Climate Politics

Alberta premier heads to D.C. to preach the virtues of tar sands

Kevin Grandia has the skinny on Alberta (it’s in Canada) Premier Ed Stelmach’s visit to D.C. to shill for tar sands and to fight "the myth that the environmental cost of the oilsands is too high." Below is Stelmach with a very perspicacious polar bear:

Bush asks Saudi king to open oil spigots

The president who said "America is addicted to oil" now begs the Saudis for another fix. Like some binge-drinking, pill-popping starlet -- is there any other kind? -- the president is prostrate before his top foreign "dealer," begging for more, even at the risk of public humiliation:

The Saudi oil minister, however, waited only a short time before announcing that oil prices would remain tied to market forces -- a direct slap at Bush.

Wow! When even your dealer won't sell you more, you have got a real problem.

Just one hour later, though, "President Bush made a private visit to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to again ask him to open the spigots."

U.S. House passes mine-safety legislation; Bush threatens veto

The U.S. House of Representatives passed new mine-safety legislation yesterday aimed at improving dangerous working conditions such as those that may have contributed to the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse that killed six workers and three rescue personnel last year. The bill allows independent investigations when accidents kill more than one miner, grants the Mine Safety […]

Got any ideas for a better Toxic Release Inventory system?

As the letter below indicates, OMB Watch has spent a lot of time on defense since the Supreme Court installed "W" (they use W so he can spell it properly) in 2000. The group fights for government openness and accountability and supports the nonprofit sector.

One of their campaigns has been to preserve the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), one of the most useful things ever to emerge from the era of unashamed environmentalism. Just knowing that the TRI was out there led corporations to huge reductions in toxic releases.

Naturally, gutting TRI was high on the Bush junta's agenda. But it seems like most of the bad ideas have gone away, and OMB Watch is now looking for ideas for making TRI even better, now that the Democratic majority runs Congress.

So get creative -- how would you like to see information displayed? What would be most useful for your town?

New transportation proposals to ease energy dependence

This is one of those weeks when it feels like things are changing fast. Here are two stories that caught my attention:

1. A panel organized by Congress -- the melodically-named National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission -- just called for higher federal gas taxes. In fact, they recommend a 40-cent-per-gallon hike. It sounds like the tax would go mainly to repair and maintain current road infrastructure rather than road expansion. The panel also recommended a bevy of other fees, including tolling, congestion pricing, weight fees, and so on. And they recommended big investments in transit and other alternatives too. (Via Erica at Slog.)


2. Meanwhile, British Columbia continues to lead. Not only is the province considering a carbon tax, but the provincial government just released a $14 billion transit plan. That's $14 billion just for transit. In fairness, however, not everyone in B.C. is thrilled by the proposal. As Andrew points out on the Livable Region blog, the transit projects may be delayed until after some major road-building work is completed.

Edwards puts the coal issue into the Dem debate

Below the fold, I’ve put the entire portion of the transcript from last night’s Dem debate that deals with climate and energy. It is to the candidates’ credit that they took a narrow, stupid question about Yucca Mountain and managed to expand it into a discussion of energy. JMG scolded me for not giving kudos […]

Leading Dem candidates talk nuclear power at Nevada debate

The three leading Democratic presidential candidates came together in Nevada last night for yet another debate. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama all wooed Nevada voters by voicing opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository, with Edwards taking his opposition a step further and coming out against all new nuclear construction. The highest drama […]

Nukes don’t replace oil

Over at the New Republic‘s blog, Adam Blinick writes: As it stands, nuclear power is the only environmentally friendly, economic, and efficient source of energy that can help the U.S. wean itself off foreign oil. For the record: Oil is primarily a transportation fuel. Nuclear power, in contrast, is a source of electricity. Ergo, nuclear […]

Bush and big U.S. banks beg for help from the oil barons

Bush has been doing some fast talking in the court of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, imploring His Majesty to boost oil production to so that gas prices for U.S. consumers can come down in time for the fall election. As part of his charm offensive, Bush has promised to bolster the dictatorship’s arsenal with “900 […]

Eco-conscious White House may have destroyed evidence

Who says the White House ain’t green? It’s been busily recycling backup tapes of old emails, “consistent with industry best practices,” and may have destroyed evidence related to the CIA leak in the process. And who knows what else. Gooooo recycling! Yeah!