Climate Politics

EPA staffers told not to talk to media, inspector general, or anyone else

Staffers at the U.S. EPA’s office of enforcement were instructed recently not to talk to anyone from the media, the Government Accountability Office, or the EPA’s own inspector general‘s office in an email from a top EPA official. “If you are contacted directly by the IG’s office or GAO requesting information of any kind … […]

Congress hopes to break energy deadlock before August recess — but don’t hold your breath

Members of Congress are desperate to pass anything something on energy this week before August recess begins on Friday and they head home to face voters restive over gas prices. But Democrats and Republicans are so bitterly divided over what to do that prospects for progress look uncertain at best. Democrats in both branches of […]

Sierra Club ads defend Dems who are ‘standing strong against Big Oil’

The Sierra Club rolled out a new radio ad campaign this weekend that aims to defend Democrats who are being hammered for not supporting efforts to open more areas to oil drilling. Sixty-second ads being aired in six states ask listeners to call and thank these members of Congress for “standing up to the oil […]

Energy-smart Debbie

One of the more impressive speakers I saw at Netroots Nation was Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook, who spoke on the Energize America panel with an amazing depth of knowledge and blunt honesty. She’s running this year against the far-right Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). TPM caught up with her for a brief interview:

Sen. Bingaman talks climate and energy with reporters

“Getting a cap-and-trade program enacted is going to be a heavy lift,” Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) told a group of reporters over breakfast this morning. Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, spoke today about the challenges and opportunities in both climate and energy legislation, stressing that while he doesn’t “despair of […]

An effective political response to the Republican push for drilling

Following up on this and this: The Democrats need an effective response to the drill-and-burn message coming out of the GOP. It’s a fight the right thinks it’s winning and Dems think they’re losing. Problem is, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; Dems get intimidated into hedging and equivocating, while the right pounds home a consistent, […]

McCain adviser Forbes suggests candidate will dump cap-and-trade plan

Steve Forbes, who serves as an economic adviser to John McCain, suggested on The Glenn Beck Program last week that he expected the Republican presidential candidate to abandon his call for a cap-and-trade system to regulate emissions once he takes office: I think cap and trade is going to go the way of some other […]

McCain’s switch on offshore drilling brings him big money from Big Oil

While the drumbeat for more domestic drilling is unlikely to get additional oil flowing anytime soon, it has increased the flow of cash to GOP presidential candidate John McCain. McCain changed his position on offshore drilling last month, calling for coastal areas to be opened to exploration, and since then he has been campaigning hard […]

Driving cutback in U.S. bankrupting fund for infrastructure improvements

High gasoline prices in the United States have prompted a sustained cutback in driving, and the resulting dip in revenue from the federal gas tax is already canceling plans for infrastructure projects due to lack of funding. Right now, roughly one-quarter of bridges in the U.S. are either “functionally obsolete” or “structurally deficient,” and one […]

EPA administrator Stephen Johnson neglects his federal oath

This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

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Some of us had high hopes for Stephen Johnson when President Bush appointed him in March 2005 as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Johnson was not a former oil-industry lobbyist or Halliburton executive. He was a career civil servant who had been with the federal government for 24 years. He was a scientist, not a political hack, and he had served under both Democrat and Republican presidents.

I could relate, although my federal career was the reverse of Johnson's.