Politics

Van Jones on Obama’s ‘megaphone moment’: ‘People want to be called to service’

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room Center for American Progress senior fellow Van Jones believes that the American public want to be “called to service” by President Barack Obama to respond to the Gulf oil disaster. Appearing on TV One’s Washington Watch with Roland Martin, Van Jones described the challenge the president faces in moving from […]

Brad Johnson Politics

Obama’s oil reform opportunity

President Barack Obama has made four trips to visit gulf state communities affected by the BP disaster and now plans to give his first-ever Oval Office speech to the nation this Tuesday evening to address the issue. This manmade calamity threatens the nation’s economy, health, and environment. This is also a crucial moment in the […]

Daniel J. Weiss Politics

Got a clever solar slogan? Tell us!

The New York State Legislature has been debating a big solar program — the New York Solar Industry Development and Jobs Act would add 5 GW of solar to the state’s energy mix — but we’re getting to the homestretch on the legislative calendar, and it’s do-or-die time in Albany. We’d like to send them […]

Adam Browning Politics

Un-democracy and the U.S. Senate, undercutting EPA edition

Last week, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) sponsored a measure to ban the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial facilities under the Clean Air Act, as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate voted 53 to 47 against Murkowski and in favor of EPA’s authority to regulate carbon […]

Alan Durning Politics

Oil execs lined up for Washington grilling

The Deepwater Horizon rig, pre-explosion and pre-tipping.Photo: TransoceanBig Banking, Big Auto, and Big Coal have all been to the woodshed in the last little while. Tomorrow it’s Big Oil’s turn. Capitol Hill Summer Theater kicks off in style when the top execs of the world’s five largest oil companies report for their very own congressional […]

Randy Rieland Politics

Energy politics in the Senate: why Merkley’s oil plan matters

This morning Sen. Jeff Merkley will introduce “America Over a Barrel: Solving Our Oil Vulnerability” (PDF) [UPDATE: video below], a policy plan devoted to reducing oil use, at an event at the Center for American Progress. I think it could make a big difference in the debate. To understand why, let’s back up and have […]

David Roberts Politics

Rumor watch: Obama has a ‘secret’ plan to redirect the Mississippi River

Photo credit: the White House/Peter Souza Annie Lowery of the Washington Independent picked up this exchange between Anderson Cooper and historian Doug Brinkley: [W]hen President Obama comes to Florida and Alabama and Mississippi … that is holding BP responsible for the Natural Resource Damage Act, for the Oil Spill Response Act. And, by that, I […]

Tom Laskawy Politics

Brits mad, and worried, about BP bashing

The cover of Great Britain’s Daily Express — “His rants against BP are a disgrace.”Photo courtesy of the Daily Express While it’s definitely not a diplomatic incident, and of course Americans don’t just think of BP as a British company, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has the British media transfixed. The Daily […]

Ben Tuxworth Politics

Extreme warming in Arctic will cause colder winters — and political gridlock

The political (or at least the Senatorial) tides are running strongly against a muscular policy response to climate change. Now a top NOAA scientist tells us that even the winds are blowing in the wrong direction — actual winds, mind you, not political. Via Science Daily: A warmer Arctic climate is influencing the air pressure […]