Climate Politics
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The Waxman-Markey Rorschach blot
In early June I’ll be speaking at a plenary session on climate politics at the America’s Future Now! conference organized by the Campaign for America’s Future. They asked me to write a post on the Waxman-Markey bill to kick off discussion in advance of the conference. The post is here, and reprinted below. —– The […]
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The scoop on Obama’s new fuel-economy rules
On May 19, President Barack Obama unveiled new standards to regulate fuel economy and greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and light trucks. The bottom line: New automobiles will have to get better gas mileage The numbers: Current standards: 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 24 mpg for light trucks Starting in 2012, fuel efficiency […]
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Memo to NBC’s Chuck Todd: Energy and climate shake up the traditional political categories
Now that energy and global warming have leaped into the political mainstream, lots of reporters who aren’t knowledgeable on either subject are writing and blogging on it. And that means we can expect a lot of dubious sloppy suboptimal reporting by people who are more interested in the personality drama and traditional politics than in […]
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You can’t build a new foundation with dirty energy
Building a new foundation requires a lot of heavy machinery. Bulldozers to clear the land, extractors to dig the foundation, concrete-mixers to pour the cement, and trucks to haul the raw materials. So perhaps it’s appropriate that Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar will be at the White House tomorrow for the first meeting of […]
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Opponents continue to obstruct clean energy jobs push in Energy & Commerce Committee debate
You can follow the continuing markup of the Waxman Markey bill on C-SPAN3 here. I am reprinting below a daily update from the Center for American Progress Action Fun: Here’s what to look for as markup moves in to its second day WASHINGTON, DC—Yesterday brought few surprises as opening statements began in the House Energy […]
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NOAA: Fifth warmest April on record
NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center reported last month: Based on preliminary data, the globally-averaged combined land and sea surface temperature was the fifth warmest on record for April, and the January-April year-to-date period tied with 2003 as the sixth warmest on record. lt is worth noting “the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) transitioned from a cold […]
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EIA projects wind at 5% of U.S. electricity in 2012, all renewables at 14%, thanks to Obama stimulus
The renewables safe sources of energy that never run out are coming! And if it was braggin’ time for wind when wind power hit 1.25% of U.S. electricity generation in 2008, what’ll it be in 2012, when it hits 5%, as projected by the Energy Information Administration? Well, it’s probably time for a tougher renewable […]
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Nobelist Krugman strongly endorses Waxman-Markey
The man who is arguably the most credible progressive expert on economics has begun to seriously weigh in on the clean energy and global warming bill (see Krugman: Climate action “now might actually help the economy recover from its current slump” by giving “businesses a reason to invest in new equipment and facilities”). In today’s […]
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Breaking: Obama to raise new car fuel efficiency standard to 39 mpg by 2016
UPDATE: The NYT story is not entirely accurate, and, separately, sources tell me there appears to be a little confusion as to exactly what mpg standard is set for what class of vehicles (see below). UPDATE2: The numbers appear to be 39 mpg for cars, 30 mpg for light trucks (see here). For all those […]
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Fuel economy in context
The decision of the Obama Administration to embrace stronger fuel economy standards by 2016 is drawing praise from environmentalists but fire from auto analysts who say it will add to Detroit’s woes. The decision to accelerate fuel economy comes on top of a variety of policy proposals to address climate change, the auto industry and […]
