Climate Politics

Joe Biden rolls out climate and energy plan

Unless the Democrats manage to blow the '08 elections, or some other calamity strikes, a president who is ready to seriously confront the climate crisis will be sworn into office in January 2009. Following in the footsteps of other Democratic candidates, Joe Biden unveiled his climate and energy plan on November 20, 2007.

Biden's plan looks a little bit generic compared with the offerings we've seen from Edwards, Dodd, Richardson, Obama, and most recently, Hillary Clinton, which are all either more ambitious or more detailed. He sets the right targets, though, albeit with a nod at all of the expected interest groups -- both good (solar and wind) and bad (coal and corn).

Now if we could only get past the whole filibuster problem ...

Delegates of all stripes prepare for the trip to Bali

Post by Kelly Blynn, Step It Up 2007

Around the world, an estimated 10,000 bureaucrats, ministers, activists, climate skeptics, industry lobbyists, and students are packing their bags and making last-minute preparations for their descent upon the small Indonesian island of Bali, for two weeks of hashing it out on what the world's going to do next on the issue of global warming.

Anyone who has anything (good or bad) to do with this problem will be there -- whether it's Greenpeace, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Confederation of European Paper Industries, the World Coal Association, or ... me, a Step It Up organizer.

Partisan debate on climate change vs. unity

A couple nights ago I spoke briefly and rather aimlessly at the first Seattle EcoTuesday. I mentioned that the leading Democratic candidates all have detailed, creditable climate and energy plans, and the leading Republican candidates don’t. Afterward, a guy pulled me aside to scold me for "making it a political issue." It’s something I hear […]

New version of Lieberman-Warner circulating

Via EE News (sub rqd), there’s a new version of the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill circulating: An aide to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a lead co-author of the bill, said one of the biggest changes involves an “upstream” cap placed on the heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that come from natural gas processors. With the new bill’s […]

A clip from the Republican YouTube debate

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you small-government conservatism:

A review of Gingrich’s new book on the environment

Newt Gingrich says he feels a special kinship with a young polar bear named Knut, who was rescued from death last year by officials at the Berlin Zoo. Gingrich has visited Knut, and he’s been talking about the bear as he promotes his new book, A Contract With the Earth. But is Gingrich’s cuddly new […]

U.S. emissions go down!

The White House issued a press release yesterday about the report (PDF) by the Energy Information Administration that U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions for 2006 were 1.5 percent below the 2005 level. Here is the text of the press release:

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

I was pleased to receive the Energy Information Administration's final report today, which includes U.S. greenhouse gas emissions for 2006. The final report shows that emissions declined 1.5 percent from the 2005 level, while our economy grew 2.9 percent. That means greenhouse gas intensity -- how much we emit per unit of economic activity -- decreased by 4.2 percent, the largest annual improvement since 1985. This puts us well ahead of the goal I set in 2002 to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent by 2012.

My Administration's climate change policy is science-based, encourages research breakthroughs that lead to technology development, encourages global participation, and pursues actions that will help ensure continued economic growth and prosperity for our citizens and for people throughout the world. Since 2001, we have spent almost $37 billion on climate science, technology development, and incentives and international assistance. Recently, we convened representatives of the world's major economies -- the largest users of energy and largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions, from both developed and developing nations -- to discuss a new international approach on energy security and climate change. Our aim is to agree on a detailed contribution for a new global framework in 2008 that would contribute to a global agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by 2009. The United States looks forward to working with partners to reach consensus on a "Bali Roadmap" at the upcoming UN meeting on climate change in Indonesia in December.

Energy security and climate change are two of the important challenges of our time. The United States takes these challenges seriously, and we are effectively confronting climate change through regulations, public-private partnerships, incentives, and strong investment in new technologies. Our guiding principle is clear: we must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.

There are a few noteworthy aspects to the report and this press release.

Midnight Oil frontman is Australia’s new environment minister

Peter Garrett, former singer for rock band Midnight Oil, has been appointed the environment minister in Australia’s new regime. Garrett, who has been a member of the Australian Parliament since 2004, will be a duet with new Minister for Climate Change and Water Penny Wong.

On the leadership qualities the next president should possess

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

We are the nation we are because giants have walked among us. America was founded by giants. Others have appeared since to guide us through crises or to great things: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King. We have had leaders whose oratory has, sometimes in a single sentence, rallied the American people around their obligations of citizenship, the morality of equal rights, the spirit of exploration, and the compassion our blessed nation should show to those who have never known security or abundance.

Are giants walking among us today? Are any of them in the present field of presidential candidates?

Polls indicate that most Americans agree the current president has demonstrated some qualities we do not want in the White House. I'd like to offer an unabashedly old-fashioned and idealistic answer about the qualities we do want, drawn from the Presidential Climate Action Plan.

The corn industry hopes Congress will pull its fat out of the fire

I used to love to start my writing day by taking a poke or two at the corn-based ethanol industry — you know, the biggest greenwash ever. Photo: mrobenalt These days, the debunking of corn fuel almost seems like it’s piling on. Today, two major newspapers — the LA Times and The Wall Street Journal […]