Climate Politics
All Stories
-
U.S. Capitol buys carbon offsets
As part of an ongoing greening plan, the U.S. Capitol is buying $89,000 worth of carbon credits to offset the 30,000 tons of greenhouse gases emitted annually by the antiquated coal plant that provides it with power. The Government Accountability Office plans to publish a review of the carbon-offset industry in April; some members of […]
-
New report examines the impact of climate change on national security
John Podesta and Peter Ogden of the Center for American Progress have written a chapter titled "Global Warning: The Security Challenges of Climate Change," for a report called "The Age of Consequences: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Global Climate Change." They describe their work as follows: -
No carbon reduction program is a silver bullet
Something about NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg’s arguments for a carbon tax struck me as a little too glib, too pat. Barack Obama’s energy advisor Madhuri Kommareddi does as good a job as anyone of explaining why, arguing that a cap-and-auction system beats a carbon tax on the merits: Why this system instead of carbon tax? […]
-
An exciting bill people are talking about
I give you RCESA: Two members of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), today introduced legislation in the House that would make renewable electricity produced in rural areas available to urban energy users. Specifically, their Rural Clean Energy Superhighways Act would improve electricity […]
-
Industries get a break on tracking and disclosing dangerous chemicals
The Department of Homeland Security late last week released rules requiring industries to track and disclose large amounts of chemicals potentially alluring to terrorists. Draft regulations released in the spring had been heavily criticized by Big Chemical for their strictness, so the new regulations say, “Try not to put dangerous chemicals out on the sidewalk […]
-
New Kaiser poll reveals voter priorities
These answers are from a new Kaiser Foundation poll: —– What do you think is the most important problem for the president and Congress to address? Is there another problem you think is almost as important? (open-ended) Issue Rank Total Republicans Democrats Independents 1 Iraq (54%) Iraq (53%) Iraq (62%) Iraq (52%) 2 Health care […]
-
Bush vetoes water bill, Congress likely to override
True to his word, President Bush has vetoed a bill authorizing $23 billion in nationwide water projects. Chances are good that Congress will override his naysaying, perhaps even this week. Stay tuned.
-
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 […]
-
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.
-
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 […]
