Climate Politics

Me Too, Me Too!

Hillary Clinton touts new energy plan Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) outlined a plan yesterday to cut U.S. oil imports in half by 2025. Along with urging increased conservation (gasp), she proposed a “Strategic Energy Fund” financed by a temporary two-year fee on major oil-company profits, elimination of some oil tax breaks, and closure of a […]

John Suttles, Southern environmental lawyer, answers questions

John Suttles. What work do you do? I’m a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. How does it relate to the environment? For the past 20 years, the Southern Environmental Law Center — the biggest environmental organization headquartered in the Southeast — has used the full power of the […]

Kicked in the Arson

“Eco-terrorists” indicted in connection to Vail ski-resort arson Four people — dubbed “eco-terrorists” by the authorities, who aren’t at all trying to scare you — were indicted Thursday and face eight counts of arson in connection to fires set at a Vail, Colo., ski resort in 1998. A communiqué apparently released by the arsonists said […]

Who Are You, and What Have You Done With Our House?

House shows its green side with votes on Interior Department bill The House of Representatives was on an eco-roll yesterday as it fixed up an Interior Department spending bill to send to the Senate. Over the objections of top Republicans, lawmakers approved 252-165 a measure that would put oil and gas companies on the hook […]

Better Late Than Clever

Democrats unveil plan to cut dependence on oil imports Yesterday, Senate Democrats presented a proposal to cut U.S. dependence on oil imports 40 percent by 2020. The Clean EDGE Act contains nary a mention of increased fuel-economy standards, gas taxes, or other such excessively bold proposals; instead, it proclaims that ethanol will save us all. […]

Chase to the Cut

House passes bill to speed up salvage logging A bill that would speed up salvage logging in national forests after fires and other natural disasters has passed in the House. Currently, a careful review of wildlife and forest health is required before timber can be salvaged and sold after catastrophes; proponents of the heftily named […]

Honorably Discharged

Supreme Court sides with enviros on licenses for hydroelectric dams Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in the first environmental case considered under new Chief Justice John Roberts … and sided with enviros (supported, this time, by the Bush administration). At issue was a Maine case hinging on wording in the Clean Water […]

Michael Hayden Is Taking Notes

Chinese environmentalist faces trial on questionable charges Chinese environmental activist Tan Kai went on trial yesterday, facing charges widely considered dubious. Inspired by protests in the province of Zhejiang, where residents say chemical plants are destroying crops and causing birth defects, Tan and five others informally launched a group called Green Watch last summer. In […]

Big Ethanol …

... wins again.

House Majority Leader John Boehner's attempt to lower the ethanol tariff (and thus allow ethanol-hungry oil refineries to purchase ethanol from overseas) has gone down in flames:

Point, shoot, go to jail

Say you live in a neighborhood where there is a power or waste-treatment plant nearby. You notice some toxic nastiness spewing out, so you decide to document said spewage by recording it with photos or video. If lawmakers in New Jersey get their way, you've just committed a crime that could put you in jail for 18 months:

The state Senate Law and Public Safety Committee is expected to discuss a bill today which would make it a crime -- punishable by up to 18 months in jail -- to photograph, videotape or otherwise record for an extended period of time a power generation, waste treatment, public sewage, water treatment, public water, nuclear or flammable liquid storage facility, as well as any airport in the state.

At the very least, it will allow law enforcement officials across the state to detain the individual or confiscate any recorded materials to further their investigation, according to state Sen. Fred Madden, D-4 of Turnersville, who is the bill's sponsor.

Opponents of the bill said it "makes no sense" and is "awful."

Indeed.

(Via BB)