Climate Politics
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EPA ‘suppression’ story grows, despite shoddy science in report
Dizzy by now?Courtesy katiew via FlickrThe peculiar story of a “suppressed” report at the Environmental Protection Agency continues to grow, despite the fact that the agency appears to have done nothing worse than holding its employees to professional standards. The charge spreading through the news media is that the EPA quashed an internal report because […]
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Obama strategy on climate bill: get it passed, then let markets make the argument
In a post earlier today I argued that “official” estimates of how much climate/energy legislation will cost are likely systematically overstating costs and understating benefits. It’s worth noting that this is not an idiosyncratic opinion of mine. It is shared by President Obama, his team, and key Democratic leaders, and helps explain some of the […]
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Next on climate: Improve Waxman-Markey innovation provisions in Senate
Few aspects of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill matter more than the insufficient degree to which it applies future revenue to clean energy innovation. Quite simply, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) makes only a modest start toward promoting the technology breakthroughs that will make clean energy cheap, reduce carbon emissions, and create thousands […]
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Cathy Zoi confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
I’ve just been forwarded this message from DOE: On June 19th, the United States Senate, by voice vote, confirmed Cathy Zoi to be the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy This is a terrific piece of news. To explain why, I’m going to reprint below my March post “And Obama gives the best […]
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National climate change policy: A quick look back at Waxman-Markey and the road ahead
Like any legislation, the Waxman‑Markey bill has its share of flaws, but its cap-and-trade system has medium and long‑term targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are sensible, and the cap‑and‑trade system is — for the most part — well designed. With some exceptions, the bill’s cap‑and‑trade system will achieve meaningful reductions of carbon dioxide […]
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After Precarious Climate Vote, Grassroots Pressure Needed More Than Ever
With right-leaning Dems holding the upper-hand right now, it will take a monster grassroots push to counter corporate interest pressure and allow us to strengthen the Waxman-Markey bill.
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Costs kill Ontario’s new nukes
It all started so well. Almost exactly three years ago, Ontario’s government announced the construction of two new nuclear reactors to replace ageing parts of our current power supply. Despite the drawbacks of being announced in the middle of summer vacation season and happening in Ontario, it nonetheless made news around the world. This was […]
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The House climate bill debate, in one minute
Grist sat through roughly six hours of debate of the climate bill on Friday, and if you were watching or following our live blogging of it, you know how painful it got at times. For those who want to see the short version of Friday’s debate, Progressive Media USA put together a one-minute summary of […]
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Why we overestimate the costs of climate change legislation
Recent days have seen a flurry of blogospheric back-and-forth about the new CBO and EPA reports, and more generally about the costs and benefits of climate change legislation. As someone who believes the costs are overestimated and the benefits underrated, I thought I’d weigh in. Here are three key questions: How available and affordable are […]
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Seattle and Berkeley drop biodiesel
Here’s a King 5 News video clip and here is a short article from the online Seattle PI, demonstrating how much easier it is to fall back on science when there’s money involved. The PI article suggests that Seattle quit because of this EPA study, which came out in May (Figure 2 shows soy biodiesel […]
