Climate Politics

This is what we’ve come to

This article is just plain bizarre — a great illustration of how skewed and narrow the mainstream energy dialogue has become. It’s allegedly about the new "war on oil" in the U.S. (Oh good, another war.) Apparently, though, that war consists of firing away wildly with exactly one weapon: ethanol. Here’s the frame the author […]

Pros and cons

John Moe, at McSweeney’s, on the pros and cons of the Dem candidates: AL GORE Pro: Knows how to get to the White House, where to park, location of restrooms. Con: Wants to accomplish something meaningful. (h/t: Yglesias)

Sign a petition

The issue regarding certification of organic farmers in the Third World continues to gain steam. Equal Exchange, the organic and fair trade coffee group, has a petition drive (scroll to bottom of page) to block the USDA decision that would decertify organic 'grower groups' such as coffee co-ops.

Grist had a spirited discussion on this previously.

If you can really call Chris Dodd a ‘contender’

Finally, a candidate for president has come out in support of a carbon tax! OK, it was Chris Dodd, but still. Dodd’s big energy speech this morning was mostly the usual stuff about tax credits and subsidies, but here’s the section that produced the headline: The truth is, we can make all the clean energy […]

Boxer is a fighter

Senator Boxer vows to take the global warming fight to the administration, rules out carbon tax in favor of cap and trade.

The San Francisco Chronicle has the details.

No More Dicking Around

House approves long-delayed Wild Sky Wilderness bill After five years of delay, the House has passed a bill creating a 167-square-mile Wild Sky Wilderness area in northern Washington state. The bill had been approved by the Senate three times in recent years, but stalled out each time in the Republican-led House, with former California Rep. […]

And cellulosic might too — plus it’s still a decade off

Yes, this is another bitter polemic against ethanol, but I want to make one point up front, because I sometimes forget to: The only concrete alternative energy/climate policy that our political class can agree on — a plan that unites Democrats and Republicans to commit some $5 billion per year and rising — is a […]

… or at least one representative

The House of Representatives held its first Ag committee hearing ever on organic agriculture today. I attended the hearing and found out Rep. Dennis Cardoza, the California Democrat who chairs of the House subcommittee on horticulture and organic agriculture, belongs to an organic CSA! For a full report, see the post on Chews Wise.

The view from Washington

So here I am in Washington (the other one) in a homey B&B just eight blocks from the White House. I came here for a number of reasons, not the least of which is attending a conference called Climate Change and International Development (which was, by the way, recorded, and it is said that videos will be available here.) It was pretty good, and the less-public strategy meeting that followed it today (at the Friends of the Earth offices) was even better. Strategically, very little could be more important than the development folks joining the climate battle. Especially if they do something new.

There's a lot to say here, and I'll not say much of it. I'm hardly an impartial observer and it would get too messy. But I do want to make a couple of bottom line points.

Just wanted to put that out there

This is rarely said openly, but needs to be.

Yes, climate change is a serious problem; yes, we should address it; but beware of easy solutions and feel-good measures like carbon neutrality that are more than likely scams than serious measures, since they more often than not pay people to do things they would already have done.