Climate Politics
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GOP team at American Energy Alliance runs ‘Energy Town Hall’ oil bus tour
American Energy Alliance staffers Kevin Kennedy, Patrick Creighton, and Laura Henderson on tour in Pennsylvania. All are former House GOP staff. Cross-posted from Wonk Room. The American Energy Alliance (AEA), a new polluter front group, is touring the nation to smear President Barack Obama’s clean energy reform agenda. Employees riding the “American Energy Express” bus […]
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Badass mayor builds bridges between working class and enviros
Mayor John FettermanPhoto: The Cap SolutionJohn Fetterman is not easy to miss. He’s 6’8″, 325 pounds, and usually dressed in a black work shirt and boots. He sports two large tattoos on his forearms, a shaved head, and a goatee. You might mistake him for a steelworker at first glance, but he’s actually the 40-year-old, […]
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Washington Post features rail hack job from Robert Samuelson
This post originally appeared on Streetsblog DC. This is the big problem with Ed Glaeser’s New York Times posts purporting to analyze the costs and benefits of a high speed rail system. Despite Glaeser’s acknowledgment that his “back-of-the-envelope calculation” doesn’t “[represent] a complete evaluation of any actual proposed route,” the posts are sure to be […]
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Barack Obama is not Bagger Vance
Things are pretty grim among progressives these days, what with health care bogging down and climate legislation on indefinite delay; right wing crazies everywhere and Blue Dogs intransigent; the organized coalition that brought Obama to office fractured and ineffective. Disillusionment is in the air. In response, on listservs and private conversations, I’m hearing more and […]
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This “Energy Citizen” also wants a word
Last week saw the launch of a new initiative in the United States, “Energy Citizens,” which aims to create a significant lobby against the passage of climate change legislation in the USA and most specifically the recent House bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, or “Waxman-Markey” as it is more widely […]
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The fallacy of climate activism
In the 20 years since we climate activists began our work in earnest, the state of the climate has become dramatically worse, and the change is accelerating — this despite all of our best efforts. Clearly something is deeply wrong with this picture. What is it that we do not yet know? What do we […]
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Majority of ‘Energy Citizens’ rallies organized by oil-industry lobbyists
Here’s more evidence that the “Energy Citizens” rallies against climate legislation are anything but grassroots uprisings. We already knew that the American Petroleum Institute was behind the whole idea. Now it turns out that even the local organizers of individual rallies are oil-industry lobbyists. Grist obtained a copy of API’s list of coordinators for the […]
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Four ways the U.S. & China can start cooperating now to tackle climate change
This post is from my colleague Barbara Finamore (Director of our China Program). It is a set of important first steps that China and the U.S. could undertake to help reduce global warming pollution. Moving these two countries together will be critical to securing a strong global commitment in Copenhagen. And there have been some important signs […]
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Neutralizing Big Oil’s climate-bill attack, with investment in manufacturing
The oil lobby’s latest astroturf concoction is “Energy Citizens.” Its website practically looks like it’s a group pushing clean green jobs, with its green-tinted USA map and call to “support American jobs and affordable energy.” Its attempt at a grassroots rally was rightly deemed nothing more than a “company picnic,” just another ruse to kill […]
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Collin Peterson apes Sensenbrenner, fears ‘catalytic converter’ for cows
Cross-posted from Wonk Room. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) has wielded his power as the chair of the House Agriculture Committee to shape clean energy legislation on behalf of industrial agriculture interests. Peterson’s efforts to limit environmental regulation of industrial farmers in the American Clean Energy and Security Act may have been motivated by the hundreds […]
