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Federal coal plant announcement another government greenwashing exercise

June 24, 2010 by Tyler Hamilton
with 390 views
0

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]

Obama: Sitting out the climate war

June 7, 2010 by Marc Gunther
with 360 views
6

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]

Help! I'm a prisoner in the Senate Office Building!

June 4, 2009 by William Tucker
with 213 views
2

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]

Swing-vote Snowe on Reid ‘mega-bill’ strategy: “You give people plenty of reasons to vote against this” by combining energy and climate legislation

March 5, 2009 by Joseph Romm
with 94 views
0

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]

The Senate Produces No Volunteers for a Suicide Mission

August 4, 2008 by MarkLazen
with 62 views
0

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]

My Drilling Proposal is on the Table

July 29, 2008 by Robert Rapier
with 114 views
3

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]

The Fault of the Government

June 26, 2008 by Robert Rapier
with 116 views
4

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]

Denial

June 26, 2008 by RyanAvent
with 82 views
0

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]

Striking a Bargain

June 20, 2008 by Geoffrey Styles
with 83 views
0

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]

Congress Politicizes Energy Incentives, 116,000 Jobs in Jeopardy

June 13, 2008 by Jesse Jenkins
with 59 views
1

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]

Money changes everything

June 11, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 87 views
0

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]

You can’t be too rich or too dirty

June 9, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 172 views
0

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]

Lieberman Warner Climate Act Went Bye-Bye in Senate--Okay

June 9, 2008 by Donna Barnett
with 83 views
2

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]

Will media keep parroting McCain’s climate doubletalk even as he starts parroting Bush

May 29, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 39 views
0

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]

Markey talks global warming legislation on C-SPAN 10:30 est

May 28, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 76 views
0

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) will talk about the climate legislation he will be introducing to the House of Representatives today. Markey is Chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and will be speaking at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, introduced by CAPAF CEO John Podesta. I received a pre-brief on the... [read more]