Climate Politics

Or how to prove you’re even dumber than your opponents

There are a lot of things I miss about Bill Clinton. "Triangulation" is not one of them.

For those unfamiliar with the term, triangulation is the political strategy by which a candidate takes the stupidest ideas of his/her opponent and adopts them as his/her own, thus depriving one's opponent of a monopoly on stupidity and dispelling any misconception that you might be a candidate of substance and principle.

If you remember, after the spectacular rise of the charismatic Bill Clinton, political consultants identified "triangulation" as the key to his victory. A cynical person might say that's because consultants can make more money telling would-be candidates how to triangulate than how to be as charismatic as Bill.

Anyway, that's what I think is behind Hillary's embrace of the gas-tax holiday. Beh.

McCain: We went to war for oil

In ’91, that is! Not in 2003. No sir.

Unilever supports rainforest destruction moratorium

Greenpeace just announced a big win in its anti-palm oil campaign: just five days after launching a campaign to pressure food and cosmetics giant Unilever to stop purchasing palm oil from rainforest destroyers, Unilever met Greenpeace halfway. Apparently nervous about the prospect of orangutan-suited activists continuing to scale their corporate headquarters (see picture), the company agreed to support a legal moratorium on rainforest destruction. Given that Unilever uses five percent of the world's palm oil and chairs the so-called Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, that's big news!

Baroo?

NBC reporting that Clinton has cancelled her morning show appearances and all public events tomorrow.

Save us, Al!

“Perhaps the only guy that can end this is Al Gore.” — David Gergen, political consultant and former presidential adviser, commenting on the never-ending Democratic primary during CNN’s live coverage Tuesday night

Obama takes NC; Clinton appears to win Indiana

Barack Obama claimed North Carolina, and Hillary Clinton is the likely winner out in Indiana. In his speech in Raleigh, Obama noted the need for new, clean energy policy, and took the opportunity to knock Clinton and McCain’s “gas-tax holiday” plan: The man I met in Pennsylvania who lost his job but can’t even afford […]

McCain campaign gets in on the anti-intellectualism

Remember how there are primaries today?

Obama is projected to win North Carolina decisively. Later this evening, Clinton is expected to win Indiana decisively. And so it goes. And goes. And goes. Kill me.

EPA not super-interested in keeping rocket fuel out of drinking water

There is a “distinct possibility” that the U.S. EPA will pass on restricting perchlorate in the nation’s water supplies, an agency official said Tuesday. Perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient that has been found at some 400 places in 35 states, can muck up normal thyroid function. But Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA assistant administrator for water, […]

Obama energy adviser Jason Grumet talks climate, coal, and green jobs

Jason Grumet. As executive director of the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan group of 20 energy experts created in 2002, Jason Grumet has come in for some flack from environmentalists. NCEP’s influential 2004 energy report called for several measures anathema to greens, including a “safety valve” that would set an upper limit on […]