Climate Politics
All Stories
-
The Senate and the union hall: Where American climate policy will succeed or fail
Democrats are salivating at the prospect of a 60-vote majority in the Senate, enough to override a veto and other procedural hurdles. They will almost certainly gain a commanding majority in the House. But environmentalists should realize the answer to their problems isn’t that simple. Sixty Democratic votes would not be enough to break through […]
-
The next president should use the Clean Air Act to control greenhouse gas emissions
This essay was originally published at Yale Environment 360. —– The urgency of the current situation cannot be overemphasized: The latest scientific research tells us that global warming is accelerating at a rate beyond previous expectations, and that the window for a timely response is closing quickly. Despite some political efforts to muddy the waters, […]
-
More and more voices joining 350.org’s Prez to Poland campaign
Students and faculty at Barry University invite the prez-elect to Poland. You can count the hours until the election is over, which means the debate has been reduced to its basic elements: Who’s a socialist? Who’s a plumber? Who’s ahead? But against that backdrop, one large group of people — voters here in America […]
-
White House begins review of controversial EPA rule
With a new president-elect only days away, the Bush administration is racing to push through 11th-hour, polluter-friendly rules. The Washington Post flagged some of the most egregious examples in a front-page story, Friday. The latest to pop up is what the Bush EPA opaquely describes as the “increment modeling” rule. It is now under review […]
-
New McCain ad highlights him and Obama agreeing on global warming
The McCain campaign just released a new ad entitled “Obama Praising McCain,” which focuses on Barack Obama’s past praise for the global warming bill that McCain authored with Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). It features this remark from Obama, at a hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee in January 2007: “The right approach begins with […]
-
Sun, baby, sun
Earlier this week, I was at a solar meeting at the Arizona Biltmore, a schwank golf resort in Phoenix. During the meeting, McCain’s advance team poked their heads into the room. Apparently, the room we were using — the Casa Grande room of the convention hall — is the very same room where McCain is […]
-
Economists weigh in for Obama
The Obama campaign’s got a new site up, ObamaForEconomy.com, where various and sundry economists and businessfolk weigh in explaining why they’re supporting Obama. [UPDATE: The site is not affiliated with the Obama campaign — it’s a labor of love by UC-Berkeley geneticist and computational biologist Lenny Teytelman. Good work Lenny!] I like this one: I […]
-
McCain adviser, unlike McCain, advocates stimulus spending
Martin Feldstein — a conservative Harvard economist and adviser to the McCain campaign — joins the call for stimulus spending: The president-elect should focus on developing a mechanism for identifying and funding spending initiatives that can occur quickly and that would otherwise not be done. While it would be good if some of the increased […]
-
A guide to 2008 environmental ballot measures
In addition to electing George W. Bush’s successor, voters in 11 states will decide the fate of a diverse range of environment-related ballot measures on Nov. 4. Here’s a quick rundown of these measures and links to where you can find more information about them: California Proposition 2, or the Standards for Confining Farm Animals, […]
-
BLM proposes opening wilderness-y areas in Utah to oil and gas drilling
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has proposed opening up relatively pristine natural areas in eastern Utah to oil and gas drilling, including Nine-Mile Canyon and Desolation Canyon, despite the agency’s own determination in 1999 that the areas have “wilderness character” and thus are good candidates for wilderness designation. “BLM is condemning these lands to […]
