Climate Politics
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Scientists show ‘growing’ fuel is waste of energy
Burning industrial corn in your gas tank: just as dumb as it looks in this silly picture.It’s no mystery where Grist comes down on the food vs. fuel debate, aka the Great Ethanol Boondoggle. But it’s nice to see the science continuing to support our side of the argument (via Science Daily): Using productive farmland […]
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Republican Opinions on Environmentalism have Shifted Drastically in the Past 10 Years
In honor of Earth Day, Gallup has just released polling showing how American’s opinions of the environmental movement have changed in the previous ten years. At first glance, the results aren’t pretty: But as has been the case in several other recent polls, the change is due almost entirely to a sharp shift among Republicans. […]
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This Earth Day, it's about Hip Hop and Hard Hats
On April 22nd, 1970, twenty million Americans took action for the first Earth Day, marking the unofficial birth of the modern environmental movement. Forty years later, Earth Day is as much about hip hop and hard hats as it is about polar bears and Ponderosas. Over the past few years, the green movement has seen […]
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What to look for in the bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs bill
On Monday, Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will launch their bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs bill. I’m quite certain there will be something in it to dissatisfy everyone. On the other hand, has Congress ever passed a significant bill that didn’t dissatisfy everyone, particularly on the environment? We […]
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‘Save transit’ rallies start up around U.S.
Courtesy Atlanta Journal ConstitutionThe rallies that get all the attention these days are about stopping new initiatives, like health-care reform. But here we’ve got rallies about defending part of the shared social fabric. Off-duty public transit workers in Atlanta plastered large red X’s on buses and trains (with permission) to highlight the severe budget shortfall […]
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On Earth Day, a senator’s demand for public policy based on real science
As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the most serious environmental problem that we face is not global warming or the pollution of our air, water, land and food. It is whether or not our country moves forward in developing public policy based on science or whether we make decisions based on politics […]
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Clean energy jobs can be shipped overseas; here’s what to do about it
Politicians talking about clean energy jobs like to claim “they can’t be shipped overseas.” From President Obama’s State of the Union to Rep. Ed Markey stumping for the climate bill he co-authored with Rep. Henry Waxman, the promise of new “green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced” is an all too common refrain. […]
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Perpetuating the myth that climate policy is all cost
A portfolio approach to climate change — a price on carbon coupled with a suite of complementary policies — can serve as a net economic boost. Put more simply: tackling climate change can help the economy. As I lamented yesterday, however, this fact tends to be obscured by the political establishment’s excess focus on carbon […]
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Each party has a clean-energy plan in U.K. election
Conservative Party’s “Vote blue, go green” logo.The United Kingdom holds its general election in two weeks, and Jeremy Lovell of Climatewire runs down the plans of the three largest parties for tackling climate change and switching to a low-carbon economy. The plans are all imperfect, but they all exist. The U.K. Conservatives don’t deny climate […]
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Raiding rainforest funds in climate legislation will turn cost projections into fantasy
An endangered unicorn protected by one of the imaginary offsets created if Kerry-Graham-Lieberman raids funds for tropical rainforests.In the ongoing negotiations over the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill, different polluters are clamoring for cash to compensate them for not fouling the atmosphere quite so much. One of their targets: the legislation’s set-aside funds for reducing tropical deforestation, which […]
