Climate Politics
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Quote of the day: Obama on America’s future
"A 70% cut to clean energy. A 25% cut in education. A 30% cut in transportation. Cuts in college Pell Grants that will grow to more than $1,000 per year. That's what they're proposing. These aren't the kind of cuts you make when you're trying to get rid of some waste or find extra savings […]
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Meet the woman leading the charge to green America’s schools
Recently I was at a climate conference dominated by Baby Boomers, mostly white men, droning on about the nigh-insurmountable challenges of climate change and laying out their ponderous academic theories for how to change things. In other words, a typical climate conference. Into this dolorous atmosphere came something different: a young woman, bright-eyed and quick-witted, […]
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Power Shift will be biggest organizer training session in history
It was colder at Power Shift ’09.Photo: JakeCross-posted from the Wonk Room. Power Shift 2011, the biennial national summit of the youth climate movement, begins this Friday in Washington, D.C. The dirty-energy economy poses seemingly insurmountable challenges to the millenial generation: the destruction of our planet’s atmosphere, the poisoning of our political discourse, the dissolution […]
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Bolivia reads Mother Nature her rights
Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, has already made great strides in medicine: He’s the one who discovered that chickens turn you gay. Now he’s applying that innovation to legislation, saving the environment by declaring nature to have rights equal to people. The law would act as a bill of rights for nature, including the right […]
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What stayed in the budget bill?
The EPA dodged Republican attempts to hobble it this week– the continuing resolution on the budget bill is going forward without the riders that would forbid the agency to regulate greenhouse gases. But environmental protections still took some hits. What environmental insults have hung on in the continuing resolution? Interior blocked from enacting a “wildlands […]
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Me, heading to Germany to learn about distributed renewable energy
This week, I’m going to be traveling to Berlin under the gracious auspices of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, a German progressive nonprofit that does work on clean energy. Exciting! It’ll be my first time in Germany. Aside from saying the words “schnitzel” and “spätzle” as often as possible (schnitzel! spätzle!), I’m going to be attending […]
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EPA is safe, for now
Well, the government isn’t being shut down, and the castrate-the-EPA riders have been stripped from the budget bill. For now, at least, the world is safe for those brutes at the EPA to keep oppressing helpless rich, powerful industry giants who only want to kill the planet a little. Don’t get too comfortable, though; this […]
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Good morning. Do we still have a government?
Congressional Democrats and Republicans are still playing policy chicken this morning, waiting to see whether they’ll have to shut down the government over what amounts to petty cash. What are they fighting over, and are we likely to still have a working (for some value of “working”) government tomorrow?
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It’s time to rethink Japan’s energy future
Nearly four weeks after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, emergency personnel are still struggling to stabilize the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Beyond the immediate need to minimize further radioactive leakage and protect public health, the government is beginning to reconsider its long-term plans for nuclear power expansion. International media coverage […]
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Cutting international investments would endanger U.S. leadership
We need to step up, not cut, our funding for green energy in India.Photo: Amaresh S KThis post was coauthored by Rebecca Lefton. Lawmakers continue to debate the fiscal year 2011 budget. As we approach the next showdown this week over another temporary extension of the continuing resolution, a final resolution of the 2011 budget, […]
