Politics

Battle for the Senate: Illinois

This race features an environmentally leaning Republican versus a Democratic war hero.

Mark Kirk is an outlier among his fellow GOP Senators.  His lifetime score from the League of Conservation voters is 57% — compare that with many republicans who are at 3% or lower.  His opponent, Tammy Duckworth, is a war hero with a lifetime score of 85%, still comfortably above Kirk’s.  So there’s a difference …

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A Stark Contrast: Clinton v. Trump on Climate Policy

Clinton wants to cut carbon emissions, Trump wants to raise them.

Forty percent of millennials don’t see a difference between Clinton and Trump on environment, energy, or climate policy.  That’s just wrong — so wrong that it’s hard to believe anyone is that misinformed.  The candidates are as different as day and night on those issues.  As Paul Krugman said on Friday, “there is a huge, …

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Battle for the Senate: Indiana

The Indiana race pitts an anti-regulatory incumbent against a pro-environmental challenger.

Indiana presents another strong contrast in environmental views.  The Republican, Todd Young, has a rating of 3% from the League of Conservation voters.  His opponent, Evan Bayh, has a 74% rating. Young is an Annapolis graduate and former Marine officer, who earned his MBA from night classes at the University of Chicago.  After a short …

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Battle for the Senate: Ohio

Rob Portman and Ted Strickland duke it out in a key swing state.

In some states, the candidate’s websites barely mention energy or environment. Not so in Ohio.  Both the Republican incumbent and the Democratic challenger make these issues focal points of their campaigns. The Republican is Rob Portman, who served briefly as U.S. Trade Representative before heading the Office of Management and Budget.  He has a lifetime rating …

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The Impact of a Trump Presidency, in Tons of CO2

A Trump presidency would add 2.4 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. At a minimum.

One of Trump’s pledges is to eliminate Obama’s Clean Power Plan.  That wouldn’t be quite as easy as he thinks, but there’s little doubt that he could do so.  So, how much difference would that make?  The answer turns out to be 2,470,000 tons of additional carbon emissions. That’s a bare minimum; the actual added …

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Battle for the Senate: Nevada

A tight race with sharply contrasting candidates. Want to gamble on the outcome?

The two major party candidates in the Nevada race agree on the desirability of renewable power, but that’s about all they agree on.  Joe Heck, a Republican doctor with extensive military experience, favors streamlined permitting for renewable project on federal lands and wants state governments to get a share of the benefits.  But he also …

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Reproductive Rights Meet . . . Waste Disposal Law?

Texas aims to limit abortion via environmental regulation

All know that by a 5-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down as “undue burdens” on the exercise of reproductive rights the State of Texas’s 2013 restrictions on abortion facilities.  Those rules required facilities to meet illogical physical premises requirements and to have physicians with local hospital admitting privileges – privileges the …

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Why Doesn’t the GOP Offer Alternative Solutions to Environmental Problems?

Republicans hate conventional regulations. But they’ve given up on offering alternatives. Here’s why.

There’s one thing we all know: the Republican Party hates regulation.  Republicans want to roll back some  key regulations and make it a lot harder to pass new ones.  But there’s a curious silence about alternatives to regulation.  For decades, conservative Republicans have denounced “command and control” regulations by EPA and other agencies.  So why don’t they …

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The Clean Power Plan: Obama’s Easy Mandate

States Complaining About the CPP Are On Pace to Hit Emissions Targets

Back around the turn of the 20th century, New York’s Republican machine was run by Senator Thomas Platt, whose ability to bridge factional gaps gave him the title of “The Easy Boss.” Even though President Obama has attempted the same thing, he will have no such luck. Witness, for example, the states — virtually all …

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