American Clean Energy and Security Act
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Not your daddy’s offsets
A new report, “Forging the Climate Consensus: Domestic and International Offsets” makes clear exactly how important a role high-quality offsets play in maintaining the integrity of climate legislation — and how they could allow an international climate agreement to achieve far stronger emissions reductions targets than would otherwise be possible. The report was issued by […]
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Conservatives ditch CBO data when convenient to attack climate bill
Conservatives who loved citing the Congressional Budget Office when it was being hard on health care legislation keep on ignoring it when it comes to climate legislation. Today conservatives tried once again to mislead the media into reporting the costs of cap-and-trade are higher than every objective analyst expects. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, with the […]
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Climate SOS campaign aims to defeat ACES for the right reason
As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comment makes clear, there will be no climate bill this year. This is a crucial step on the long and tortuous road to averting cataclysm, but defeat for the ACES placebo is of little long term consequence unless it is killed for the right reason. The Climate SOS campaign […]
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A big breakthrough on green jobs
The New York State Senate and Assembly, too often a model of corruption and dysfunctionality, rose above petty politics last week to pass forward-thinking legislation on climate and energy, setting a precedent for bipartisanship and a sensible cap and trade system. The State Senate passed the groundbreaking Green Job/Green New York Act, with strong support […]
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The 2 billion ton test
Senators returned from their August recess with lots of ideas about how they would like to change the comprehensive clean energy and climate protection bill the House passed in June. This is a normal, and in many respects, healthy part of the legislative process. Some of these ideas, such as devoting more resources to building […]
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Arkansas’ Blanche Lincoln grabs Senate ag committee chair [UPDATED]
Blanche Lincoln: bully for industrial cotton growers; bad for climate change mitigation. [Note: This post has been updated to reflect confirmation that Blanche Lincoln will take the top Senate Agriculture Committee post. Additional updates at bottom of post–including information about Lincoln’s status as a favorite of agribusiness funders.] Late yesterday afternoon marked a dark moment […]
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Could Waxman and Markey have used the EPA threat more effectively?
Should Waxman and Markey have kicked off House climate-bill negotiations with a stronger ask? The bill they introduced was effectively the U.S. Climate Action Partnership proposal, which already reflected years of negotiation and compromise. The idea was that the difficult work of negotiations had already been done — enviros and business both on board! — […]
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Push is on to strengthen climate bill
A coalition of more than 300 organizations including faith, human rights, social justice and environmental groups will deliver letters to the local offices of U.S. senators this week calling on them to strengthen climate legislation narrowly passed by the House of Representatives in June. The effort is part of a broader grassroots initiative that aims […]
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Carl Pope says 350 ppm not strong enough, endorses carbon pricing and global tax & dividend!
In the Sept/Oct issue of Sierra Club Magazine, Club Chairman Carl Pope details four “fallacies about solving global warming” that must be scrapped in order to achieve “the transformational global deal we need to save our planet” in Copenhagen. Put in positive terms, and looking only at the specifics, Pope outlines the following platform. 1. […]
