Climate Politics

Alternet for Gore

Alternet readers have voted Al Gore their favored presidential candidate. Between this and the Daily Kos poll, it looks like Gore has the coveted Online Lefty vote locked up, should he choose to enter the race.

Chemical-safety bill moving oh-so-slowly through Congress

An attack on one of the many toxic chemical plants in the U.S. could endanger more than a million people. Environmentalists, security experts, and even the Army surgeon general have been raising the alarm about this threat since Sept. 11, 2001, but Congress has yet to do anything about it. Its latest efforts are being […]

It’ll Coast Ya

Senate hammers out compromise on offshore drilling GOP leaders in the Senate unveiled a compromise yesterday that would allow offshore oil and gas drilling in the eastern and southern Gulf of Mexico, but protect waters within 125 miles of the Florida coast until 2022 and keep the drilling ban that’s been in place in most […]

More House shenanigans

Hm, turns out that Interior Appropriations bill has some nastiness in it too:

The Senate Appropriations Committees has included language in the FY 07 Interior Appropriations Bill to exempt some logging projects on the National Forests from the normal citizen comment and appeal requirements. Section 426 of the Senate Interior Appropriations bill provides that projects "categorically excluded" by the Forest Service do not need to be subjected to public notice, comment and appeal. In recent years, the agency has greatly expanded the size of logging projects that can be "categorically excluded."

Factory farms let off the hook for water pollution, activists say

The Bush administration wants to let factory farms determine whether the animal excreta that oozes from their facilities into waterways should be regulated, environmentalists say — and they argue that the plan, well, stinks. The cow factor. Photo: iStockphoto. Agriculture has long been a top source of water pollution in the U.S., but in the […]

A Bitter Drill

House votes to end moratorium on offshore drilling The House voted yesterday to end the 25-year-old ban on oil and gas drilling off most of the U.S. coast. The highly contentious debate broke down more along geographic lines than partisan ones, as states standing to make money from the drilling largely supported it. Under the […]

‘Cause I’m the Waxman

House Democrat introduces climate bill that would actually help climate For all the buzz about global warming in the U.S. popular press of late, the few pieces of legislation that have made their way to the halls of Congress have been woefully inadequate (of course, even those have failed to pass). But last week, to […]

Rep. Henry Waxman’s Safe Climate Act

For weeks now, I've had an open tab in Firefox with Rep. Henry Waxman's Safe Climate Act languishing in it, waiting for my loving bloggy ministrations.

Today, I finally had a look, and Ana's right -- this is a more powerful and more sensible plan that the one Kerry described yesterday. The main reason, in my view, is not so much the stronger ultimate target (80% vs. 65% below 2000 emissions by the year 2050) but the incrementalism -- precisely the problem ffletcher identified. Here's the capsule version of the plan:

• Science tells us that we face a grave risk of irreversible and devastating global warming if global temperatures increase by more than 3.6°F.
• The bill sets greenhouse gas emissions targets that aim to keep temperatures below the danger point.  The level of emissions is frozen in 2010 and then gradually reduced each year through 2050.
• The bill achieves these targets through a flexible economy-wide cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions, along with measures to advance technology and reduce emissions through renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cleaner cars.

Here's how the targets will work:

Interview with makers of Who Killed the Electric Car?

Hoping to share a little bit of the spotlight with that other eco-themed documentary -- alongside which it debuted at the Sundance film festival -- Who Killed the Electric Car? will drive (without emissions!) into theaters next month (or tomorrow, if you're in NYC or L.A.).

On June 9, I sat down for a wide-ranging discussion with Chris Paine, the director, Chelsea Sexton, an activist prominently featured in the film, and Wally Rippel, an engineer who played a role in developing the power system for the late, lamented GM EV-1.

For still more electric-car interview fun, go here.

-----

DR: So I started watching this movie, about this one peculiar car, and then about halfway through all the sudden I'm watching a movie about fuel economy and global warming and energy security. Did you use the former as a hook for the latter, or did the former just carry you into the latter?

CP: That's an excellent question. When I started filming I wasn't thinking [about the bigger issues], but by the time we were editing it's like, this is such a great microcosm.

It's more than a car story, you know. I mean, much more than a car story.

DR: How did you hear about the EV? I'm sure I'm not the only one who had no idea it even existed before the movie came out.

Kerry energy speech

John Kerry -- approaching full campaign mode -- delivered a major energy speech yesterday. It blahs on and on toward the beginning, but finishes strong. (Here's an mp3 of the speech.)

Even reading his text, I imagine him delivering it and drift to somnolence. But this 'graph is choice:

For evidence, look no further than the fake energy bill Congress enacted over bipartisan objections -- a monstrosity with no guiding national goal, no tough decisions, no change in priorities -- just a logrolling, back-scratching collection of subsidies for any industry with the clout to get a seat at the table and a share of the pork. A few good ideas, a lot of bad ideas and ugly ideas -- Washington smiled equally upon all of them.

Fun stuff. Almost every speechwriter or rhetorician gets more eloquent when they're gripped with righteous fury. Not sure why that is.

Here's the mission statement: