Climate Politics
All Stories
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Vilsack on organic ag and ethanol
If you’re digging around on Tom Vilsack, Obama’s nominee to head USDA, you might want to check out a couple of interviews, both done during his (brief) presidential campaign this year. The short assessment is: He seems committed on climate change and energy security, and committed on vastly ramping up ethanol, and utterly unaware of […]
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U.S. proposes protections for seven penguin species
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week proposed listing six species of penguins as threatened and another species as endangered, a move that will have little consequence within the U.S. as wild penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere. However, the proposed designations could aid negotiations for international species protections. Species advocates generally praised the […]
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California unveils comprehensive ‘green chemistry’ plan
California unveiled a comprehensive “green chemistry” plan this week that aims to both encourage the development of less-toxic products and compel manufacturers to reveal exactly what’s in their products and how dangerous they could be to the public. One part of the plan calls for an online database with info on hundreds of thousands of […]
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Report finds widespread meddling with species decisions
Officials at the U.S. Interior Department improperly meddled in a number of decisions affecting imperiled species under the Endangered Species Act, a report [PDF] from the agency’s inspector general has found. The Bush administration agreed last year to reexamine a number of decisions made by Julie MacDonald, an ex-official accused of orchestrating much of the […]
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Not-so-deep thought
Between Salazar, Vilsack, LaHood, and Warren, Obama really peed in the ol’ cornflakes today.
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Obama taps Republican Rep. Ray LaHood to head the Department of Transportation
Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) has apparently accepted Obama’s offer to be his Secretary of Transportation. LaHood, 63, has served in the House since 1995, and is retiring after his year. For more on his (not very lengthy) transit record, see Adam Doster at Progress Illinois: So what can we glean about LaHood’s record on this […]
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Chu on the enemy of the human race
“Coal is my worst nightmare.” — Steven Chu, Obama’s nominee for energy secretary, a Nobel laureate, and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in a speech earlier this year on his lab’s renewable energy projects
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Thoughts on Obama’s USDA pick
"Tom understands that the solution to our energy crisis will be found not in oil fields abroad but in our farm fields here at home," Barack Obama declared Wednesday, hailing his pick for USDA chief, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack. "That’s the kind of leader I want in my Cabinet." Great. Rather than an advocate […]
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You haven’t heard the last of me, you meddling kids!
“What they don’t know is, I’m going to go back and kick their ass.” — Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), on his plan for revenge against his colleagues on the Natural Resources Committee, who just forced him out with the threat of a no-confidence vote
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Green groups divided over choice of Salazar to head Interior
Ken Salazar. Ken Salazar, Obama’s choice to head the Department of the Interior, is provoking controversy in the environmental community. Many activists, particularly among grassroots conservation groups in the West, are criticizing the pick, while some industry interests and big, mainstream green groups are praising Salazar. The opponents have been the most outspoken so far. […]
