Climate Politics
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McCaskill defends vote to hurt sick kids by saying the League of Women Voters are ‘bad guys’
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), after a recent vote to protect coal polluters at the expense of children’s health, is now attacking the League of Women Voters. The 91-year-old good-government organization is running television spots that hold McCaskill and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) accountable for voting to block enforcement of Clean […]
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Socolow reaffirms 2004 ‘wedges’ paper, urges aggressive low-carbon deployment ASAP
This is a wedge issue.In 2004, Princeton professors Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala published a paper in Science, “Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies” [PDF]. The abstract read: Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical, and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problem for the […]
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The U.K.’s emissions targets are awesome
Oh, United Kingdom! Whatever else can be said about your bad food and stupid weddings, this much is clear: You are world leaders in funny sci-fi, classic sketch comedy, thwarted imperialism, and now emissions reduction targets. The U.K. has committed to cutting emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2025, a target that's well […]
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Is Obama’s call for more drilling bad messaging or cynical policy?
One thing we know for certain — more domestic drilling starting now will have exactly the same impact on prices that the increased domestic drilling in the last two years had. Zilch. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has been making that precise point for years now. Even the media has started to report on this: […]
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Critical List: Scientists’ report pushes emissions policy, Greenlanders warm to climate change
A government report that Congress ordered back when most members believed in climate change recommends creating some — any — sort of policy to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. Newt Gingrich needs to admit his support for climate change solutions was "a brain fart," Republicans say. Democrats just wish he'd return to the '90s, where he belongs. […]
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Oil bigwigs whine about proposed subsidy cuts
Five oil bigwigs spent this morning complaining to Congress that cutting subsidies to their companies would be, at the very least, "anticompetitive" (Chevron's John Watson) and at worst "misinformed and discrimnatory" (ExxonMobil's Rex Tillerson). The Senate is planning on voting this week on a bill to cut subsides to the five biggest oil companies. The […]
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Military thinkers: for a bright American future, look to sustainability and liberalism
A while back, somebody, I can’t remember who, sent me a paper by two military officials, Capt. Wayne Porter (Navy) and Col. Mark Mykleby (Marines), called “A National Strategic Narrative” (PDF). It’s not an official military document, just these guys’ thoughts, but they are high-placed advisors to Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint […]
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Richard Burr introduces bill to abolish the EPA
It’s just a harmless cost-cutting measure!Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, established 40 years ago by President Richard Nixon to give Americans clean air and water. The bill, introduced by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would merge the EPA, which enforces environmental laws, with the Department […]
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Republican debate: Present Pawlenty vs. Past Pawlenty on cap-and-trade
Tim Pawlenty may have once promoted cap-and-trade as a response to climate change, but now he considers that choice a "battle scar.” Because nothing’s more traumatic than caving to peer pressure. "We all [have ‘clunkers’ on our records], and that's one of mine," he said last night at the first debate in the Republican primary. […]
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Utilities and regulators design energy rates, regardless of the power source
We often talk about electric rates as if the only thing that goes into determining them is the power source. In some sense, this is right: If a utility’s power costs go up, and nothing else changes, the price they charge consumers will likely eventually go up. But, this understanding doesn’t fully appreciate the role […]
