Climate Politics
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Has anyone in U.S. history made more Americans less safe than Dick Cheney?
Back in March, Darth Vader former Vice President Dick Cheney said Americans are “less safe” now thanks to President Barack Obama and his policies. He repeated and expanded on the charge yesterday on Face the Nation. Let’s set aside the fact that if a President’s actions and policies in his first 100 days make him […]
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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 […]
