Climate Politics

Umbra on carbon trading

Dear Umbra, I don’t understand carbon credits and how people can buy/sell/trade them. How is this good for our environment? Elizabeth Columbus, Ohio Dearest Elizabeth, I believe you speak of the carbon credit, rather than the carbon offset? The carbon offset is a consumer product that you or I could buy, enabling us to mildly […]

U.S. Defense Department fighting EPA orders to clean up Superfund sites

Defying environmental law, the U.S. Defense Department has resisted repeated orders lately from the U.S. EPA to clean up some of the nation’s most contaminated places. The DoD/EPA standoff has turned into a bureaucratic pissing match wherein the EPA has asserted its authority to order and oversee cleanup of ultra-polluted Superfund sites the DoD owns, […]

N.H.’s Shaheen puts energy issues at center of her campaign for Senate

In New Hampshire, former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) is challenging incumbent John Sununu (R) for his U.S. Senate seat, and she’s making energy concerns a centerpiece of her campaign. Here’s her most recent ad, targeting the “Enron loophole”: Previous Shaheen ads have called for tougher regulation of the oil industry and increased investment in renewable […]

Newsweek political journalist transcribes McCain campaign spin on energy

Last October, Barack Obama laid out a detailed, ambitious, and comprehensive energy plan, and he’s been talking about it ever since. A couple weeks ago, John McCain let loose a flurry of one-off energy gimmicks — a gas tax holiday, offshore drilling, a prize for a car battery — which he crammed together under the […]

Billionaires for Obama

Via Sam Smith, Lynn Sweet notes a few of the folks meeting with Obama:

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 […]