Climate Politics

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

Will combining climate and energy into one big bill help or hurt the climate cause?

Congressional leaders want to combine energy and climate provisions into one big bill this year, rather than moving a few smaller bills on the issues. But while some on Capitol Hill are cheering this as a way to expedite the process, others are skeptical about the chances of passing one giant bill in 2009, and […]

Americans care about global warming, but don’t see how it connects to other environmental problems

A new poll shows that Americans do care about global warming, but don’t seem to realize how prevalent it really is. This week Gallup released data from its latest poll on global warming indicating that more Americans — 41 percent, the highest number since 1998 — believe that global warming is exaggerated. This sounds like […]

A finger to ineffectual Democrat talkers, and a thumbs up to a possible alternative

This week the Middle Finger Flag gets waved at the Democrats. Yeah, that’s right, the whole lot of ’em. Recently Obama released a budget proposal that included a carbon cap-and-trade plan that would auction — rather than give away to polluting companies — 100 percent of the pollution credits. This is exactly what every policy […]

Obama tells business leaders he’s serious about changing energy policy

Obama spoke on Thursday to the Business Roundtable, whose members include the leaders of energy giants like ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, Southern Company, Peabody Energy Corporation, and Arch Coal. Message: Yes, we’re serious about this green energy thing. But the truth is that these problems in the financial markets, as acute and urgent as they are, […]

WSJ: hacks and handout-seekers hate O's climate plan

Environmental Capital reports that Obama's approach to climate change legislation is foundering, because it's tied to an ambitious social agenda. Which is weird, because Obama's cap-and-trade proposal isn't tied to an ambitious social agenda.

Many Democrats are upset that President Obama's budget earmarks most of the $646 billion in cap-and-trade revenue for generic tax cuts and to help fund other programs, rather than for specific help to cushion the blow of increased climate regulation.

This is a bit tricky to parse, but it helps if you understand that the word "earmark" here is used to mean "the opposite of an earmark." Congresscritters want the money from cap-and-trade for projects in their own states (green infrastructure, vote-buying, what-have-you), and Obama wants to return most of it to taxpayers.

So where is this "ambitious health and social welfare agenda" stuff coming from? For that, we are referred to Bush-era EPA official and liar G. Tracy Mehan, III. Mehan has penned a fairly boring article in which he runs down the usual pros and cons of various flavors of carbon taxation, and then concludes:

W.Va. state senator drinks ‘coal slurry’ as a political statement

Well, that’s one way to make a point about the need to regulate coal waste: CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A West Virginia State Senator made a unique statement Thursday by drinking a bottle of what he referred to as coal slurry. Senator Randy White (D-Webster) introduced a bill on the senate floor that limits coal […]