Politics

New Sierra Club chief brings confrontational style to the job

Michael BrunePhoto courtesy Sierra ClubThe Sierra Club’s new leader will come to the job with a record of “environmental agitation” against big industrial polluters. The group announced on Wednesday that Michael Brune, 38, currently head of Rainforest Action Network (RAN), will replace Carl Pope as executive director as of March 15. Brune honed RAN’s strategy […]

Jonathan Hiskes Politics

It’s all about independents — and independence

The amazing table above comes from a new Allstate/National Journal/Heartland Monitor poll of 1200 Americans conducted January 3 to 7 . Even after a multimillion dollar disinformation campaign funded by big oil and corporate polluters, the public still understands that the climate bill would help the U.S. economy (unlike their view of the bailout bills […]

Joseph Romm Politics

Coal ash first real test of Obama commitment to health and safety regulation

A critical test of the Obama Administration’s commitment to reviving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is teeing up behind closed doors at the White House. Once again, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is cast in the role of regulation killer, supported by a slew of state and other federal agencies that are polluters […]

Rena Steinzor Politics

NYT’s Kim Severson on the value of school gardens

Anyone who has come home from school carrying a sprouting bean in a foam cup can attest that growing plants has long been used as a teaching tool. — Kim Severson of the NYT slips a full-throated defense of school gardens into a profile of a new Brooklyn Edible Schoolyard Project

Tom Laskawy Politics

Copenhagen Accord is the priority, says U.S. climate envoy. But what about a binding treaty?

U.S. Climate Envoy Todd Stern.A month after he rode herd at Copenhagen’s COP15 climate talks, Todd Stern is exhorting participants to make the outcome of the conference meaningful. “Life needs to be breathed into the Copenhagen Accord,” the State Department’s special envoy for climate change tells Grist. He insists that the three-page document represents a […]

Amanda Little Politics

Why are libertarian right wingers defending a dysfunctional, state-engineered food system?

Such scenes would not be possible without government policies that encourage cheap corn. Why do conservatives fetishize indsustrial food, again? Wikimedia commonsBack in 2002, in the right-wing National Review, Rod Dreher declared the rise of the “crunchy cons” — political conservatives who had come to value alternative food systems and reject the dreck served up […]

Tom Philpott Politics

How Scott Brown’s victory can help get climate legislation over the finish line

So was that it? With the stunning Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts, have we already reached the end of the Obama era? After all — play dramatic cord — the Democrats no longer have 60 votes! I say good riddance. Sure, if you’re a climate-movement activist, it’s not hard to be bummed, big time, by […]

Jon Isham Politics

Hanging EPA regulations around Democrats’ necks

It has been taken for granted on the left that if Congress doesn’t pass clean energy legislation, the EPA will step in to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The threat of that eventuality was supposed to bring intransigent industries and legislators to the table. Only it hasn’t really worked as intended — […]

David Roberts Politics

Why America’s greenest mayor got no love

Seattle Times environmental reporter Craig Welch profiles one of the more puzzling characters in recent urban politics, Seattle’s now-former mayor, Greg Nickels. The piece treads some of the same ground as my profile of Nickels last month: after demonstrating national leadership in rallying mayors on climate change, Nickels received no political credit back home. Seattle, […]