Climate Politics

The Pentagon that ate America

There have been some discussions on Grist lately of the military, the military budget, how how militarism relates to sustainability. Everyone interested in those topics should immediately go and read “Entrenched, Embedded, and Here to Stay: The Pentagon’s Expansion Will Be Bush’s Lasting Legacy” over on TomDispatch. It is a deeply disturbing — not to […]

Republicans for Environmental Protection lets McCain off the hook for missing important votes

Yesterday, Republicans for Environmental Protection issued their annual scorecard for 2007. Party standard bearer Sen. John McCain missed every vote they scored. (For more on that, see here.) So what did REP do? Give him a score of zero? No, they just didn’t score him at all. Nice to see calculated political cowardice rewarded. With […]

Interview with solar champion Hermann Scheer

NewScientist has a great interview with German Social Democrat MP Hermann Scheer, who chairs the World Council for Renewable Energy and has done as much as anyone alive to spread the word on solar power. Unfortunately, it’s behind a subscription wall, so you can’t read it. But have no fear! I’ll post a big chunk […]

Behavioral quirks make taxes a tough sell

Tom Friedman is in full-on green mode these days, which is a welcome change from his writing on Iraq. And his proposal yesterday — that the U.S. should declare a $4 price floor for a gallon of gas — is all right, although I’m not sure why we shouldn’t just raise the gas tax and […]

Great new video on state efforts to tackle global warming

Sea Studios has put together a fantastic new video called "Ahead of the Curve: States Lead on Climate Change." Check it out: You might also remember their previous video, “Ahead of the Curve: Business Leads on Climate Change.” Here it is:

North Carolina bill would ban burning of coal from mountaintop-removal mining

On Tuesday, North Carolina State Rep. Pricey Harrison introduced legislation in the state House that would ban the burning of coal obtained through mountaintop-removal mining. If it passes, North Carolina would become the first state in the nation with such a law. The mining method isn’t practiced in North Carolina, but 61 percent of the […]

Stonewall Johnson

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Bush Era:

Rep. Ed Markey unveils ambitious new climate legislation

Rep. Ed Markey, chair of the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, unveiled new climate legislation on Wednesday morning, which he says will take “the innovative actions needed to ensure a greener, healthier, and more prosperous future.” The plan, which Markey will introduce formally next Tuesday, calls for an 85 percent reduction in […]

Probably no U.S. CO2 emissions cuts from new Lieberman-Warner bill until after 2025

I made a mistake about the Boxer substitute for the Lieberman-Warner bill. Every year, it allows enough offsets into the market to cover 30 percent of the total quantity of emissions allowances. I had said it was 15 percent, which was a loophole the size of the Gateway Arch. How big a loophole is 30 percent offsets? Wait and see.

I had said the three offsets -- domestic, international, and international forestry -- could make up 15 percent of allowances because the WRI summary [PDF] says that "The combination of all three of these mechanisms is limited to 15 percent of total emissions allowances" and because when I read the actual bill (page 23), that's what it seemed to say. But in fact we read it wrong. My apologies! What does this all mean?

Brazil swears in new environment minister

Carlos Minc was sworn in as Brazil’s environment minister on Tuesday. Minc succeeds Marina Silva, who quit after six years of uphill battling to protect the Amazon rainforest from development. Greens are cautiously optimistic about Minc, who was a founder of Brazil’s Green Party, a former environment secretary in the state of Rio de Janeiro, […]