Climate Politics
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Low-carbon roadmap comes into focus — with some notable gaps
In a post-election editorial, Al Gore laid out a policy roadmap for addressing climate change. Gore’s plan looks like a bunch of other plans that have recently landed on the president-elect’s doorstep. I will now do you the favor of summarizing reams of policy expertise in five bullet points, henceforth referred to as the Grand […]
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Will Poznań be a good COP, a bad COP, or just another COP out?
International negotiators are flocking to Poznań, Poland to figure out how to extend the Kyoto protocol, whose climate targets end in 2012. I believe that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process is essentially dead — especially from a United States perspective — as I will discuss this week. Still, Poznań will be […]
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Like Al Gore, but climbing skyscrapers with bare hands
In GQ this month, rogue skyscraper-climber Alain Robert — who free climbs, using no ropes or equipment — offers an account of scaling the New York Times building to hang a banner halfway up: When I was about fourteen stories up, I took the banner from under my shirt and tied it. It said GLOBAL […]
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Obama notes climate and energy policy will be key to national security
President-elect Barack Obama this morning officially unveiled his national security team, and in his remarks cited the need for policy that addresses climate and energy concerns as coupled with national security. “The national security challenges we face are just as grave — and just as urgent — as our economic crisis,” said Obama. “We are […]
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Canadian government may fall, bring in greener coalition
It looks like Stéphane Dion might just make it to the Prime Minister’s office after all, at least for a little while. According to frenzied reporting out of Ottawa, opposition parties in Canada’s Parliament (who, while not forming the government, hold the majority of seats between them) are preparing to topple the Conservative government of […]
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For stronger cities, build better connections
Infrastructure is a dull business. The guy talking about pipes and wires is not generally the life of the party (to my chagrin). But infrastructure is all the rage these days, with economists calling for broad stimulus, and Barack Obama’s transition team planning big investments in the American economy. The excitement seems to be catching. […]
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West Virginia DEP approves permit to blast Coal River Mountain
We wrote this summer about Coal River Mountain, one of the last mountains in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley that hasn’t been destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining. Massey Energy is planning to blast off a 10-square-mile area of the mountain for mining, but activists in the the area were hoping to turn into a […]
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With the food world’s eyes on farm policy, is the real action at Treasury?
Food-politics blogs and listservs are blowing up with speculation about whom Obama will tap as USDA chief. I’ve weighed in myself here and here. (Update: House Ag Committee chair Colin Peterson, tipped as a top contender for the USDA spot, says he’s not interested. Evidently, he calculates that his current post is the more powerful […]
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Nov. 28 is deadline for comment on whether EPA should regulate emissions
The public has two more days to weigh in on whether the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. In July, the Bush administration was supposed to issue a plan on how the government would respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, which found that emissions […]
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Obama forms recovery council with climate-action advocate at helm
In his third press conference in as many days, Barack Obama today signaled once again that environment and energy issues will be at the heart of his administration’s efforts to fix the ailing economy. The president-elect said he will appoint an “Economic Recovery Council” to focus on reversing the current economic trends. The council, which […]
