election

It’s no secret that at the core of the Supercommittee’s failure earlier this week is the increasing polarization of American politics. Huffington Post contributor and law professor June Carbone illustrates this transition over the past half-century: “A half century ago, neither political party disproportionately consisted of those who...[read more]

History was made in Canada’s federal election. Conservative gets majority government while New Democrat serves as Opposition for the first time. How will this alter federal policies on energy, environment, and climate change? Let’s examine the parties’ environmental platforms, their gains and losses, followed by how Canada’s federal...[read more]

With the recent “shellacking” (as President Obama referred to the election results) of the Democratically controlled Congress, much of the buzz in the cleantech space has been doom and gloom. Is cleantech doomed to a new dark age?[read more]

Tomorrow's US mid-term election dominates today's headlines, with most analysts expecting a dramatic shift in control, at least in the House of Representatives. However, from an energy perspective, many aspects of the situation in which we will find ourselves after the ballots are counted will remain largely predetermined for the next...[read more]

The nation's oldest environmental organization on Monday announced it was throwing its considerable weight behind 29 "environmental champions" in the upcoming November elections. "Sierra Club's thousands of volunteers will be pounding the pavement, working the phone lines, and talking with their friends and neighbors to help get...[read more]

The State of Ohio on Wednesday took a big step toward lowering the barriers to entry for building/installing renewable energy facilities across the state. Governor Ted Strickland issued an Executive Order eliminating the state’s tangible personal tax and real property tax for advanced and renewable energy project facilities. The move...[read more]

graphic: Grist I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. As predicted, the big money has started to pour into the battle over Proposition 23, the California ballot measure that would suspend the state’s global warming law. But not from where you’d expect. The six-figure donations filling campaign coffers is not coming from...[read more]

Yesterday, the Wonk Room identified six key U.S. Senate races in which a climate vote is threatened by a global warming denier (and one open race in New Hampshire that could add a new vote for climate). Today, we’re taking a look at the U.S. House of Representatives. We’ve identified eight top House races in which a strong supporter...[read more]

By Jesse Jenkins, originally at the Breakthrough InstituteAccording to most electoral prognosticators, Republicans are poised to win major victories in the upcoming November midterm elections, with control of both the House and Senate within their reach. That should spell the end for climate and clean energy legislation, according to...[read more]

If you live in states like Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Kentucky, you may have already seen them: new political hatchet ads attacking Democrats and even some moderate Republicans for support of Congressional cap and trade bills. According to E&E News ($usbcription required), the climate policy, which narrowly passed the...[read more]

This week's Living on Earth has a good story about Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his environmental policies. Now I don't know much about Romney's enviropolitics, except for the fact that while Governor of Massachusetts, he made national headlines with his opposition to Cape Wind, the proposed offshore wind energy...[read more]

I don’t get. The Grist Donkey Mill is endorsing the pea under the walnut shell that is cap-and-trade. David Roberts relays a bit of transcript from the “Dems” (Dat Have) on the question of climate policy: GIBSON: All right. Let me turn to something else. Reversing — you invoked the name of Al Gore a few moments ago — reversing or...[read more]

Here’s a test. Think back to the Sunday political talk shows and the major presidential debates of the past year. Now, think about the questions the candidates were asked by Tim Russert, Chris Wallace, Wolf Blitzer, George Stephanapoulos and Bob Schieffer. How many interviews did the Fab Five conduct with the presidential candidates...[read more]

As I mentioned in a previous post, many of my colleagues in climate-action circles are delighted at the detailed commitments the presidential candidates in the Democrat field are making about what they’ll do to fight global warming. It seems ungrateful to ask them for more. But ask we must. We need to know what they’ll do to act quickly...[read more]

Please note: The Environmental Economics blog endorses no political candidate, regardless of the promised position in the government (e.g., Council of Economic Advisors). However, we might endorse a policy proposal from time to time. In that spirit we endorse Obama's carbon cap:Senator Barack Obama presented a plan on Monday to decrease...[read more]