Articles by Joseph Romm

IOC and multi-nationals complicit in subjecting world class athletes to world class pollution

You can’t criticize awarding the Olympic Games to China just because their rapacious coal-building policy has now made them the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions. By that standard, America should never have been awarded the games. But awarding the games to a city that is one of the most polluted in the world […]

First recorded solar billionaire in China, U.S. billionaires persue wind

This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. —– Hunter Lovins is one of the country’s premier prophets of the prosperity we can achieve if we move quickly to establish a post-carbon economy. Vast new markets and investment opportunities are opening worldwide for clean technologies. “Those […]

Hansen’s trip report finds ‘sobering degree of self-deception’ in Germany, U.K., Japan

The nation’s top climate scientist has visited some of “countries that are among the best-educated on climate change” and come away disappointed. For real disappointment, though, imagine what happens when climate scientists from those countries visit America. The whole report [PDF] is worth reading, with many fascinating nuggets. Hansen joins the cavalcade of experts who […]

Since offshore oil is de minimis, why shouldn’t Obama and the Dems make a deal? Part 1

Getting something for nothing is always a good idea. Kudos to Senator Obama and other progressives for understanding this. The key questions are:

1. How much of a "nothing" is ending the congressional moratorium on offshore drilling?
2. How much of a "something" can progressives get by way of a serious effort to end our oil addiction once and for all?

Right now, it seems like conservatives are willing to hold their breath until they turn blue in the face before they agree to move any legislation whatsoever if it does not include coast drilling. Politically, they seem to have a winning argument in part because the media simply isn't policing the debate, even when people like McCain just repeat the lies of the oil industry over and over again. And in national politics, the side who doesn't have to explain their position usually wins.

I do think that agreeing to some coastal drilling now is de minimis as for two reasons: