Climate Politics
All Stories
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Brown vs. Sword of Education
Law students help eco-groups for free and get educated in the process When a nonprofit environmental group with a shoestring budget seeks to confront big government or corporate foes in court, where can it turn? Increasingly, the answer is: law students. Some 30 law schools around the country now host environmental law clinics (nearly half […]
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On the Gutting-Room Floor
Clean-energy measures dropped as Congress reaches energy-bill compromise Working into the wee hours Tuesday morning, House and Senate negotiators finished crafting a compromise federal energy bill, in the process killing two provisions intended to curb America’s fossil-fuel addiction. A Senate measure that would have required the president to find ways to reduce oil use by […]
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Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Lawsuits
Lawsuit shield for MTBE makers dropped from energy bill One of the last remaining roadblocks to the passage of the energy bill has reportedly been removed: According to Senate Energy Committee Chair Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), a provision to shield manufacturers of groundwater-polluting fuel additive MTBE from lawsuits has been dropped from the bill. A similar […]
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John G. Roberts’ enviro record not so green, but also not provoking a lot of protest
John G. Roberts (left) and President Bush. Photo: The White House/Eric Draper. Not only are the far-right Family Research Council and the biz-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce raving about President Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court, but plenty of liberals have glowing words for John G. Roberts Jr. too. Georgetown law professor Richard Lazarus, a […]
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The Pernicious Effects of Hollywood Liberalism
Californians believe global warming is real and want state to act Most Californians believe their state should take action now to regulate human activities that are heating up the planet. According to a survey conducted by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 86 percent think global warming will affect them or their descendants, and […]
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Brussels Pouts
European Union commissioners duke it out over green legislation Today’s meeting of the E.U.’s European Commission is a make-or-break moment for the union’s sustainable-development policies, according to eco-advocates. Since taking office last November, commission president José Manuel Barroso has delayed initiatives on pesticides, the marine environment, air quality, and more, saying they might prevent the […]
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Why Does He Hate Toads?
SCOTUS nominee John G. Roberts not a green’s first pick President Bush’s new Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has a distinguished conservative pedigree: He clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist and was deputy White House counsel during the Reagan administration. With only two years under his belt as a federal judge, […]
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Appeals court rules EPA doesn’t have to regulate CO2 emissions from cars
It’s a simple but powerful question: Does the U.S. EPA have the power — and the obligation — to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act? Strangely, it still remains partially unanswered, even though it was a central issue in a landmark court case decided on Friday. Spew away, appeals […]
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Elephant Fight! Elephant Fight!
Global warming, of all things, causes intra-party tensions in GOP Democrats have long hoped that the eerily monolithic modern GOP would fracture, but few expected global warming to be the wedge issue. Nevertheless, there you have it: Last week, House Science Committee Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) laid into fellow Republican Rep. Joe Barton (Texas), chair […]
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New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman chats about global warming and the heated climate around the energy bi
He may hail from an energy state out West, and he may be a soft-spoken moderate, but Jeff Bingaman, Democratic senator from New Mexico and ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has joined the sparsely populated ranks of members of Congress pushing for real progress on climate change. Sen. Jeff Bingaman. […]