Climate Politics

Curses, Fideled Again

U.S. lawmakers see offshore drilling near Cuba and feel left out The U.S. has a years-old ban against offshore drilling in the Florida Straits, but it looks like the area might get drilled anyway — by Cuba. The island country has rights to resources in half of the straits under a 1977 agreement, which President […]

Cape of Good Hope

Cape Wind outlook better after Bush administration voices support The controversial Cape Wind project planned for Nantucket Sound has found new allies in a strange place: the Bush administration. On Thursday, Undersecretary of Energy David Garman sent a letter urging Congress to drop a measure that would allow the Massachusetts governor (currently Mitt Romney, a […]

Dirk du Soleil

Interior nominee Kempthorne backs away from plan to sell U.S. forests Senate confirmation hearings began yesterday for Interior Secretary nominee Dirk Kempthorne, and oh, the fun that was had. One hot topic was the Bush administration’s proposal to fund rural schools by selling thousands of acres of public land; the Dirkster, who supported sale of […]

Another Flail in the Coffin

House flails about wildly and ineffectually over higher gas prices House Republicans, who face a bruising battle to retain their majority status this November, are growing increasingly desperate over high gas prices. Since there’s nothing they can actually do to reduce them, this translates into furious political maneuvering. With two fast-tracked bills this week, they […]

An interview with jailed “eco-terrorist” Jeffrey Luers

In 2000, 21-year-old Jeff Luers and an accomplice set fire to three pickup trucks at a dealership in Eugene, Ore., to bring attention to gas-guzzlers’ contribution to global warming. They were promptly arrested. Luers, who refused to plea bargain, was sentenced to 22 years, eight months in prison. It is the longest term ever handed […]

The paper burden

Oh, this is just too good. The leader of the UK conservative party, David Cameron, has been bragging about his green credentials lately (remember, they're sane in the UK, so they demand that all their leaders have green cred), and urging other MPs to change their personal behavior to demonstrate green values.

Oops:

David Cameron was forced to backtrack on his personal green credentials yesterday by admitting that he traveled to work by bicycle not to cut carbon emissions, but because he found it enjoyable.

The Conservative leader had to switch tack after it emerged that his car followed him carrying briefing papers and his shoes on the days that he cycled from his Notting Hill home to Westminster.

Hee hee. But it gets better:

Is Our Children Learning?

U.S. government study finds human-caused climate change real; Bushies unconvinced A scientific study commissioned by the Bush administration has demolished one of the key arguments of climate skeptics, concluding yesterday that there is no discrepancy in rates of warming at Earth’s surface and in the troposphere. Oh, and also that there is “clear evidence of […]

Sue and Improved

States to sue Bush admin over weak fuel-economy standards for SUVs Stop us if this sounds familiar: A group of states plans to sue the feds over lax environmental regulations. At this point, the feds have more suits than Armani! Their federalism federalisn’t! Take my states … please! (Hey, we have to liven these stories […]

We’d Do Anything for Love (But We Won’t Do That)

Republican gas-price pander disgusts even pander-lovin’ American people Hollywood producers like to say that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people. Hollywood producers, meet Senate Republicans. Their latest gas-price gambit, coordinated by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) — a legislator who puts the “less” in “hapless” — seems to have […]

An interview with retiring Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a GOP leader on environmental protection

Sherwood Boehlert. Photo: AP/Jim McKnight. When leading U.S. climate scientist James Hansen accused NASA earlier this year of stifling his public speech on climate change, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) sprang into action. Chair of the House Science Committee, Boehlert immediately fired off a stern letter to the NASA administrator, asserting that “when it comes to […]