Politics on THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

Grandparents Oppose Tar Sands

2012-04-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

by Dr. James Hansen Alberta tar sands are estimated to be 240 GtC (gigatons of carbon); see Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) Working Group 3 report. That is about seven times greater than the cumulative historical CO2 emissions from oil use by the U.S. (36 GtC). U.S. oil use was 28% of global oil use for the cumulative amounts...

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Occupy Wall Street's Sustainability Partners

2011-11-14T21:25:00.000-08:00

The innovative New York environmental group, Times Up!, has been at Occupy Wall Street helping to turn the ongoing protest into a model of sustainability. Their efforts have included bicycle-generated power (after the city confiscated generators just prior to the onset of the season's first snowfall), compost for local farmer's markets and...

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Scalia, Cain, and the Machinery of Death

2011-09-30T03:37:00.000-07:00

by CHRISTOPHER KIT DAVIS Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia In 1992 a man named Leonel Herrera, sentenced to death for killing two policemen, asked for a hearing in the federal courts on the basis of recently revealed evidence which, he claimed, established his innocence. A federal court judge stayed his sentence; a panel of three...

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Big Oil's Political Ploy

2011-05-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

by William S. Becker Whatever else we might say about Big Oil in the United States, we have to give the industry credit for one thing: It has mastered the art of scamming us with a perfectly straight face. The scam has been underway for decades. This year’s example is the debate about repealing $21 billion in federal subsidies for big oil...

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The Oil War at Home

2011-05-03T03:01:00.000-07:00

by William S. Becker Who should we blame for high gasoline prices? The president? Oil companies? Price gougers? Protesters in the Arab Spring? People who drive Hummers? The answer to that question is one of the first serious issues of the 2011 presidential campaign. It's an issue that could -- and perhaps should -- become an oil war at home,...

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'All of the Above' Is No Energy Policy

2011-04-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

by William S. Becker Even renewable energy hawks -- most of us anyway -- will concede that the United States cannot go cold turkey from oil tomorrow, or shut down all coal-fired power plants this week, or flip the off-switch tonight on nuclear power. What we should not concede, however, is the need for the most aggressive possible push to get...

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Congress Passes a Budget that Curbs Global Warming (but still not enough)

2011-04-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

by Jake Schmidt The long drama of whether or not the US Congress would invest in international efforts to curb global warming pollution or gut these investments is finally over – at least for the rest of this fiscal year. Last week President Obama signed into law a budget for the rest of this fiscal year (fiscal year...

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Key Members of House and Senate Raise Alarm Bells on Climate Investments Cuts

2011-02-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

by Jake Schmidt In the midst of the House of Representatives' efforts to completely gut US international investments in addressing carbon pollution, two leading Members of Congress highlighted how the US would lose out from these draconian cuts. US Representative Howard Berman (D-CA) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) both raised the alarm...

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President Obama's Budget Proposal Would Make Key Climate Investments

2011-02-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

by Jake Schmidt President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2012 budget request that will invest in global efforts to reduce carbon pollution, tap into the growing global demand for clean energy, and make countries more resilient to the impacts of global warming. It takes a scalpel to the international funding at a time when we need...

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Race to Innovate the Clean Energy Future Heats Up After the President's Address

2011-02-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

by Jake Schmidt President Barack Obama, in his annual State of the Union address called for new economic growth based on clean energy and innovation. The President proposed obtaining 80% of America’s electricity from clean energy sources by 2035. Other countries are seeing the benefits and reaping the rewards of making...

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US-China: Global Warming Work Ahead on Heels of Presidential Summit

2011-01-18T15:57:00.000-08:00

by Jake Schmidt President Obama with Hu JintaoChinese President Hu Jintao is in D.C. for a State Dinner with President Obama and for a series of meetings over the next three days. They have a lot on their plate (both literally and figuratively), so climate change won’t be the only thing that they discuss. But you can sure bet...

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Memo to Texas, Alabama & Nebraska: Mind Your Own Business

2010-09-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

by William S. Becker A new poll in California indicates a dead heat among that state’s voters on Proposition 23, the ballot initiative in which out-of-state oil companies are trying to cripple the nation’s most progressive law to combat global climate change. That law is AB 32. Proposition 23 would stall its implementation. In the event...

