Climate Politics

California, 15 other states, and five nonprofits sue EPA over waiver decision

California has made good on its promise to sue the U.S. EPA over the agency’s refusal to allow the state to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles, and 15 other states have made good on their promise to join in on the litigation. The swarm of states, along with five nonprofit groups, filed suit today in […]

Darth Nader endorses Edwards instead of Green Party candidate

Ralph Nader’s endorsement of Edwards sure sounds more like an undorsement of Clinton. Questions: Is Nader’s endorsal opposition to Clinton more irrelevant to her chances than another Nader presidential run would be, or the same amount of irrelevant? Will this cause Edwards to lose support, as Dem primary voters deploy the sensible heuristic that the […]

Cheney and Johnson probably conspired, ho hum

On this business with the EPA giving Waxman all its papers: I doubt it will turn up anything actionably illegal. We’ll see a great deal of circumstantial evidence pointing to already obvious conclusions: the White House, probably Cheney’s office, urged Johnson to reject the waiver. Messaging was coordinated. The Bush administration cut a deal with […]

Japan leads G8 in 2008, will focus on climate change

A new year means a new country takes over leadership of the Group of Eight rich nations, and in 2008 it’s Japan. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has promised to make climate change a top priority, proposing a goal for G8 countries to cut emissions by 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. And while that […]

2008 will see another peaceful transfer of power in the U.S.

((2008predictions_include)) Last year I made 20 predictions for 2007 and it brought me nothing but woe and discredit. Yet sadistic Grist higher-ups demand I wade into the forecasting muck again, no doubt insuring further humiliation. (Though not professional censure. Remember, pundits face no penalty for being wrong, only for being shrill.) This promises to be […]

Avoid burgers in Texas, Hillary gets charred for CAFO ties, and more

In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat industry. In a proper finale to an E. coli-tainted 2007, the USDA has issued a public-heath alert regarding 14,800 pounds of stolen hamburger meat down in Texas. Get this: the hot meat is “thought to be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.” By my […]

U.S. EPA directs employees to gather documents related to California decision

The U.S. EPA has directed employees to preserve and produce all documents — including communications with the White House — related to its recent unpopular decision to block California from regulating greenhouse-gas emissions. The memo to employees indicates that the agency will comply with a Congressional investigation into its decision.

GOP (and Dem) candidates: red-meat-lovin’, veggie-hatin’

From a compilation of responses given to AP reporters throughout the year:

FAVORITE FOOD TO COOK
DEMOCRATS:
Clinton: "I'm a lousy cook, but I make pretty good soft scrambled eggs."
Edwards: Hamburgers.
Obama: Chili.
Richardson: Diet milkshake.

REPUBLICANS:
Giuliani: Hamburgers or steak on the grill.
Huckabee: Ribeye steak on the grill.
McCain: Baby-back ribs.
Romney: Hot dog.

SHUNNED FOOD ITEMS
DEMOCRATS:
Clinton: "I like nearly everything. "I don't like, you know, things that are still alive."
Edwards: "I can't stand mushrooms. I don't want them on anything that I eat. And I have had to eat them because you get food served and it's sitting there and you're starving, so you eat."
Obama: "Beets, and I always avoid eating them."
Richardson: Mushrooms, specifically. "I'm not a big vegetable eater." Recalling the first President Bush's distaste for broccoli, he said: "I sympathize with that fully."

REPUBLICANS:
Giuliani: Liver.
Huckabee: "Carrots. I just don't like carrots. I banned them from the governor's mansion when I was governor of Arkansas because I could."
McCain: "I eat almost everything. Sometimes I don't do too well with vegetables."
Romney: "Eggplant, in any shape or form. And I've always been able to avoid it."
Thompson: "Not much. I've tried to do better about that. I jokingly say that we kind of have a diet around our house that if it tastes good, you don't eat it. I haven't quite got there yet. There's not much that I turn down. That's a good thing on the campaign trail because you get quite a variety."

You know, because vegetables are for wusses, true patriots love meat, vegetarianism is a gateway drug to liberal snobbery, etc., etc.

Scrolling through the responses, some amusing patterns emerge. Namely, McCain loves anything and everything to do with barbecuing, and Huckabee desperately wishes that guitar ownership would make him cool. (Hey guys, hey guys! I have a bass guitar! Did -- did you hear that? Did I mention my guitar? Because I have one.)

Now if only someone would compile a useful table of candidate responses to relevant questions ... say, a table with candidates' stances on fuel-economy standards, renewable energy, and coal. Oh wait! We did.

What will US ratification mean for health of the oceans?

I recently wrote a short piece for Seed about the Law of the Sea -- a piece of legislation that has been held up in the US Senate for the past 25 years, and which, if ratified, could have a major impact on ocean health.

The treaty -- which was given a thumbs-up in October by the US Foreign Relations Committee and now awaits ratification in the Senate -- declares most of earth's vast ocean floor to be the "common heritage of mankind," placing it under UN aegis "for the benefit of mankind as a whole."

That language has some people running scared. The treaty recently earned some scathing critique in the Wall Street Journal:

Republicans have every reason to share ownership of the climate issue

This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

In Part I, we saw how conservatives were turning their backs on the moral issue of our time -- global warming.

Here we'll examine the many reasons conservatives should share ownership of this issue. Global warming and its solutions involve issues that are important to conservatives, progressives, Independents and even political agnostics. For example:

National security: "Climate change can act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world, and it presents significant national security challenges for the United States," 11 retired admirals and generals concluded in a security analysis last April. "The increasing risks from climate change should be addressed now because they will almost certainly get worse if we delay."

Jobs: The global need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is arguably the biggest entrepreneurial opportunity the United States has known. Billions of the world's people need access to clean energy, a market of unprecedented scale. Here in the United States, according to an analysis by the Management Information Services in Washington, D.C., energy efficiency and renewable energy can create 40 million jobs by mid-century, at skill levels stretching from entry level to the highly technical.