Climate Politics
All Stories
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Sen. Cornyn offers up simplistic recipe for energy security
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas says tumbling gas prices have had the bad effect of making voters less interested in tackling the nation’s energy problems. True. But the Republican lawmaker from one of the reddest states in the union says the biggest stumbling block to energy security isn’t reliance on fossil fuels and an unwillingness […]
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Outgoing Greenpeace leader talks about activism, economics, and his next steps
John Passacantando. Greenpeace has earned a reputation as the environmental movement’s radical faction, and John Passacantando, executive director of the organization’s U.S. arm, has been right in the midst of the action. He took the helm of Greenpeace USA in September 2000, after the group had fallen on hard times and into deep disagreement over […]
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Obama’s NSA pick promotes ‘drill, baby, drill,’ clean coal, and nuclear
For a lot of the folks who voted for Barack Obama, promoting "national security" means weaning ourselves from dirty fuel sources. For the man Obama tapped as his national security advisor, James L. Jones, things aren’t so clear cut, Robert Dreyfuss reports in The Nation. Over the course of a long military career, James established […]
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Memo to the president-elect about NASA
Memo To: PEBO From: Andrew Dessler Re: What to do about NASA on your first day in office Two things: Fire Michael Griffin, NASA’s current administrator. He says stupid things about climate change and is going to be an impediment to the change that NASA needs. Put the Earth back in NASA’s mandate. In 2006, […]
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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 […]
