Barack Obama
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Obama lays down plans for high-speed rail
The Obama administration has big plans to create a “world-class passenger rail system” across the country, the president announced this morning. “What we need … is a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century,” said Obama. “A system that reduces travel times and increases mobility. A system that reduces congestion and […]
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Legislators from around the world meet to discuss climate policy
Senior legislators from 17 countries met in Washington, D.C., on Monday to discuss their role in shaping climate action plans as world leaders continue to hash out the details of a new international climate treaty. The Global Legislators Organization (GLOBE) is hosting an International Commission on Climate Change and Energy Security summit, which comes just […]
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Obama calls for climate summit of the world’s biggest polluters
President Obama on Saturday announced that the United States is initiating a Major Economies Forum that will focus on energy and climate change, an attempt to bring the world’s biggest polluters together to discuss a path forward. “The Major Economies Forum will facilitate a candid dialogue among key developed and developing countries, help generate the […]
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The battle for control of Eurasia will shape the new world order
This is a guest post by Pepe Escobar, the roving correspondent for Asia Times and an analyst for the Real News. This article draws from his new book, Obama does Globalistan. He may be reached at pepeasia AT yahoo.com. This post was originally published at TomDispatch, and it is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. […]
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Reducing emissions isn’t an economy killer
I am a little boggled by this comment in the New Yorker, by David Owen. It’s written from the perspective of someone who seems to be bothered by the threat of climate change, but who repeatedly makes the exact argument embraced by power and oil companies everywhere — slow climate change if you will, but […]
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Obama picks climate, oil expert David Sandalow to oversee U.S. energy policy
President Obama has picked David Sandalow to be assistant secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the Energy Department. He also plans to nominate BP chief scientist Steven Koonin to be undersecretary for Science. And I hear that renewables expert and UC Berkeley professor Dan Kammen (PDF) is on the short list for assistant secretary […]
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Obama tells business leaders he’s serious about changing energy policy
Obama spoke on Thursday to the Business Roundtable, whose members include the leaders of energy giants like ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, Southern Company, Peabody Energy Corporation, and Arch Coal. Message: Yes, we’re serious about this green energy thing. But the truth is that these problems in the financial markets, as acute and urgent as they are, […]
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WSJ: hacks and handout-seekers hate O's climate plan
Environmental Capital reports that Obama's approach to climate change legislation is foundering, because it's tied to an ambitious social agenda. Which is weird, because Obama's cap-and-trade proposal isn't tied to an ambitious social agenda.
Many Democrats are upset that President Obama's budget earmarks most of the $646 billion in cap-and-trade revenue for generic tax cuts and to help fund other programs, rather than for specific help to cushion the blow of increased climate regulation.
This is a bit tricky to parse, but it helps if you understand that the word "earmark" here is used to mean "the opposite of an earmark." Congresscritters want the money from cap-and-trade for projects in their own states (green infrastructure, vote-buying, what-have-you), and Obama wants to return most of it to taxpayers.
So where is this "ambitious health and social welfare agenda" stuff coming from? For that, we are referred to Bush-era EPA official and liar G. Tracy Mehan, III. Mehan has penned a fairly boring article in which he runs down the usual pros and cons of various flavors of carbon taxation, and then concludes:
