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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Why enviros should have a more active voice about regulations
Speak up!Photo: theparadigmshifterBecause the political arena is often fraught with hyperbole, misinformation, and special interest pandering, facts and reason don’t count for as much as they should. Despite that, green advocates have smartly and effectively engaged in the political arena to help protect the environment and public health. But to augment that advocacy, it is […]
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Reagan helped save the ozone layer but ruined America’s leadership in clean energy
The clean energy “culprit in chief.”Sunday was the 100th anniversary of President Reagan’s birth. As ThinkProgress points out, the right-wing hagiography of the Gipper leaves out the fact that he was “a serial tax raiser” and “nearly tripled the federal budget deficit” and “gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants.” His overall environmental legacy as […]
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What Obama should know about ending oil subsidies
This post originally appeared on the Great Energy Challenge blog, in partnership with National Geographic and Planet Forward. Despite my seriously mixed feelings about the State of the Union speeches, I tuned in to this year’s speech for the first time in several years. Like many, I was disappointed if not surprised that President Obama […]
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How a lie enters the political bloodstream
Pants on fire …I get the Energy IssueWatch Newsletter from Congress rag The Hill. In last Friday’s edition, reporter Ben Geman wrote, “Advocates of limiting emissions say it’s inaccurate to compare EPA rules to cap-and-trade proposals that collapsed on Capitol Hill last year.” This is, I suppose, progress. It’s a “she said” to the “he […]
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Egypt has a population crisis as well as a democracy crisis
Hosni Mubarak is a dictator who has to go — that’s obviously the animating force behind the protests in Egypt. And more power to the protesters! But Egypt’s problems run much deeper than its autocratic regime, and one of its biggest problems is unsustainable population growth. Here’s a 2009 Al Jazeera report on population pressures […]
