Climate Politics
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Let’s call a gas tax the ‘All-American Energy-Independence Assessment’
Whether they are called “revenue enhancements” or “user charges,” fear of the political consequences of taxes restricts debate on energy and environmental policy options in Washington. In a March 7 post on “green jobs,” in which I argued that it is not always best to try to address two challenges with a single policy instrument, […]
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U.S. groups desert precautionary principle, 53 to 6
After ducking the matter for a decade, U.S. environmental organizations finally pulled together a climate policy, but the National Call to Action on Global Warming issued by 53 organizations on March 5 is a mistake and should be reconsidered. The National Call contains key elements that have been startlingly absent from our efforts to date […]
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Michelle Obama to Oprah: There will be a White house veggie garden
It’s official, because it’s been etched in the pages of our most sacred national chronicle. No, not the Federal Register — I’m talking about O Magazine. Here’s the scoop: the Obamas will plant a veggie garden in the White House lawn. The First Lady of the United States told the Queen of the Universe as […]
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Grist board member appointed to Obama administration
On Wednesday, the Obama administration officially announced that Grist board member and Ford Foundation program officer Michelle DePass has been nominated to serve as the assistant administrator for international affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency. Michelle currently manages the Ford Foundation’s initiative on Environmental Justice and Healthy Communities, concentrating on the intersections of environmental and […]
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Salmon czar could coordinate better protection, rule over peasant salmon
Because nothing signals a democracy on the mend like a profusion of czars, salmon defenders are now calling for a federal salmon czar. According to Wikipedia my deep and nuanced understanding of Russian history, we can expect a salmon czar to quickly go drunk with power, lord over peasant salmon, and assassinate political rivals in […]
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Washington legislature gives green bills thumbs down
Looks like blue is the new green around here — blue as in sad, that is. In the last week or so, Washington state legislature failed to pass the Transit Oriented Communities bill, “mortally wounded” the cap-and-trade bill, and is seriously considering altering the voter-approved Initiative 937 that would require utilities to seek out more […]
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Rep. John Larson pushes a carbon tax bill in the House
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) knows “tax” is a dirty word in Washington. He’ll tell you as much. But that doesn’t mean he’s backing down from his assertion that a tax on carbon would be the most effective way to curb planet-warming emissions. One could say he’s reclaiming the word tax and owning it. “The worst […]
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Why it makes sense to use carbon revenue to fund efficiency programs
I wrote earlier about some Congressional Budget Office testimony before Congress on the “distributional effects of cap-and-trade.” There are a few more things in there I want to discuss. The CBO looked at three options for what to do with carbon revenue: rebate it to taxpayers, use it to lower corporate income taxes, or give […]
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If it walks like a tax and quacks like a tax … then it’s called cap-and-trade?
In an otherwise solid post, David said something that made me cringe: In a cap-and-trade system where the pollution permits are auctioned, the money goes to gov’t, and the gov’t decides what to do with it. Poorly paraphrasing James Joyce: no and my heart was beating like mad and no I said no I NO. […]
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Titular head of GOP says we’re in period of global cooling
OMG. RNC Chair Michael Steele (i.e., the titular head of the GOP) says that global warming is really “global cooling.” Sam Stein at HuffPost excavates Steele’s thoughts on global warming from his little-noticed stint as guest host of a conservative talk radio show on March 6: We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming […]
