News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
Investors Speak Up: We Need To Extend The Wind Production Tax Credit by Kristina Curtis and Matt Patsky, thinkprogress.org | August 14, 2012
Texas is oil country, but in recent years, another energy resource has swept across the state: wind. Over the past decade, wind power turbines have cropped up throughout the Panhandle and along the Gulf Coast. In just a few years, Texas has become the nation’s largest wind power producer, boasting seven of the U.S.’s 10 biggest wind farms. As investors, we look for growth stories, and wind power has been a great one. The U.S. is generating 20 times more electricity from wind than it did in 2000, and nearly nine gigawatts – the equivalent of nine nuclear power stations – is under construction. Wind power provides more than 10 percent of power generation in five states and more than 20 percent in South Dakota. That’s good news for the economy, the planet, and for investors looking to build a cleaner energy future. So what’s wrong with this picture? In this case, it comes down to policy. read more »A Climate Change Fix Conservatives Can Love by Eliot Spitzer, grist.org | August 14, 2012
The pace of global warming is accelerating and the scale of the impact is devastating. The time for action is limited — we are approaching a tipping point beyond which the opportunity to reverse the damage of CO2 emissions will disappear. And what are we talking about in our presidential campaign? Obamaloney and Romney Hood. Silliness has taken over, and the capacity to raise tough issues has dissipated if not gone entirely. Climate change appears to have fallen off the political agenda. Yet there is an answer for either candidate courageous enough to take the first step. This answer is steeped in conservative economics: Companies that pollute should be taxed so that a product’s cost to society is reflected in the price of that product. Milton Friedman and Richard Posner agree on this point! read more »Resource Rich, Cash Poor by Joseph Stiglitz, | August 13, 2012
New discoveries of natural resources in several African countries—including Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique—raise an important question: Will these windfalls be a blessing that brings prosperity and hope, or a political and economic curse, as has been the case in so many countries? On average, resource-rich countries have done even more poorly than countries without resources. They have grown more slowly and with greater inequality—just the opposite of what one would expect. After all, taxing natural resources at high rates will not cause them to disappear, which means that countries whose major source of revenue is natural resources can use them to finance education, health care, development, and redistribution. A large literature in economics and political science has developed to explain this “resource curse,” and civil-society groups have been established to try to counter it. Three of the curse’s economic ingredients are well known. read more »Why The Environmental Protection Agency Is So Important by Stephen Lacey, thinkprogress.org | August 13, 2012
Last week marked the 38-year anniversary of Nixon’s departure from the White House. And while historians will mostly remember the former president within the context of the Watergate scandal, Nixon also left a much more important legacy: protecting the environment. Yes, Nixon founded the Environmental Protection Agency, created the first Earth Week, and signed the original Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act during his presidency. (For more, check out this remembrance from Climate Central’s Michael Lemonick). A lot of people forget that conservation and environmental concerns were once a core part of the Republican party. Perhaps even more surprising to some people, given today’s ferocious attacks on basic environmental protections, U.S. GDP has grown 200 percent since the founding of the EPA while the most common pollutants (ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and lead) have fallen 63 percent. read more »Heating Up Debate On Climate Change by Eugene Robinson, | August 10, 2012
Excuse me, folks, but the weather is trying to tell us something. Listen carefully, and you can almost hear a parched, raspy voice whispering: “What part of ‘hottest month ever’ do you people not understand?” According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July was indeed the hottest month in the contiguous United States since record-keeping began more than a century ago. That distinction was previously held by July 1936, which came at the height of the Dust Bowl calamity that devastated the American heartland. James E. Hansen, who heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, summed it up in a piece he wrote for The Washington Post last week: “The future is now. And it is hot.” read more »July Was the Hottest Month Ever. Does Congress Care? by Mijin Cha, policyshop.net | August 10, 2012
At the beginning of July, we noted that even though just a few days had passed in the month, thousands of heat records had been matched or surpassed. Now, it turns out that the month of July was the hottest month on record—not the hottest July on record, the hottest month ever. July continues the record warming of the first seven months of this year and we are experiencing the warmest 12 month period since NOAA started keeping records in 1895. So, can we final agree that the climate crisis needs immediate attention? Accompanying the extreme heat is widespread drought. Drought conditions still cover over 60 percent of the contiguous United States with regions prime agricultural land hit the hardest. So, how many more months of record-breaking heat do we need before policymakers stop listening to money, wake up to the very real impacts of climate change and start investing in a real plan to combat climate change? read more »America's Drought Of Political Will On Climate Change by Naomi Wolf, The Guardian | August 9, 2012
As the U.S. faces record drought and an Old Testament-level pestilential heatwave in the midwest, American environmental denialism may be starting to change. The question is: is it too late? America has led the world in climate change denial, a phenomenon noted with amazement by Europeans, not to mention thinking people around the world. Year after year, the U.S. has failed to sign global treaties or curb emissions, even as our status as a source of a third of the world's carbon emissions goes unchanged. It is fairly well-known what has been behind that climate change denial in America: vast sums pumped into an ignorance industry by the oil and gas lobbies. But could our denial be cracking, this summer, as, in the heartland – that most iconic of American landscapes – broiling temperatures injure humans and cook fish in the water? read more »Will The U.S. Drought Trigger Another Global Food Crisis? by Brad Plumer, | August 9, 2012
