Arkansas
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Sen. Blanche Lincoln faces a challenger from the left, but is he any better on the environment?
Blanche Lincoln Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) is mounting a primary challenge against conservative Democrat Blanche Lincoln for the U.S. Senate seat she’s held for two terms. Environmentalists and progressives have it in for Lincoln, angry over her opposition to high-profile Democratic issues like a public option in health care and cap-and-trade. The Sierra […]
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When lobbyists cheer, the news can’t be good
As suspected, agribusiness is indeed turning cartwheels over the news that Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln is now chairman of the Senate Ag Committee. The public policy director for the retrograde American Farm Bureau told The Hill, “We couldn’t have handpicked a chairman better than this.” The giant sucking sound you’re hearing is agricultural reform rushing […]
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Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)
Mark Pryor Sen. Mark Pryor is a moderate who has voiced concerns in the past about passing climate policy, but has been relatively quiet this year. He is regularly listed among the Democrats most likely to oppose a climate bill. Pryor has expressed interest in increasing his state’s contribution in the biofuels sector, however, which […]
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Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.)
Blanche Lincoln Sen. Blanche Lincoln recently called the House climate and energy bill “a complete non-starter,” and pledged that the Senate would move more slowly in crafting legislation in order to address the concerns of specific legislators and regions. Lincoln’s own concerns include potential rises in energy costs and impacts on agriculture. She has also […]
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Sen. Blanche Lincoln on energy and climate legislation
Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln spoke about conservation at the National Wildlife Federation event in Denver this week. Since Lincoln is one of the cosponsors of the “Gang of 10” energy bill — a compromise that includes both investment in renewables and some offshore drilling — we caught up with her afterward to talk about […]
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Canada says no to ethanol waste as cow feed, and more
In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat industry. Back in January, a high USDA official made a pair of statements that say a lot about how we regulate industrial food production here in the United States. On the one hand, he admitted to a journalist that feeding cows high levels […]
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Their reasons aren’t all that unreasonable
Yesterday, I spoke to a group of manufacturers in Arkansas. Throughout the conference there was a fair amount of pride in the successful squashing of Bingaman's RPS bill -- and for reasons that are not entirely unreasonable.
Among the speakers was the chair of the Arkansas Energy Commission, who said that he personally objected to the bill because it was unfair. Specifically, it would not allow Arkansas to count their existing hydro-electric capacity in the RPS targets, but would allow existing wind to count. From his perspective, this looked like a sop to Bingaman's wind-rich home district, and while we might personally dispute this interpretation, it is easy to see how it could happen.
It is further proof for my earlier point that a path-based RPS is bound to fail, for the simple reason that you will never get a majority of states to agree that a wind/solar dominated RPS is in their interests. Change the structure so that it provides incentives for the goal rather than the path and you could break the southern opposition. There are more low-zero carbon fuels out there than are dreamt of in current RPS philosophies. If your state is long on biomass, bagasse, waste heat or wind, those should all be eligible -- not because we redefine our eligibility targets, but because we define the goal in terms of carbon reduction and then open up the door to any path that can get there.
Until then, we're not going to get an RPS. Note that the southern utilities are boasting about their success in killing this last one -- let's not give them more to crow about.
From Greenwire (sub. rqd.):
Southern utilities led effort to squash Senate RPS proposal
ATLANTA -- Southern utilities played key roles in the effort to undermine plans in the Senate last week to require power companies to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy. The fingerprints of the Tennessee Valley Authority and those of the Tennessee Valley Power Providers Association, whose members distribute TVA power to nearly 9 million customers in the South, were all over the successful effort to keep the so-called renewable portfolio standard (RPS) out of the sweeping Senate energy bill. -
Some farmers’ markets aren’t as local as you think
Kathy Webb stands in front of a group of 20 people in the dining room of her Asian restaurant, talking about locally grown food. As she describes how nearly all the ingredients in the five-course dinner she’s about to serve — from the tomatoes and herbs in the salad to the berries in the dessert […]
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How poultry producers are ravaging the rural South
A person driving through the South might notice the chicken houses dotting the hills and flatlands. He might marvel at the larger ones, as long as a football field. He might react to their gagging stench for a moment, and then forget as he travels on. But those who live near the structures — stuffed […]