And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet, because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our children’s future. – President Barack Obama on September 6, 2012 Last week, President Obama made crystal […]
The NRDC Action Fund just released a book called Reckless: The Political Assault on the American Environment, about the House Republican majority that cast more than 200 votes against environmental safeguards last year. We aren’t the only ones dismayed by the rise in GOP extremism. Republican leaders are too. This week, two esteemed conservative thinkers published a must-read […]
Unfortunately, the energy talk on the GOP campaign trail remains dominated by climate denial. Rick Santorum, the winner of the latest two GOP primaries, wrote an op-ed over the weekend in which he called climate change “a pseudo-science” and “a liberal orthodoxy.” Mitt Romney said last week that he had once been a “radical” on energy issues because he […]
Many political commentators declared President Obama’s State of the Union address to be the start of the 2012 campaign for his reelection. They said it was a speech designed to stir the enthusiasm of the base and draw sharp contrasts with his Republican opponents. If that’s true, what lessons can we draw from the President’s discussion of […]
President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to a clean energy future for America last night in his State of the Union address. The Republican responses, on the other hand, underscored just how stuck in the past the leaders of the GOP remain. From Indiana Governor Mitch Daniel’s official response (full text here) to the statements of […]
I just finished watching the GOP primary debate in South Carolina. It was a pretty entertaining two hours which kicked off with Newt Gingrich admonishing CNN for daring ask a personal question (um, didn’t he try to impeach a President over something personal?) and ended with all candidates agreeing that any of them would be […]
Tea Party leaders like to paint clean energy and climate action as issues that matter only to elite Democrats living in coastal cities. This claim would come as a surprise to the 38,000 autoworkers building fuel efficient cars in Michigan, the 80 companies involved in the wind supply chain in Iowa, and the more than 100,000 Americans working in the solar industry across the nation.
Why is the President now siding with polluters? The White House claims clean air protections would be too expensive. But this is a farce. Letting the polluters off the hook won’t save lives, won’t create jobs and won’t fuel innovation. It will, however, endanger the health and lives of children and seniors.
I learned last week that Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is floating the idea of stopping EPA’s work to reduce carbon dioxide pollution for at least one year. To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. I have known and admired Senator Sherrod Brown for years, and I respect his track record on defending the environment. […]
The Tea Party is making its presence known in Washington this week. Even before freshmen lawmakers were sworn in, party leader Senator Jim DeMint was trying to push the GOP to the right by criticizing what the conservatives call Rinos: Republicans in name only (so much for the big tent party). I expect the 112th Congress […]
Americans know a good idea when they see one. No matter how many millions of dollars the deep-pocketed polluters spend on spreading mistruths this election season, new polling released by the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund today shows that voters in 23 close Congressional races overwhelmingly support clean energy legislation and would be more […]
This is a pivotal week in the clean energy debate. The Senate will vote on Murkowski’s short-sighted resolution to take away the EPA’s authority to regulate pollution. As we head into this critical time, it’s not the Inhofe-cloned climate deniers who trouble me – it’s the knowing bystanders who are keeping me up at night.