Climate Politics

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  • Chamber of Commerce keeps stepping on rakes

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce can’t catch a break these days. When the Waxman-Markey bill rolled out, it did what it always does: pretended to agree with the goal while recommending changes in the means so drastic that they would gut the bill. See this comical letter wherein it wants to “balance environmental objectives with […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Cleaning some of the Fox off of Van Jones

    Van JonesA while back I lampooned a Glenn Beck segment on Van Jones, who’s an advisor to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. According to Beck, Jones is the man on the inside for a vast cryptosocialist conspiracy involving the Apollo Alliance, Color of Change, the Center for American Progress, George Soros, ACORN, Al […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Department Of Energy eviscerates right-wing Spanish ‘green jobs’ study

    Cross-posted from Wonk Room. A Spanish paper that claimed support for green jobs “may destroy two jobs for every one created” has been debunked by an official publication of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The paper’s conclusions — led by Exxon-funded libertarian Gabriel Calzada — have been cited by GOP leaders, Fox News, right-wing […]

    Brad Johnson Politics

  • Could Waxman and Markey have used the EPA threat more effectively?

    Should Waxman and Markey have kicked off House climate-bill negotiations with a stronger ask? The bill they introduced was effectively the U.S. Climate Action Partnership proposal, which already reflected years of negotiation and compromise. The idea was that the difficult work of negotiations had already been done — enviros and business both on board! — […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Push is on to strengthen climate bill

    A coalition of more than 300 organizations including faith, human rights, social justice and environmental groups will deliver letters to the local offices of U.S. senators this week calling on them to strengthen climate legislation narrowly passed by the House of Representatives in June. The effort is part of a broader grassroots initiative that aims […]

    Sue Sturgis Politics

  • Washington Post gives polluters a free pass on dirty money and lies

    In today’s Washington Post, David Fahrenthold’s front-page story spends its first 15 paragraphs detailing Big Oil’s massive campaign against clean energy while incredibly avoiding any mention of one little detail: money. In fact, to believe the first 15 paragraphs, the reason polluters have such a strong voice in the national debate is because conservation groups […]

    Miles Grant Politics

  • NYT reads the future: Senate Dems consider maybe doing something in 2010

    What do they know that we don’t?A scoop in The New York Times doesn’t surprise me. A scoop from nine months into the future does. This morning the Times Environment page featured a ClimateWire story dated May 15, 2010. “Senators Spend Recess Fine-Tuning Messages on Cap and Trade” finds Senate Democrats still hand-wringing over the […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Politics

  • EPA reveals almost twice as many dangerous coal ash dumps as previously known

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released information showing there are 584 coal ash dump sites across the country — almost twice as many as previously identified. The facilities are located in 35 states and concentrated in Appalachia, the Southeast, Midwest and Intermountain West. The release [PDF] came late last Friday in response to a […]

    Sue Sturgis Politics

  • Coal lobby claims their grassroots support is “more organic” than green groups’

    “This is the truest form of grass-roots there is. We don’t charge people to be members of the Citizen Army, so if anything, it’s more organic than what some of the environmental groups do. We allow these people to express their own opinions on these issues.” — Joe Lucas, senior vice president for communications at […]

    Ashley Braun Politics

  • Top USDA official gets serious about local/regional food systems

    Hope and fresh produce: Kathleen MerriganWith the climate bill gutted by Big Ag and stalled in the Senate, with health-care reform on the verge of collapse, prospects for real change in national politics are looking grim. Well, here’s some hope from what’s traditionally one of the executive branch’s most retrograde agencies: the USDA. USDA deputy […]

    Tom Philpott Politics