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  • What are the chances of a cap-and-trade system being established in the U.S. this year?

    16.9 percent, according to Intrade.com, an online betting site — down from 59 percent last summer, but up from 12.7 percent late last month.  Odds on cap-and-trade getting through by the end of 2011 are now at 25 percent, an all-time low.

  • The organic movement is a civic process, not a set of standards [corrected]

    As the National Organic Standards Board considers new rules (PDF) on organic dairy, a dispute has erupted between watchdog group Cornucopia Institute and widely respected Straus Family Creamery in Northern California over the access-to-pasture standard. (The Marin Independent Journal recently ran an informative account of the conflict.) E. Melanie Dupuis, author of Nature’s Perfect Food: […]

  • Lobbyists rush to block EPA action on climate change

    Cross-posted from The Center for Public Integrity.   Like a lot of industry groups, the farm lobby says it would prefer that Congress tackle climate change rather than leaving the job to the bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency. But now, the prospect of EPA greenhouse gas regulation looms large — mostly because agriculture and […]

  • To flourish, school gardens need more than photo ops

    This post originally appeared on Ed Bruske’s Slow Cook blog. ———— Kids from Bancroft School in the White House garden with Michelle Obama. As one of the teachers involved with Michelle Obama and the White House vegetable garden, I’ve been impressed with the sudden surge of public interest in the simple act of children planting […]

  • A new American environmentalism and the new economy

    Editor’s note: The following is the 10th Annual John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture, delivered at the National Council for Science and the Environment in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2010. —— I’m both pleased and honored to have been asked by NCSE to give this 10th Annual John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture. I knew John […]

  • Palin bashes ‘cap and tax’ and commends Obama on nuclear

    Sarah Palin’s much-anticipated speech Saturday night at the first National Tea Party Convention in Nashville included a one-minute-and-20-second disquisition on energy policy.  She hit on her familiar talking points — drill here, drill now, “cap-and-tax” sucks. But she also commended Obama for highlighting nuclear power during his State of the Union address, a brief departure […]

  • USDA makes the right call on school meat safety, animal tracking

    From its failure to rein in abuse of farm subsidies to its misguided efforts on international trade, the Obama USDA has disappointed many progressives. But let’s take a moment to offer kudos to USDA Chief Tom Vilsack for two positive developments in one week. On Thursday, the USDA responded to revelations first published in USAToday […]

  • A chat with Sen. Bernie Sanders on his new 10 million solar roofs bill

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)On On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill aimed at getting 10 million new solar rooftop systems and 200,000 new solar hot water heating systems installed in the U.S. in the next 10 years. Cleverly titled the “10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act” […]

  • Iraq veterans hit GOP for aiding terrorists with oil money

    Cross-posted from Wonk Room. In a series of hard-hitting television ads, a liberal veterans advocacy organization challenges Republican lawmakers for blocking clean energy legislation that would cut oil funds to terrorists. As part of a $2 million television ad campaign, VoteVets has released a national spot as well as ones targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch […]

  • The Climate Post: In which it feels like everything has come to a full stop

    First things first: President Barack Obama defended a market-based system to limit the pollution of heat-trapping gases, a core part of his legislative agenda, even as he acknowledged the Senate may pursue an energy bill without one. He spoke to a “town hall” meeting in Nashua, N.H., about the potential of Senators removing technology-and-jobs legislation […]