Climate Politics

Moyers talks to Boxer

Wow, you kinda forget what good TV journalism looks like until you watch Bill Moyers. He makes the cable babblers look like children. Don’t miss Moyers interviewing Barbara Boxer on the flame-out of the Climate Security Act. She’s really quite good on this, but in the end, as much as I kind of regret saying […]

Republican Congressional candidate says main priority is energy reform

While Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith (R.) tries to fuzz his ties to the GOP and his unswerving devotion to the Bush agenda (in between lurches to the center around election time), at least Oregon voters in the First District have a choice that's actually interesting: either Democrat David Wu, considered a huge disappointment and one of the least effective members of Congress (he's so lame that even the Oregonian, who typically only stops endorsing incumbents after they've been six feet under for months, endorsed his primary opponent) or this guy.

I don't know if that guy's got any of the right answers, but he's sure got the right questions.

A weekly roundup of greenish news from the Capitol

Some political news debris from this week: • The League of Conservation Voters announced today that they’ve created the first green bundling site. This allows folks to donate en masse to green candidates around the country. LCV will direct the funds to the candidates it will support this year in Senate and House races. • […]

Jon Stewart on EPA and email

Nobody but Stewart could do this justice:

Senate Republican tries to tack renewable tax extensions onto housing bil

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) is attempting to add the tax break extensions for renewables that keep failing in the Senate to a giant housing package. His attempts have stalled the housing bill, which would overhaul mortgage finance and create programs to help borrowers refinance. The Senate is supposed to go into recess today for the […]

Bush places moratorium on new solar projects on public land

In a parting shot at the competition for its fossil fuels supporters, the uber-lame (duck) Bush administration "has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years."

• Drilling for oil and gas, even in pristine areas -- hey, we’re former oil company executives.
• Leveling mountains in beautiful West Virginia -- we’re all for it.
• Toxic metals from mining -- bring ‘em on!
• Logging old-growth forests -- what so you think forests are for?

But solar power on publicly owned desert land? We need to study that for two years. Wouldn’t want to risk a rush to clean energy. As Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, this is "the wrong signal to send to solar power developers, and to Nevadans and Westerners who need and want clean, affordable sun-powered electricity soon."

The only upside of this lame last-minute attack on renewables is that it can be overturned on January 21, 2009.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

New bill to support renewables offered in House

Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), and Mike Honda (D-Calif.) introduced legislation [PDF] yesterday to provide security for investments in the renewable-energy sector by guaranteeing rates for renewable-energy generation. The Renewable Energy Jobs and Security Act would provide guaranteed renewable-energy payments to small and mid-sized clean-energy suppliers (up to 20 megawatts). […]

McCain touts energy plan in another new ad

John McCain has a new ad promoting his “Lexington Project” to move the country toward energy independence: As with previous ads, this one shows footage of windmills and solar panels, but I don’t see any nuclear reactors. Odd, considering his love of nuclear energy and his plan to build 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030.

Appeals court won’t force EPA to speed up CO2 decision

A federal appeals court has decided not to force the Bush administration to speed up its decision on whether carbon dioxide emissions endanger public health or welfare. The administration’s decision on CO2 is a necessary step in the process of regulating U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles and industrial sources. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court […]

BLM contemplates two-year moratorium on solar power plant construction in the West

Oh, now they care about careful environmental assessment? Oil and gas development is spreading over the American West like a cancer, but this, this solar stuff … it’s a bridge too far! So Congress and the feds are going to let the solar investment tax credit lapse and institute a moratorium on deployment in the […]