Skip to content
Grist home
All donations doubled!
  • 350 vs. 450: The heart of the matter

    There has never been a civic dispute as precisely quantified as climate. Most U.S. environmental organizations endorse the Waxman-Markey climate bill with the stated goal of keeping atmospheric greenhouse gases below 450 parts per million. The conservative position enunciated by Jim Hansen, advanced by Bill McKibben and 350.org, and endorsed by a handful of climate […]

  • 20 climate experts call for aggressive U.S. action

    A group of 20 U.S. climate scientists and experts sent an open letter to President Obama and members of Congress on Monday calling for aggressive action on climate change. The scientists say that the American Clean Energy and Security Act under discussion in the House marks a “powerful advance and must be enacted this year,” […]

  • DeFazio lambasts cap-and-trade

    Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) made one thing clear on Friday: he’s just not that into the cap-and-trade legislation under debate in the House. Peter DeFazio was first elected to the House in 1986. He represents Oregon’s 4th district in the southwestern part of the state.Courtesy Rep. DeFazioIn a speech in Portland, DeFazio decried the focus […]

  • U.S. is starting to make a down payment on funding international climate change efforts

    This past Wednesday (June 17, 2009) the Appropriations Subcommittee of the House of Representatives that has jurisdiction over the international global warming pieces of President Obama’s budget passed a bill that supported increasing US commitments to these needed efforts. The funding will make a “down payment” in helping developing countries deploy clean energy, reduce global […]

  • CBO: Waxman-Markey pollution cuts cost little

    This piece was co-written with Andrew Jakabovics, Associate Director for Housing and Economics at the Center for American Progress. Opponents of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, H.R. 2454, are acting like out-of-control auctioneers. They’re trying to defeat the bill by raising cost estimates for the bill’s clean-energy and global warming pollution reduction programs. […]

  • Climate bill negotiations stall in House

    What’s up with the climate bill? You know, the one that’s supposed to be voted on in the House next week? We’re wondering too! A report from one Capitol Hill newspaper suggests that negotiations have bogged down over the legislation’s provisions on agriculture, raising the question of whether the bill will actually get to the […]

  • Excellent National Wildlife Federation summary and “Toolbox Assessment” of Waxman-Markey

    The National Wildlife Federation has done an in-depth assessment, Climate Action Toolbox, of Waxman-Markey’s American Clean Energy and Security Act. Unlike other summaries, this analysis breaks ACES down from the perspective of the key federal policy elements needed to solve the climate crisis and build a clean energy future.  It examines the legislation from the […]

  • Dems ‘very close’ to a climate deal, White House to intensify push for bill, floor vote

    We are coming into the home stretch on the climate bill, and the key players are (finally) starting to step up their efforts. Politico reports: The Obama administration will make an intense push to pass climate and energy legislation next week, according to key lawmakers, aides and lobbyists. The “energy week” comes as the House […]

  • The Radioactivity of the Breakthrough Institute: lies, misstatements, and critically flawed analyses

    Once again, The Breakthrough Institute (TBI) and its founders Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus are lying about President Obama and publishing very bad analyses designed to push their anti-climate-action, anti-environmental agenda.  Their statements and analyses should be seen as a radioactive by any serious journalist or policy analyst protective of his or her professional reputation […]