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  • Obama’s Clean Energy Service Corps will train people for green jobs–eventually

    He’s ready — put him to work.President Barack Obama created a new Clean Energy Service Corps on Tuesday as part of a landmark national service bill he signed into law. That could be good news for young Americans wanting to get a foot in the door of the clean energy industry — but they’ll have […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Politics

  • Rep. Shimkus says climate bill is worse than two wars and terrorist attack

    Via ThinkProgress, here’s video of Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) claiming at Wednesday’s House hearing that the Waxman-Markey climate bill is “largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I’ve ever experienced. I’ve lived through some tough times in Congress — impeachment, two wars, terrorist attacks. I fear this more than all of the […]

    Kate Sheppard Politics

  • Joe Barton tries to stump Steven Chu with question about where oil comes from

    Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), a climate skeptic with some wacky theories of his own, tried to stump Energy Secretary Steven Chu at Wednesday’s climate-bill hearing by asking, “How did all the oil and gas get to Alaska and under the Arctic Ocean?” Later, Barton bragged via Twitter, “I seemed [sic] to have baffled the Energy […]

    Kate Sheppard Politics

  • Energy boss Steven Chu misses his bike

    I’m a fierce carbon tax advocate, as Grist readers know. But what most upset me about the interview with Stephen Chu in last Sunday’s New York Times magazine wasn’t the energy secretary’s disavowal of an Obama carbon tax: Q: Many environmentalists believe that a permanent carbon tax would be the most efficient means of spurring […]

    Charles Komanoff Politics

  • The Goldman Prize: True tales of bravery

    The 2009 winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Standing, L-R: Yuyun Ismawati, Olga Speranskaya, Wanze Eduards, and Maria Gunnoe. Front row, L-R: Rizwana Hasan, Marc Ona Essangui, and Hugo Jabini By rights it should be a daunting moment. Every fall a courier turns up at my door with a package containing a thick, densely typed […]

    Geoffrey Lean Politics

  • McCain rails against Obama cap-and-trade plan

    Sen. John McCain says he’s still a proud proponent of using a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, but he’s not going to back President Barack Obama’s climate agenda any time soon. McCain, coauthor of multiple cap-and-trade bills in the past, addressed an energy symposium sponsored by the Reform Institute on Tuesday. In his remarks, […]

    Kate Sheppard Politics

  • Obama marks Earth Day with visit to Iowa wind energy factory

    President Barack Obama made an Earth Day visit to Newton, Iowa, on Wednesday, where he toured a manufacturing facility that produces towers for wind turbines and touted his climate and energy agenda. Trinity Structural Towers, housed in a former Maytag appliance factory, employs dozens of former Maytag workers. “The choice we face is not between […]

    Kate Sheppard Politics

  • Biotech’s history of overpromising and underdelivering may be catching up with it

    GMOs: false promise?km6xoTom Philpott’s post on USDA chief Tom Vilsack’s comments regarding biotech deserves a bit more attention. Vilsack was speaking at the first ever meeting of the Group of Eight agricultural ministers. I guess we have to consider it progress that the top ag officials from the eight largest industrialized nations finally decided it […]

    Tom Laskawy Politics

  • As House digs into climate bill, debate focuses on costs to American families

    As the House begins serious debate on a climate bill, the biggest sticking point is shaping up to be how much it will cost average Americans. The Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday started four straight days of hearings on the draft climate bill sponsored by Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.). The legislation […]

    Kate Sheppard Politics

  • Catholic Climate Covenant seeks aid for world’s poor

    Courtesy Catholic Climate CovenantCiting dual obligations to care for God’s creation and the world’s poor, a broad coalition of Catholic groups today announced a new commitment to take action on climate change. The “St. Francis Pledge,” named after the patron saint of animals and ecology, urges Catholics to pray for those affected by climate change, […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Politics