Climate Politics
All Stories
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Brookings and RMI bring energy stakeholders together to forge areas of agreement
A fleet of oil industry reps, enviros, venture capitalists, national-security hawks, and think-tankers walk into a room. After a day and a half of debate, can they walk out with at least three oil-related policy recommendations for the next president? That was the challenge presented by the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Brookings Institution, which […]
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Conservative Dems push back against progressive green spending
Last week the Washington Post had a story on the tension between fast stimulus and green stimulus; this week they have another along the same lines. Smart growth groups and enviros are trying to push the balance as far as possible toward green infrastructure spending: public transit and smart grid. In contrast, Rep. Baron Hill […]
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Climate youth activists target the Capitol Power Plant
The U.S. coal-fired power plant fleet is filled with geezers. Out of 1,522 existing generating units, 600 were running during the Nixon-Kennedy debates. Nearly 10 percent were built in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Still, it would be hard to find a coal plant that has seen more history than the Capitol Power Plant in […]
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The top green stories of 2008
In a sense, there was only one story in 2008, and what a story it was: extraordinary promise, shattered illusions, and ultimately triumph. We’re talking, of course, about Britney’s recovery. And then there was that election. What a ride, eh? Packed with more drama than a telenovela, chock-full of rhetoric on energy and the environment, […]
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Boxer asks DOJ to force EPA withdrawal of ‘blatantly illegal’ emissions memo
Back in November, the EPA Environmental Appeals Board voted to stop new coal plants cold. But as the NYT reported Friday, “Officials weighing federal applications by utilities to build new coal-fired power plants cannot consider their greenhouse gas output, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency ruled late Thursday.” (Note to self: Keep repeating, “January […]
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Waxman talks to NYT Magazine about unseating Dingell
The New York Times Magazine on Sunday ran an interview with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who recently unseated John Dingell (D-Mich.) as the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Interviewer Deborah Solomon asks him about the new post, and Waxman says he’s not sorry he won, but he is sorry Dingell put up […]
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Appeals court ruling closes Clean Air Act loophole
Green groups won an important victory for clean air last week when a federal appeals court ruled that chemical plants, refineries, and other industrial sites are still subject to pollution limits even during equipment malfunctions and when plants start up or shut down. Some refineries and other sites have used the Clean Air Act’s start-up, […]
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EPA declares waste from oil-shale production ‘non-hazardous’
Waste products from oil-shale development are not hazardous and thus would not have to be treated as such, the U.S. EPA ruled this week, thereby lowering the costs of developing oil-shale deposits on public lands in the U.S. West.
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Nancy Sutley is expected to be effective at CEQ, even in Carol Browner’s shadow
Nancy Sutley and Barack Obama. Washington wags may wonder who will be top green dog in the Obama White House — flashy “energy czarina” Carol Browner or shy, retiring Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley — but folks who know Sutley say there’s nothing to worry about. Sutley is supposed to be the president’s […]
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‘Repower, refuel & rebuild America’
A new ad campaign from LCV, trying to build support for a bold green agenda from Obama:
