2016 campaign

Battle for the Governor’s Mansion in the Granite State

Determining the Future of State Environmental Policy

Governors’ races don’t get as much publicity as the national contests. But we live in a federalist system, and states help shape environmental and energy policy. They can cooperate with and even go beyond federal policy, or they can drag their feet and litigate every federal initiative. This time around, there are three races that …

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Battle for the Governorship: North Carolina

A tight race between a deregulatory incumbent and a pro-environmental challenger.

Governors’ races don’t get as much publicity as the national contests. But we live in a federalist system, and states help shape environmental and energy policy. They can cooperate with and even go beyond federal policy, or they can drag their feet and litigate against every federal initiative. This time around, there are three races that are …

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The Environment and the Conservative Dilemma

Trump may shake up GOP’s anti-environmental coalition.

However this election comes out, conservatives face a major problem. As the ascendancy of Donald Trump shows, a substantial share of the GOP base – probably a majority — doesn’t care much about core conservative principles. Notably, Trump’s strongest allies, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, do not have histories as staunch conservatives. This situation leaves …

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Global Climate Cabal Revealed!!

Now it can told! Exclusive interview with cabal leader.

My eyes were opened at last.Last week, one Presidential candidate accused the other of meeting “in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers.”  The candidate also spoke of a global conspiracy of multinational corporations and media. Inspired by this speech, I was able …

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Gary Johnson’s Hasty Retreat

He was for a carbon tax. For a few days. Until he was against it.

I posted a few weeks about Gary Johnson’s embrace of a carbon fee, which seemed like an appealing sign of new ideas.  Apparently, however, stale ideas are more politically salable.  As it turns out, under pressure from horrified conservatives, Johnson waved the white flag and surrendered only a few days later.  Here’s his explanation: “If …

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How to Hedge Your Portfolio Against a Possible Trump Victory

Place your financial bets on having LESS renewable energy and MORE climate change.

If you’re worried about the economic impact of a Trump victory, you should be thinking of hedging your risk. One hedging strategy is to place a bet on climate change. By undoing Obama’s climate regulations and scuttling the Paris Agreement, Trump will set back climate policy, here and around the world by years, maybe decades, He’ll …

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The Clinton Foundation and the Environment

There’s a lot of talk about where the money comes from. But where does it go?

We hear a lot about the Clinton Foundation these days, but it’s all about where the money comes from.  That’s outside the scope of this blog, but it made me curious about what they do with the money.  In particular, I wondered what they did for the environment. Since the only thing I really knew …

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Has Environmental Law Hurt Trump Supports? Could It Help Them?

A major study sheds new light on these issues.

It’s time to update our image of Trump voters.  We thought that Trump voters were less affluent, lived in areas that were losing jobs in manufacturing and in areas impacted by immigrants.  All of that turns out to be wrong, according to a massive new study from Gallup based on surveys of over eighty thousand …

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A Darker Shade of Green

Jill Stein and her party call for a 40% cut in U.S. carbon emissions in the next four years.

Although the Green Party  doesn’t seem to be pulling a lot of voters at this point, it seems only fair to include them in the roundup of the parties’ environmental positions.  As you could infer from the name, the Green Party puts a very high priority on environmental quality. Interestingly, the current party platform is dated …

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A Clash of Visions

The two parties couldn’t disagree more about energy policy.

In every election, there are people who claim that both parties are alike. That’s certainly not true about energy policy this year.The distance between the tickets can be expressed numerically: Kaine has a 91% lifetime score of from the League of Conservation Voters, while Pence’s is 4%. And the differences between the presidential candidates are equally …

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