Secretary Clinton makes her first environmental law mistake
As Cymie notes, Secretary of State Clinton seems committed to working for a new climate agreement. And that's a good thing (although as I have argued elsewhere, it's really USTR that should take the lead on climate change negotiation.). But Clinton should stop digging a hole for herself. She said that the Committee will be involved in negotiating a treaty that the world can agree to and that the "Senate can ratify." Hillary--don't go over to the dark side! The vas...
CONTINUE READINGDoes Anybody Know Who the Commerce Secretary Is?
Does anybody really care? Really. Its budget of between 6 and 7 billion dollars is by far the smallest of any Cabinet Department. That kind of money would be a rounding error for the Pentagon or HHS; hell, the Pentagon lost that much money in transit between Washington and Baghdad. And what really does it do? It's sort of a hodgepodge of unrelated things. Its biggest normal budget item is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which really should be in EP...
CONTINUE READINGObama and Climate Change
Though the environmental world, both globally and domestically, is anxiously anticipating an Obama Administration climate plan, the economy and national security may slow any comprehensive response down. Congressional insiders I've spoken with doubt we'll see the passage of any signficiant climate legislation until 2010 at the earliest. But the Obama Administration faces many more immediate questions about federal greenhouse gas regulations that are the result of...
CONTINUE READINGUndoing the new ESA consultation regulations?
Nick Rahall (D - W.Va.), joined by 12 co-sponsors, has introduced a joint resolution under the Congressional Review Act to overturn the Bush administration's midnight regulations on ESA section 7 consultation. Some of the many problems with the new regulations have been explained in comments submitted by Berkeley Law profs Eric Biber (coordinating the work of a group of distinguished law professors) and Holly Doremus (working with Margaret Clune Giblin on behalf of the ...
CONTINUE READINGHitting the right notes on science
The environmental science community is welcoming the new Obama administration with open arms. That's no surprise, of course -- there was never any love lost between environmental scientists and the George W. Bush administration. But for the science community this transition is more than the departure of an enemy. So far, the new president is hitting all the right notes to sound like a friend. Rick Weiss at Science Progress reports that before the election Obama...
CONTINUE READINGAudacious Energy Policy
In his inaugural address, this morning, it took President Obama a mere 228 words to mention the word “energy”. This is instructive when compared to George W. Bush’s second inaugural address in which he waited until – well, um…, he never used the word “energy”. But, to be fair, neither did Jimmy Carter, who took office in the shadow of an energy crisis spurred by OPEC’s manipulation of oil markets. And history demonstrates that Jimmy Carter clearly underst...
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