Climate Politics
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Fixing food isn’t only about agriculture. Just ask Europe.
Michael Pollan spoke to Newsweek about the new documentary on our industrial food system Food, Inc. In his comments, he made some crucial points about differences between US and Europe that go beyond “food culture”: [T]hey have a better safety net [in Europe]. You can afford to spend 15 to 17 percent of your income […]
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Population: Off the radar, not off the map
“The main driving forces of future greenhouse gas trajectories will continue to be demographic change, social and economic development, and the rate and direction of technological change,” according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Emissions Scenarios. Two of these drivers – development and technology – have been the focus of a […]
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This White House science adviser thinks America should embrace nuclear power
There are 104 commercial nuclear power stations in the United States today, supplying about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity. No new commercial reactors have been licensed here since 1973. And the last commercial plant to come online, Watts Bar in Tennessee, powered up more than a decade ago, in 1996. That all needs to […]
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Waxman-Markey, meet House Ag Committee
House Ag Committee: Like a combine thundering through a field.By all accounts, Thursday’s House Ag Committee hearing on the Waxman-Markey climate-change legislation went as expected: angry men blustered and fulminated and generally vented spleen. (See the Wall Street Journal’s coverage here and here; Farm Policy blog’s summary; and here’s links to the testimony of the […]
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Joe Barton not interested in moral implications of climate change
On Tuesday, I attended a hearing of the House Energy & Commerce Committee on “Allowance Allocation Policies in Climate Legislation.” By and large, the testimony came from economists and executives from affected industries. But there was one exception: Rev. Dr. Maria Castellanos of the United Church of Christ. Rev. Castellanos was there to make a […]
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Obama admin will scrutinize mountaintop mining, but not stop it
The Obama administration on Thursday announced new steps to reduce the environmental damage from mountaintop-removal (MTR) mining, a controversial and highly destructive practice used to extract coal from Appalachia. Activists from the region and the environmental community say that’s a nice first step, but they’re disappointed that the admin isn’t planning to rein the practice […]
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The Climate Post: Insider baseball on Waxman-Markey, outsider baseball on Hawaiian solar power
For those mercifully far enough away not to know, the “Capital beltway” is a looping highway, Interstate 495, the way many metro Washington residents ride to work. “Inside the beltway” isn’t coincident with Washington, DC. It also connotes a mythical place unrestrained by geography, a state of mind where consequential details of legislation attract and […]
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Mixed bag on mountaintop-removal mining decision from Obama sdministration
This post was co-written by Bruce Nilles and Mary Anne Hitt, director and deputy director, respectively, of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign. Today the Obama Administration announced steps to end the fast-tracking of certain mountaintop removal coal mine permits and add tougher enforcement in Appalachia, important steps that — with additional actions — could […]
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It’s official — the era of cheap oil is over
This was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. Every summer, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy issues its International Energy Outlook (IEO) — a jam-packed compendium of data and analysis on the evolving world energy equation. For those with the background to interpret its […]
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14 things I love — and 6 things I hate — about Waxman-Markey
Henry WaxmanI’ve been poring over the 948 pages of Waxman-Markey, the cap-and-trade bill that now appears likely (fingers crossed) to pass the U.S. House of Representatives this month or next. My grade? Overall, I give Representatives Henry Waxman of California (pictured) and Edward Markey of Massachusetts a solid “B,” but I’m grading on a curve–the […]
