Climate Politics
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Wired passes along conventional wisdom on climate policy
Andrew Sullivan approvingly cites this piece from Steve Rayner, a letter to the next president about what to do on climate change. It seems Wired has made it company policy to publish only stuff that drives me up the wall. First, it says "cap and trade won’t work" on the basis of the fact that […]
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Debate part 2: Obama stays on energy independence message
Some people worry that Obama seemed to put energy independence on the “back burner” by suggesting his clean energy plan was the “first thing” he would cut to make room for the $700 billion bailout rescue deal. Significantly, that isn’t the message heard by at least one group of crucial voters — undecideds. During the […]
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Debate part 1: McCain tells the truth and lies at the same time
Let me briefly hit the big picture on the debate. The two insta polls out, from CBS and CNN, show that McCain lost by a large margin, by 13 percent or so. That large a gap means independents in particular didn’t like his performance (by 22 percent in this poll). And that is no big […]
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A roundup of news on the presidential election
• Barack Obama visited Nevada, where he assured voters that he loves the mining industry. • Locals in Sarah Palin’s hometown of Wasila, Alaska, say that she “fouled her own nest” by promoting rampant development during her tenure as mayor. “Sarah’s legacy as mayor was big-box stores and runaway growth,” said one resident. One of […]
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California enacts new laws to reduce toxicity of consumer goods
On Monday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law two bills that aim to reduce the toxicity of consumer goods and inform the public about health hazards posed by toxics. Right now, existing law only lets the state regulate the disposal of toxic chemicals, but the new legislation gives the state Department of Toxic Substances […]
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Congress still hasn’t resolved their issues on renewable tax credit extensions
As we reported on Friday, the House passed a renewable-energy tax-credit bill that differed from the Senate’s version. Today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, “we can’t get it done” — i.e., Senate Democrats can’t get the House version of the bill passed, leaving the fate of tax credits for renewable energy up in […]
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McCain campaign releases contrived ads promoting coal
The McCain and Obama campaigns have been bickering for the past week about who loves coal more. Today the McCain campaign released new coal-happy radio ads in Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The ads claim that “clean coal means cleaner air,” but “Obama-Biden and their liberal allies oppose clean coal.” In reality, Obama has been […]
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Ecuador approves new constitution granting inalienable rights to nature
Ecuador approved a new constitution this weekend that, among other things, grants inalienable rights to nature, the first such inclusion in a nation’s constitution, according to Ecuadorian officials. “Nature … where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions, and its processes in evolution. […]
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Why the party that wrecked America can’t fix it
The Republican party has a problem. They have based much of their power, over the last several decades, on the idea of ever-expanding (almost exclusively white) suburbs. The thinking was, as those suburbs become less and less dense — as one wag put it, the further away the houses are from each other — the […]
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Bailout fails in House
Listen Play “End of the World Party,” by Medeski Martin & Wood Looks like the bailout bill just now failed in the House, 205-228. The stock market is in freefall. Wheee! UPDATE: Apparently Republicans promised 80-90 votes and only came through with 66 … at which point nervous Dems started bailing. Some 90 Dems voted […]
