Climate Politics
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Lieberman-Warner’s failure this year underdetermines next year’s efforts
I suppose as an enviro-blogger I’m supposed to have something insightful to say about the death of the Lieberman-Warner bill. Yet I find myself strangely apathetic. So much buildup, so much debate, and then … hell, it was just another Republican filibuster. Why did I waste all those brain cells in the first place? It’s […]
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Top Senate recipients of fossil-fuel money behind climate-bill stall tactics
The good folks over at Muckety.com (maybe we’re long-lost cousins …) put together an awesome interactive map detailing the connections between the fossil-fuel industries and some of the folks behind the death of climate legislation in the Senate this week. Check it out: Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the Senate’s leading climate-change denier, is also a […]
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Is NYT’s Revkin pushing unjustified ‘balance’ in the Senate climate debate coverage?
I like and respect Andy Revkin a great deal. He is one of the best reporters on climate and certainly the most prolific climate journalist now that he has his Dot Earth blog. But I must take exception to his recent posting, "Climate Debate: Democracy In Action?"
You would never know from his post that one side in the debate was desperately trying to save future generations from catastrophic warming and the other side was simply doing shameless political posturing. Here is how it opens:
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Budget resolution includes funds to clean up nuclear sites
Apparently the Senate actually accomplished something this week in the environmental realm: the 2009 federal budget resolution that passed 48-45 on Wednesday included $500 million for a Department of Energy environmental management program to clean up Hanford and other nuclear sites across the country. Hanford is the decommissioned nuclear-weapons complex along the Columbia River in […]
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Republicans try to stoke Dem discord on climate legislation in the House
Amidst the chaos in the Senate over climate legislation, Rep. Ed Markey introduced his climate legislation in the House on Thursday. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio), hoping to take advantage of apparent disarray within the Democratic Party, has dared Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to push Markey’s bill to the floor. He wrote a letter […]
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Climate Security Act dies, failing to muster enough votes to move forward
The Senate held a cloture vote this morning to bring to a close debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, a vote that would have allowed the amendment process to begin. After four days of conversation and delays, the bill died, failing to reach the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture by a vote of […]
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A list of strengthening amendments to the climate bill that will probably never be introduced
In all likelihood, these will never be formally introduced on the Senate floor, but here’s a list of the strengthening amendments to the Climate Security Act that various senators have floated: Renewable Electricity Standard, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): This amendment would require that states generate at least 20 percent of their electricity […]
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Inhofe: ‘Hey, it’s not our fault’
“All Republicans want just one thing, and that is to debate this bill … When they pull the bill, I don’t want them to say that Republicans had anything to do with it.” — James Inhofe (R-Okla.) on the Senate floor Thursday, after Republican leadership spent nearly four days delaying debate of the Climate Security […]
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House passes bill to green up schools
The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would put more than $20 billion over the next five years toward improving energy efficiency in schools. Democrats say the modestly named 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act would save school districts billions in energy costs. In addition, said Education and Labor Committee Chairman […]
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Senate race takes shape in New Mexico
This got lost in the flap over the Climate Security Act yesterday, but via Politico, on Tuesday night Rep. Steve Pearce narrowly won the Republican Senate primary in New Mexico. He beat out Rep. Heather Wilson by a margin of 51 to 49 percent in the contest to see who will replace GOP Sen. Pete […]