Articles by Joseph Romm

Air Force and liquid coal industry interbreed

A friend just sent me this remarkable story, "Former Air Force official joins leading coal-liquids developer," which appears in the little-known Aim Points, "A daily summary of news, messages and communication tactics to help AF people tell the AF story."

It looks like the "tactic" AF people are being told about is the good-ol' revolving door:

Sign a petition to prompt Bush to address climate in his state of the union speech

This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

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President George W. Bush will deliver his final State of the Union address on Monday. We can be sure he will talk about Iraq and the economy, particularly the hot topic of the moment: recession. He probably will discuss Iran and the war on terrorism. He may talk about immigration and rising oil prices, two topics he raised last year and on which there has been no progress.

But will he talk about global climate change?

On the eve of the address, and in no uncertain terms, a group of the nation's leading scientists and policy experts is advising the president that he should.

"We regret to report that the state of the nation's climate policy is poor, and the climate and the ecosystems that depend upon it are showing increasing signs of disruption," the group says in a statement being delivered to the White House today. We can no longer discuss the State of the Union without assessing the state of the nation's climate.

The latest eco-buzzword

The Washington Post has a good article yesterday on the explosion in the use of the term "green-collar" jobs. You will no doubt be hearing much more of this term since it is a favorite of Clinton and Edwards; Me and the Center for American Progress are on the bandwagon; and even the super trendspotting Tom Friedman has glommed onto it.

No, it's not a perfect term. G-C jobs -- my effort to coin the ultimate eco-buzzword -- won't get you a green uniform and green power-ring like the Green Lantern Corps, although you will, coincidentally enough, be promoting green power. As the Post notes:

... while white-collar and blue-collar bring distinctive images to mind -- the mutual fund manager screaming into his BlackBerry, the coal miner coming home, coughing from a long day -- such iconic imagery is hard to find with the green-collar worker.

Still, the term, popularized by social activists like Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center, does have a powerful ring to it [sorry about that], so I expect it will be around for a while. I will try to limit use to, say, once a month.

What qualities do we need in a president who will get things done?

This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

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Change -- a perennial theme in presidential campaigns -- has taken on a more serious meaning this election season. Of all the promises being put forward by the presidential candidates, change may be the most frequent.

"Change" usually is a word used by candidates who don't have much Washington experience, but want to package their inexperience as a virtue. But allegiance to "change" is far more important If we want to confront global warming, energy insecurity and peak oil over the next four to eight years -- not to mention Iraq, the deficit, health care costs, and several other messes the Bush administration is leaving to its successors -- change will be the name of the game. Big change, in fact.

There is wide acknowledgment that Americans need to come together to solve some of these problems. We need a uniter, not a divider, in the White House -- for real this time. We have enough common causes, certainly, around which we should rally. What we don't have is trust.