Climate Politics
All Stories
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Mr. Hanky
Bush touts biofuels and his energy bill With his approval ratings plunging due in part to high gas prices, President Bush is fighting back by … sniffing a hanky. Let us explain. Yesterday, Bush visited a biodiesel refinery in West Point, Va., to tout the alternative-fuel subsidies in his energy bill, which the Senate will […]
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Subsidy Slickers
Nuke subsidies being added to McCain-Lieberman climate bill The latest draft of the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act proposes hundreds of millions of dollars in new subsidies for the nuclear power industry, in the form of a cost-splitting arrangement that would have the feds shoulder half the expense of developing and getting regulatory approval for three […]
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On a Wing and a Mayor
U.S. mayors form coalition to fight climate change, one city at a time A bipartisan coalition of 132 U.S. mayors — led by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels (D), and recently joined by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) — has issued a high-profile rebuke of Bush administration inaction on climate change. The leaders have […]
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Onward Christine Soldier
Washington gov signs groundbreaking renewable-energy legislation Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire (D) has signed into law two bills that some are calling the most progressive renewable-energy legislation in any U.S. state. The measures earned bipartisan support thanks to their focus on creating a renewables market that would generate jobs and boost the state’s economy. One bill […]
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We Can’t Handle the Truth
Court rules that Cheney may keep task-force deliberations secret In a major political and legal victory for the Bush administration, a federal appeals court has ruled that Vice President Dick Cheney is not obliged to release records on his secretive 2001 energy task-force meetings, effectively ending the long-running legal challenge brought by the Sierra Club […]
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Can’t See the Forest for the Roads
Bush administration replaces Clinton roadless rule with more roadful one The Bush administration yesterday gave the heave-ho to the sweeping Clinton administration roadless rule, which put some 58.5 million acres of national forests off-limits to development. In its place, a new rule will put 34.3 million acres of that land back into play, at the […]
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Cornerstone environmental law, NEPA, under fire in energy bill
When the energy bill sailed through the House of Representatives late last month, the media reported that it was the same old grotesquely corpulent package that the GOP leadership had previously tried — and failed — to pass through Congress four times in the last four years. This is true. But what flew under the […]
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Reservoir Hogs
Norton won’t reduce water releases from Lake Powell Following a year’s worth of unsuccessful negotiations between governors of seven parched Western states, Interior Secretary Gale Norton stepped in yesterday to make a decision on how to divvy up the much-coveted water of the Colorado River. A winter of heavy precipitation and subsequent spring thaws have […]
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Tit for Habitat
Habitat conservation plans poorly monitored, sporadically effective Today, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer kicks off a big three-day series on the increasingly ubiquitous but nonetheless poorly understood and poorly monitored phenomenon of habitat conservation plans (HCPs). Congress authorized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to administer such plans in 1982, but it wasn’t until the late ’90s […]
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Johnson Scores
Senate confirms Johnson to head EPA Scientist and career agency veteran Stephen Johnson is the new head of the U.S. EPA. After a confirmation process that was oddly turbulent given the mild-mannered bureaucrat’s generally warm reception on both sides of the aisle, the Senate voted 61-37 just after midnight last night to approve a cloture […]
