Climate Politics

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  • American stimulus funds benefiting foreign wind energy firms

    The Investigative Reporting Workshop released a report on Thursday detailing how one of the first big chunks of money for clean energy under the stimulus package is actually being spent. Our findings (I was the lead reporter on the story) can be found here. Most interestingly, we found that the program, which is designed to […]

    Russ Choma Politics

  • Republicans threaten to boycott Kerry-Boxer markup over substanceless procedural complaint

    Darren covered this over at ClimateWire, but I’m not sure a straight news story can really capture the toxicity and absurdity of what the Inhofe is planning to do on the climate bill next week. Some background: when the Waxman-Markey chairman’s mark was released, the EPA undertook an exhaustive five-week analysis of its economic impacts. […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Memo to Baucus: Your state’s trees are being ravaged

    Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Tuesday he has “serious reservations” about climate legislation unveiled by his Democratic colleagues, signaling trouble for a proposal that is stronger in certain respects than a bill passed by the House. In an effort to inject drama and conflict into a hearing that lack both, the Washington Street Journal and […]

    Joseph Romm Politics

  • N.Y. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand answers Grist’s questions on the Kerry-Boxer bill

    Kirsten Gillibrand was in the midst of her second term in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving New York’s 20th District, when Gov. David Paterson selected her to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate. (Clinton, you’ll recall, was chosen by Obama to serve as secretary of state.) Gillibrand will serve in the Senate at […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) [UPDATED]

    Ben Nelson Sen. Ben Nelson doesn’t believe a cap-and-trade climate bill can pass Congress this session, he said on Oct. 30 — and he doesn’t intend to do anything to help it. “I haven’t been able to sell that argument to my farmers, and I don’t think they’re going to buy it from anybody else,” […]

    Grist staff Politics

  • Grass people invade Congress as Senate hearings wrap up

    The third and final day of the hearings on the Kerry-Boxer climate bill wrapped up in the Senate Environment and Public Works committee today. We’ve been collecting the best reactions an d analysis on our aggregation page. Here’s a quick rundown of where things stand. The wrap: Really, not much exciting news came out of […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Politics

  • Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)

    Michael BennetSen. Michael Bennet sent this letter to Grist reader Matthew Ott in October, responding to questions about the senator’s stance on climate legislation. Bennet calls the House climate bill, which passed in June, “a significant step in the right direction,” and he sounds generally positive about the Kerry-Boxer climate bill that’s now being considered […]

    Grist staff Politics

  • Mark Udall (D-Colo.)

    Mark UdallSen. Mark Udall is considered a likely “yes” vote for a climate bill in the Senate, though he wants to see more support for nuclear power and natural gas. In this letter to Grist reader Matthew Ott in Colorado, Udall doesn’t mention climate legislation specifically, but he calls for a strong renewable energy standard.  […]

    Grist staff Politics

  • Save us, [insert techno-fix here], you’re our only hope!

    Don’t worry about climate change and world hunger–this lady’s got your back!Watching SuperFreakonomics author Steve Levitt sitting next to Jon Stewart as they shook their heads in disbelief that everyone wasn’t on the climate change/geo-engineering bandwagon (It’s easy! it’s cheap! We know it works!) depressed me to no end. It seems like every challenge we […]

    Tom Laskawy Politics

  • Six months after the outbreak, who’s investigating the CAFO-swine flu link?

    Not hogging the H1N1 spotlight: A “state of the art” pig CAFO in Georgia.Photo courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.“When respiratory viruses get into these confinement facilities, they have continual opportunity to replicate, mutate, reassort, and recombine into novel strains … The best surrogates we can find in the human population are prisons, military […]

    Tom Philpott Politics