Climate Politics
All Stories
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Climate bill is now a longer shot than ‘Mine That Bird’
It looks like President Obama, the horse whisperer of American politics, is finally going to weigh neigh in to get the mudders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee galloping to the finish line. For people who haven’t been paying close attention, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) keeps dropping bigger and bigger hints that […]
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Undecided reps on House panel hold key to climate bill
The authors of the House climate and energy bill will be courting undecideds over the next couple of weeks as they try to get their legislation passed by the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) want to make these potential swing voters happy while preserving the integrity of […]
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The wolf and the polar bear
Photo illustration by Tom Twigg / Grist Next week brings two milestones in wildlife protection that serve as a lesson in contrasts — examples of what the environmental movement has been and what it’s becoming. On Monday, gray wolves in Montana, Idaho, and parts of other northern states leave the endangered species list, designated as […]
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Justice Souter has been a dependable green vote
What might the retirement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter mean for the environment? Probably not a lot. Though he was appointed by President George H. W. Bush, Souter has proven a reliable member of the court’s liberal wing, so if Obama appoints another liberal, don’t expect much change. Souter voted with the majority in […]
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15 green-leaning mayors
Climate change is a global problem — but as of yet, there’s no global solution. That’s why mayors across the U.S. are taking action, from building green to organizing bike rides, from redeveloping downtowns to cutting emissions. Here are just a few of the municipal leaders who have worked to take our collective future into […]
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No ‘renewable’ nukes and coal for Indiana
Indiana renewable package: No can do.Photo: JayskIndiana lawmakers finished their legislative session Wednesday without passing a renewable electricity standard, which might be just as well. This was the plan that would have defined “renewable” so as to include “clean coal” and nuclear energy (as reported earlier on Grist). The plan would have required utilities in […]
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Massive economic and policy reform: Easier than you think
It seems to me that we suffer from a failure of imagination. We dream of a low-carbon world, but can’t quite fathom how to get around the massive lobbying clout (and inertia) of the coal lobby. We dream of a world with no more utility obstacles to energy efficiency, but can’t imagine how to undo […]
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Clean energy messaging 101: ‘Green’ jobs are out, ‘clean energy’ jobs are in
As readers know, I try to stay up-to-date on messaging, which is why I have a whole category devoted to rhetoric. I have now sat through a couple of extended presentations about clean energy and climate messaging from people who definitely know how to do this sort of thing. I will present some of the […]
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‘New Scientist’: Swine flu stems from virus that evolved in U.S.
In a pair of articles in New Scientist, Debora MacKenzie links the swine flu virus now spreading across the globe to large-scale pork-raising operations in the United States. In the first article, titled “Swine flu: the predictable pandemic?,” MacKenzie writes that the “virus has been a serious pandemic threat for years, New Scientist can reveal […]
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Changing the climate with China’s military
When I heard President Obama call for more regular dialogue between the Chinese and American militaries, my first thought was, “Why not the environment?” Perhaps it is not a front-burner issue for both institutions — but that is exactly the point. If dialogue is to improve understanding, build ties, and lower the prospects for confrontation, […]
