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Barton worries that EPA will regulate runners
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is concerned about the plight of marathon runners under a cap-and-trade plan. No, we’re not making this up. Barton, the ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee and a vocal climate skeptic, told conservative magazine Newsmax in an interview published on Monday that he is worried that regulating greenhouse-gas emissions […]
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Does the public need to understand cap-and-trade?
A new Rasmussen poll shows that just 24 percent of people know what “cap-and-trade” is. Even that is an optimistic gloss: in fact, only 24 percent of people know that cap-and-trade is meant to address environmental issues. Some 29 percent think it’s a new Wall Street regulation; 30 percent have no idea. Professional enviros seem […]
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Speculation runs rampant as Dems reportedly reach a deal on climate bill
House leaders have reportedly reached a tentative deal on a climate and energy bill — and in the absence of details, speculation is rampant about how the bill has been weakened or otherwise changed. Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the bill’s coauthors, had wanted to start markup of […]
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Former McCain spokesperson joins Gore’s team
Here’s a curious development for you: Brian Rogers, spokesperson for John McCain’s presidential campaign last year, is now working for Al Gore. Rogers sent an email dispatch on Friday announcing his new job as research director for Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. In the email, Rogers said he will be “working on the Repower America […]
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Close friend of Big Meat may be put in charge of food safety
USDA chief Tom Vilsack is once again on the verge of stepping in it regarding his pick for food safety czar, i.e. the head of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Some may recall that back in March the Obama administration nearly appointed Dr. Michael Osterholm to the post only to back off when […]
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President of Maldives wants to move his island nation
The New York Times Magazine has a pretty good piece on the Maldives, “Wanted: A New Home for My Country“: … ever since Nasheed declared on the eve of his inauguration last November that, because of global warming, he would try to find a new homeland for Maldivians somewhere else in the world, on higher […]
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Has anyone in U.S. history made more Americans less safe than Dick Cheney?
Back in March, Darth Vader former Vice President Dick Cheney said Americans are “less safe” now thanks to President Barack Obama and his policies. He repeated and expanded on the charge yesterday on Face the Nation. Let’s set aside the fact that if a President’s actions and policies in his first 100 days make him […]
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How I learned to stop worrying and love Waxman-Markey, Part 1
The Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill is certainly not “da bomb.” At best, it’s a B+. Then again, it is not a total bomb, as some think. So you don’t have to be Dr. Strangelove — or the bill’s mother — to love it. You just have to compare it to the alternative (i.e. utter […]
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Do you have any questions for McKinsey about their updated GHG cost curve?
I have written a great deal about the terrific work of McKinsey & Company (see “McKinsey 2008 Research in Review: Stabilizing at 450 ppm has a net cost near zero” and links below). So I was excited and delighted to be invited by The German Marshall Fund to be the respondent for a roundtable discussion […]
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Olympia Snowe on GOP losing enviros, everyone else
“We’re excluding the young, minorities, environmentalists, pro-choice — the list goes on. … To the average American who’s struggling, we’re in some other stratosphere. We’re the party of Big Business and Big Oil and the rich.” — Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, on the Republican Party