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New Yorker: Koch Brothers Waging War Against Obama

2010-08-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz Jane Mayer, reporting on The New Yorker Magazine, has written a comprehensive article entitled: Covert Operations, The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama. In it, Mayer gives an exhaustive report on the Koch brothers' funding of extreme right-win opposition to the current administration. The Kochs are...

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Pakistan Floods Threaten Fragile Government

2010-08-20T03:57:00.000-07:00

Pakistan's historic floods have displaced millions and covered over one-fifth of the nuclear armed South Asian state. They now threaten to destabilize its government. The scope of the crisis is so vast with the aid flowing in so slowly, the Taliban has seized the initiative to capitalize on growing anger to turn desperate people to their cause....

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Protection of the Public Interest: Senate Hearing on Industry Influence on Government Regulators

2010-08-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

In light of the lax oversight that contributed to the BP oil spill, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) held a hearing Tuesday on the industry influence on government regulators. The concern is what is known as "agency capture," whereas the regulators themselves have been captured by industry to become an interest group of that industry. This...

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Who are the Kurds?

2010-08-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz A friend who'd heard I'd spent time with the Kurds once asked me, 'who are they?' That query led to this post. I gave the question more thought after reading Bill Clinton's statement regarding the need for troops in the Kurdish north: "Turkey doesn't like the fact that the PKK guerrillas sometimes come across into northern Iraq and...

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Obama: Oil Capped for Now; Problem Still Not Done (Video)

2010-07-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

President Obama made a brief statement to the press and took questions about the temporary nature of the new cap (live feed--may load slowly) that seemed to be holding for now, the need to finish the relief wells, and about the many lives, livelihoods and wildlife impacted by the disaster. The President cautioned the media that, while the...

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The Case for Informed Citizenship

2010-07-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz With reports of the use of child labor in horrific conditions that supply tobacco to Philip Morris cigarettes, the ongoing destruction of the Gulf of Mexico, the denial of unemployment extensions to the millions who've exhausted their benefits, the suicides by technology workers in China, the...

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's Historic Speech on Corporate Influence in Government (VIDEO)

2010-06-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) gave a historic speech on the corporate influence in government as seen through the "regulatory capture" of government regulatory agencies by corporations. "We must act in defense of the integrity of this great government of ours, which has brought such light to the world, such freedom and equality to our...

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Does the $1 Trillion Key to Winning the Afghan War Lie Under the Sand?

2010-06-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

by Sam Sedaei The Obama Administration has lately been hungry for some good news from Afghanistan. President Obama's base who strongly supported his stated plan during the campaign to renew U.S. efforts in Afghanistan has abandoned him, significantly shortening the amount of time he has to succeed. Meanwhile, the Taliban seem to continue to...

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Where is Dick Cheney During the Gulf Oil Spill?

2010-06-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz Former Vice President (and former Halliburton CEO) Dick Cheney, so vocal during the first year of President Obama's administration in his attempt to scare us to death on national security, has been remarkably silent since the Gulf oil spill began its slow motion march into the nation's consciousness. There was not a decision on...

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Silver Linings in the Muck

2010-06-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

by William S. Becker It seems insensitive to talk about silver linings in the middle of the life-killing oil spill in the Gulf. But in fact, there are a couple we should recognize and act upon now. There’s hope, for example, that the spill is proving the folly of trying to extract every last drop of a finite resource by invading ever more...

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When Corporations Rule

2010-05-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

by William S. Becker The fatal disasters at the Upper Big Branch Mine and Deepwater Horizon are fresh evidence the Bush-Cheney corporate culture continues in some federal agencies charged with overseeing industry. President Obama needs to change that culture fast. Formal investigations are underway, but it appears that lax federal oversight...

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Obama's Press Conference on the Gulf Oil Spill: We as a society will have to determine our risks

2010-05-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

President Obama held a press conference (video and transcript linked below) on the Gulf oil spill where he covered the disaster and the broader issue of the decisions we must make as a society about the risks inherent with using oil. Excerpts from the president's statement: The American people should know that from the moment this disaster...

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President Obama on Gulf Oil Spill: "Ridiculous spectacle"; no more cozy relationships

2010-05-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

by The Environmentalist Staff Remarks by the President on the Ongoing Oil Spill Response Rose Garden 12:13 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. I just finished meeting with some of my Cabinet and administration officials about the ongoing efforts to stop the BP oil spill. And I wanted to give the American people an update on...

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