Climate Politics
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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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 […]
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Carl Pope says 350 ppm not strong enough, endorses carbon pricing and global tax & dividend!
In the Sept/Oct issue of Sierra Club Magazine, Club Chairman Carl Pope details four “fallacies about solving global warming” that must be scrapped in order to achieve “the transformational global deal we need to save our planet” in Copenhagen. Put in positive terms, and looking only at the specifics, Pope outlines the following platform. 1. […]
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FACES of Coal are iStockphotos?!
The new coal industry front group “FACES” has yet to come forward with a list of their members. Well, thanks to a few new-media gumshoes, including Appalachian Voices’ Jamie Goodman and our friends at DeSmogBlog, we’ve learned that not only is FACES hosted by a K-Street firm called Adfero, but all of the FACES of […]
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Netroots Nation panel on blogging and climate change [VIDEO!!1!]
On Aug. 13, at the Netroots Nation conference for progressive bloggers, journalists, and activists, I was part of a panel called “A Warming Web: The Blogosphere and Climate Change.” Also present: Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog Brentin Mock of The American Prospect (and elsewhere) Brad Johnson of Think Progress Kate Sheppard of pure awesomeness Tim Lange, […]
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A crucial climate vote lost with Ted Kennedy’s death
Ted KennedyPhoto: jonathanpbergerSen. Edward M. Kennedy’s environmental legacy was remarkable, wide-ranging, and not all roses. Joe Romm’s got an early look at his record. But there’s one clear and simple impact of Kennedy’s death late Tuesday night: The push for a climate-change bill in the Senate lost a reliable supporter. That push needs absolutely every […]
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‘Monkey trial’ petition tells EPA to ‘eliminate the taint’
Cross-posted from Wonk Room. Calling for the “Scopes trial of the 21st century,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has delivered a petition [PDF] to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a public hearing on the EPA’s proposed global warming endangerment finding. The petition, acquired by the Wonk Room, claims that scientific research demonstrates global warming […]
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, champion of the environment and clean energy, dies at 77
Kennedy, the last surviving brother in a unique American political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died late Tuesday night at his summer home on Cape Cod after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. He was 77. He was a great champion of progressive causes, and his death is a great […]
