Climate Politics
All Stories
-
Republicans continue shenanigans in the Capitol
As Grist reported, Republicans miffed about Congress going on August recess without a vote on offshore drilling started a sit-in in the Capitol on Friday. The shenanigans continued until police escorted the tourists out of the chamber at 4:30 p.m., and GOP lawmakers went home for the night. “Today is the 2008 version of the […]
-
Should Obama consider compromise on drilling?
Obama is taking lots of heat for his softening on offshore drilling. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s extremely important to get the renewable tax credits passed, and Republicans have made it very clear they won’t allow that to happen unless they get some drilling. As usual, Dems don’t have the votes to […]
-
Should low-probability, high-impact risks govern policymaking?
All due respect to Paul Krugman, but the Weitzman thesis [PDF] has always made me a little uncomfortable. The idea is that it’s human nature to disregard unlikely risks, but if the unlikely risks are catastrophic enough then legislators should build policy around them. If there’s, say, a 2 percent chance that global warming could […]
-
Kaine’t touch this
I’m not convinced by the recent buzz around Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as Obama’s VP choice, for reasons having little to do with his horrendous record on coal. However, his horrendous record on coal does make it particularly irksome that Obama is so publicly feting him. If I’d been here I would have written this […]
-
Nixon: Not a closet enviro
It’s become something of a canard, when ritually invoking the need for bipartisanship on environmental issues, to note that Richard Nixon created the EPA. You might take this to mean that Nixon valued environmental protection. Historian Rick Perlstein would like to disabuse you of that notion.
-
More drilling in exchange for comprehensive energy legislation
Democrat Barack Obama on Friday said he would be willing to support some offshore drilling if it were necessary to enact a comprehensive energy plan, and indicated that he could support the bipartisan energy plan put forward by the Senate’s “Gang of 10” that includes both drilling and a major investment in renewables. The shift […]
-
Obama releases new ad blasting’s McCain’s ties to oil industry
The campaign 2008 energy ad wars continue, delving deeper into negative territory. Today, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama released a new television ad accusing GOP rival John McCain of being in the pocket of Big Oil. The ad highlights the astronomical profits that oil companies have recently reported, and the roughly $2 million in campaign […]
-
Coastal governors stand in the way of offshore drilling, even if Congress approves it
President Bush keeps repeating his call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. Republican presidential candidate John McCain is consistently drilling home the same message. And on Wednesday of last week, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said that just in case the ban is lifted, his department is laying the groundwork so offshore drilling […]
-
Obama softens opposition to offshore drilling, and more political news
Barack Obama opened the door to offshore drilling on Friday, saying, “My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices. If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed […]
-
What power politics looks like
As I left for vacation a week ago (hi, I’m back!), I was thinking Republican strategy on energy couldn’t get much nastier. Of course I was wrong. The right is convinced that drilling is its ace in the hole — enough to reverse declining Republican fortunes, maybe even enough to turn a few elections. They’ve […]
