Climate Politics
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In convention address via satellite, out-going prez calls for offshore drilling
President George Bush just addressed the convention via satellite from the White House, after deciding coming to the convention during Hurricane Gustav might not be the best plan. The crowd was pretty enthusiastic about the president’s address, despite hard feelings among plenty of people here about Bush’s legacy. Bush made a joke about how voting […]
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The party scene is all about the energy debate tonight
The party circuit tonight is oddly exemplary of the energy debate in the country right now. The Minnesota Agri-Growth Council is hosing “AgNite,” where you can be sure that there will be some lively discussion about the ethanol issue. That starts at 8 p.m., and it’s supposedly the hot ticket tonight. Starting at 9 p.m. […]
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First big night of speeches eerily sedate
I just got inside the the Xcel Center for tonight’s events, where Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Rep. John Boehner, and Laura Bush are slated to speak. President George Bush is going to address the crowd via satellite as well. Some early observations: The tone here is definitely reserved. There are quite […]
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Grist talks to Sen. George Voinovich about oil shale, energy, and climate legislation
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) stopped by an event Monday sponsored by PIRG and the Young Republicans to talk about energy policy, among other things. In his speech, he was bullish on the prospects for oil production in the United States. “If we can get every drop … we’ve got more oil in the U.S. than […]
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The Bush administration falters in a geopolitical chess match
This is a guest essay from energy analyst Michael T. Klare. It was originally run on TomDispatch; it is reprinted here with Tom’s kind permission. —– Many Western analysts have chosen to interpret the recent fighting in the Caucasus as the onset of a new Cold War, with a small pro-Western democracy bravely resisting a […]
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Republican platform acknowledges climate change but spurns ‘no-growth’ radicalism
The Republican Party approved its 2008 platform yesterday, which it hailed in a press release as containing “the most aggressive and innovative energy policy in Republican Party history.” But the approved version differs significantly from earlier drafts in the climate and energy realm. This line, which appeared in an earlier draft, was dropped: “Increased atmospheric […]
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Palin asked folks to pray for natural-gas pipeline
The Huffington Post did some digging on the church that Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin spent most of her life attending. Apparently the church films and posts all of its services. In June, Palin gave a speech to the graduating class of commission students at her former church, Wasilla Assembly of God. In the video, […]
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A presidential pop quiz on energy, water, scientific integrity, oceans, and climate change
Barack Obama’s answers to the 14 top science questions facing America. (McCain is still working on his answers.)
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‘War on the Poor’ astroturf campaign pushes for increased fossil-fuel production
Van Jones often warns clean energy proponents that anyone they don’t organize into their coalition will be organized against them. Increasing energy prices disproportionately impact the poor, which leaves low-income people and minorities open to demagogic appeals from groups focused on increasing fossil-fuel production. We saw some evidence of that dynamic today at a press […]
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Disappearing owls, threatened forests, and the city-country conflict
"Ghost" is a word field biologists use to describe a species near the end of its time on earth. Often these endangered species are birds, but in a spectacular essay in a newly internet-friendly issue of the English literary journal Granta, Robert MacFarlane slightly expands the meaning of the word. He visits an obscure low-lying […]
