legislation

Illinois is on track to go where no push for hydraulic fracturing has gone before in the U.S.: a consensus on how to regulate the controversial practice of fracking.[read more]

Another day, another cunning PR move by the federal Conservative government. Just days before the G20 summit in Toronto, and after much criticism about being inactive on the environment and climate-change policy in particular, Canada’s Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced plans to regulate coal-fired power generation in the...[read more]

Talking about the Gulf oil disaster in a speech last week at Carnegie Mellon University, President Obama said we need an energy-and-climate bill because the only way the transition to clean energy will ultimately succeed is if the private sector is fully invested in this future — if capital comes off the sidelines and the ingenuity of...[read more]

Dear Energy Collective Readers, Just thought you might like to know why you haven't seen anything from me in the past two weeks.  I am both regretful and happy to report that I won't be able to write for The Energy Collective anymore (or for The American Spectator or The Infrastructuralist or Platts or any of the other blogs I...[read more]

Apparently Henry Waxman (D-CA) has sold both Harry Reid (D-NV) and the White House on the strategy of having a mega-bill that combines climate and energy legislation. This post explains why I believe that is both a tactical and strategic mistake. E&E News PM (subs. req’d) reports tonight: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)...[read more]

A NYTimes editorial today decries the Senate's ineptitude in grappling with the nation's energy crisis.Of course, the NYTimes is right--the competing nostrums offered by Democrats and Republicans are equally misguided. Neither opening new areas to drilling or a crusade against mostly imaginary speculators is going to have a significant...[read more]

I said I wasn't going to update until Wednesday, but have a little free time this morning. Imagine my surprise to read this headline today:Senate Democrats offer deal to break energy bill standstillTurns out they are proposing the same deal that I proposed in my essay from last week on coming to a compromise on the drilling question:...[read more]

I have long maintained that the root of our energy problems in the U.S. stems from our failure to enact a consistent, long-term energy policy. Big energy projects generally take years to complete, and when there is an extra risk that the government will change the rules halfway through the project, companies are going to take a very...[read more]

Bloomberg: Poll respondents pin most of the blame for the 35 percent surge in gas prices over the last year on President George W. Bush, according to the poll. Almost 3 in 10 singled out Bush as the one responsible, followed by the oil companies, identified by 25 percent, and speculators, by 13 percent. Only 9 percent blamed foreign oil...[read more]

For several years I have been intrigued by the possibility of a "grand compromise" on energy and the environment, so I was pleased to see this idea resurface in Steven Pearlstein's column in today's Washington Post. Starting with the proposition that Democrats and Republicans each hold only half the recipe for a serious response to our...[read more]

By Alisha Fowler and Jesse Jenkins. Cross-posted from the Breakthrough Blog.On Tuesday the Senate failed to pass the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 (50-44). The bill contained, among other things, critical production tax incentives for the rapidly growing renewable energy industry. The Senate may get another chance to...[read more]

The debate over the Climate Security Act bill has made that clear trillions are at stake in global warming legislation. No surprise, then, that the Senate powerbrokers don’t want Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) Environment and Public Works committee to have the only say on who gets what. E&E Daily (subs. req’d) has the story of how the...[read more]

Rich and thin is passé. What’s hot now is rich and dirty. Why is a smart energy and climate policy so elusive for this country? In three words — money, money, money. The nation’s energy bill is now about a trillion dollars. That means the super-rich fossil fuel companies have enormous profits they can spend on lobbying to ensure their...[read more]

Cap it. Don't trade carbon credits in order to pollute in your neighbor's backyard. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Act was voted down in the Senate, which is fine by me. It was worded to favor polluters, who'd be able to buy credits in order to continue polluting. We need caps on carbon. We need taxes on carbon. We need the money...[read more]

McCain has put out a climate policy that, like Bush’s, wouldn’t help the climate (see McCain speech, Part 2: Relying on offsets = Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic). Wednesday he announced he won’t even bother showing up to vote on his friend Joe Lieberman’s climate bill because of insufficient subsides (read “pork”) for nuclear...[read more]