Back in 2008, not long before the world’s financial system seized up, global food prices hit record highs. For many poorer nations around the world, it was a full-blown crisis. Riots broke out in dozens of countries from Cameroon to Egypt to Bangladesh. In Haiti, more than five people were killed and the government was toppled as the price of rice, beans, and fruit rose more than 50 percent. Could we see a repeat of that chaos this year? Could we see a repeat of that chaos this year? The newest report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggests that food prices still aren’t anywhere near 2008 levels yet, even after the massive U.S. drought has hurt corn and grain production. But there’s also reason for concern—in July, the FAO food index jumped the most in a single month since 2009. read more »Climate 2.0: What Is Expected Of Business Now? by Ryan Schuchard, thinkprogress.org | August 8, 2012
Business at large has only recently awakened to climate change—really just within the last 10 years. It started slowly, following the 1997 adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, and then it picked up speed after the development of industry-accepted greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring and reporting standards such as 2001’s GHG Protocol and 2003’s Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). During the first decade of the new century, companies began to measure, reduce, and report emissions from operations. They pioneered carbon finance, showing that carbon markets play a vital role in resolving climate change. They came to grips, for the first time, with the financial value at stake from climate change. They came to define leadership as a focus on policy engagement. During this time, discussing adaptation (seen as admitting defeat) was considered taboo. Times have changed. read more »The Hunger Wars in Our Future by Michael T. Klare, tomdispatch.com | August 7, 2012
The Great Drought of 2012 has yet to come to an end, but we already know that its consequences will be severe. With more than one-half of America’s counties designated as drought disaster areas, the 2012 harvest of corn, soybeans, and other food staples is guaranteed to fall far short of predictions. This, in turn, will boost food prices domestically and abroad, causing increased misery for farmers and low-income Americans and far greater hardship for poor people in countries that rely on imported U.S. grains. This, however, is just the beginning of the likely consequences: if history is any guide, rising food prices of this sort will also lead to widespread social unrest and violent conflict. read more »
The Latest
Senate Democrats Kill Cap-and-Trade Bill, greenenergyreporter.com | July 23, 2010
Cap -and -trade is officially dead. This afternoon Senate Democrats, in a caucus meeting, decided not to pursue legislation that would seek to cap carbon and other green house gases by pricing them, a market-friendly scheme known as cap-and-trade. read more »
Senate Gives Up on Moving Climate Bill Before August Break, thehill.com | July 23, 2010
The Senate on Thursday abandoned plans to take up climate change legislation before the August break, likely dooming the effort for the rest of the year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) insisted the Senate could return to climate change this fall, but that proposition seems doubtful in an election year in which Democrats are wary of losing their majorities in the House and Senate.
Draft Green-Industry Outline May Help Climate Talks , thehill.com | July 23, 2010
While Senate Democrats have punted for now on a bill to cut power plant carbon emissions, a small band of environmental groups and utility companies have forged a tentative deal that could help revive the measure down the road. read more »
Climate and Energy Bill Delayed as Political Support Withers, mcclatchydc.com | July 23, 2010
Bowing a lack of support, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Thursday said there'd be no vote this summer on a bill that would put the nation's first limits on the carbon pollution responsible for global warming. The decision could doom the measure's long-term chances as well. read more »
Bowing to Political Reality, Senate Democrats Drop Broad Energy Bill, Los Angeles Times | July 23, 2010
Senate Democratic leaders shelved plans for major energy and climate legislation on Thursday, bowing to political reality and probably ending hopes for action this year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost alternative energy production and wean the nation from carbon fuels. read more »
Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Concern About Safety, The New York Times | July 22, 2010
A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems. read more »
Senators Press Reid for Tougher Renewable Power Standard, thehill.com | July 22, 2010
A trio of Senate Democrats is trying to build political momentum for including a tough national renewable electricity standard, or RES, in wider energy legislation that may reach the floor next week. read more »
12 Dems Press Reid on Carbon Curbs as Energy Bill Talks Continue, thehill.com | July 22, 2010
A largely liberal group of 12 Senate Democrats are urging Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to ensure that upcoming energy legislation imposes curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
The new pressure comes amid a flurry of Capitol Hill meetings about the shape of the upcoming energy bill, which is expected on the floor as soon as next week.
Recovery Act has Created and Saved 2.5-3.6 Million Jobs, Many in Clean Energy, climateprogress.org | July 19, 2010
On Wednesday, July 14th, Vice President Joe Biden and Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) Chair Christina Romer released CEA’s new fourth quarterly report on the economic and job creation impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). read more »
Obama to Launch Ocean Initiative, Los Angeles Times | July 19, 2010
President Obama on Monday is set to create a national stewardship policy for America's oceans and Great Lakes, including a type of zoning that could dramatically rebalance the way government regulates offshore drilling, fishing and other marine activities. read more »
