obama administration

Presidents Carter and Reagan—after the Three Mile Island near-nuclear meltdown and the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion, respectively—appointed independent commissions of high-profile public officials and experts to thoroughly investigate the causes of these events and make recommendations to prevent future tragedies....[read more]

As tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico continues to unfold in painful and unpredictable ways, Americans are wondering what we can do to prevent another offshore oil disaster in the future. I have just sent a letter to President Obama outlining NRDC’s recommendations for how we can protect marine life and coastal communities from similar...[read more]

This is looking like its going to be a complete disaster.  Check out this article in the Washington Post about the oil spill hitting the Louisiana shoreline. I think Grist’s Tom Philpott puts in fine words how valuable of an ecosystem is being harmed by this spill: “The Gulf of Mexico is a magnificent resource: a...[read more]

Forty years ago, we chose this day in April to express our concern for the state of the planet.   At the time, people were worried about air pollution, water pollution and the threat that the “population explosion” was going to overrun the planet’s resources.  Where energy was concerned, we worried instead about fouling...[read more]

South Africa gets loan for massive new coal plant The World Bank is getting roasted by significant political heat over its decision to grant a $3.75 billion loan to South Africa to build a 4,800 MW coal-fired power plant. Missing from dramatic protests about the climate impacts from the Medupi coal plant is the answer to the question of...[read more]

White House aides Larry Summers and Carol Browner insisted that the administration was willing to bend on several key issues, including the mechanism for pricing carbon and increased domestic energy exploration. But both said the president would not budge when it comes to placing a first-ever price on domestic greenhouse gas...[read more]

Jesse Jenkins and Yael Borofsky With President Obama's announcement Wednesday that the Administration would support expanded offshore oil and gas extraction, it's now apparent that price pressures on oil make political pressures on politicians impossible to ignore and that some expansion of offshore drilling is inevitable. But despite...[read more]

Do you think that having a price on carbon is crucial? I do. I absolutely believe a price on carbon is essential — that will send a very important long-term signal. [But] if it’s five years from now, I think it will be truly tragic, because other countries, notably China, are moving ahead so aggressively. They see this as their...[read more]

Bush Contract Signed Two Days After Obama Was Sworn In In its final days, and with no fanfare, the Bush Administration signed 21 contracts with nuclear power companies promising to store high level radioactive waste from plants that had not yet been built, even though no federal repository for such waste exists, according to documents...[read more]

The Office of Management and Budget is proposing to skew the formula used to weigh pending government regulations, reducing the value assigned to potential benefits The result would be to give industry a strengthened weapon to fight standards with huge claims of anticipated costs, while the anticipated benefits are greatly...[read more]

The agency will have all five commissioners on board The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is the gatekeeper for new reactor design, construction, and licensing for this country.  Its safety and environmental requirements for light water reactors are so thorough that they are considered to be the "gold standard" for other...[read more]

Is a nuclear power plant a green way to provide energy?  There seems to be quite a division in thinking on this one.  President Obama thinks that nuclear power is a good thing and his administration is promising $8+ billion of federal loan guarantees to build two new plants.  But the 800 pound gorilla continues to lurk...[read more]

February 10, 2010 by Craig Severance  America's urgent need for new job creation may be the driver that pushes the Senate to pass a jobs & energy bill this year.  After the loss of 8.4 million jobs in the current Great Recession,  Congress is searching desperately for any means to create new jobs....[read more]

I am freshly arrived back on the U.S. mainland, with a couple of stops before I head back to Hawaii. I have been reading about energy developments during my travels, and finally wrote something on the flight from Europe yesterday. What has prompted me to write was a report that was recently issued by The President's Biofuels Interagency...[read more]

After reading several articles about the administration's proposed 2011 fiscal-year budget, I decided to look through the figures myself. My primary interest was in finding indications of what might lie in store for energy-related taxes and incentives. However, once I noticed how the projected deficits accumulate and examined the...[read more]