Climate Politics
All Stories
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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 […]
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Getting past the prologue redux
In his essay on Obama and climate change, novelist Ian McEwan says this: The burning forests, the dissolving coral reefs, the extinction of species — we have numbed ourselves with these familiar litanies. During the past 30 years we have dealt with the issue, if at all, only in our minds. There are, of course, […]
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Kerry to make climate a top priority for Foreign Relations panel
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wasn’t on the Democratic ticket this year, but he’s set to gain some additional influence in Washington thanks to the Obama-Biden victory. With Biden leaving the Senate for the vice presidency, Kerry will become the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and today he told reporters that climate change will […]
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Enviro coalition delivers a whopping transition plan to Obamaland
Twenty-nine of the country’s biggest green groups today rolled out a comprehensive list of actions and policies they’d like President-elect Barack Obama to adopt after he takes office Jan. 20. In it, the groups stress the need for an approach that unites environment, energy, and economic policies. “We need to dig ourselves out of the […]
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Bush exculpates bald eagle killer, others in first round of pardons
And the pardons have officially begun … On Monday, President Bush granted pardons to 14 people and shortened the prison terms of another two, which will probably be the first round of many. No big names on the list, but three are of interest for environmental reasons, including: • Daniel Figh Pue III, of Conroe, […]
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Wolves in the Rockies
A video about keeping wolves protected under the Endangered Species Act: If you’re interested in doing something — insofar as signing an online petition is doing something — NRDC Action Fund has a petition you can sign here.
