Climate Politics
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Cantwell’s climate bill gathers steam
There’s an interesting insurgency that may give lie to recent predictions of federal failure on cap and trade. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has a modified “cap and dividend” bill, called the CLEAR Act, that’s slowly but surely picking up momentum. On Wednesday, the Washington Post gave it a nod: Is there no alternative between simple do-nothingism […]
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We’re kicking butt on coal
Bummed out about Copenhagen, the U.S. Senate, that expensive-sounding kggrstch emanating from somewhere in your transmission? Well, here’s some good news to sip and enjoy: the amazing success of the fight to stop new coal plants. Consider the situation in early 2007. At that time the Energy Department released a survey showing 151 new coal […]
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Utah solves climate change by voting it down
This post is reprinted from Climate Progress. Utah: still the right wing placeWhen you drive into Utah from Colorado, there’s a sign that says: “Utah: Still the Right Place.” For years, the sign has been edited with red spray paint to read: “Utah, Still the Right Wing.” New word from the Beehive State suggests the […]
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Obama administration celebrates clean energy investments, reaffirms support for cap-and-trade
On Thursday the Obama administration released its annual Economic Report of the President, which assesses the nation’s economic progress, the challenges ahead, and the administration’s domestic and international priorities. There is a meaty chapter on “Transforming the Energy Sector and Addressing Climate Change” (PDF). Its most striking feature is that it doesn’t back off, at […]
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Show solar some love
My colleagues at Vote Solar thought that making a viral valentine (two words, by the way, that really shouldn’t go together) would be a great idea. Something campy, something funny, something that also makes the point that a relationship with solar — like one with a special Valentine — can have a lot of benefits. […]
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The Climate Post: Snow is unequivocal
First things first: Attention turned this week to the Mid-Atlantic snowstorms and how to understand (and misunderstand) them, and also to how the climate science community-namely the IPCC-might prevent mistakes in process and print that have harmed its reputation in recent months. Three feet of snow have disabled the capital region. The federal government has […]
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Policy fixes to unleash clean energy, part 4
Thus far, we’ve reviewed the five questions that ought to be answered before addressing any energy policy, identified the key regulatory barriers to clean energy deployment, and reviewed the political obstacles to good energy policy. Let’s now move on to the simplest — but potentially most controversial — question. What principles ought to guide good […]
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Conservatives say stupid things about snow; media dutifully reports that they say them
As anyone with a Twitter account is sick of hearing by now, Washington, D.C., is being battered by a “snowpocalypse.” Conservatives are using the occasion to mock Al Gore because, you see, snow disproves climate change. This is obviously something that only extremely ill-informed (or stupid) people would say. No matter what you think about […]
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It’s time for a solar revolution
This country spends, in a typical year, $350 billion importing oil from Saudi Arabia and other foreign countries. While this is no doubt good news for the Saudi royal family, one of the richest in the world, it is bad news for the average American. The vast majority of the American people understand that now […]
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Policy fixes to unleash clean energy, part 3
In Part 1, I outlined the five questions that we ought to answer before we can have any informed debate on energy policy reform. In Part 2, I provided my answer to the first of those questions: namely, what are the key existing regulatory barriers to clean energy deployment (Answer: utility regulation, environmental regulation and […]
