Climate Politics
All Stories
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A Godsend for Enviros?
It’s all but official. Hollywood actor Warren Beatty may have hedged his bets somewhat in a New York Times op-ed last Sunday, but he already has a presidential campaign website, which is this column’s fin de siècle measure of candidatehood, be it virtual or actual. Leaving aside the question of why certain individuals with no […]
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What I Did on My Summer Vacation
August is prime R&R time for lawmakers, who are kicking back in their home states and pressing the all-important constituent flesh. No such vacation at the Sierra Club, however, where summer means it’s time to drive lawmakers crazy by running ads against them. On the receiving end of the group’s radio spots this time around […]
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Endless Summer?
It’s August, Washington is on vacation, and your faithful columnist has just returned from four blissful days soaking up sweet rays and digging his toes into the soggy, welcoming sand of Rehoboth Beach, Del. In fact, slathered in sunscreen and buffeted by crisp breezes rippling off the Atlantic, we couldn’t help but notice how much […]
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Magic Carpet Riders
Despite a stern tongue lashing from the New York Times editorial page on Monday, the Senate version of the Interior appropriations bill continues to provide a comfy roosting spot for a handful of anti-environmental riders. Some of the offending items got sliced off when the Senate reinstated Rule 16, the sensible old regulation requiring that […]
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Absolut Advertising
If you are like us (and we bet you are) you were sipping your coffee and peacefully perusing your New York Times Tuesday morning when POW! you were smacked upside the head by a clever full-page ad from the Environmental Working Group previewing its release of a study on the effects of the herbicide atrazine. […]
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Congress Is Playing the Ugly Rider Game Again
“ACTION ALERT. This week the Senate is expected to vote on an Interior Appropriations bill that has a dirty baker’s dozen of anti-environmental riders. Now is the time to step up our opposition to these undemocratic attacks on the environment.” I get so darn sick of these emails. I get sick of the whole cynical […]
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Greens Mourn Brown
Americans have been transfixed these last few days by the passing of a dazzling cultural icon, son of one of the most compelling — and tragic — political figures of the 20th century. A Green Brown Far less remarked upon has been the death last week of California Rep. George Brown (D), one of the […]
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A Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
They are intrepid: Navigator, Explorer, Expedition, Blazer. They are virile and exotic: Bronco, Cherokee, Laredo, Tahoe. They are your friends: Amigo. They are even, on occasion, honest about themselves: Suburban. SUVs are huge and getting huger by the model year. One need not pore over market statistics (SUVs now represent about 20 percent of the […]
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Judge? Not!
As Washington simmered this weekend, at least one intractable political problem appeared to melt away in the withering summer sun. Or did it? In the relative quiet of the Fourth of July weekend, the New York Times reported that Pres. Clinton would enter into a (some would say Faustian) bargain with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). […]
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See Everett Oops
Junk science. Two of the sharpest words in the arsenal of the public policy wars. Is your adversary touting a study that shows a product is safe (or harmful)? Vilify the study as bogus, cooked-up junk paid for and concocted by this industry or that special interest group. Sometimes the charge fits; other times it […]
