Joe Lieberman

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.

Breaking the wall of climate opposition

The Senate has taken Americans on an energy and climate roller coaster over the past year as Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and others attempted to craft legislation that would increase investment in clean energy while cutting global

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.

Senate oil savings’ greatest hits

Is Congress moving us toward a fuel-efficient future? Plug-in hybrid electric cars could be the cars of tomorrow.Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory Oil, oil, everywhere, but not a drop for fuel. This is the stark view of Gulf Coast residents who see a 24,500 square mile oil slick menacing their shores. The devastating BP […]

The real options for U.S. climate policy

The time has not yet come to throw in the towel regarding the possible enactment in 2010 of meaningful economy-wide climate change policy (such as that found in the Waxman-Markey legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June, 2009, or the more recent Kerry-Lieberman proposal in the Senate). Meaningful action of some kind […]

EPA modeling shows American Power Act brings economic and climate benefits

This post was co-authored by Richard W. Caperton. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) released analysis today of their American Power Act, or APA, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s analysis definitively demonstrates that we can reduce our carbon pollution and jumpstart the clean energy economy at a very small cost […]

Study finds American Power Act creates jobs while decreasing household costs

Cross-posted from NRDC’s Switchboard A new analysis of the American Power Act (APA), comprehensive climate and energy legislation released mid-May by Sens. Kerry and Lieberman, points to an economy with healthy growth in GDP and jobs, and significant savings in household energy expenditures. The analysis uses a new and highly innovative tool developed by McKinsey […]

Will the new climate bill damage U.S. energy security?

This piece was co-authored by Michael A. Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations. Few groups have been more strident in their opposition to cap-and-trade legislation than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Last year, four prominent members of the powerful business lobby, including Exelon Corp. and Pacific Gas & Electric, quit on account of its […]

Battle of the carbon titans

As summer approaches, so do the action-fantasy movies. Last week, the venue was not the local cineplex, but another location noted for outlandish egos, special effects, and scripts that require substantial amounts of imagination to fill in the gaps — Washington D.C. Two titans of the wars to tackle climate change and modernize the nation’s […]