Politics

Cap-and-trade program fuels economic growth in Northeast

Cross-posted from Climate Progress. A new report finds that America’s first mandatory, market-based carbon cap-and-trade system added $1.6 billion in value to the economies of participating states, set the stage for $1.1 billion in ratepayer savings, and created 16,000 jobs in its first three years of implementation. Says Susan Tierney, managing principal at the Analysis […]

Stephen Lacey Energy

The Farm Bill: The view from the grassroots

The odds that most of us laypeople will have any opportunity to influence this year’s Farm Bill process are looking awfully slim. Sure, there’s still a chance the current, nearly opaque supercommittee process, and the piece of it now known as “the Secret Farm Bill,” could break down. If that happens, the National Sustainable Agriculture […]

Twilight Greenaway Agriculture

Occupy the bookstore! First OWS book hits shelves and tablets

Police have razed and arrested their way through Zuccotti Park, but the Occupy movement isn’t going away. This week, there’s a new, tangible manifestation of the movement’s staying power: the first Occupy Wall Street book. This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement will hit bookstores on Nov. 17, but it’s already available […]

Lisa Hymas Politics

Has government spending on energy research been a waste?

Cross-posted from the Council on Foreign Relations. Steve Mufson had a piece in the Washington Post Outlook section this past weekend suggesting that the $172 billion that the U.S. government has spent on early stage energy research since 1961 has largely been a waste. (I say “suggesting” rather than “arguing” because Mufson doesn’t quite make […]

Michael Levi Energy

Can the Keystone XL coalition stop climate change?

Cross-posted from the Council on Foreign Relations. Bryan Walsh, writing at TIME, is right: Bill McKibben and the Keystone XL protestors have pulled off something pretty impressive. I’m not talking about the merits of the indefinite delay to the pipeline that the State Department announced yesterday — the substantive case for blocking Keystone is weak. […]

Michael Levi Politics

Watch Rick Perry forget that the Department of Energy even exists

Energy. The word you're looking for is energy. Not a big priority, maybe?

Jess Zimmerman Politics

Energy companies get $24 billion of corporate welfare from taxpayers

Cross-posted from ThinkProgress Green. Tax breaks and subsidies for energy companies have gotten so extreme that dozens of top companies have made billions in profits while having negative taxes — actually receiving taxpayer welfare instead of paying anything to the federal treasury. An analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and […]

Brad Johnson Energy

A message of solidarity to the Keystone XL protesters

I wish I could be there, helping you to surround my old workplace. Only unavoidable family obligations are keeping me away; I would be there with you under any other circumstances, and my spirit absolutely is. We have a duty to support the president when he is right (for instance, fighting for the jobs bill). […]

Van Jones Politics

Polling reveals that being anti-clean energy is bad politics

Perry wants to end all energy subsidies. Photo: Gage SkidmoreCross-posted from Climate Progress. Anyone who cares about addressing climate change and strengthening America’s economic competitiveness knows that being anti-renewable energy is terrible policy. Turns out, it’s bad politics too. A new poll conducted by ORC International for the nonpartisan Civil Society Institute finds that 77 […]