Climate Climate & Energy
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I'm testifying before House Ways and Means with Pickens, Sachs, GE, and US Chamber
The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on energy tax incentives and the green job economy. It will be webcast here. I’m on the 1 pm panel, the one The Hill says “will likely be a media circus because of the attention [T. Boone] Pickens usually draws.” Here’s the full witness list for my panel: T. Boone Pickens, […]
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Reid affirms plans for floor debate on bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs bill
The Senate’s top Democrat said yesterday he is still dedicated to spending valuable floor time this year on comprehensive climate and energy legislation, but the three sponsors of the plan may have to go member-by-member in order to deliver a package capable of mustering 60 votes. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he wants to […]
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The Real Problems with Paul Krugman’s Climate Economics Primer
But let’s start by accenting the positive. Krugman’s explanation of mainstream environmental economics is clear and powerful. He recognizes that there really are a lot of free energy lunches lying around uneaten, in the form of potential efficiency improvements. He knows that predictions of economic disaster due to carbon policy are without foundation and […]
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Illegal logging funding Taliban attacks on U.S. troops
In case you didn’t have enough reasons to dislike the Taliban, The Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov looks at how they’re using revenue from illegal logging to finance attacks on U.S. troops (though, via some monumentally twisted logic, the article actually blames the logging ban, rather than the Taliban forces doing the logging and profiting […]
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Is Masters champion Phil Mickelson unwittingly helping ExxonMobil greenwash its anti-science record?
I’m interested in your thoughts on how much greenwashing this is on a scale of 1 to 10. I watch pretty much every major golf tournament. And that means that I saw some great golf played this weekend at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, especially by the winner, Phil Mickelson. It also means I saw […]
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Virginia AG mocks dangers of CO2, telling Tea Partiers to hold their breath and make the EPA happy
On Saturday, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli attended the Powhatan Taxpayers’ Alliance Tea Party rally to address his beloved base. Think Progress has the details of his anti-science pandering: Cuccinelli reportedly greeted the crowd by saying that it was “great to be with so many people who appreciate the Constitution” and then talked about his challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s […]
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SF keeping PACE
The built environment is responsible for something like 72% of electricity use and ~36% of greenhouse gas emission in the US. How to get at that chunk of embedded carbon? On Monday, the City of San Francisco launched Green Finance SF, the country’s largest Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing program. The bonding capacity is […]
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The way to carbon neutrality
My co-presenter at last weekend’s Carbon Neutrality Unconference, smart-guy Pete Erickson of Stockholm Environment Institute, used four slides that are worth sharing again. Taken together, they’re an excellent — if somewhat wonky way — to think about the basic structure of reducing emissions. 1. What are the cheapest reductions? (Click for larger version) This McKinsey […]
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President Must End 200 Years of Regulated Manslaughter
At 3:30pm EST today, residents in West Virginia and across the nation will be observing a moment of silence for the fallen coal miners in last week’s Upper Big Branch mine disaster, their families, and the rescue crews. Everyone in the nation–across the 48 states that burn coal for electricity–should take this moment to consider […]
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What are your favorite climate and energy soundbites?
I will be testifying in front of Congress this week. And my book, Straight Up, is coming out the following week (click here to buy it). That means I’ll be doing a lot of media and trying to hone a simple, effective message for a far broader audience than Climate Progress readers. I have my own […]