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Author |
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Section |
Should the World Bank get the coal shoulder?
House ponders investment in multilateral clean tech fund; greens argue it isn't all that green |
Kate Sheppard |
11 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Last week, the House Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology (the HFCSDIMPTT for short) held a hearing about whether the United States should invest in a multilateral fund to support the deployment of clean energy technology in the developing world. There's been talk of World Bank investment in clean tech for years; now they're asking G8 nations to pony up. The hearing stemmed from a Bush administration p ... |
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| Topics: climate, Muckraker, news, politics, tech, World Bank (all these topics) |
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Renewed anxiety
Renewables industry fears for future if Senate doesn't extend tax credits |
Kate Sheppard |
10 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The Senate once again failed to pass tax-credit extensions for renewable energy on Tuesday, and folks in the industry are starting to get worried. Companies working in wind, solar, and other renewables rely on the tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Trade organizations that represent renewable-energy firms on the Hill say they're already seeing a slowing of growth in the sector because companies are hesitant to start new projects without the ... |
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| Topics: energy, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, renewable energy, US Senate (all these topics) |
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No renewal for renewables
Senate Republicans block movement on two bills to spur renewable energy investment |
Kate Sheppard |
10 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| With gas prices now averaging a record $4.04 a gallon in the United States, the Senate voted on two bills Tuesday that would have revoked tax breaks for Big Oil and extended tax credits to renewable energy. Proponents of the two measures touted them as vital for consumer relief and transition to new energy sources, but both measures failed to muster the 60 votes needed to proceed. The first vote, on the Consumer First Energy Act, fell short of cloture by a vote ... |
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| Topics: legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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In the clearing stands a Boxer
Boxer op-ed argues the Climate Security Act vote was a big step forward |
Kate Sheppard |
10 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) wrote an op-ed in today's San Jose Mercury News on the failed Climate Security Act that she championed in the Senate. In it, she argues that last week's vote was an important advancement. '[O]ur strong vote proves that we are moving in the right direction,' she writes. She also notes that other landmark environmental laws took quite a bit of time to pass: Our generation has been handed a tremendou ... |
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| Topics: Barbara Boxer, climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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Letter it all out
Swing-vote Democrats explain why they oppose the Climate Security Act |
Kate Sheppard |
09 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| On Friday, 10 Democratic senators wrote a letter [PDF] to Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) outlining the reasons why they would not have voted in favor of the Climate Security Act. Democratic leaders pulled the bill from the floor last week after it failed to muster enough votes to move forward. The senators who signed the letter are from key energy-producing and manufacturing states, and argue that the bill would impact their const ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US House of Representatives (all these topics) |
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Trouble in paradise?
McCain criticized during Florida trip for opposing funding for Everglades restoration |
Kate Sheppard |
09 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Visiting the Everglades has become de rigueur for presidential candidates hoping to shore up environmental cred in Florida, the nation's most populous swing state. But Republican presidential candidate John McCain's trip to the wetlands on Friday seemed to generate only bad publicity. Last year McCain opposed legislation that included funding for Everglades restoration and urged colleagues to let Bush's veto of the bill stand. And last week he didn't do a particul ... |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, elections, Florida, John McCain, Muckraker, news, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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Alien nation
Anti-immigrant groups hide agenda behind environmental concerns |
Kate Sheppard |
08 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Via Feministing, it appears a group of anti-immigration organizations are trying to cloak their agenda in environmental concerns. They took out this half-page ad in The New York Times last week (click for larger version): Here's the text: Americans spend a lot of time in their cars. Not because they want to. But because of massive traffic congestion. And almost daily gridlock. For many people, commutes to work and school and daycare can take up to three hours a ... |
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| Topics: advertising, Muckraker, population (all these topics) |
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Special interested
Top Senate recipients of fossil-fuel money behind climate-bill stall tactics |
Kate Sheppard |
06 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The good folks over at Muckety.com (maybe we're long-lost cousins ...) put together an awesome interactive map detailing the connections between the fossil-fuel industries and some of the folks behind the death of climate legislation in the Senate this week. Check it out: muckMapWidth='645'; muckMapHeight='500'; muckMapCtx='http://www.muckety.com/Java'; muckMapProps={restore:'373C5F82BB5B7B482452879A36FA3E0C.map',autoGroup:'7,11'}; Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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Week not a total wash for environmental action in the Senate
Budget resolution includes funds to clean up nuclear sites |
Kate Sheppard |
