Climate Politics
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Waxman-Markey could save $3,900 per household and create 650,000 jobs by 2030
The energy efficiency provisions in the House energy and climate bill (H.R. 2454) could save $750 per household by 2020 and $3,900 per household by 2030, according to an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). An ACEEE news release notes that not only will efficiency reduce the costs to consumers and […]
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Offsets: Pissing the earth away
More than 2 and half years ago I wrote: “Mommy, where do carbon offsets come from?” “Well, you see sweetheart, when a major polluter and a consultant love money very, very much, they express that love in a special way. Nine months later, the consultant produces an extremely large paper packet.” Offsets, the idea that […]
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Why do U.S. environmentalists remain irrationally committed to a losing strategy?
Watching the remains of a movement strain our every organizational fiber to advance a climate bill we know is a travesty reminds me of G.K. Chesterton’s observation about sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable. Waxman-Markey ought to be opposed by U.S. environmentalists for obvious and pragmatic reasons — street […]
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Should Wilderness Society strip Rahall of award?
“Something like a shadow has fallen between the past and the present, an abyss wide as war that cannot be bridged by any tangible connection, so that memory is undermined and the image of our beginnings betrayed, dissolved, rendered not mythical but illusory. We have connived in the murder of our own origins.” — Edward […]
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Sierra Club, MoveOn call on House leaders to strengthen climate bill
The Sierra Club, MoveOn, and other green and progressive groups have sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asking her to work to strengthen the American Clean Energy and Security Act when it moves to the House floor. The letter also went to Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the bill’s […]
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On working with the UNFCCC and making aerial climate art
500 marshmallows organize for climate action.Robert van Waarden / Spectral QFor better or worse, ours is the age of distraction. Texting while in lectures, talking while in the car driving, iphoning while going, well, anywhere really. The possibilities for connecting beyond our immediate environment can take 25 hours of the day, and those possibilities are […]
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The return of the uranium boom?
In a small community near a broad expanse of valley floor known as the West End, there’s a certain glow in the air. It’s the glow of progress, the glow of prosperity … and the glow of the uranium miners coming home from work? The Paradox Valley in southwestern Colorado.Courtesy U.S. Geological SurveyProbably not; we […]
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Supreme Court rules against coal company accused of buying a West Virginia judge
After the Massey Energy coal mining company lost a $50 million verdict to a competitor, CEO Don Blankenship spent $3 million electing a friendly judge to West Virginia's Supreme Court of Appeals who went on to cast the deciding vote in a case that overturned the verdict. But yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a setback to Massey, a company notorious for its reliance on destructive mountaintop removal mining throughout Central Appalachia, with a ruling that elected judges must recuse themselves from cases involving big campaign contributors.
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Will health care eclipse climate in Congress this year?
Halfway through the second debate of last fall’s presidential campaign, moderator Tom Brokaw asked the candidates what their top priority would be if elected. McCain hemmed and hawed, but Obama answered in plain language: energy is “priority No. 1” and health care “priority No. 2.” Fast forward. In an NYT Magazine piece this weekend on […]
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Climate bill would be a net gain for federal budget, says CBO
Were it to become law, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) would be a net gain for the federal Treasury, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office. The report finds that the bill, sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), would raise roughly $845.6 billion in federal […]
