Climate Politics
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Vilsack names former head of Iowa’s Health and Human Services as new USDA nutrition chief
Phil Brasher at the Des Moines Register is reporting that USDA chief Tom Vilsack has named Kevin Concannon the new Undersecretary of the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, i.e. the head of the federal food and nutrition programs — which include food stamps and the national school lunch program. Concannon ran Iowa’s Department of Health […]
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House Republicans bring strange theories and wacky witnesses to climate hearings
Democratic leaders in the House are pushing hard to get a comprehensive climate and energy bill passed by summer, with discussion of their draft bill slated to begin this week. But at hearings designed to discuss the particulars of climate policy, Republican representatives and their witnesses have been bogging down the proceedings with skeptical rants […]
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Obama’s carbon-cap plan tests Democratic coalition
This piece was originally published in the Omaha World-Herald. Democratic gains in the Plains, the interior West, the Rust Belt and the Old Confederacy have transformed the political landscape. But one primary goal of the Obama administration is straining the geographic diversity of the new Democratic coalition: capping carbon pollution to avert a climate crisis. […]
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GOP leader: the idea that CO2 is harmful to environment is “almost comical”
Here’s Rep. John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House, talking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos today: “George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, […]
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King coal takedown: Maria Gunnoe
Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living” — Mother Jones. Maria Gunnoe is one of seven recipients of the 2009 Goldman Environmental PrizePhoto: Tom DusenberyListen here, King Coal. Maria “Mother” Gunnoe, a fearless community organizer for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in West Virginia, whose home sits on the frontlines of […]
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Gunnoe gets Goldman
Proud to say that one of the Orion Grassroots Network’s own, Maria Gunnoe, an organizer for Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, has won the “environmental nobel” for her courageous grassroots activism to end mountaintop removal (MTR) in the face of fierce intimidation: Grist’s own Ken Ward has the story in today’s Charleston (WV) Gazette. Maria Gunnoe […]
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States left wondering about EPA’s greenhouse gas ruling
Eighteen months ago, I watched the head of the Environmental Protection Administration shake hands with Mickey Mouse after the two had hoisted a compact fluorescent light bulb for a Disneyland photo op. I’d been promised a sit-down interview with Stephen Johnson, the career EPA staffer tapped by George W. Bush in 2005 to run the […]
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Washington’s cap-and-trade legislation no longer involves cap and trade
Photo: libraryman via FlickrWashington state’s cap-and-trade legislation is no more. Or rather, it IS … in the existential sense … but after the House passed a watered down version on Wednesday, it should no longer be allowed to call itself “cap-and-trade legislation.” As there is no cap and trade in said cap-and-trade legislation. There is […]
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Breaking: Gates Foundation ag official gets USDA post
Rajiv ShahPresident Obama has named Rajiv Shah, the Gates Foundation’s director of agricultural develpopment, as Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics at the USDA. The Gates Foundation’s agriculture efforts have been criticized for ties to Monsanto, the globe’s largest seed company and dominant purveyor of genetically modified seed traits. In 2007, the Gates Foundation […]
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How to comment on the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health
Got something to say about the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health and welfare? You’ve got 60 days to speak, or forever hold your peace. Here’s how to submit written comments: Email: GHG-Endangerment-Docket@epa.gov Fax: 202.566.1741 Snail mail: Environmental Protection AgencyEPA Docket Center (EPA/DC) Mailcode 6102T Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171 […]
