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American Power Act

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    Anatomy of a Senate climate bill death

    Ryan Lizza's recent New Yorker piece provides an interesting insider view of the rise and fall of climate legislation in the Senate. But Lizza gives short shrift to the real reasons Senate passage of climate legislation was impossible in 2010: the deep recession, unified and uncompromising opposition in the Senate, and big spending by oil, coal, and other energy interests. Let's take a close look at these factors.

    Daniel J. Weiss Politics

  • Lessons from Senate climate fail

    Here are some lessons learned from the perspective of someone who spent the last few years trying to push a real bill through the real Congress.

    Dan Lashof Politics

  • Me, on the Rachel Maddow Show

    I was on the Rachel Maddow Show last night. While Maddow herself is reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq, the show is being guest hosted by Chris Hayes, political editor at The Nation. Here’s the bit: [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.1012193&w=425&h=350&fv=launch%3D38159001%26width%3D400%26height%3D320] As to the substance, I’d add one thing. Chris frames the bill in the Senate as one designed […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • How an energy bill could fuel more global warming

    Cross-posted from NRDC Switchboard. As President Obama and senators consider their options on energy and climate legislation, it’s important to be clear about what will move the country forward and what will move it backward. Will our leaders put us on the road towards the carbon pollution cuts desperately needed to take back control of […]

    David Doniger Politics

  • Winning on climate may require reforming the U.S. Senate

    Tom Udall (D-N.M.)The chess game of climate politics — or, more specifically, of putting a binding limit on climate-changing pollution from dirty fuels — is at a moment of great uncertainty. President Obama continues to push for putting a price on carbon, and Senate action may come in July or August. But there’s every chance […]

    Alan Durning Politics

  • Could Dems get a strong energy bill if they abandoned cap-and-trade?

    Don’t miss Jesse’s great post from earlier today. It’s thoughtful and provocative and I wanted to offer a few observations in response. His basic take is as follows: the Dems, in their quixotic pursuit of a price on carbon — even the leaky, ramshackle contraption that cap-and-trade has become — are ignoring opportunities for real […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Democrats may waste last chance for clean energy win

    With the final seconds ticking down on the Congressional clock, President Obama and Senate Democrats emerged from a White House summit with Republican moderates Tuesday still lacking any plan to score a last minute win for clean energy. Wasted opportunity Establishing a price (any price) on carbon pollution through a(n increasingly weak) cap-and-trade system continues […]

    Jesse Jenkins Politics

  • Merkley: ‘You can’t run up the white flag until you have the fight’

    On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators met with Barack Obama at the White House to discuss opportunities for progress on an energy bill. As has been true many times over the session, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) was in the room calling for ambition. In the last month, Merkley has pushed for a price on […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • The latest in Democratic fecklessness

    I will never get used to the strategic and tactical fecklessness of the Senate Democrats. After a caucus meeting last week, it seemed like they’d finally stumbled onto the only strategy that has a snowball’s chance in hell of actually working: package a price on carbon with a tough response to the Gulf oil spill, take […]

    David Roberts Politics