Climate Politics

Time to focus on tax credits, not Lieberman-Warner

I love House. Not the House of Representatives, but the TV show.

Everybody loves to see people with seemingly inexplicable symptoms saved from sure death. No doubt that explains the fascination with the Lieberman-Warner bill. But people ... I've been trying to be gentle about this ... it's dead. Sure, like Amber on the season finale [spoiler alert!] L-W can be briefly revived so we can say goodbye to it forever, but that is really just a soap opera gimmick.

We don't need to say goodbye to L-W; we need to focus all our effort on those important bills that are still clinging to life, bills that haven't already signed a contract to appear on another TV show next season -- like the investment tax credit that is crucial to keeping the momentum going on core technologies that can avert catastrophic climate change (see Barlett op-ed and PG&E op-ed). To L-W supporters, I can only offer this eulogy:

David Miliband talks about democracy and the climate crisis

I caught an interesting event this morning with U.K. Foreign Minister David Miliband, who is in town to give a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the “democratization agenda.” The New American Foundation hosted the morning event with assorted policy wonks, journalists, and political types, and emcee Steve Clemons summarized it […]

EPW approves legislation calling on Bush to overturn EPA decision he likely forced EPA to make

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved legislation yesterday that would call on George W. Bush to sign off on California’s request for waiver — the very same waiver he likely encouraged EPA administrator Stephen Johnson to deny. “The Reducing Global Warming Pollution from Vehicles Act of 2008” would require the president to approve […]

How the $5.7 trillion in Boxer’s proposed amendment would be spent

Barbara Boxer distributed this breakdown [PDF] yesterday detailing how the dolla billz will be spent in her proposed amendment to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. There are more than $6.7 trillion in carbon credit allowances and auction revenues that will be distributed over the life of the bill, and this shows where that goes. Feels […]

Obama wins the endorsement of United Mine Workers of America

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) endorsed Barack Obama for president today, after a unanimous vote of the union’s National Council of the Coal Miners’ Political Action Committee. In a press release on the endorsement, the UMWA said they chose to endorse Obama over John McCain because of his plans to help working-class Americans […]

Waxman is going to punch somebody

Wow, it looks like House oversight committee chair Henry Waxman is getting a little sick of EPA head Stephen Johnson: More here.

Boxer on new L-W amendment: ‘I think I have enough votes for the motion to proceed’

Barbara Boxer. Photo: Kevin Parry/ WireImage Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer held a press conference this afternoon to officially unveil the outline of her substitute amendment to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act that she began circulating on the Hill last week. Speaking to collected members of the press, the senator stressed the differences […]

Oregon and Kentucky vote; nation yawns and rolls over

In case anyone’s still paying attention, there were two more primaries today. Hillary Clinton scored a big win in Kentucky, with 65 percent of the vote to Obama’s 30 percent. But Obama looks poised to win Oregon, and says he’s reached the delegate threshold. Various media folks are reporting that he now has an “insurmountable […]

Senate Energy Committee members wring their hands about the cost of climate action

The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee held a hearing this morning on the economic effects of global climate change legislation, and as expected, it was largely devoted to stoking fears about the potential costs of meaningful action. “On the extremes, models have been used to show that legislation will have massive disruptions to the […]

Green groups sue over polar bear listing

In entirely expected news, green groups have sued over the Interior Department’s listing of the polar bear as a threatened species — or, more accurately, over Interior’s caveats that the listing not be used as a means to fight global warming. The Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and NRDC say the bears should be listed […]