Climate Politics
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Bad policy ideas in Michigan
Environmental pressures and economic slowdowns are admittedly hard for state governors to tackle. Even still, Michigan’s latest is a lousy idea. As noted here, the state legislature has just passed a bill which Gov. Granholm has promised to sign that would: Strengthen the utility monopolies, guaranteeing DTE and Consumer’s Energy at least 90% of the […]
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The scoop on energy bills in Congress: offshore drilling, oil shale, renewable tax credits, and more
What’s really up with the energy bills in Congress? Will we see oil rigs off the coast of New Jersey anytime soon? Will Congress actually get anything done before it adjourns next week? As the clock ticks down on the 110th Congress, it’s not entirely clear what we can expect in terms of energy. The […]
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John McCain’s environmental record is as bad as climate change denier James Inhofe
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is an avowed climate science believer who comes from a state with enough solar resource to power the entire nation. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is an avowed climate science denier who comes from a major oil patch state. So why has McCain voted with Inhofe and against clean energy and the […]
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Palin: ‘renewables are not yet proven to be economic nor reliable’
The week before she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin was interviewed by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo about drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve and elsewhere. In measured, lucid tones, Palin produced a veritable tsunami of non sequiturs, misleading claims, and outright falsehoods. One would need to go […]
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Newsweek takes a look at the presidential candidates’ automobiles
After all that hubbub over houses a few weeks ago, Newsweek decided to look into the vehicle-registration records for the McCain and Obama families and find out how many cars they own. The final count? McCain: 13. Obama: 1. McCain’s fleet includes three 2000 GEM electric vehicles and the Prius that his daughter Meghan drives. […]
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In Canadian national election, economic worries trump environmental agenda
Canadian voters regularly told pollsters last year that their top concern was global warming and what to do about it. So when the national election was called for this Oct. 14, the chief opposition party charged out with a bold carbon tax proposal. The other opposition parties also opened their campaigns with carbon tax or […]
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Hope dimming for Canadian carbon tax
Not too long after my earlier post was published, even Canada’s biggest carbon-tax booster inched away from the central plank of his election platform. To understand how disingenuous this is, Dion spent months preparing the ground for his carbon tax announcement, which was conducted with huge fanfare and hoopla. Now he’s saying the media are […]
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‘Environmental purists’ unhappy with House Dem energy bill
This is mostly water under the bridge now, but look, Dems got outmaneuvered this summer, as Republicans managed to successfully reframe the energy debate around drilling. They drummed up lots of public support and put Dems on the defensive. This is the fault not only of Dem lawmakers but also of everyone on the progressive […]
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Senate Dems falter on energy compromise bill
Both The Hill and Politico have reported that the Gang of 20 will not introduce a bipartisan compromise energy bill before the election. This is a huge triumph for McCain and major political blunder by Congressional Democrats. As I wrote Monday, the original compromise bill by the Gang “is the best chance — indeed, the […]