Kerry-Boxer bill
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Kerry-Boxer bill will cut the deficit; Will ‘fiscal conservatives’ sign on?
The Congressional Budget Office — the arbiter of the federal budget impact of all legislation — just released an analysis that the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, S. 1733, … would reduce budget deficits (or increase future surpluses) by about $21 billion over the 2010-2019 period … In years after 2019, direct spending […]
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Counting the world’s capacity for emission reductions
Delegates in Copenhagen are struggling through the difficult start of the second week of talks, with charges and counter-charges that one party or another is not doing their part to save the planet and the future of humanity thick on the ground. This is not atypical in the history of the U.N. climate meetings, but […]
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What to make of the Cantwell/Collins CLEAR Act
Maria Cantwell Last week saw two interesting developments in the ongoing saga of the U.S. Senate’s struggle with a climate/energy bill. First, Sens. John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman released the framework for the bill they’re working on, which basically amounts to the bill the House and the Senate Environment committee passed plus a […]
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Cantwell’s cap-and-trade bill: almost genius
Sen. Maria Cantwel (D-Wash.)To borrow Dave Eggers’ book title, the novel approach to cap and trade proposed by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Genius, because it is an innovative plan to create a best-case version of cap and trade. And heartbreaking, because by design and by omission it undermines […]
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Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman release framework for Senate climate/energy bill
Sens. Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman held a press conference today to discuss the framework they’re developing for a clean energy bill that can get to 60 votes in the Senate early next year. (Audio here.) Obviously the event was timed to have an impact in Copenhagen. Both Kerry and Lieberman said explicitly that their intent […]
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Susan Collins (R-Maine) [UPDATED]
Susan Collins Though Sen. Susan Collins seems supportive of climate legislation, she remains a toss-up in the debate over the Kerry-Boxer bill. In this letter sent to a constituent in early December, she calls for “meaningful action” to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, while saying that solutions must be “reasonable”: Dear [Constituent], Thank you for contacting me […]
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As Copenhagen kicks off, a Good News roundup
The fashionable narrative about climate politics in American media is deflationist: nobody cares about climate any more because of some emails, the Senate clean energy bill is doomed because of the economy, and the Copenhagen climate talks will end in failure because of intractable differences between developed and developing nations. It gets old. Just for […]
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Graham says Obama has his back on climate bill
Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power […]
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Senator Byrd stunner:
Change has been a constant throughout the history of our coal industry. West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or resist and be overrun by it. One thing is clear. The time has arrived for the people of the Mountain State to think long and hard about which course they want […]