Climate Politics

LCV declares Sen. James Inhofe a target for unseating in 2008

Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe (R) is the first person to make the League of Conservation Voters’ “Dirty Dozen” list of congresspeople the group hopes to unseat in 2008. Inhofe is the minority leader on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, despite having called climate change “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”; […]

Yet more musing on Lomborg and S&N

Looks like I'm not the only one who sees a scary similarity between the messages in their respective books, Cool It and Break Through.

The San Francisco Chronicle just ran a double review by Robert Collier, a visiting scholar at the Center for Environmental Public Policy at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. The review ends pointedly:

[T]he arguments of Nordhaus and Shellenberger attain an intellectual pretense that could almost pass for brilliant if their urgings weren't so patently empty. The closing chapter calls for "greatness," but, like the rest of the book, it offers little in the way of substantive proposals to back up its rhetorical thunder.

Perhaps that's for their next book. Or perhaps real solutions, rather than pretentious sniping, are not the authors' purpose. Nordhaus and Shellenberger, like Lomborg, will get plenty of attention in Washington from those who want to preserve the status quo. But for those who recognize the urgent need to transform the national and world economies and save the planet as we know it, they are ultimately irrelevant.

Precisely.

Sarkozy pushes proposals on energy and the environment

We have already seen that British Conservatives "get" global warming -- both the danger of inaction and the economic opportunity of a "green revolution."

Now the right wing cheese-eating surrender monkeys are also putting their American political counterparts to shame. As Nature reports about the new conservative French president:

Sarkozy made the greening of France a major plank of his election campaign this year. He has since created a superministry for ecology, biodiversity and sustainable development, with responsibility for the powerful sectors of transport, energy and construction -- a first in France, where ecology was previously off the political radar.

Yet it seems inconceivable a U.S. conservative politician could take such action, or agree to the following remarkable proposals now under active consideration in France:

Congress finally pays attention to energy storage tech

I missed this when it happened, but (via Hill Heat) it’s nice to see that the House science committee recently held a hearing on energy storage technology. It’s a woefully underappreciated piece of the energy puzzle and overdue for some concerted attention. In the context of the hearing, the Subcommittee also discussed draft legislation entitled […]

A strategy for a no-nuclear, low-carbon, highly efficient, sustainable energy future

This came my way several weeks ago, but I ran across it again while hacking my way through my inbox and I thought it was worth sharing, particularly in light of the long list of endorsements. It comes from the Sustainable Energy Network, “a network of 450+ organizations, businesses, and individual advocates promoting aggressive deployment […]

Obama introduces ambitious energy plan

Barack Obama unveiled the details of his energy policy proposal in a speech in New Hampshire today, and he’s swinging for the fences. At the center is a cap-and-trade system that would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. Notably, Obama is the first major presidential candidate to propose that 100 percent of the initial […]

Court rulings are appealed left and right

Automakers are appealing a court decision that allows states to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles. Green groups are appealing the U.S. EPA’s decision to issue a permit for a new coal-fired power plant in Utah. W.R. Grace & Co. is appealing reinstatement of charges that it knowingly concealed dangers associated with asbestos mining. And Jake […]

Two insiders say climate legislation unlikely while Bush is president

I think this Reuters article is password protected [Update: here’s a free version], but the gist is that two fairly knowledgeable sources — Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chair of the Senate Energy Committee, and Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch — said last week that climate legislation is highly unlikely to be passed in this […]

Thoughts and reactions on Obama’s bold new energy proposal

Staying with the Monday Is Obama Day theme, here are a few thoughts on Obama’s energy plan. (Full plan here; speech introducing the plan here.) Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised — even shocked — at its quality. It’s a deft mix of good politics and strong, substantive policy. Here are what I see as the three […]

The full text of Obama’s energy remarks

Obama is delivering his energy speech right now. Here it is, as prepared for delivery. —– Remarks of Senator Barack Obama Real Leadership for a Clean Energy Future Monday, October 8th, 2007 Portsmouth, NH Two weeks ago, representatives from some of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases were invited to Washington by the President […]