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  • Lindsey Graham rebukes fellow Republicans: ‘The green economy is coming’

    Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. While other Senate Republicans led by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) boycott action on the climate crisis, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has chosen a leadership role. In a press conference today with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the author of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, and Sen. Joe Lieberman […]

  • Senators opposed to Clean Energy Jobs Act are ignoring bill’s benefits to Americans — Part 1

    On Nov. 3, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is scheduled to begin debate and vote on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (CEJAPA), sponsored by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). At this writing it appears that the committee’s Republican members plan to boycott the debate and votes, thus […]

  • Sen. Kerry to youth on climate bill: We’re gonna need your help

    When John Kerry speaks, the kids listen up.Photo: Cliff1066 via Flickr Creative CommonsOn a conference call Tuesday night with young climate activists, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) served up several newsy tidbits, starting with his hint that sort-of climate news will come out of President Obama’s upcoming trip to China and that getting a bill through […]

  • WWLD: What Would Lincoln Do?

    Dear President Obama, cc: Sen. Kerry, Rep. Markey Our nation faces the gravest threat to our security and well being and the most profound moral challenge since the great struggle to end slavery. We were blessed, then, to be led by another tall, slim politician from Illinois. However, the terrible prospect of climate cataclysm, though […]

  • Kerry smacks down Inhofe’s lies about the cost of climate policy

    At today’s hearing on the Kerry-Boxer bill, Sen. Inhofe (R-Okla.) was spouting the usual lies about the high cost of the policy. Kerry responded: That’s good, but he could have said so much more. Even with those shortcomings of economic models, the costs turn out to be “modest,” in CBO chief Doug Elmendorf’s words. For […]

  • Senate digs into climate bill at hearings this week

    Barbara Boxer (at podium) and John Kerry (tall guy in blue tie) introduce their climate bill.Photo: Sierra ClubThe Senate moves into its last day of hearings on the climate bill that Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduced on Sept. 30. The Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Boxer, has been […]

  • Sampling the competing flavors of the Senate climate debate

    When it comes to the debate over climate and energy legislation, there are those in Congress and business for whom any bill will always be too much, and there are lawmakers and environmental groups for whom no bill will ever be tough enough. In between the two extremes, there are the middle paths, variously labeled […]

  • Obama energy speech contained few policy specifics, but shaped forward-looking narrative

    Obama speaking on clean energy in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium. Photo: Dominick ReuterObama delivered a speech on energy at MIT on Friday, marking the kick-off for what is likely to be a protracted effort by the administration and Democrats in the Senate to pass the Kerry-Boxer clean energy bill. Those hoping for policy substance or firm […]

  • Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

    Lindsey GrahamSen. Lindsey Graham has stepped up to become the leading Republican advocate of a bipartisan climate bill.  In a New York Times op-ed on Oct. 11, Graham joined with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to put forward a framework for climate legislation that they say can pass Congress and become “the blueprint for a clean-energy […]