Climate Politics

The candidacy is Obama’s to lose

One hesitates to predict anything in a race this mercurial. But I think it’s Obama’s to lose at this point. Hillary’s pitch was always "experience" and (left unstated) inevitability. It was never the experience that made her inevitable, though. It was something more like Dem voters’ loss aversion. She has always been the Establishment Dem […]

Huckabee and Obama win Iowa caucuses; what’s the green angle?

Mike Huckabee is the projected winner of the Iowa GOP caucuses, a surprising victory that puts him at the front of the pack in the Republican presidential race — at least until the New Hampshire primary next week. Huckabee is one of just two GOP candidates who support a cap-and-trade system to fight climate change […]

Huckabee and Obama have it

Sounds like they’ve called the Iowa caucuses. Huckabee’s the huge winner on the R side, with Romney an anemic second. Obama got a very narrow win on the D side (35%), with Edwards and Clinton effectively tied for second with 31%. Interestinger and interestinger. UPDATE: OK, the final looks like 37% Obama, 30% Edwards, and […]

Ex-Im to finance more clean energy exports

The appropriations omnibus bill just passed through Congress "recommends that the Export-Import Bank provide 10 percent of its financing capacity to promote the export of clean energy products and services." This was a recommendation by many groups, including the Center for American Progress:

Having supported more than $400 billion dollars of U.S. exports during the past 70 years, the Export-Import Bank is one of the most powerful tools at the U.S. government's disposal for spurring innovation and economic growth.

But in yet another backward-looking strategy typical of this administration:

Krupp plays along

My ongoing, borderline-obsessive series about how %$@! awful this Washington Post piece is continues. In this episode, we focus on Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense. I’ve tried to give Krupp the benefit of the doubt. The green movement needs somebody sucking up to corporations. (I say that with total sincerity.) But it seems pretty clear […]

Me in CiF

While I was vacationing, the Guardian‘s Comment Is Free site ran two pieces by yours truly, one assessing the climate issue as it manifests in the Democratic presidential field, the other doing the same for the Republican field. Check ’em out. (I continue to be mystified by the extraordinarily high level of fruitcakery in the […]

‘Environmentalists say’ the WaPo should learn to distinguish rhetoric from reality

In an ongoing series about the world-historical suckage of a recent WaPo piece, we come now to the difference between rhetoric and policy. I don’t know about you, but when I see a headline like “In Bush’s Final Year, The Agenda Gets Greener,” I think, “oh, the policy agenda is getting greener.” And that’s probably […]

The Lieberman-Warner bill will … happen

((2008predictions_include)) The Lieberman-Warner climate bill will go to the Senate floor. After a largely uneventful committee hearing, LW is set to be introduced on the floor of the Senate in the early months of 2008, where it will face a bruising battle. Of that I feel certain. Subpredictions about which I feel only certain-ish: Inhofe […]

Barnes answers questions about the Sky Trust

I hope everyone read the essay from Peter Barnes et al that we published last night. If you’re interested in the notion of an atmospheric trust, you might also check out Dot Earth today, where Barnes answers questions from readers.

The Washington Post offers a late entry for Worst Story of the Year

While I was on vacation, the Washington Post published one of the most craptastic pieces of journalism I’ve seen this year, a piece by the normally reputable Peter Baker called "In Bush’s Final Year, The Agenda Gets Greener." Words can scarcely do it justice. A friend forwarded it in horror. If he’d said so, I […]