Climate Politics

Looks like …

… the coal battle in Kansas is over for the time being. Score: Coal-0; earth/Sebelius/Kansas ratepayers-1

Select Committee and White House reach deal on release of documents

It seems the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has reached some sort of agreement with the White House to obtain documents from the Environmental Protection Agency on their internal workings. The decision preempted the committee’s plan to hold a vote today finding EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson in contempt. The Select Committee […]

Yes we can! (ride bikes)

“It’s time that the entire country learn from what’s happening right here in Portland with mass transit and bicycle lanes and funding alternative means of transportation. That’s the kind of solution that we need for America.” — Barack Obama, speaking to a rally in Portland, Ore., where an estimated 8,000 out of 75,000 attendees arrived […]

After blunder, the legislation slouches back to limbo

For the first time in its long process, the 2008 — née 2007 — farm bill was going according to script. Congress finally came up with a final version. Bush vetoed it, just as he had promised. The House overrode the veto, just as everyone knew it would. Next stop: the Senate, where Bush’s veto […]

New pro-LW ad from EDF

EDF has a new ad out supporting the Climate Security Act: The Act does indeed tell polluters they can’t pollute for free — in fact, it offers them $1 trillion [PDF] for their efforts!

Agriculture produces more than just crops — and it’s time for policy to reflect that

In spite of the best efforts of sustainable agriculture, environmental, and healthy food advocates over the past two years to reform U.S. farm policy, the bill recently passed by Congress lacks fundamental reform. Although the bill includes some environmental and healthy food system improvements over existing legislation, the system of commodity subsidies remains intact, and it is these subsidies, together with biofuels subsidies and mandates embodied in the farm bill and energy legislation, that drive the basic structure of the U.S. farm and food system.

To break the farm-block stranglehold on farm and food policy the next time around, we need a need a new vision of agriculture: one that recognizes that farmers produce more than just food, feed, fuel, and fiber. We also count on farmers to take care of vast swaths of critically important land. What we need, in short, is a "multifunctionality" vision of agriculture.

Alaska will sue over polar-bear listing

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will sue the Interior Department over its decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species. “We believe that the listing was unwarranted and that it’s unprecedented to list a currently healthy population based on uncertain climate models,” says Alaska Assistant Attorney General Steven Daugherty. To green groups, that […]

Lieberman and Warner prepare an amendment calling for more support for nukes

Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) are already circulating a proposed amendment [PDF] to their own Climate Security Act that would alter the bill to include more explicit support for nuclear power. The amendment calls for “a portion of funds, as determined necessary by the appropriate committees of jurisdiction,” to be deposited into […]

House passes massive tax extensions for renewable energy

The House approved legislation today that renews billions of dollars in tax breaks for wind, solar, biomass, and other renewable energy sources, and extends a proposed new tax credit for biofuels derived from sources other than corn. “The Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008” (which is a much better name than it had last […]

Full text of the substitute amendment to Lieberman-Warner now available

The full-text of the amendment [PDF] to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act is now available, which answers some of the outstanding questions stemming from the outline Sen. Boxer has been circulating. A few important areas to look at in the new version: Cost containment: This is the mechanism, also called an “emergency off-ramp,” that will […]