Rahm Emanuel

Chicago goes coal-free

Activists have succeeded in getting Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to shut down the city’s two coal plants — one of them by the end of the year. That doesn’t mean the city is off coal power entirely, of course, but banishing coal plants from within the city limits will have a massive effect on urban […]

Spandex wars: Chicago bike critic looks crappy in tights

Photo: Steven VanceThe two-wheeled revolution has arrived in the Windy City, thanks to its bike-loving mayor, Rahm Emanuel. (Finally, a way to describe the man without calling him a potty mouth!) During his campaign, Emanuel pledged to build 100 miles of new separated bike lanes within five years. The first of them went in this summer. […]

Rahm Emanuel decides public employees must use public transit

Employees of the city of Chicago are going to have to get used to taking the bus and the subway. Starting next year, they’ll have to use public transit, unless they have a really good excuse and are down for filling out a lot of paper work. Whose idea was this? Mayor Rahm Emanuel, of course.

Rahmbo doesn't want city employees on official business to take their personal cars or #*(%&@ cabs. They're public employees; they'll take *#@%(& public transit!

This isn’t just for green reasons; it’s also because Chicago -- surprise! -- is totally corrupt. 

States fight back against nuclear power, even as the feds remain in its thrall

This is part three in a series on the United States and nuclear power. Read parts one, two, and four. Although Democrats and Republicans in Congress feed at the nuclear industry’s trough in equal measure, Republicans in particular have been trying hard for years to bring about a renaissance of nuclear power in the United States. […]

Will Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s new mayor, deal with the city’s coal pollution problem?

Will new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel get tough on coal?Photo: Daniel X. O’NeillChicago has a major coal problem. The city’s Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants, which have been operating for nearly 100 years and were rebuilt more than 40 years ago, were grandfathered in under the 1970 Clean Air Act amendments. The assumption at […]

Will Richard Daley, Chicago’s outgoing ‘green’ mayor, help quash coal pollution?

Will Richard Daley’s last month in office be marred by two old coal plants?Photo: Kate GardinerCross-posted from Midwest Energy News. A long-stalled Chicago ordinance that could force the city’s two aging coal-burning power plants to greatly reduce emissions or shut down now has enough backing to pass at the city council’s next meeting. But proponents […]

Rahm Emanuel could be f**king great for America’s cities

Rahm Emanuel as mayor of Chicago? This is going to be f**king great.Photo: Adam FagenSo can the bull-headed, bare-knuckled, notoriously foul-mouthed Rahm Emanuel help save America’s cities? In May, the former Obama chief of staff will be sworn in (and yes, his ex-boss has made that joke) as mayor of Chicago. And the nation’s mayors […]

The climate bill in six acts

The last two years saw the protracted death of climate change legislation. Here, in an exclusive new comic, we tell the sordid tale.

The failed presidency of Barack Obama, Part 1

Obama's legacy -- and indeed the legacy of all 21st century presidents -- will be determined primarily by whether we avert catastrophic climate change. And if Obama is not going to use the biggest fossil fuel disaster in U.S. history to push for serious climate action when he has the biggest Democratic majorities he is ever going to see, why on Earth would he try under far worse political conditions?