in public shaming. This is what helps us win significant individual battles.
The stalling of Johnson's confirmation is not significant on the substance, but it is an effective political gesture. Adler says Democrats are trying to "capitalize on the Bush administration's poor reputation on environmental policy," but I'd submit that such attempts wouldn't be very successful if that reputation were not, in fact, accurate. While the CHEERS study might not be that big a deal, it is true that the Bush EPA is terrible on pesticides. While Carper's legislation might not warrant a full study of its own, it is true that the studies the EPA has conducted on behalf of Bush's air regulations are heavily biased in favor of industry.
By stalling Johnson's (inevitable) confirmation, Democrats are drawing attention to legitimate areas of concern on the Bush EPA's record, and they're doing it in a flashy, high-profile way. They are trying to seize control of the news cycle, to cut through the clutter. Good for them.
