Climate Politics

Cities

Why don’t candidates who claim to be interested in climate change talk about cities more? That’s where the rubber is hitting the road: Officials in King County and other places are rethinking the way their communities grow and operate, all with an eye toward reducing their overall carbon footprint. After decades of policies that encouraged […]

Senators both GOP and Dem introduce destined-to-fail legislation

Senate Democrats are trying once again to yank $17 billion in tax breaks away from oil companies that are enjoying booming profits. The Consumer-First Energy Act, introduced in the Senate on Wednesday, would also put a 25 percent tax on oil companies that don’t invest in renewable energy. Bill cosponsor Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sums up, […]

Alaska legislature looking for polar-bear skeptics

The Alaska legislature wants to use $2 million in state money to fund an “academic based” conference to highlight the views of scientists who don’t think the polar bear should be put on the endangered-species list. The U.S. Interior Department must make a decision by May 15 on whether polar bears are a threatened or […]

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