Climate Politics

The small-town energy revolution

Until recently, the idea of powering a local economy with 100 percent renewable energy seemed unrealistic. That has changed: There's a small-town energy revolution underway.

Oh, now we're not regulating greenhouse gases either

The EPA, as expected, has decided to postpone making rules about carbon dioxide and other harmful gas emissions from power plants. I mean, greenhouse gas regulations? How is that REMOTELY the job of the Environmental Protection Agency, amirite?

Tea Party: Don't build public transit, because the terrorists might attack it

Apparently public transit is now helping the terrorists win. That's according to a Tea Party group in Georgia, at least. The group wants to 86 a light rail project because "when they [THE TERRORISTS!!] blow up a rail, that just brings the system to a grinding halt." So we should not build rail in the first place, because in the event of terrorism it would cease to work. Makes sense!

To be fair, the dude who said that also seemed to be ok with a bus system, because in his words "if the terrorist blow up a single bus, we can work around that." 

 

Scientists are about to test a scheme to cool the Earth

If the world is getting hotter because it's absorbing too much sunlight, why not put up a sunshade? That's the question Montgomery Burns has often asked, and one that scientists in the UK will begin to answer this October when they will use a weather balloon to loft a hose a little more than half a mile into the sky. They'll then pump water up the hose into the atmosphere. If that sounds simplistic to you, maybe you just don’t understand science.

Republicans risk $1 billion in revenue to squash a trickle of funding for biking and walking

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is threatening to hold up the passage of the transportation bill over a tiny portion of its funding, which (of course!) happens to be the portion dedicated to forms of transportation other than cars and highways. Streetsblog explains what's at stake here:

Sen. Coburn, and possibly other members of Congress, are declaring their willingness to throw the entire transportation industry, as well as commuters, under the bus while they quibble about the pennies spent on bike paths. According to the White House, if the bill is delayed just 10 days, the country would lose over $1 billion in transportation funding — “money we can never get back.”

Two good (and overlooked) ideas in Obama's jobs plan

David Roberts highlights two great ideas from Obama's jobs plan: greening schools and expanding job-sharing.

Cartoon version of Rick Perry indistinguishable from the real thing

I wish this Taiwanese animated explainer on Rick Perry said more about his laughable positions on climate science, but you gotta love watching a cartoon version of the Republican front-runner pray for rain and get smacked down by God.

The gas tax is actually super low, thanks to inflation

Eric Cantor thinks that bike sharing is siphoning off way too much of the country's gas tax revenue. And for a Republican like him, raising the tax is out of the question, never mind that, as Greater Greater Washington's Matt Johnson points out, in inflation-adjusted dollars, the gas tax has gone down by 34 percent since 1994, the last time it was raised. And, again in inflation-adjusted dollars, the gas tax was actually highest in 1960. 

Chris Christie met with Koch brother before pulling out of climate pact

Tape of a secret meeting between Christie and one of the Koch brothers sheds light on Christie's decision to pull out of a regional climate initiative.

Representative thinks Obama controls the weather

Yeah, that's Rep. Joe Wilson, of the "You lie!" outburst. Is it possible the reason they don't believe in science is that they actually believe in magic?