Category Archives: politics

The surprisingly firm Supreme Court decision handed down this past Monday on the responsibility of the EPA to regulate CO2 tailpipe emissions is the big news in climate this week and probably this year. Let me bring you the decision and the links and sit with this ruling (pdf) and you for a minute orContinue reading “The Supremes Turn Green: Call for EPA Regulation of CO2 Emissions”

Huge news: the Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, rejects the do-nothing stance towards global warming of the Bush Administration, fully affirms the right of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, and in fact demands that the EPA show why they should not do so. The rulling was much moreContinue reading “Supreme Court to Bush Administration on Global Warming: Deal With It”

A complicated subject, well-navigated by Brian Beutler for the American Prospect. He asks: Is there a connection to be drawn between the reality of global warming and the wackiness of this past winter? Kevin Trenberth, a respected scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, has pioneered the research on the murkyContinue reading “The Limits of Emission Reduction Legislation”

Folks, I am so sorry I have been incommunicado for these past few days, especially since so much has been going on when it comes to climate change and the environment. (I’ve been working on a couple of stories, one related to drought, and the science has been daunting.) The good news is that AlContinue reading “Al Gore Praised, Even By Repubs”

When it comes to global warming, conservatism in this country is at a crossroads. Increasing numbers of business leaders, evangelicals, and conservative opinion-leaders are calling for action to reduce the risks associated with climate change, but the best-known conservatives continue to doubt the science of global warming, attack those who would act to reduce emissions,Continue reading “Global Warming Splits Conservatives”

For the first time since he came to the White House, the Current Occupant will tonight talk about what is popularly known as global warming. Soon we’ll have analyses of how serious the White House effort will be, but for now, the big question is: Will the Prez actually say the words "global warming?" OrContinue reading “Will it be Climate Change or Global Warming?”

Last year at about this time I took a poll among interested parties–such as Roger Pielke, Jr., Environmental Economics, Kevin Drum of Political Animal–to see if the Current Occupant of the White House would mention global warming. The consensus was unanimous: he would not. Indeed, he did not. A year later, rumors from London publishedContinue reading “What the Prez Will Say about Global Warming in the SOTU Address”

This is the headline we’ve been waiting for. From a story by Blaine Harden in the Washington Post: In West, Conservatives Emphasize the "Conserve" The can’t miss graph: Democratic and Republican politicians from New Mexico to Montana have found common ground with hunters and anglers in opposing widespread energy development on wild public lands, haltingContinue reading “Good News for the West”

A charming story yesterday in the LA Times by Faye Fiore looks at how an idealist named Jerry McNerney, unwanted by the Democratic Party, living off his savings, backed by over a thousand volunteers, defeated the "eco-thug" Richard Pombo, the notoriously anti-enviro Congressman from the Tracy area in CA, despite millions of dollars spent inContinue reading ““Eco-Thug” Loses to Idealist, Helped by President Bush”

Numerous, even countless, examples of the Bush administration’s eagerness to shove the global warming issue under the rug can be cited, but one of the most obvious has been its flat-out refusal to have NOAA file the decadal data, as required by the act that authorized the US Global Change Research Program. Yesterday John McCainContinue reading “McCain Challenges Bush Admin Official on Global Warming Data”