06 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Apparently the Senate actually accomplished something this week in the environmental realm: the 2009 federal budget resolution that passed 48-45 on Wednesday included $500 million for a Department of Energy environmental management program to clean up Hanford and other nuclear sites across the country. Hanford is the decommissioned nuclear-weapons complex along the Columbia River in Washington state that manufactured the plutonium used in the first nuclear bomb. I ... |
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| Topics: Muckraker, news, politics, toxics, US Senate, waste (all these topics) |
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Shenanigans in the House
Republicans try to stoke Dem discord on climate legislation in the House |
Kate Sheppard |
06 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Amidst the chaos in the Senate over climate legislation, Rep. Ed Markey introduced his climate legislation in the House on Thursday. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio), hoping to take advantage of apparent disarray within the Democratic Party, has dared Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to push Markey's bill to the floor. He wrote a letter (PDF) to the speaker calling the bill 'reckless and inappropriate,' but urging her to take it to the floor in hopes o ... |
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| Topics: climate, Ed Markey, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US House of Representatives (all these topics) |
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An inhospitable climate
Climate Security Act dies, failing to muster enough votes to move forward |
Kate Sheppard |
06 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The Senate held a cloture vote this morning to bring to a close debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, a vote that would have allowed the amendment process to begin. After four days of conversation and delays, the bill died, failing to reach the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture by a vote of 48-36. Unable to move forward, Democratic leadership yanked the bill from the floor. In a press conference following the vote, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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For whatever it's worth
A list of strengthening amendments to the climate bill that will probably never be introduced |
Kate Sheppard |
05 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In all likelihood, these will never be formally introduced on the Senate floor, but here's a list of the strengthening amendments to the Climate Security Act that various senators have floated:Renewable Electricity Standard, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): This amendment would require that states generate at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Scientific Review, John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine): ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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Vangelism
Q&A with Van Jones about the Climate Security Act and green jobs |
Kate Sheppard |
05 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Van Jones. What does the green jobs and justice community think about the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act? To get one perspective, Grist caught up with Van Jones, the founder of Green For All, a group that promotes green-jobs policies and environmental justice. Jones, a civil-rights lawyer and the founder and former executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, has become a leading voice for building a green economy. Green for All pu ... |
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| Topics: climate, environmental movement, heroes, hotties, interview, legislation, Muckraker, Van Jones (all these topics) |
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Udall the right moves
Senate race takes shape in New Mexico |
Kate Sheppard |
05 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This got lost in the flap over the Climate Security Act yesterday, but via Politico, on Tuesday night Rep. Steve Pearce narrowly won the Republican Senate primary in New Mexico. He beat out Rep. Heather Wilson by a margin of 51 to 49 percent in the contest to see who will replace GOP Sen. Pete Domenici, who is retiring for health reasons. Wilson was seen as the more moderate of the two candidates, though she has an overwhelmingly negative voting record in the House ... |
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| Topics: elections, Muckraker, New Mexico, news, politics, state politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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Senate all before
GOP leaders resort to high jinks to stall climate bill |
Kate Sheppard |
05 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Republican leaders essentially shut down the Senate Wednesday during what was supposed to be a time of debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, forcing clerks to read the entire 492-page bill aloud. Republicans said the maneuver -- which sucked up nine hours -- was a protest against the Democratic majority's slow pace in considering President Bush's judicial nominations. By the time the reading wrapped up near 10 p.m. last night, Majority Lead ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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Plane dealer
McCain asks Obama to plane-pool to joint town-hall meetings |
Kate Sheppard |
04 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Now that Barack Obama has the Democratic presidential nomination in the bag, John McCain says he wants to get the general election rolling. This morning, McCain invited Obama to join him for 10 town-hall-style meetings throughout the summer. In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, McCain said the 'old-fashioned, traditional town-hall meeting' would 'change the debate in America.' McCain says he'd like to ride-share (might one call this 'plane-pooling'? ... |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, elections, John McCain, Muckraker, news, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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Stalled
Will the Senate ever get to constructive (or destructive) debate on climate bill? |
Kate Sheppard |
