George W. Bush
(Energy) Independence Day
A post in which I surprise readers — and myself — with strong praise for George W. Bush.
The only way to achieve energy independence is to achieve independence from fossil fuels. That’s not something we can achieve overnight, but the closer we come, the better — for our health, our national security, and the world.
CONTINUE READINGThe Social Cost of George W. Bush
Bush promised climate action but reversed himself. The result: billions of dollars in global harm.
When Bush ran for President in 2000, he endorsed mandatory limits on CO2 emissions. Within three months of taking office, he reversed himself to the dismay of some members of his own administration. The upshot was that the US resisted any effort to address climate change and embraced a “drill baby drill” energy policy. You …
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CONTINUE READINGTwo Years & Counting: A Historical Perspective
How does Trump compare with Bush, the last GOP President?
This is the second of three posts assessing the first two years of the Trump Administration. We all seem to be subscribed to the “All Trump News, All the Time” newsfeed. It may be helpful to step back a bit and compare Trump with his last Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. How do the two …
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CONTINUE READINGScott Pruitt: “What, me worry?”
The right question about greenhouse gas emissions is not whether there is an “ideal” global temperature regime, but what problems rapid regime shifts produce
(Readers of a certain age will understand the reference, and see the resemblance. If that’s not you, never mind. But read on for a little less snark and a little more analysis.) According to the Washington Post, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wondered in a television interview Tuesday whether global warming “necessarily is a bad thing,” …
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CONTINUE READINGIt’s Déjà Vu All Over Again
Reagan, Gingrich, Bush — and Now Trump. This is a battle we’ve fought before.
As the choice of Scott Pruitt to head EPA confirms, we’re about to face a radical attack on environmental protection. We’ve seen this movie before. Three times, actually, starring Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and George W. Bush. So this feels in a way like the fourth installment in a horror film franchise. Call it “Return of the …
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CONTINUE READINGBush, Nader, and the Lost Years of Climate Policy
Actions by these two very different men set climate policy back eight years.
From 2001 to 2009, the US sat on its hands while the atmosphere filled with carbon. Much of that carbon came from the US itself, at six billion tons per year up to the 2008 crash. The story of how this came to pass is yet to be fully written. It is, in part, a …
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CONTINUE READINGLindsey Graham: Defining Environmentalism Down
Voters Elect Parties, Not Individuals
The New Republic’s breathless headline this morning announces that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who today became the one millionth Republican to announce a Presidential bid, is “A Republican That Environmentalists Can Love.” Right on cue, The Christian Science Monitor just as breathlessly called Graham “The Republican Who Wants to Tackle Climate Change.” Obviously, Graham’s people …
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CONTINUE READINGNews from a Warming World
Coal versus wind power; China’s air; poll results; Ted Cruz; arctic ice.
There’s been a lot of interesting environmental news recently, much of which seems to have gotten little notice. The topics range from U.S. wind power (growing) to U.S. coal power and Arctic sea ice (both shrinking), with a bit of Ted Cruz to spice things up. Here’s the round-up: Out with coal, in with wind. The …
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CONTINUE READINGRanking the Presidents on the Environment
Keith Poole has spent years devising measures of political ideology. The late Phil Frickey and I used his scholarship in our work on public choice theory. He has now produced similar information about Presidents, incorporated in the following chart: It would be useful to have a similar measure for environmental policy. The early part of …
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CONTINUE READINGBad ESA rules not yet undone
(Cross-posted at the Center for Progressive Reform blog.) The Bush administration’s last-minute ESA (non)consultation rule is getting almost as much attention now as it did during the comment period. Then, the administration reportedly received more than 300,000 comments, the vast majority of them negative. Those objections were, of course, quickly swept under the proverbial rug …
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