Climate Politics
All Stories
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Is Young Restless After All?
Last week, we reported on rumblings that Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) might not seek reelection next year, at least in part because committee chair term limits mean he can’t be at the helm of the House Resources Committee in the next Congress. We brought the issue to the attention of Young’s staff who lazily batted […]
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Sierra Club Leaping into Political Ring?
Latest buzz on the streets of San Francisco is the nascent mayoral candidacy of enviro wunderkind Adam Werbach, who at the ripe old age of 26 is already an ex-president of the Sierra Club. We tracked Werbach down at the production company he runs in the Bay Area to find out if he is serious […]
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Bird in the Hand Worth Two for Bush?
While you were smoothing on suntan lotion or stoking the barbecue this weekend, Texas state legislators were madly finishing up work before their midnight May 31 deadline. Gov. George W. Bush‘s tax cuts and education initiatives got most of the attention, but we kept our gaze trained on the environmental bills likely to come up […]
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Senator Browner?
It’s been a busy few weeks for EPA Administrator Carol Browner. During Senate testimony last week she launched an emotional attack on the recent appeals court ruling that invalidated EPA’s 1997 clean air standards. One Muckraker source present at the hearing said Browner had Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) tied in knots as he repeatedly attempted […]
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The Phantom Menace?
Last week brought an end to the remarkable run of Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who announced his intention to leave Washington and turn the reins of the federal treasury over to his well-groomed deputy, Lawrence Summers, known affectionately to some enviro insiders as Darth Vader. Although Wall Street may be comfortable with Summers, environmentalists are […]
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This Park Is a Hot Issue
Some 800 acres of tallgrass prairie and wetlands at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant outside Denver will be set aside as a wildlife preserve, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced yesterday. The new Rock Creek Reserve, home to a number of endangered species, was praised by local residents. Richardson also announced that the first […]
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Riders on the Storm
No one in her or his right mind thinks the 106th Congress is going to pass a whole lot of actual free-standing legislation. It will likely take every ounce of strength this feeble Congress can muster to pass the essential spending bills that fund the government. So riders, those pesky little items that hope to […]
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Will the military protect the West's last best place?
As parks and forests in the West get overrun by tourists who love too much, the millions of acres controlled by the Department of Defense are suddenly looking sexier. In the Sonoran desert, for example, the last best place is a bombing range. It is a sign of the times that the 2.7 million-acre Barry […]
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Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner
California State Senator and environmental booster Byron Sher (D) sent out invitations to a fundraiser recently and listed State Sen. Ray Haynes (R) among his supporters. Trouble is that Haynes is what you might call a movement conservative, given to labeling people like Sher “clean-air Nazis” and “environmental wackos.” Sher’s office explained the incident to […]
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Sprawl Brawl
The Sierra Club released poll numbers recently indicating that 47 percent of voters would be more likely to support a presidential candidate prepared to aggressively attack the problem of urban sprawl. Most people associate VP Al Gore with that issue, but Seattle Mayor Paul Schell has his own ideas. Schell jumped on Bill Bradley‘s presidential […]
