2012 election

Goodbye, Dan Lungren, Goodbye

It looks like Dan Lungren has lost his reelection bid for the Sacramento-area House seat, at least according to AP.  His lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters was 4% — the only surprise being that he must have voted for something pro-environmental a couple of times in his career.  (Oddly enough, he came …

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The Senate Races and the Environment

In a series of posts, I surveyed the key Senate races — meaning those that didn’t seem to be “locks” for either candidate. (i didn’t include the McCaskill-Akin race, which McCaskill won.) The candidates differed greatly in their positions on the environment and on energy policy. Here is a quick summary of what was at …

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Key Senate Races, Energy Policy and the Environment

In a series of posts, I’ve surveyed the key Senate races — meaning those that don’t seem to be “locks” for either candidate.  These races will probably determine control of the Senate. The candidates differ greatly in their positions on the environment and on energy policy. Here is a quick summary of what is at …

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Green versus Anti-Green in the Big Sky State

The Montana Senate race features Democrat Jon Tester against  Republican Dennis Rehberg. The difference between the candidates doesn’t require any elaborate explanation. Rehberg has a 6% lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters (quite a bit lower than Paul Ryan’s).  Tester has a 87% LCV rating. That’s about all you have to know. It’s …

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Conservative versus Ultra-Conservative in the Hoosier State

The Indiana race features Joe Donnelly, a conservative Democrat, against Richard Mourdock, a Tea Party Republican.  Both are more conservative than their counterparts in other competitive Senate races. I discussed Mourdock briefly in a post about Tea Party candidates.  He stands out for his endorsement of the view that climate change is a hoax. This …

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What Drives Anti-Regulatory Public Opinion?

Distrust of regulation has surged recently, but in a one-sided and somewhat surprising way.  Here’s a graph from Gallup: The Gallup folks speculate that this is due to the GOP reaction to regulatory actions under Obama.  That does not seem to fit the graph. You’ll notice that the GOP antagonism toward regulation began under Bush …

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Energy and Environment in the Wisconsin Senate Race

The Wisconsin Senate race pits Tammy Baldwin (D) against Tommy Thompson (R) — Tammy versus Tommy, as the newspapers are fond of saying. In the environmental area, the two are as different as day and night.  Baldwin champions environmental protection, while Thompson is in love with fossil fuels.

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Energy and Environment in the Old Dominion

George Allen (R) and Tim Kaine (D) are facing off in the Virginia Senate race.  On environment and energy issues, Allen is a clone of Mitt of Romney, Kaine tracks Obama’s energy policies but also emphasizes preservation of open space, including historic as well as natural sites.

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How Worried Are Small Businesses About Environmental Regulation?

We’re heard a lot recently about the supposedly dire effect of environmental regulations on small businesses. A recent poll of small business owners by George Washington University using the Thumbtack site has some interesting findings about this. One of the questions in the survey was, “How important are the following issues to the success of …

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Setting the Record Straight on Obama and the Environment

We shouldn’t underestimate Obama’s environmental achievements.

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