Climate Politics
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Bush’s pick to head the USDA is a big ethanol booster
At a White House ceremony last week announcing the nomination of Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns (R) to succeed Ann Veneman as agriculture secretary, President Bush called his pick “a strong proponent of alternative energy sources, such as ethanol and biodiesel,” later adding that “in a new term, we’ll continue policies that are pro-growth, pro-jobs, and […]
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Stevie Nix
Interior Deputy Secretary Griles resigns The No. 2 official at the Interior Department, Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, yesterday became the latest Bush administration appointee to announce he’s jumping ship come January. Under investigation during nearly half his tenure at Interior for ethics violations stemming from his uninterrupted $284,000 annual payments from his former employer, […]
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Buenos Hot Aires
U.S. professes bafflement at international ire over climate change “I’m not sure why we’re considered the ‘bad boys’,” said puzzled U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson at this week’s U.N. climate change convention in Buenos Aires. The conference — the last such meeting to take place before the Kyoto Protocol goes into effect in February — […]
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Energy Bill
Clinton says clean-energy backers should quit whining and get to work Former President Bill Clinton yesterday said that energy issues, with their links to national security and environmental decline, “may have a bigger impact on America and the world than virtually all the things that were debated” in the run-up to the recent election. At […]
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Grousal Abuse
Sage grouse unlikely to receive protection under ESA A panel of biologists and managers at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended against listing the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. FWS Director Steve Williams will make a final decision by Dec. 29, but observers say he’s likely to follow the panel’s […]
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The LNG and Short of It
States express outrage at LNG provision hidden in omnibus spending bill Deep in the 3,016-page, $388-billion omnibus spending bill recently approved by Congress, tucked away in a section on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission salaries and expenses, is a provision stating that the feds — not individual states — get to decide where liquid natural gas […]
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Bush admin isn’t putting money where its mouth is on “clean coal”
When pressed on climate change, the Bush administration is fond of citing “clean coal” technology as the wave of the energy future. Even some enviros are starting to grudgingly acknowledge the technology’s potential for good. Coal: Can you dig it? Photo: NREL. But all Bush’s talk doesn’t appear to be translating into the funding needed […]
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Señor Ahab
Japan accused of buying pro-whaling votes Last year, Nicaragua became yet another unlikely nation to join the International Whaling Commission, just in time to attend the group’s annual meeting and support the lifting of an 18-year moratorium on commercial whale hunting — a policy change aggressively pushed by Japan, but not yet achieved. Japanese officials […]
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Put Up Your Nukes
Judge may override Washington state voters on Hanford initiative An initiative on the Washington state ballot last month, which would prevent more waste from being dumped at the federal Hanford nuclear site in the state, will go before a federal judge today. Were there Diebold machines involved? A flurry of recounts? No. In fact, voters […]
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Calling Africa to action on climate
Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and George W. Bush agree on one thing: developing nations need to do more to curb the threat of climate change. (Of course, they don't agree on the much more vexing question of whether overdeveloped nations -- one highly overdeveloped nation in particular -- should do anything to address the ballooning problem ...)
