Climate Politics

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  • 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

  • The Real FACES of Coal: Adfero’s shadowy GOP beltway astroturf operatives

    Cross-posted from Wonk Room. A new “grassroots” fossil fuel front group, FACES of Coal, is employing a shadowy Republican-staffed company to spread its message. The Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security — a new pro-mountaintop removal campaign that refuses to reveal its “grassroots” members — is employing a GOP Beltway shop to promote its […]

    Brad Johnson Politics

  • White House announces Gulf restoration task force amid criticism of Army Corps

    In response to criticism that the Army Corps of Engineers has failed to take needed action, President Obama is creating a federal task force to overhaul management of coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi. White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley made the announcement this week in an interview with Bloomberg News. […]

    Sue Sturgis Politics

  • Boycotting Whole Foods won’t help

    The health care reform debate has provoked any number of crazy opinions, including the far-right fantasies of death panels or that Medicare isn’t a government-funded program. Two weeks ago, Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey added his own musings to the list with an editorial in the Wall Street Journal condemning “Obamacare” and any […]

    Dave Murphy Politics