Skip to content
Grist home
Grist home

Climate Politics

All Stories

  • Time to Speak Out Against the Biggest Polluters

    Wednesday and Thursday of this week are big days if you live in Arlington, Virginia, or Chicago, Illinois. Those are the two days of public hearings on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Big Polluters” rule. But of course, this whole issue is huge whether you live in Virginia, Illinois, or anywhere else in the U.S. […]

  • George Voinovich (R-Ohio) [UPDATED]

    George Voinovich At a hearing on the Kerry-Boxer climate bill in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Nov. 3, Sen. George Voinovich was the only Republican to show up (for a whole 15 minutes!). He explained that Republicans were boycotting the proceedings because they wanted to wait until the EPA completed a more […]

  • Is Bill McKibben right to be angry with Obama?

    In his latest column, Bill McKibben lays a wide range of sins at the feet of Barack Obama, accusing him of “fibbing and spinning” on climate change. He says Obama is “not particularly focused” on climate (while linking to coverage of an Obama speech dedicated to climate). He says that by putting health care ahead […]

  • Mr. President: Time to quit fibbing and spinning

    This essay appeared first on MotherJones.com. Bill McKibben is chronicling his journey into climate activism with a series of columns leading up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen this December. You can find the others here. And you can put yourself on the cover of MoJo’s special issue on climate change here. Two caveats. […]

  • A parable on the National School Lunch Program

    Crap: it’s what’s for school lunch. But does it have to be? Not long ago or far away, there was a great and mighty kingdom that was the envy of all other kingdoms in the world. The kingdom was home to two groups of people, the Big People and the Little People. The Big People […]

  • Rumors of Copenhagen’s demise have been greatly exaggerated

    Waking up on a dreary Sunday morning this weekend in Copenhagen (where I’ve recently moved to prepare for the upcoming climate talks in December), I was met with a barrage of headlines, mostly from U.S. media, telling me that Copenhagen is doomed to total failure and I might as well head off to Mexico City […]

  • Palin’s book spreads falsehoods about clean energy legislation

    During the 2008 campaign, the Washington Post itself gave Sarah Palin its highest (which is to say lowest) rating of “Four Pinocchios” for continuing to “to peddle bogus [energy] statistics three days after the original error was pointed out by independent fact-checkers.”  That didn’t stop the Post from running a 2009 piece by her filled […]

  • Al Franken (D-Minn.)

    Al FrankenSen. Al Franken wrote the following letter to a Grist reader in early November, expressing support for “comprehensive energy legislation” and a “national energy plan that keeps our country moving down a path to a homegrown economy with more jobs, more innovation, and more opportunities for investment.” The senator has been concerned about the […]

  • Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)

    Dick Durbin In this letter to Grist reader and Illinois constituent Kevin Wolz, Sen. Dick Durbin signals strong support for the Kerry-Boxer climate bill: Dear Mr. Wolz, Thank you for contacting me regarding the creation of a national “cap-and-trade” program to address global warming. I appreciate hearing from you. Global warming is one of the most […]

  • Why the USDA has no business overseeing conditions on factory farms, and more

    In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries. —— USDA chief Tom Vilsack, with special friends: Will this guy ever get serious about the swine flu/swine farm link? Why isn’t the federal government seriously investigating the possible CAFO-swine flu link? I’ve posed that question several times recently, most […]