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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Observations and reflections from a House hearing on stimulus, efficiency, and green jobs
On Thursday I attended a hearing of the House global warming select committee on stimulus, efficiency, and green jobs. You can find a list of attendees, their full written testimony, and some pictures on the committee website.
Just a few observations.
First, and this will shock no one, Van Jones is a marvel. (It is not normal for Congressional testimony to solicit applause.) To take one example from today: I have labored through thousands of words on Grist to try to explain why the most common economic models fail to fully account for the benefits of efficiency investments. In doing so I have bored even myself and built great, airy rhetorical castles that only masochists would want to explore.
Here's what Jones said at the hearing: "Get the math right: don't just count what you spend, count what you save."
Um ... dammit. Why didn't I think of putting it that way? I could have trimmed 14,000 words down to 14.
Here's his opening statement, if you're interested:
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Incoming energy secretary discusses green issues
Secretary-designate of Energy Steven Chu responds to ideas submitted and voted on at change.gov, including fighting climate change, creating a smart grid, and energy independence. Again, thoughtful, intelligent stuff, but frustratingly short on concrete policy recommendations (much less promises).
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Are you now or have you ever been a member of the environmental party?
"So she is pretty extremist in my eyes in terms of her liberal leanings. Where do you draw the line between an extreme liberal and a Socialist? You know, everyone has a different view of that."
-- Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), commenting to FOX News on the crypto-socialism of Obama's new energy adviser Carol Browner
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Killing people to save a little money: Not reasonable conduct
"TVA's failure to speedily install readily available pollution control technology is not, and has not been, reasonable conduct under the circumstances."
-- U.S. District Judge Lacy Thornburg, in a ruling instructing TVA to clean up air pollution from four coal plants close to North Carolina