Climate Politics
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Dems can’t overcome filibuster threats to get decent legislation — so what should they do?
I’ve talked to many, many people over the past few days who are struggling to figure out how to respond to the passage of the energy bill. There’s a lot of genuine anguish out there. One camp laments this as yet another defeat in a long string. Reid capitulated to Republicans and accepted a wan, […]
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U.S. House passes toy safety bill with tightened lead standards
The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill yesterday aimed at improving the safety of toys sold in the country. The bill lowers the allowable lead level in children’s toys, mandates independent testing, increases the budget of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and raises the cap on potential civil penalties for manufacturers from $1.25 […]
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Tom Tancredo dropping out of presidential race; dozens of Republicans mourn
Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo is expected to drop out of the race today, after months of trailing at the back of the pack in polls of GOP voters. Wondering what might have been? Check out Grist’s exclusive interview with Tancredo about his environmental views.
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Bushies laud state policies when excusing inaction, shut them down when they threaten contributors
Back in 2003, the Bush administration sent a negotiating team to Milan for international climate talks. The lead negotiator, then as now, was Harlan Watson. As he always does, Watson attempted to claim that the U.S. was, despite all appearances, taking a leadership role in the fight against global warming. What did he offer as […]
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U.S. EPA won’t let California enact vehicle greenhouse-gas limits
The U.S. EPA has denied California the waiver it needed to enact a state law requiring a 30 percent reduction in vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions by 2016. Said EPA chief Stephen Johnson, “The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution — not a confusing patchwork of state rules — to reduce America’s climate […]
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Analysis of the EPA’s decision to deny California’s waiver
As I mentioned below, today the U.S. EPA denied California’s request for a waiver exempting it from federal fuel economy standards, allowing it to implement its own standards. EPA administrator Stephen Johnson announced the decision in a rushed press conference following President Bush’s signing of the energy bill. The announcement came with a veritable torrent […]
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Breaking: EPA announcing ruling on California waiver at 6:30 Eastern
The EPA just sent out an email advisory saying that Administrator Stephen Johnson will announce the agency’s decision on the California air standards waiver … in about 30 minutes. (Background on the waiver issue here, here, and here.) The lack of lead time might lead one to believe that they want to bury this news. […]
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Ex-Georgia Rep. to run for president on Green Party ticket
Apparently Cynthia McKinney has announced a presidential run as Green Party candidate. This development is sure to have explosive effects on the presidential contest. And by explosive I mean negligible. (h/t: Sam Boyd)
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A new site asks political talk show hosts to address climate change
In my introduction to Grist’s presidential forum on climate, I mentioned a statistic that came to me from Gene Karpinski of the League of Conservation Voters: as of mid-November, Tim Russert of Meet the Press had interviewed presidential candidates 16 times, asking nearly 300 questions, and had not mentioned "climate change" or "global warming" a […]
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Bush appoints mountaintop-removal mining exec to key DOE position
Yesterday we learned that the Bush administration has appointed Stanley Suboleski to the position of assistant secretary for fossil energy for the Dept. of Energy. In that position, he would “oversee projects such as developing clean-coal technologies and carbon sequestration, and polices related to fossil fuels.” Suboleski is a long-time executive for Massey Energy, serving […]
