Climate Politics
All Stories
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The Climate Post: U.S. to Kyoto Protocol: just not that into you
First things first: The U.S. Senate is looking at new climate change legislation as the COP-15 global talks in Copenhagen approach this December. These two stories have fed off and driven each other all year. That they are happening together offers a clear view of just how stark differences are on what the U.S. should […]
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Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
UN Photo/Marco Castro In a stunning announcement (full text below), “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Obama won, in part, for reversing the immoral efforts of the Cheney-Bush […]
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How Senate Dems should lure GOP to a climate bill
The greenosphere is all abuzz with the news that a few Republican Senators, led by Lindsey Graham (S.C.), have signaled that they’re open to coming around on the climate bill if certain conditions are met. In classic form, Senate Dems have responded by rushing to signal they they are willing — eager, even! — to […]
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Senate must block OSMRE nominee Pizarchik
As Consol Energy crews clean up another mysterious coal slurry spill in West Virginia today, the nation’s largest producer of high-Btu bituminous coal — and an aggressive operator of devastating mountaintop removal and longwall mines — will be closely watching the nomination hearing of their southwestern Pa. hometown mining bureaucrat Joseph Pizarchik to head the […]
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Are there GOP senators who will back the climate bill?
In July, I speculated that Sen. Lamar Alexander might lead some Republicans to back a climate protection bill if Democratic leaders made some concessions regarding nuclear power. The prospect was tantalizing, as I noted then: “The Democratic caucus is not solid enough on climate issues to presume GOP votes are unneeded. Anyone giving a positive […]
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Climate bill breakdown
We’ve taken a good long look at CEJAPA, the 801-page Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act that was introduced recently by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Now, it’s time to see how the Senate bill compares with ACES. the American Clean Energy and Security Act co-sponsored by House members Henry Waxman […]
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World Bank can’t wean itself off fossil fuel lending
Protesters at World Bank meetings in IstanbulThis week’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings brought bedlam to the streets of Istanbul, with Turkish socialist groups and trade unions protesting the mere presence of the two institutions and Turkish police in riot gear responding with tear gas. The ongoing global economic crisis dominated the […]
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On climate, leading from the front (for a change)
Leaders of the world’s richest and fastest-growing economies are pushing for climate action even though their citizens have yet to wake up to the scale of the problem. Above, national leaders pose at the most recent G8 meeting last June in Italy. (White House Photo).Something unusual seems to be happening in the struggle to wake […]
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What to do with the utility handouts in the climate bill?
Passage of the Waxman-Markey bill through the House was a shock to the Beltway. Rahm Emanuel himself called its architects after the floor vote to express his surprise and admiration — and if anyone knows how to count votes, it’s Rahm Emanuel. One compromise more than any other enabled the bill to navigate the sticky […]
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Kerry-Boxer Climate Bill: Preliminary Thoughts
*** This is a preliminary summary of a huge bill, so it’s not Sightline’s final answer. Look for a more thorough and polished analysis next week. *** Weighing in at 821 pages, the Kerry-Boxer climate bill introduced into the US Senate yesterday is officially a whopper, though it’s certainly more svelte than the companion House bill that […]
