Climate Politics

Whitehouse and Boxer want answers from EPA’s Johnson on Gade ouster

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson today, calling for information about the circumstances surrounding the ouster of Mary Gade, the administrator of the agency’s Midwest regional office. Gade was allegedly fired after attempting to force Dow Chemical to clean up dioxin pollution around the […]

Dems and GOP agree to stop filling Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The Senate today approved legislation to temporarily suspend deliveries to the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, by a vote of 97-1. The measure was inserted as an amendment to a flood insurance bill, and was opposed only by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.). The Energy Department sends 70,000 barrels of oil to the reserve every day, a […]

Talking with voters in the Mountain State

This is the first in a series of dispatches from Melinda Henneberger, who's talking to voters around the U.S. about their views on the environment and the election.

Huntington, W.Va. -- Door-knocking for Barack Obama in a state where he expects to get stomped today has been kind of thankless for Pam Wonnell, a nurse and old friend of mine who moved here from Illinois last year for her husband's job in coal mining: "I am not feeling the love" while phone canvassing or standing on front porches watching the people inside pretend not to be home. "But I'm not quitting, 'cause I'm a fighter, like Hillary," she says, and laughs at her own joke. "Isn't that Hillary-ous?"

Canvassing with her in her hilly, aerobically "butt-busting" neighborhood on the eve of the Democratic primary, though, one surprise is the can't-wait-for-November enthusiasm for Obama among ... Republicans? Hmm. Another is that even -- or perhaps especially -- in this coal-mining state, where billboards along I-64 scream, "Yes, Coal" and "Coal Keeps the Lights On," voters say they want to hear candidates talk more about the environment, not less.

Brazil’s pro-rainforest environment minister resigns

Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva resigned Tuesday after six years in office, leading a Greenpeace campaigner to lament that “Brazil is losing the only voice in the government that spoke out for the environment.” Silva’s policies prioritized environmental protection, particularly for the Amazon; while her policies landed her a spot as one of Grist’s fave […]

More on the nuclear portion of McCain’s big climate speech

What’s the deal with John McCain’s nuclear love affair? It’s a question on many people’s minds after the candidate’s big climate speech yesterday. While McCain has argued repeatedly that he’s opposed to subsidies for the nuclear industry, he stresses the need to support the nuclear industry and fund nuclear R&D. The most recent incarnation of […]

Long-shot Gravel reminds us he’s still in the presidential race

Remember Mike Gravel, the carbon-tax advocating, coal-hating, nuke-fighting, public-transit riding Democratic presidential candidate? Well, he’s still running for president, but he’s decided to join the Libertarian Party. And he’s got a new video out, which is … OK, it’s not even vaguely environmental, though there is a reference to oil pipes. Mostly though, it’s just […]

A Q&A on John McCain’s climate platform, issued by his campaign

The following is a Q&A on John McCain’s climate platform, released on Monday by the McCain campaign. I’m posting it here because it gets into more detail than any other published material I’ve seen. —– Q&A: John McCain’s Climate Platform How does cap-and-trade work? • Cap-and-trade is a mechanism that would set a limit on […]

What would the use of carbon offsets mean for McCain’s climate policy?

To me the most striking element of McCain’s just-released carbon cap-and-trade plan is that it would, at least at the outset, allow regulated entities to achieve 100 percent of their emission reductions through the purchase of domestic or international offsets. By way of comparison, the Lieberman-Warner climate bill headed for the floor of the Senate […]

McCain waters down language on climate dealings with China & India

The original text of John McCain’s Monday climate speech raised the specter of economic penalties for developing countries if they don’t join international climate efforts, but the candidate dropped that reference when actually delivering the address. As the Associated Press puts it: The GOP presidential contender … prodded China and India — two major emitters […]

Why a Bush veto of the farm bill is bad for the food movement (and the world)

My former boss in D.C. once said that if she ever found herself on the same side of an issue as the Bush administration, it was time to go back and look more closely: There must be a hidden agenda. That was the thought that struck me as I contemplated the administration's farm bill veto threat on Friday.

I understand the calls from some in the sustainable-ag community to veto the farm bill (and thank Tom Philpott and the comment crew for outlining them). The argument appears to be that, while there were important wins, this farm bill does not include most of the bigger reforms we want, and the community would do better to support a veto and try again anew. I don't happen to agree; some of the reasons why are also outlined in Tom's post and the comments. But I respect the sustainable ag organizations that take this position.

It all gets more complicated, though, when these groups find themselves on the same side of the veto issue as the Bush administration, which is not known for caring much about sustainability in any sense of the word. It gets extra-complicated when the phrase "subsidy reform" passes the lips of spokespeople from both the farmers-market complex and the agribusiness-industrial complex. This strange coalition of convenience was highlighted recently in a San Francisco Chronicle article by Carolyn Lochhead: "It is the rarest of moments: President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are on a collision course over a giant farm bill, but it is Bush who is broadly aligned with liberal Bay Area activists pushing for reform, while the San Francisco Democrat is protecting billions of dollars in subsidies ..."