04 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he won't allow floor debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act to extend beyond next week, according to an article in E&E Daily ($ub. req'd) today. 'If we don't finish it next week, then it means something has gone wrong,' he's quoted as saying. But at an earlier press conference, he told reporters, 'I want to be patient and try to get as much done as soon as we can. If we arrive at a point where w ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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Delay, delay
Senate GOP delays climate debate still further by forcing clerk to read Boxer amendment |
Kate Sheppard |
04 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Today in Senate action on the Climate Security Act, Republicans are forcing the clerk to read the entirety of the Boxer substitute amendment [PDF], claiming they haven't had enough time to read it yet. It's 157 pages long. Boxer, of course, protested, but her appeal was rejected. The clerk's been reading for an hour already. Oh wait, they had to switch clerks because the first one got tired ... Wait, now they're on to a third clerk ... UPDATE: Apparently they' ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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James and the giant lie
Oklahoma senator makes stuff up, wastes time in climate change debate |
Kate Sheppard |
04 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the Senate's leading climate change denier, had plenty of kooky and alarmist things to say in yesterday's debate over climate change legislation. Think Progress has video of one of his wing-nuttiest contributions to the discussion, in which he lies about Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, and the IPCC: Yep, the same IPCC that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Gore. |
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| Topics: An Inconvenient Truth, climate, climate change skepticism, insanity, IPCC, James Inhofe, Muckraker, news, Oklahoma, politics (all these topics) |
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Obama wins enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination
Obama claims nomination, but Clinton says she's not going anywhere yet |
Kate Sheppard |
03 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Photo: wfiupublicradio Barack Obama secured enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, passing the threshold of 2,118 needed to become the party's candidate. 'Because you chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations, tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another -- a journey that will bring a new and better day to America,' Obama said in his victory s ... |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, elections, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Muckraker, news, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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Creeping toward productive conversation
Senate begins debate on Lieberman-Warner climate bill -- sort of |
Kate Sheppard |
03 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| After last night's cloture vote, Senate Republicans asked for 30 hours before legislatively productive debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act could begin. That means they spent all of today kibitzing about climate legislation without any progress toward amending or voting. Joe Romm has been live-blogging all day over on Climate Progress, and I've also been following the action so you don't have to (you'll thank me). Here's the top CSA news of the day, ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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Who's protecting us from the gays?
Conservative Christian group outraged that Congress is distracted by climate change |
Kate Sheppard |
03 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In today's daily action alert from the Family Research Council, President Tony Perkins bemoans the fact that the Senate is wasting time talking about climate change when the gays are still running around getting married willy-nilly: Now, fresh off a holiday weekend in which most families paid $4 a gallon to drive to neighborhood barbecues, American patience has worn thin. Imagine the frustration this week, as Congress returned to work -- not on judges, marriage, or ... |
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| Topics: climate, insanity, legislation, Muckraker, politics, religion and spirituality, US Senate (all these topics) |
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A taste of the fight ahead
GOP circulating at least 90 weakening amendments to Climate Security Act |
Kate Sheppard |
03 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Senate Republicans are already circulating at least 90 amendments that would weaken the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Here's a complete list of those we know about already, including measures that would add nuclear subsidies, lower emissions targets, and introduce a safety valve. And fight is only just beginning ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, shenanigans, US Senate (all these topics) |
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Opening another door?
As GM announces plant closings, Obama touts green jobs |
Kate Sheppard |
03 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| General Motors Corp. announced this morning that it is closing its Janesville, Wis., assembly plant, which produces SUVs and pickup trucks, along with three other North American plants that churn out gas-guzzlers. CEO Rick Wagoner says it's because the company is moving toward more fuel-efficient vehicles, as fewer Americans are buying big automobiles these days. The Janesville plant will be ending production of medium-duty trucks by the end of 2009, and bigger truc ... |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, Big Auto, business, cars, Muckraker, news, politics (all these topics) |
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Rallying for the Climate Security Act
Boxer and friends rally in park for climate bill |
Kate Sheppard |
02 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) hosted a press conference in a park outside the Capitol this afternoon to rally support for the Climate Security Act. Standing on a podium alongside other senators as well as reps from several green groups, religious organizations, labor unions, and businesses, Boxer called the bill 'long overdue.' Lieberman noted that climate change is 'another one of those challenges where the people are way a ... |
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| Topics: Barbara Boxer, climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics) |
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