Ben Nelson
-
Senate Republicans filibuster to protect oil-industry subsidies — after getting gusher of oil money
Cross-posted from Think Progress. On Tuesday night, Republicans in the Senate filibustered the majority’s attempt to repeal $21 billion in subsidies for the big five oil companies — the same companies that made over $30 billion in profits in just the first three months of 2011. While three out of four Americans believe ExxonMobil and […]
-
Recently elected Dem senators want more 'fight’ for green economy
In a series of interviews with the Wonk Room at Netroots Nation, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) described the challenges of confronting climate pollution in the sclerotic legisla
-
Watch oiled politicians get the scrubdown and other spill-inspired ads
Sure, a bird dripping oil is a powerful image. But if you want your political spot to pack a punch, you gotta take it to the next level — say, a politician dripping oil. The Gulf spill, in a perverse way, has been a godsend for the makers of campaign ads — nothing says an […]
-
The Murkowski Resolution is a political assault on science
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The Senate is now debating Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) resolution to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific finding, mandated by the Supreme Court, that manmade greenhouse gases endanger the American public. This is nothing less than a crass political attempt to defuse an existential threat by pretending it does not […]
-
Ben Nelson’s logically incoherent stance on cap-and-trade
Cross-posted from The Wonk Room. There seems to be something about climate policy that encourages senators to take positions that are logically impossible. In the latest instance, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has now managed to simultaneously oppose and support a carbon command-and-control regime. Nelson is one of three Democrats to co-sponsor Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Ark.) […]
-
Cap-and-trade death knell, revisited and revised
I have been scolded by several progressive green friends for my post on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s comments on cap-and-trade. I should admit up front that “death knell” was a bit dramatic on my part; generally speaking, it’s better never to draw big conclusions from the kind of lazy reporting done by the likes of The […]
-
Is there going to be a bipartisan climate, energy security, clean air and clean energy jobs bill thi
I wouldn’t want to mislead readers into thinking that it will be easy to get a climate bill this year. Fundamentally, the politicians simply don’t understand the urgency on the climate science side, and they don’t understand it is a winning political issue with both progressives and independents in every single poll — unlike, […]
-
Time to bust the filibuster
I have been one among many in the progressive world trying to draw more attention to the dysfunctions of the U.S. Senate, in particular the now-routine use of the filibuster, which has put a default 60-vote requirement on legislation that amounts to a fundamental change in U.S. governance — and not a positive change. It […]
-
Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) [UPDATED]
Ben Nelson Sen. Ben Nelson doesn’t believe a cap-and-trade climate bill can pass Congress this session, he said on Oct. 30 — and he doesn’t intend to do anything to help it. “I haven’t been able to sell that argument to my farmers, and I don’t think they’re going to buy it from anybody else,” […]