Climate Politics

Is NYT’s Revkin pushing unjustified ‘balance’ in the Senate climate debate coverage?

I like and respect Andy Revkin a great deal. He is one of the best reporters on climate and certainly the most prolific climate journalist now that he has his Dot Earth blog. But I must take exception to his recent posting, "Climate Debate: Democracy In Action?"

You would never know from his post that one side in the debate was desperately trying to save future generations from catastrophic warming and the other side was simply doing shameless political posturing. Here is how it opens:

Budget resolution includes funds to clean up nuclear sites

Apparently the Senate actually accomplished something this week in the environmental realm: the 2009 federal budget resolution that passed 48-45 on Wednesday included $500 million for a Department of Energy environmental management program to clean up Hanford and other nuclear sites across the country. Hanford is the decommissioned nuclear-weapons complex along the Columbia River in […]

Republicans try to stoke Dem discord on climate legislation in the House

Amidst the chaos in the Senate over climate legislation, Rep. Ed Markey introduced his climate legislation in the House on Thursday. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio), hoping to take advantage of apparent disarray within the Democratic Party, has dared Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to push Markey’s bill to the floor. He wrote a letter […]

Climate Security Act dies, failing to muster enough votes to move forward

The Senate held a cloture vote this morning to bring to a close debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, a vote that would have allowed the amendment process to begin. After four days of conversation and delays, the bill died, failing to reach the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture by a vote of […]

A list of strengthening amendments to the climate bill that will probably never be introduced

In all likelihood, these will never be formally introduced on the Senate floor, but here’s a list of the strengthening amendments to the Climate Security Act that various senators have floated: Renewable Electricity Standard, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): This amendment would require that states generate at least 20 percent of their electricity […]

Inhofe: ‘Hey, it’s not our fault’

“All Republicans want just one thing, and that is to debate this bill … When they pull the bill, I don’t want them to say that Republicans had anything to do with it.” — James Inhofe (R-Okla.) on the Senate floor Thursday, after Republican leadership spent nearly four days delaying debate of the Climate Security […]

House passes bill to green up schools

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would put more than $20 billion over the next five years toward improving energy efficiency in schools. Democrats say the modestly named 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act would save school districts billions in energy costs. In addition, said Education and Labor Committee Chairman […]

Senate race takes shape in New Mexico

This got lost in the flap over the Climate Security Act yesterday, but via Politico, on Tuesday night Rep. Steve Pearce narrowly won the Republican Senate primary in New Mexico. He beat out Rep. Heather Wilson by a margin of 51 to 49 percent in the contest to see who will replace GOP Sen. Pete […]

U.N. food summit ends without agreement on solutions

A high-level three-day United Nations food summit ended Thursday without wide agreement on solutions to the world food crisis. At the meeting, delegates sparred over trade barriers, biofuels’ role in keeping food prices high, agricultural subsidies, how food aid should be spent, and how much aid to give. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the conference […]

GOP leaders resort to high jinks to stall climate bill

Republican leaders essentially shut down the Senate Wednesday during what was supposed to be a time of debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, forcing clerks to read the entire 492-page bill aloud. Republicans said the maneuver — which sucked up nine hours — was a protest against the Democratic majority’s slow pace in considering […]