Politics

Romney Gets Real

Mitt Romney, bucking the current in his own party, has admitted that the problem of climate change is real.  According to the Boston Globe: “I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course,’’ Romney said. “But I believe the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that …

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Tough Political Choices On Climate Are Hardly Unique to U.S: The Case of Germany and Nuclear Power

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made headlines this week when she announced that the country would phase out its nuclear power plants by 2022.  The Fukishima nuclear crisis in Japan led Germany to review its reliance on nuclear power and the result of that review was Merkel’s decision to shut down the country’s existing plants. Here’s …

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The Endangerment Litigation

I’ve just spent some time reading the initial briefs in the D.C. Circuit on the endangerment issue.  They strike me as much more political documents than legal ones. A brief recap for those who haven’t been following the legal side of the climate issue.  After the Bush Administration decided not to regulate greenhouse gases under …

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More Subsidies Hypocrisy from Tim Pawlenty?

At least so claims the Iowa Republican, a website that says it represents “News for Republicans, by Republicans.”  If you believe the Republican, Pawlenty is doing no more than parroting the talking points of the ethanol industry: Pawlenty’s announcement speech in Des Moines yesterday was more passionate than some of his other recent speeches.  The …

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Is NJ Governor Christie Running for President? He’s Backing Out of RGGI and Moving Toward Climate Denialism

On the bad-news-for-climate-policy front and in the ever-expanding category of Republican-officials-who-do-an-about-face-on-climate-change, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced today that he’s pulling the state of New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) by the end of the year.  RGGI is the only up and running cap and trade program in the United States …

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A Friendly Note to Richard Muller

Richard Muller is a Berkeley physicist who has expressed skepticism over the integrity of some climate science.  For example, he suggested that the famous hockey stick might be a distortion because the only sources with temperature readings that go back far enough in time might be located near heat sources. Not surprisingly, climate deniers and their political …

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Credit Where It’s Due: Tim Pawlenty Says We Need to “Phase Out” Energy Subsidies

(UPDATED: See below). I’ve had a good bit of fun jumping on the Republican Party for its hypocrisy on energy subsidies.  So when a Republican does the right thing, it’s important to acknowledge it: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a potentially risky move during his campaign launch speech in Iowa: he called for a phaseout of ethanol …

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Why Don’t Californians Talk About Politics?

That was the question posed by a Zocalo forum this evening here in Los Angeles.  I wasn’t there — I was actually at my daughter’s school’s ice cream social, talking with other parents about politics, actually.  But had I been at the forum, I would have mentioned one partial theory that a friend of mine, …

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Leave ExxonMobil ALOOOOOONE…..

The next time a conservative tells you that he believes in the free market and balanced budgets, just show him this: Republicans senators who in the past have supported ending tax subsidies to big oil companies are prepared to vote Tuesday night with their party leadership to keep those subsidies in place. “I’m going to …

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