Barack Obama

Fulfilling his promise as the green FDR

One year after his election, Obama on verge of audaciously fulfilling his promise as the green FDR 1
Posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago What team Obama has accomplished in the year since he was elected is nothing less than an unprecedented reversal of decades of unsustainable national policy forced down the throat of the American public by conservatives.
pressure cooker

Obama urges climate action as Europe ups pressure on U.S. 3
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago President Obama on Tuesday said it was "imperative to redouble our efforts" to combat global warming, as European leaders pressed Washington to take action on climate change ahead of next month's summit in Copenhagen.
common but differentiated despondencies

Rich countries halt Barcelona climate talks with inaction; Africa walks out 4
Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago African negotiators at the U.N. climate talks in Barcelona refused to continue formal discussions about all other issues until wealthy countries live up to their legal and moral responsibility to commit to deep emissions reductions.
Obama launches climate push with December goal 0
Posted 1 month ago U.S. President Barack Obama's Senate allies launched a major push Tuesday behind sweeping legislation to battle climate change, with time running short before a high-stakes global summit in December.
President Obama announces $3.4 billion investment to spur transition to smart energy grid 0
Posted 1 month ago As the Senate debates the Kerry-Boxer climate bill in Washington, President Obama travelled to Arcadia, Florida to announce a $3.4 billion investment in to modernize the U.S. energy grid. Grist shares the official White House press release on the president’s new smart grid proposal.
Open Letter from a Coal River resident

Dear Mr. President: We face a national security threat on Coal River Mountain 2
Posted 1 month ago I write to you in a moment of urgency. In your address at MIT last week, you told students that the “Pentagon has declared our dependence on fossil fuels to be a security threat.” Here in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, our mountain communities face a security threat that calls for immediate federal intervention.
Obama speaks on climate action from MIT 0
Posted 1 month ago
Obama says ‘It’s hard to say’ why critics of clean energy accuse him of socialism 1
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago The current system has reaped great rewards for the ultra-wealthy and the industrial polluters at the expense of the health and welfare of their fellow Americans. To avoid blame for their malfeasance, they must paint Obama as the villain, and his essential reform agenda as even scarier than the status quo, with language that taps into the darkest fears of the American public.
Pretty words

Obama energy speech contained few policy specifics, but shaped forward-looking narrative 1
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Obama 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.
headless horsemen of the bureaucracy

Is anyone in charge of food safety? 1
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago The fact that there remains no one in charge of food safety at the USDA has become a sick sort of joke among food policy types.
Obama talks climate change 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Letter from Europe

From Oslo to Copenhagen: Earning the Peace Prize 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago Could Barack Obama's controversial Nobel Prize help bring about an effective global agreement to tackle climate change? Could the American president, by heading straight to Denmark after collecting his prize, actually demonstrate why he was the right pick for the honor within days of delivering his laureate address?
The Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate, and a gym rat walk into a bar ...

Three faces of hope for climate change 3
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago After meetings with the Dalai Lama, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and President Barack Obama, Rep. Jay Inslee is brimming with optimism about our climate future. Find out why.
interpretating the news

Obama’s Nobel: What it means for greens 5
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago Dip a toe into the Nobel Peace Prize news and next thing you’re drowning in commentary. Here’s an attempt to distill what it means for greens, by which I mean the types of people who rely on air, water, soil, and other naturey elements.
Ticket to Copenhagen?

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize 5
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago Barack Obama becomes the third sitting U.S. president to win the coveted prize. Thanks to his initiative, said the Nobel Committee, “the USA is now playing a more constructive role” in global efforts to confront climate change.
Letter from Europe

On climate, leading from the front (for a change) 6
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago Something unusual seems to be happening in the struggle to wake the world up to the reality of climate change. Almost unprecedented for an environmental issue, national leaders appear to be out ahead of public opinion in their respective countries.
These boots were made for cutting carbon

Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz on the new corporate push for climate action 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago Jeff Swartz belongs to a coalition of businesses that is lobbying congress and the administration to pass climate legislation.
Obama antes up

Carbon poker 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago I had a dream about watching one of those high stakes poker games that you see on TV. Barack Obama and Hu Jintao were at the table, each with so many chips before them that you could barely see their cowboy shirts. But the purpose in their deadly stares could not be obscured, even by the dark Ray Bans that shaded their eyes.
The details plus Obama and Gore statements

Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act 0
Posted 2 months ago Joe Romm offers up some key details on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.
Obama is going to Copenhagen to push Chicago’s Olympic bid this week 0
Posted 2 months ago