Climate Politics

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  • Hidden costs, despite being hidden, are costs

    Harold Pollack has a post on gold mining making the familiar point that there are all sorts of market failures that support destructive environmental practices. If the mine in question actually had to pay for the costs it imposes — or even pay fair price for the land it occupies — it could never compete […]

    David Roberts Energy

  • Life under the leadership of budget axe-man Hal Rogers

    In case you haven’t heard, dozens of proposed amendments to the House Budget Bill would strip EPA of funding to update and enforce safeguards for mountaintop-removal mines, coal ash storage ponds, and emissions of hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants. If these amendments are approved, House Republicans would successfully turn back the clock on […]

    Matt Wasson Politics

  • Let’s keep the ‘clean’ in the Clean Air Act

    You don’t want to disappoint these kids.Photo: Sean Suddes/Sierra ClubChildren’s health won’t be improved by the Republicans’ Dirty Air Act. From Seattle to Pittsburgh, children can be found outside, playing football and baseball, or just playing a good game of tag. However, hundreds of thousands of children are unable to take part because the air […]

    Rep. Jay Inslee Politics

  • Budget posturing is a game, and the left is losing

    Chop chop.Today is Budget Day — Obama unveils his FY 2012 budget proposal — and political reporters the land over are aflutter. I’m being bombarded with press releases, think tank analyses, denunciations, and counter-denunciations. Politico is having multiple Os. Meh. Ryan Avent gets it right: it’s political theater, and poor theater at that. Congress controls […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • On Valentine’s Day, activists show love for mountains with sit-in and march

    Activists in the Kentucky governor’s office.Photo: Chad Berry This post originally appeared at Facing South. This Valentine’s Day marks the fourth day of a historic sit-in at the Kentucky governor’s office calling for an end to mountaintop removal. Meanwhile, thousands of Kentuckians are gathering outside in the state capital of Frankfort for the “I Love […]

    Sue Sturgis Politics

  • Saudi Arabian reserves overstated by 40 percent, global production plateau imminent

    That we are close to a peak in global oil production should not be a surprise to anyone, but some leaked documents have made the situation even clearer, as the Guardian reports: The U.S. fears that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential […]

    Joseph Romm Politics

  • Memo to Fox News: Science and Politics Don’t Mix

    Former oil and energy trader Eric Bolling, a financial news personality on Fox News, often gets on television to talk about climate change. On Tuesday, Media Matters published research on Bolling’s program and uncovered a history of claims that are demonstrably false: Bolling Hosted Skeptic To Claim “There Is No Global Warming.” Bolling hosted Brian […]

    Josh Nelson Politics

  • The people have spoken: let the EPA do its job

    Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Yesterday, members of Rep. Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) House Energy and Commerce Committee held their first hearing on Chair Upton’s proposal to block the Environmental Protection Agency from updating Clean Air Act safeguards to protect our health from life-threatening carbon pollution. (Hat tip and bow to EPA chief Lisa […]

    Peter Altman Politics

  • Bush’s Johnson stood up for climate

    Stephen Johnson, former EPA administrator under Bush.Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Yesterday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) released a 2008 letter [PDF] from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson to President George W. Bush saying that the science supported “a positive endangerment determination” on carbon pollution, and proposing an action plan to curb emissions […]

    David Doniger Politics

  • Climate deniers look out, see catastrophic storms, attack Al Gore

    Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. After a year of climate devastation in 2010, this year has begun with more extreme weather across the globe. In the southern hemisphere and along the equator, it is a summer of floods and storms — in Australia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Tonga, Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, as […]

    Brad Johnson Politics