Climate Politics
All Stories
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Obama’s ‘support’ for dirty energy contains conditional clauses that make all the difference
In part the first I made four points about political context: Obama’s no ordinary candidate — given his considerable political liabilities, he is at unique pains to appear reasonable and post-partisan and unexotic. The American people are all-of-the-above on energy — saying no to particular sources or technologies is perceived as vaguely ideological and interest-groupy. […]
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European Union sticks by GHG plan, United Kingdom goes for 80 percent cut
Eastern Europeans and others seeking to use the current financial meltdown as an excuse to roll back climate commitment have failed (for now). The BBC reports: European Union leaders agreed to stick to their plan to cut greenhouse gases — despite a surprise demand by Poland and six other member states to drop them to […]
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Federal agencies graded on scientific openness
Some federal agencies are far more transparent than others when it comes to releasing scientific information to the press and public, says a new report card from the Union of Concerned Scientists. A sampling: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received a B+; NASA, commended for improving its policies following muzzling complaints from climate-change expert James Hansen, […]
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League of Conservation Voters releases 2008 congressional scorecard
House members averaged a 56 percent on environmental votes in 2008, and senators averaged 57, which by grade-school standards would mean Congress as a whole got a failing grade on the environment. But the news overall was good today as the League of Conservation Voters rolled out its 2008 National Environmental Scorecard, the ruler by […]
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Concord vs. Keynes in the nation’s editorial pages
Ruth Marcus gets it wrong: [The economic crisis] could give the next president more maneuvering room to extricate himself from unaffordable campaign promises and to build political consensus for painful but necessary budgetary choices. Nobel economics prize winner Paul Krugman gets it right: And this is also a good time to engage in some serious […]
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Senate race in North Carolina finds both candidates slinging oil
Another race where energy issues have been top fare this year is the North Carolina race, where Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole is defending her seat against Democratic challenger Kay Hagan. It’s a race where both candidates have accused the other of being in the pocket of Big Oil, and the crude has been flying for […]
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Bush signs railroad-safety law, giving $13 billion to Amtrak
President Bush on Thursday signed a measure into law that provides some $13 billion to Amtrak and other passenger rail. The funding, which Bush originally opposed, is a companion piece to a railroad-safety bill; the legislation was pushed quickly through Congress after a Sept. 12 train collision in Los Angeles that killed 25 people and […]
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Grist poll: Which candidate has bucked his base more on the environment?
Now that we know both presidential candidates are OK with occasionally being unpopular — especially when it comes to the environment — who do you think has differed more from his base on this issue? </object> Quizzes by Quibblo.com
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Obama cannot politically afford to take the kind of bold green stances enviros are hungry for
At Wednesday night’s debate, in the course of arguing that he is not overly beholden to his party or interest groups, Obama said something that is predictably provoking umbrage among enviros: "I support clean coal technology. Doesn’t make me popular with environmentalists." To many greens, this is just the latest insult from a campaign that […]
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Energy adviser says Obama would regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act
In an interview with Bloomberg, Obama energy adviser Jason Grumet said that Obama would regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Grumet said Obama “would initiate those rulemakings,” authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and manufacturers. This would, […]
