elections
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California rejects shady Proposition 16
California voters yesterday swatted down the state’s misguided Proposition 16, which is a glimmer of good news for clean-energy expansion. The proposal was basically a market-share protection plan for the large utility PG&E; it would have made it more difficult for more ambitious, green-minded municipalities to create or expand their own public power services. The […]
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‘Green’ California utility PG&E attacks local renewables
California’s largest electricity provider — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. — has gotten some understandable love from the environmental world recently. It’s part of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an enviro/business alliance calling for a national climate plan. It told off (and quit) the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for hating all over clean energy and […]
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Rand Paul’s Copenhagen rant and other election notes
Climate and energy issues barely registered in this month’s primary coverage, but Rand Paul (son of Ron) saw fit to take on the Copenhagen climate talks after becoming the Republican Senate candidate in Kentucky last night. “We have a president who went to Copenhagen and appeared with Robert Mugabe, Hugo Chávez and others — Evo […]
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Brits are aghast at us Yankee “greens”
U.K. farm owner, “eco-dwelling” builder, and Grist reader JRWoodman offers some perspective on the apparently greenish platform of the new Conservative-LibDem coalition government: The UK’s Conservative party springs out of the old families that lived in stately homes in the countryside and enjoyed country pursuits. To this day if you look at an electoral map […]
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How green is the U.K.’s new government?
Prime Minister David Cameron (right) and deputy Nick Clegg, BFFsPrime Minister’s OfficeBritain’s got a new prime minister, Conservative David Cameron; a new deputy prime minister, Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg; and an odd new governing coalition kludged together with both of their parties. The new government has released its platform, saying “The parties agree to implement […]
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BP’s donations to Congress are more worrying than its donations to Obama
The Sunlight Foundation reports on the slick of BP money that’s already spread far and wide through the American political system. The oil and gas giant is a major campaign contributor, giving more than $6 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years. President Obama has received the most — $77,051 — which might […]
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Each party has a clean-energy plan in U.K. election
Conservative Party’s “Vote blue, go green” logo.The United Kingdom holds its general election in two weeks, and Jeremy Lovell of Climatewire runs down the plans of the three largest parties for tackling climate change and switching to a low-carbon economy. The plans are all imperfect, but they all exist. The U.K. Conservatives don’t deny climate […]
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St. Louis votes for better transit, despite Tea Party campaign
Here’s some good news: St. Louis citizens want robust mass transit, and they’re willing to pay for it. Despite a Tea Party opposition campaign, St. Louis County voters on Tuesday approved a half-cent sales tax increase to stabilize and eventually expand the region’s ailing transit network. The measure passed by a monstrous 24 point margin. […]
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Health care, climate, and the progressive movement
The last week or so has been the right-wingers-at-town-hall-meetings moment, and it looks like it’s going to be supplemented by something similar but different: rallies organized by fossil-fuel-supporting corporations in the states of Texas, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Colorado, Tennessee, Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Florida, South Carolina, Alaska, Illinois, West Virginia, […]