Climate Politics

Rick Perry’s energy plan: RUIN EVERYTHING

Rick Perry's not even gonna pretend he's interested in alternative energy — not even to wave his hands at ethanol for an ad that's running in Iowa. That's just not who he is, man! He's keeping it real. Ice cream. No, Perry's plan, as described by Perry, goes pretty much like this: Remove environmental regulations […]

Rep. Markey blasts GOP for making real laws to solve fake problems

This is the honest-to-god title of the video above as posted to Rep. Ed Markey’s official YouTube account, and also the news release on his website: “Oct. 25, 2011: GOP Farm Dust Bill A Waste of Time Cooked Up in Fantasy-Land.” Guys, he is awesome. Is it weird if he reminds me of Alan Alda? […]

Farming with a smaller footprint: Why it matters

Conservation is an important part of federal farm funding — the laws that shape what, where, and how we grow our food. And yet, if the negotiations around the 2012 Farm Bill go as predicted, funding for conservation is in grave danger. Why does conservation on farms matter? Well, for starters, most large-scale agriculture is […]

Rep. Ralph Hall attacks his own badly designed clean energy standard

Ralph Hall.Photo: vexroboticsCross-posted from ThinkProgress Green. Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas), the science-denying chairman of the House science committee, says a federal clean energy standard would be an “expensive new electricity tax on the American people,” based on a study he requested. An analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of a clean energy standard (CES) […]

Quick and dirty: Congress may rewrite the Farm Bill in two weeks

Brace yourselves, food advocates: The congressional supercommittee charged with reducing the national debt considers making cuts to the nation's most important food and farming legislation.

Occupy your money

The Occupy movement has been going green, so why not make your green get Occupied? Occupy George has some pretty stark money-based infographics, and templates for printing them onto your own bills. Chances are any bill in your possession will eventually end up in the pocket of the 1 percent, so why not let it […]

EPA chief tells GOP to STFU

That high-pitched whistling is the sound of EPA chief Lisa P. Jackson's hand knifing through the air on the way to delivering a righteous slap upside the head of the GOP. Here are the money quotes from her editorial in yesterday's LA Times, in which she patiently explains that the Grand Ol' Party wants to kill jobs by blocking critical air pollution regulations.

Using the economy as cover, and repeating unfounded claims that "regulations kill jobs," they have pushed through an unprecedented rollback of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and our nation's waste-disposal laws, all of which have successfully protected our families for decades.

If the house succeeds, says Jackson, it will mean the sickening or deaths of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens.

Perry and Paul were for energy subsidies before they were against them

Texas Republicans hate federal energy subsidies. Unless, of course, those energy subsidies are going to Texas! Both presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Rep. Ron Paul pleaded with the energy department in 2008 for a loan guarantee. The project they were supporting was a nuclear facility. (Clean energy!)

Here is what Perry had to say about energy subsidies this Tuesday:

Is a centralized climate solution still possible? And more from my chat with Andy Revkin

David Roberts had an interesting chat with Andy Revkin of The New York Times on climate policy and the prospects for a sustainable future.

Is this the most anti-environment House of Representatives ever?

At the end of last week, the House voted to let states deal with coal ash, a toxic byproduct of mining, the same way they deal with municipal garbage. The Associated Press called this:

the latest [vote] of several passed by the Republican-controlled House that would shift authority from the Environmental Protection Agency and reduce regulations Republicans say are burdensome, hamper economic growth and cost jobs.

That doesn't even begin to do justice to the attacks that Congress has mounted on the environment and the people who live in it (oh, hey, that's us!). Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman's Energy and Commerce committee has counted 168 votes that the House has taken so far this Congress that "undermine the protection of the environment."