Climate Politics
All Stories
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How I learned to stop worrying and love Waxman-Markey, Part 1
The Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill is certainly not “da bomb.” At best, it’s a B+. Then again, it is not a total bomb, as some think. So you don’t have to be Dr. Strangelove — or the bill’s mother — to love it. You just have to compare it to the alternative (i.e. utter […]
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Do you have any questions for McKinsey about their updated GHG cost curve?
I have written a great deal about the terrific work of McKinsey & Company (see “McKinsey 2008 Research in Review: Stabilizing at 450 ppm has a net cost near zero” and links below). So I was excited and delighted to be invited by The German Marshall Fund to be the respondent for a roundtable discussion […]
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Olympia Snowe on GOP losing enviros, everyone else
“We’re excluding the young, minorities, environmentalists, pro-choice — the list goes on. … To the average American who’s struggling, we’re in some other stratosphere. We’re the party of Big Business and Big Oil and the rich.” — Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, on the Republican Party
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Selling out the polar bears … or smart climate politics?
In upholding the Bush-era decision on polar bears, is Obama shrewdly pushing a larger climate agenda?iStock PhotoThe Obama administration will uphold a controversial Bush-era decision that limits protection for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today. Polar bears will continue to be considered a threatened species because their […]
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Straight talk with Congressman Doyle
“This is 2009. We’ve got 41 years in this deal, and we shouldn’t be so worried about the first 10 years.” — Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Environment and Energy Daily, May 7, 2009 The time for climate action is now.wwarby via FlickrI had no plans yesterday morning as I woke up and turned on my […]
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Waxman-Markey deal-making update: 14% cut by 2020
“We’re moving well, making a lot of progress on these issues,” Waxman said. “We’re getting very, very close.” We’re starting to hear details of the sausage-making led by chief climate chef House Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA). Needless to say, it ain’t pretty. E&E Daily (subs. req’d) reports this morning: Rep. Henry Waxman […]
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Secretary Chu agrees with Climate Progress and slashes hydrogen budget
“We asked ourselves, ‘Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will covert to a hydrogen car economy?’ The answer, we felt, was ‘no,’” Chu said in a briefing today. He cited several barriers, including infrastructure, development of long-lasting portable fuel cells and other problems. For years now, I have […]
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Cap-and-trade vs. carbon tax: a bird in hand is worth two on Alpha Centauri
Tax! Cap! Tax! Cap! Pant … I find it really hard to believe, but the perennial “carbon tax vs. cap-and-trade” debate is still going on. It goes on and on and on and it never changes. It’s like everyone’s following a script now. I’ve been over this territory so many times that I hardly know […]
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Vilsack’s USDA shakes things up
I know some are still reeling from the recent Obama administration announcement on biofuels and its implication that it remains a bit too much in thrall to the concerns of Big Ag. And Tom Vilsack’s continued pimping for Monsanto and other biotech companies seems both unsustainable and uninformed. But a slew of positive decisions have […]
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Rep. Barton says the only way to stop a global pandemic is if everyone does nothing
“Don’t confuse my opposition to excessive regulation with a desire for inaction. We don’t need an international treaty with rules and regulations that will handcuff the American economy or our ability to make our environment cleaner, safer and healthier.” – “Words that Work” from GOP messaging guru Frank Luntz, in his 2002 memo on talking […]
