Climate Politics
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George Will thinks that high-speed rail is really a tool to control your mind
Mind control machine.Photo: Sylvain LatoucheHave you been thinking there’s something fishy about the Obama administration’s insistence that high-speed rail is part of America’s transportation future? Why is it that the president keeps pushing forward with expensive plans to link the country’s major urban centers with these train things, even as Republican governors shovel back the […]
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Pittsburgh’s drinking water is radioactive, thanks to fracking. Only question is, how much?
The drinking water of tens of millions of Pennsylvanians is threatened by natural-gas fracking — including the 2.3 million who live in Pittsburgh.Photo: Via Tsuji Residents of Pittsburgh — as well as potentially tens of millions of other everyday citizens in the Northeast corridor who rely on their taps to deliver safe water — are […]
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EPA lets natural gas industry brazenly pollute my state’s drinking water
That’s some fracked up sh*t: a natural gas rig does its thing in Dimock, Pa. Photo: Helen Slottje, via arimooreIn a perfect world, everyone would read The New York Times’ frankly terrifying exposé on the EPA’s rather timid oversight of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania — and public outrage would force the EPA to […]
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If the GOP can’t destroy nature, they’ll at least make sure others can’t enjoy it
Photo: Rosa SayWhat happens if Republicans, frustrated by opposition to their spending bill amendments (some of which defang the EPA), decide to hold their collective breath until they get their way? Well, the government shuts down. That means a whole lot of government employees get an unwanted furlough (JOBS!). It could also spell disaster for […]
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Sen. Sherrod Brown and the Clean Air Act
Sen. Sherrod Brown.Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. There are things to like in Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) letter to President Obama today about the Clean Air Act and carbon pollution. However, the letter is off base in its concern about EPA’s reasonable steps to assure that big new plants reduce their pollution to […]
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For once in its miserable life, is Koch Industries being unfairly attacked?
Photo: Fibonacci BlueHacker hivemind Anonymous took some potshots at the Koch-fueled Americans for Prosperity website yesterday, taking the site down intermittently and disrupting the late-night propaganda snacking of insomniac right-wingers. It’s always fun to see Anonymous spank people, at least the ones who deserve it, but this time they may have misfired. The grievances that […]
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How good is Obama on Western environmental issues?
“Fly fishing in Montana, the President and his guide react after both thought he had hooked a fish; unfortunately, he hadn’t.” We leave it to you, the reader, to decide whether this shall serve as a metaphor for the president’s environmental policies.Photo: The White HouseIn the late fall of 2008, the staff of the nonprofit […]
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Meet the members of Congress who sided with corporate polluters over children and your health
May not be safe to enter.Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. For the first time in the 40 year history of the Clean Air Act, a majority of the House of Representatives has voted to block EPA from implementing and enforcing standards to sharply reduce mercury and other toxic air emissions from a polluting […]
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Guy who punked Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is running for Congress as Green Party candidate
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} The story of Ian Murphy — the editor of the Buffalo Beast who convinced Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) that he was billionaire David Koch and then recorded their union-bashing, possibly illegal phone conversation — just keeps getting better. Murphy just revealed to Samantha Henig of […]
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Why it’s hard to make polluters pay for their own messes
Scoffing at the idea of externalities is a lot easier when wearing a gas mask.Industrial boilers and incinerators currently receive an enormous public subsidy. They emit toxic air pollutants like mercury, cadmium, and acid gases, which even in extremely small amounts cause a range of health maladies from asthma to heart attacks to premature death, […]
