Climate Politics
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Sparks fly when the mayors meet the Congressfolk
The last event at this weekend’s mayors conference was a field hearing by the House global warming committee. The witnesses were: Mayor Bloomberg, City of New York Mayor Diaz, City of Miami, Florida Mayor Nickels, City of Seattle, Washington Mayor Palmer, City of Trenton, New Jersey Committee hearings tend to be pretty staid affairs, but […]
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A lovely video on Time
Over on Swampland, Ana Marie Cox has a nice video on "the green gap" between the parties, triggering off Grist’s campaign coverage.
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The Congressional Budget Office savages the Lieberman-Warner approach to climate change pol
America’s Climate Security Act, the Senate climate bill offered by Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), offers enormous giveaways to the nation’s biggest polluters, in the form of billions of dollars worth of free pollution permits, which won’t be zeroed out until 2036. Last Thursday, while the bill was passing through subcommittee, the non-partisan […]
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Louisiana will crack down on oil industry waste-disposal practices
Oil companies accustomed to a hodgepodge of regulation will soon see stricter oversight from a new initiative in Louisiana, which will pool the resources of 15 state and federal offices to crack down on Big Oil’s waste-disposal practices. The program will train some 100 field officers to identify oil and brine-water spills in the Gulf […]
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Call your senator today
As most people following the story know by now, the 2007 Farm Bill is looking pretty grim with respect to fundamental reform. The U.S. government seems hell-bent on pushing a policy that on balance rewards farmers for gross output at all costs — environmental considerations be damned. However, as the Senate debates the ag committee’s […]
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A conference call with Clinton’s energy advisors, about her new energy plan
I was just on a conference call with the Clinton campaign’s energy advisors, who were answering questions from the press. A couple of interesting tidbits: I noted that the cap-and-trade system laid out by Clinton dramatically exceeds what’s contained in the Lieberman-Warner bill, both in terms of the permit auctions and the overall targets, and […]
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Four principles that should guide federal climate change policy
The following was written before and during NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg’s address to the U.S. Mayors Conference on Friday, Nov. 2. Technical problems and, um, life intervened, so I’m only now getting it up. Sorry. Michael Bloomberg: Pro carbon tax, anti ethanol subsidies Photo: U.S. Mayors Conference Well, here I am, in a restaurant on […]
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The full text of Clinton’s plan
Here is Hillary Clinton’s comprehensive new climate and energy plan, just introduced: —– Powering America’s Future: Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Address the Energy and Climate Crisis Hillary understands that we face two immense energy and environmental challenges: a growing climate crisis, and an increasing reliance on foreign oil that is driving up energy costs for […]
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Clinton lays out her new energy policy
UPDATE: The full transcript of the speech is here. Hillary is getting ready to unveil her new energy strategy in a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Afterwards, her campaign advisors will be taking questions from the media. I’ll be live-blogging the speech, below: Climate change is bad; high energy prices are bad; importing all our […]
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U.S. mayors hit Seattle to plot climate strategy and get a dose of hope
More than 100 mayors from across the U.S. gathered in Seattle late last week to share lessons from their efforts to address climate change, producing the world’s first climate conference that didn’t lead to a spike in Prozac sales. Perhaps it was the uncharacteristic sunshine in the Emerald City, but mayors could barely contain their […]