E2’s Recent Comments

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  I spoke to a lobbyist who had an interesting perspective that aligns well with your analysis about Dems from McCain-carried districts voting against it. He said the vote was so close because it could be so close. The Dems knew exactly the number of votes they needed, given the number of Republicans they knew would vote for it. They didn't need 240 votes, they only needed 219, and since it is such a politically charged issue, the Dems from red districts had a lot at stake and potentially more to lose politically for voting for it than against it. So they hung back and watched how the vote went, and as soon as there were 219 votes for it, they knew it had passed and could protect themselves politically with their constituency by voting against it, while knowing their vote would not change the outcome. 

  While we environmentalists may have prefered a more comfortable margin and a more resounding support of climate protection measures regardless of concerns for upcoming elections, politics is politics and the game must be played.

  On Analysis of Waxman-Markey vote from around the web posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago 3 Responses

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  Not Greenwash, and Re: Consultants...

  Re: Consultants...

  Yes, the advisors to the process did include some coal companies, as well as Environmental Defense and NRDC - it's called collaborative stakeholder engagement. You need to give all voices a seat at the table to reach a workable stop gap measure until the US government steps up to the plate.

  and Re: Greenwashing claims

  Of course this is not a cure to all coal's ills, but it's also not greenwash. It's a concrete first step, and I think we should applaud the banks for stepping up and forcing coal companies to internalize the cost of carbon, in the absence of any governmental requirement to do so.

  Baby steps!On Three Wall Street banks announce funding restrictions for new coal power plants posted 1 year, 9 months ago 20 Responses

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  Oberlin 2020

  So far as I know, Oberlin was the first college to pledge to go carbon neutral back in 2000, however they made a goal to achieve that by 2020, so COA may have them beat on the (more important) second claim of achieving carbon neutrality, if not the first claim of pledging to do so.

  Read more: www.oberlin.edu/epig/ On Colleges around the country take green steps posted 1 year, 11 months ago 2 Responses