Climate Politics
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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 […]
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House Dems to corner Republicans into admitting they love Big Oil
House Republicans are planning on voting this afternoon to rev up offshore oil drilling again, and Democrats are taking the opportunity to prove that Republican's hatred of national deficits cannot outweigh their love for oil companies. Right now, oil companies get billions of dollars in tax breaks under a domestic manufacturing provision in the tax […]
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Republican energy coalition has the most ironic name ever
House Republicans are forming a coalition to talk about energy priorities. They're calling it the Guild to Load Our Business Associates with Lucre While Also Realizing Many International Net Gains, or GLOBALWARMING. Ha ha, just kidding! They're calling it the House Energy Action Team, or HEAT. WHAT? THAT IS NOT EVEN BETTER. Given that the […]
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GOP rep couldn’t have voted for oil subsidies, because they don’t exist, la la la
Bush killed Osama, the president was born in Kenya, and there's no such thing as oil subsidies. Not buying it? You just need practice. If you can believe six impossible things before breakfast every day, before you know it you'll be as adept as Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, who last week told a constituent that […]
