Climate Politics

Plans to boost energy efficiency start getting traction in Congress

What’s not to love about energy efficiency? It’s the paradigmatic win-win scenario — save money, protect the climate and broader environment, and reduce reliance on unsavory sources of energy, all in one fell swoop. As efficiency guru Amory Lovins puts it [PDF], “Using energy more efficiently offers an economic bonanza — not because of the […]

Barack Tease

Obama pledges to save the civilized world with baby steps “This is our generation’s moment to save future generations from global catastrophe,” declared Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a speech on Friday. He heralded a “grassroots effort to make America greener and end the tyranny of oil.” And just as greens were up on […]

Gee whiz

The London Times covers a carbon trading scandal in in India. Like our own New York Times, they bury the lede:

BRITISH companies are handing over millions of pounds to an Indian chemical plant so that western firms can continue to pump out thousands of tons of greenhouse gases.

A fish story in the Telegraph

Update [2007-4-22 12:29:39 by David Roberts]: Gore’s people deny it all. Figured. Friends of Al Gore have secretly started assembling a campaign team in preparation for the former American vice-president to make a fresh bid for the White House. So says Tim Shipman in the Telegraph. I suggest a high degree of skepticism. The story […]

Pollan weighs in

Michael Pollan thinks so. Let's hope he's right. Call your Senators and Representatives to make sure.

Mitt Romney (R) endorses Hitler’s energy policy!!1!

New York Sun has the details. (h/t: Wolcott)

Photos and voices from Step It Up 2007 rallies across the U.S.

As promised, albeit a few days late, we've published an audio slideshow of Step It Up Seattle, which also includes some photos from other Step It Up events from around the country. For post Step It Up 2007 action, check out the national website.

Grist would like to produce more multimedia content in the future, so please let us know what you think in comments.

The responsibility era

The editors of The New Republic make a simple point that can’t be made often enough: The conservative notion that reducing GHG emissions in the U.S. is pointless unless China and India do the same is a moral grotesquery. We created the problem. Ethically and geopolitically, we are responsible for leading the way to a […]

Faint Christopher

Presidential contender Christopher Dodd endorses carbon tax The good news: Presidential contender Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) has unveiled a bold energy plan that includes a tax on corporate polluters. The bad news: Christopher who-now? Is running for what? Putting aside Dodd’s snowball-in-hell odds, let’s admire his goals: a per-ton fee on corporate carbon emissions that […]

Oy

A panel of retired generals thinks global warming is an urgent national security threat. The U.N. Security Council thinks global warming is an urgent national security threat. But wait! We forgot to ask Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R)! Sensenbrenner questioned "why global warming has suddenly become an issue of national defense" and afterward accused politicians […]