Politics

Tragic oil spill = smarter climate bill?

Several weeks before President Obama made the tragic decision to approve expanded offshore drilling, ten costal-state senators wrote a letter [PDF] to their colleagues John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) pressing the trio to keep expanded offshore drilling out of their now floundering climate and energy package. In the letter, the senators […]

Keith Harrington Politics

Lindsey Graham says, “yeah,” there’s a chance for climate to move forward this yea

WashPost’s Ezra Klein has posted an interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about the immigration and climate bills. Since my Monday post, it’s been hard to tell whether the Senator has been principled or petulant — or perhaps a bit of both. I’ll excerpt the parts of his interview with Klein about the climate bill […]

Joseph Romm Politics

Gulf oil spill worse than expected, and getting worser

Like the oil, there’s more news spilling out of (or is it into?) the Gulf of Mexico. And none of it is good. Where to begin? The 5,000-foot-long pipe that links the oil well to Transocean’s now submerged rig has sprung a third leak, which could explain why scientists at NOAA just upped their estimate […]

Mary Bruno Politics

The politics of the Gulf oil spill

The ecological fallout of the Gulf oil spill continues as emergency teams plan to set fire to the surface slick in hopes of keeping it away from the coast. The political fallout continues as well: More bad news for the Senate climate and energy bill, as coastal-state senators with key votes voiced concerns about drilling […]

Jonathan Hiskes Politics

On the Graham-Reid flustercluck

All right, all right, I suppose I have to say something about the Graham situation, as much as the entire subject just saps my life force. For those of you who haven’t been keeping track: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has threatened to pull his support from the climate bill he’s been working on — even […]

David Roberts Politics

With subsidies in the balance, Obama speaks up for ethanol

Lest we forget, he was once a corn-belt senator. While the BBC explores the dark underbelly of the biofuel craze, President Obama affirms his support for crop-based fuels. From The Hill: President Barack Obama on Wednesday touted ethanol–both the current variety and next-wave fuels–as a key part of his energy strategy and a way to […]

Tom Philpott Politics

Lisa Jackson and the “Headline People Don’t Want to Discuss”

Despite the gridlock on a climate bill, the EPA is already authorized to regulate carbon dioxide from cars. And the Obama administration has raised mileage standards so that by 2016, the new car fleet in the US will have to average 35 mpg. But without a climate bill, it will be a piecemeal approach. […]

Frank Sesno Politics

In Court Case, FDA Takes a Strong Stand Against Unabridged Food and Health Rights

The expanding battle over raw milk has come to be seen by many advocates as a battle over food rights. Do we have a right to consume the foods of our choice? Or can the government restrict our access, or require processing and/or sterilization of certain foods, and simultaneously prohibit our access to the raw […]

David Gumpert Politics

BBC on the impact of biofuels on Paraguay’s ecology and farmers

A soy plantation in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil. Nilton Ricardo, BrazilPhotosEveryone should listen to this BBC report (unfortunately not embedabble) on the “price of biofuels.” It digs into a key question: what does Europe’s appetite for biodiesel mean for people and ecosystems in the countries that produce the feedstocks? Focusing on Paraguay, the BBC comes […]