Politics
Climate Change Politics: Calling Junior Appropriators!
“Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting over.” At least that’s the old saying (incorrectly attributed to Twain), and it is true. You can’t study water law for more than a moment without seeing conflict. In the west, water law is particularly conflictual due to the system of prior appropriation: rivers are divided into …
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CONTINUE READINGConservative 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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CONTINUE READING“I Like Coal” — Romney Doubles Down on Fossil Fuels
The more fundamental issue, of course, is what these policies would do to global climate and how they would harm future generations. If our descendents could vote, that’s the issue they’d care the most about.
CONTINUE READINGHeller versus Berkley in the Silver State
As in other states, the Nevada Senate race features a gap between the “greener” Democratic candidate, Shelley Berkley, and the Republican Dean Heller. But it plays out a little differently. Heller’s website is strangely reticent about energy and environmental issues, while Berkley focuses heavily on the issues most relevant to Nevada — renewable energy and …
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CONTINUE READINGPaul Ryan and the National Carbon Debt
Climate denialists applauded Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan for what they call Ryan’s “awesome energy & climate record.” That’s not surprising: Ryan does have a clear record on climate change. As ThinkProgress has documented: Ryan has voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from limiting greenhouse pollution, to eliminate White House climate advisers, to …
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CONTINUE READINGUndecided Voters and Climate Change
If you tuned in to the Republican National Convention, you probably heard Republican nominee Mitt Romney take a stab at President Obama’s 2008 remarks about slowing the pace of global warming. Romney allowed his line to speak for itself, and delegates and the audience erupted in laughter. Yes, global warming was used as a laugh …
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CONTINUE READINGPresident Obama Dissolves the Gulf Coast Restoration Task Force
Let’s rewind almost exactly two years to early October 2010. In the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, President Obama established the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, an advisory group of federal and state officials to coordinate federal Gulf Coast restoration activities. The main …
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CONTINUE READINGMcMahon versus Murphy – A Senate Race With High Stakes Environmentally
The Connecticut Senate race between Linda McMahon (R) and Chris Murphy (D) has major environmental implications. McMahon vigorously espouses the standard Republican positions on environment and energy. But Murphy stands out among Democratic Senate candidates in swing states because of his especially strong commitment on the environment. His House website emphasizes that commitment: Our environmental …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat 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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CONTINUE READINGGenetically Modified Foods: a Controversial New Study and Prop. 37
Genetically modified organisms are in the news these days for two big reasons. First, California voters will decide in November whether to require the labeling of foods that have been genetically engineered. And second, a new study — subject to significant criticism even from some who advocate labeling — found that rats fed with genetically …
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