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Top 6 U.S. climate-policy happenings of 2011
Cross-posted from the World Resources Institute. The post was written by Kevin Kennedy, director of WRI’s U.S. climate initiative. As the year winds down, it’s a good time to take stock of climate policy in the United States. Here’s a quick roundup of what happened — or didn’t happen — in 2011. The year began […]
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Gingrich scraps planned book chapter on climate change
If Newt Gingrich were backpedaling any faster on climate change, he might actually come full circle and turn into Al Gore. But what can the man do? He’s totally damaged his right-wing reputation by believing in science and giving a crap about the future survival of anything. What Republican can run with the hideous heart […]
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Gingrich thinks Palin would be a darned fine energy secretary
Newt Gingrich told conservative activists on Wednesday that Sarah “Drill Baby Drill” Palin would be an ideal candidate for secretary of energy. “I can’t imagine anybody who would do a better job of driving us to an energy solution than Gov. Palin, for example,” Gingrich said during a conference call hosted by Ralph Reed’s Faith […]
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Obama’s climate leadership? ‘It doesn’t exist,’ says Tim Wirth
Tim Wirth.Photo: Center for American Progress Action FundCross-posted from Climate Progress. U.N. Foundation President Tim Wirth told Climate Wire this week that President Obama has a “last window of opportunity” to avert catastrophic climate change — assuming he gets reelected: I don’t know who and where the climate leadership in the administration is. It doesn’t […]
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Republicans put a deadline on Keystone XL, surprising nobody
As predicted, Republicans in the House have grudgingly allowed a two-month extension on the payroll tax holiday, on the condition that they can impose a deadline on Keystone XL pipeline approval. President Obama had postponed approval for a year, based on evidence that the environmental analysis was flawed, but Republicans want a decision NOW NOW […]
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Maine bans LEED in state buildings at timber industry’s behest
The pristine wilderness of Maine would make anyone feel more in touch with the environment … unless you're a politician and vested interests with tons of money put pressure on you to undermine green programs like LEED and you cave. That's the short version of what happened earlier this month. For a while, Maine was […]
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Why electricity markets will never be (totally) free
Over the past few years, the U.S. electricity grid has begun a massive, underappreciated, and largely unintentional transition away from coal to natural gas. Because nobody decided on a shift to gas, or directed such a shift, many people have mistaken the transition for the outcome of a “free market.” It’s an easy mistake to […]
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Pipeline power game: Why the GOP wants to humiliate Obama
There was only one last-ditch demand Republicans in Congress rallied around in the end-of-year budget negotiations that concluded today — a black line in the tar sands drawn by the conservative legislative machine. In order to approve a payroll tax-cut extension — a measure that the GOP’s tax-hating ranks already support in theory and that’s […]
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Congress passes the wrong pipeline bill
It turns out Republicans and Democrats truly can work together to craft a bipartisan pipeline safety bill that satisfies both parties! And then they can accidentally pass the old version instead. The bill, which laid out new penalties for pipeline safety violations following a deadly explosion last year, was laboriously hashed out in a bipartisan […]
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Whippersnappers unite: Young farmers work to change 2012 Farm Bill
A group of young farmers visiting Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office in Maine.Across the U.S., young people are heeding the call for a more just, sustainable, and healthy food system, and are heading to the fields to build it themselves. They are working on farms and starting their own small-scale farm businesses from scratch. But, as […]
