Climate Politics
All Stories
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Industry defends federal loophole for drilling before packed Congressional hearing
Abrahm Lustgarten / ProPublica ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten reports: In a packed and sometimes contentious hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, representatives of the oil and gas industry and their state regulators vigorously defended the practice of injecting toxic fluids underground without federal regulatory oversight. The House Energy and Minerals subcommittee called the hearing to explore the […]
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Philly’s universal school lunch program lives on — for now
Sometimes sanity prevails. Philly’s Universal Feeding school lunch program–whose announced cancellation caused an uproar the other week–just got a reprieve, at least until 2010. The Philly Inquirer has the story: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided not to discontinue a Philadelphia school breakfast and lunch program that provides free meals to poor students, members […]
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Obama on climate action: “Tough decisions and… concrete actions”
President Obama was asked a question today on global warming at his press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel: Q: And another political issue, if I may. Madam Chancellor, climate change. Germany, Europe are putting concrete targets on the agenda, concrete reduction targets. Will America in the post-Kyoto process be willing to commit itself to […]
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Powerful injustice at the Bonn climate talks
It’s the fourth day of climate negotiations here in Bonn, and at 4:30 in the afternoon, there is a lull in the action before the start of early evening “contact groups” – official meetings of negotiators that are sometimes open to observers. Looking for a quiet place to sit down with my laptop, I have […]
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Pelosi won’t commit to deadline for passing climate bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set a soft deadline of June 19 for committee leaders to finish their review of the climate and energy bill that passed out of the Energy and Commerce Committee last month. But she hasn’t set a deadline for passing the bill out the full chamber. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, […]
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Inhofe’s plan: Stall climate action until the next president
The Heartland Institute, an outpost for climate change skeptics, is holding its Third International Conference on Climate Change here in Washington, D.C., this week (just three months after its second one). Yesterday the meeting played host to the Senate’s top climate-change denier, Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe. Inhofe, best known for calling global warming “the greatest […]
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West Virginia celebrates the blessings of a coal-based economy
West Virginia gets more of its electricity from coal than any other state. To celebrate that fact, yesterday WV Gov. Joe Manchin (D) declared coal the official state rock. Yes, really. Coal is now the state rock of West Virginia. But why should Manchin stop there? Having a coal-based economy has given his state so […]
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Obama calls for cooperation on clean energy and green jobs in Mideast
Photo: White House No one expected President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo today to focus on climate change, and it didn’t. Obama didn’t use the words “climate” or “environment,” but rather talked about the usual Middle East challenges — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the distrust of American […]
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Video highlights from the GOP’s anti-climate-bill crusade
For the past month, House Republicans have been taking their anti-climate-bill efforts on the road, trying to stir up public resistance to the Waxman-Markey climate and energy legislation. The show kicked off in D.C. and moved on to Indiana, Pennsylvania, and California. Now the House Republican Conference has produced a “greatest hits” reel on their […]
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Nancy Sutley: Obama to stake political prestige on climate bill
Barack Obama is prepared to stake his own political prestige on getting climate change legislation through Congress, and would be willing to intervene directly to ensure passage of America’s first law to reduce the carbon emissions that cause global warming. Nancy Sutley, who is pivotal in setting Obama’s green agenda as the chairwoman of the […]
