Climate Politics

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  • Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)

    Mark Pryor Sen. Mark Pryor is a moderate who has voiced concerns in the past about passing climate policy, but has been relatively quiet this year. He is regularly listed among the Democrats most likely to oppose a climate bill. Pryor has expressed interest in increasing his state’s contribution in the biofuels sector, however, which […]

    Kate Sheppard Politics

  • Offsets and Big Ag: Does the climate bill give away too much to the farm sector?

    Special Series: What’s the deal with offsets?Photo illustration by Tom Twigg / GristThe compliance market for offsets proposed under the House’s American Clean Energy and Security Act would not just mean more opportunity for companies already in the business of selling carbon offsets. It would also result in a major realignment in the types of […]

    Erica Gies Politics

  • Surprise, surprise: NWF-sponsored poll finds support for climate bill

    Hey, we couldn’t find a photo that screamed “polling,” so how about this period shot of Seattle City Light workers?Seattle Municipal Archives via FlickrThere’s some good news about public support for climate legislation in a new Zogby poll commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Seventy-one percent of likely voters say they like the American […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Politics

  • NYT: Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

    The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say. Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the […]

    Joseph Romm Politics

  • Climate disobedience: Is a new “Seattle” in the making?

    This guest essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. Research assistance was provided by Sean Nortz. Will climate disobedience heat up in the months before Copenhagen?In the early morning of October 8, 2007, a small group of British Greenpeace activists slipped inside a hulking smokestack that towers more […]

    Mark Engler Politics

  • Alaska legislature rebukes Palin, but Alaskans may still lose

    The odd saga of stimulus money and the state of Alaska drew to a close yesterday, ending in what should have been a big win for efficiency, as the state legislature voted to override former-Governor Palin’s veto of efficiency money. Unfortunately, this may be a victory in name only, as the Department of Energy has […]

    Lane Burt Politics

  • A policy framework for investment in energy efficiency retrofits

    This post is co-written by Benjamin Goldstein, Reid Detchon, and Kurt Shickman and reprinted with permission of the Center for American Progress. Investments in building efficiency retrofits can simultaneously address the challenges of economic recovery, energy insecurity, and global warming by laying the foundation for sustained economic growth, driving demand in the construction and manufacturing […]

    Bracken Hendricks Politics

  • Key to climate bill, offsets have plenty of critics

    America’s first major stab at tackling global climate change comes in the form of the American Clean Energy Security Act, a massive piece of legislation that would touch nearly every corner of the U.S. economy. The bill, often referred to as “Waxman-Markey” after its principal sponsors in the House of Representatives, contains provisions for clean […]

    Erica Gies Politics

  • Renewable energy is more exciting than cap-and-trade!

    I’ve long thought that the message framing around renewable energy is much more appealing (Let’s make clean energy cheaper!  Build the industries of the future!  Cool technology and jobs for everyone!  It’ll be like the dotcom boom all over again!  But without the dumb names!) than that of carbon cap-and-trade (Let’s put a price on […]

    Adam Browning Politics

  • John McCain (R-Ariz.)

    John McCain Sen. John McCain was, of course, one of the earliest congressional supporters of cap-and-trade, cosponsoring the first two pieces of climate legislation to come to the floor of the Senate in 2003 and 2005. During his campaign for president last year, he regularly touted his support for climate action. But McCain did not […]

    Kate Sheppard Politics