He’ll reverse the Bush executive orders that opened public lands to oil drilling, the co-chair of his transition team said Sunday.
John Podesta, co-chair of Barack Obama’s transition team, indicated on Sunday that the president-elect would quickly use executive powers to reverse several Bush-era administrative rules, a few of which would have an immediate impact on U.S. environmental policy. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Podesta, the Former chief of staff to Bill Clinton said, “There’s a lot the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we’ll see the president do that.”
It wasn’t just the economy on voters minds this election, or perhaps people realize that energy and economy go hand in hand.
In a nationwide poll conducted by Lake Research Partners for the Sierra Club on Monday the 3rd and Tuesday the 4th , 50% of voters said that energy issues where “personally important in deciding for whom to vote for President” this year.
62% said they remembered hearing at least something about energy issues and global warming from the rival campaigns. After all, who can forget the GOP mantra Drill, baby, drill? That mantra may have been a big hit in the red-meat-eating frenzy of the Republican convention, but it didn’t carry as well as the McCain campaign might have hoped. Based on what voters heard, 49% felt that Obama has a better plan for investing in clean energy and creating new jobs, with 35% for McCain.
Voters understood that there was a real choice between the two candidates in terms of energy policy, with 82% saying there was at least some difference, with 43% seeing a significant difference.
Editor’s Note: This op-ed was written by students from the Presidio School of Management including Steve Pierson, Kaytea Petro, Lina Constantinovici and Brian Bishop. It does not represent the views of the institution.
First of all, congratulations on your resounding win! Many of us campaigned tirelessly for you, and we opened our doors and our hearts to join you in celebration last night. This is a great victory we will savor for years to come!
Americans have heard a great deal about hope and change during this election season. Together, those two words evoke a compelling vision for the future of our nation. Once the election is over, the questions for our policy makers (at all levels) will be how to move the nation towards this positive future, especially in the face of an economically challenged present. Read the rest of this entry »
Britain’s eco-towns have a number of ‘firsts’ to encourage their creation: they will be the first new towns built for more than forty years, they will be the first designed for sustainability (low and zero carbon technologies, recycling waste and water, public transport) and they be the first to meet two targets: containing 30-50% social housing and consisting together of 3 million new homes to be built by 2020. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s true that the global financial community is reeling from a number of hard knocks, some of them well-deserved, and it’s true that many of us are paying the price for insanely optimistic lending to those who had no hope of ever paying it back – but this is the time when changing investment behaviours could deliver a real change, a global change. And one simple policy headline could deliver just about everything that the sustainability community has been asking for. All it takes is a ruling about investments. Read the rest of this entry »
If you haven’t made up your mind who to vote for in tomorrow’s presidential election, I’m not sure that what I am about to tell you will help — but it just might. Both candidates told the web site sciencedebate2008 that they accept the scientific agreement that greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are changing the Earth’s climate. And both candidates have said they want to cap emissions produced by the burning of those fossil fuels.
But only Barack Obama has said he would regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Read the rest of this entry »
In an open letter (pdf), the Laureates cite the politicization of science under the Bush administration, particularly in the fields of heath and climate, saying that “vital parts of our country’s scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support,” adding that through an advisory process “distorted by political considerations” America’s “once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk.”
Despite John McCain’s claim that he is the true agent of change for all that has gone wrong under George Bush, both he and his remarkably incurious and misinformed (at best) running mate show how they plan to continue Bush’s appalling lack of regard for science; combining an inexcusable ignorance of the importance of basic scientific research, with the morally bereft penchant for using science as yet another divisive wedge to promulgate their politics of intolerance, fear, and derision - aiming straight at the lowest common denominator in the body politic. Read the rest of this entry »
A federal judge has stopped Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to clean up the air in New York City by using fuel-efficient hybrid taxis.
The judge, Paul A. Crotty, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued a 26-page ruling (PDF) to stop the city from enforcing the rule because, he said in a written order, the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in a key legal argument — that only the federal government has the right to set fuel efficiency standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, which bars state and local governments from setting their own, competing standards.
Spoofing on the James Bond007 brand of spy thrillers, Greenpeace has just launched a new campaign called “Coalfinger,” aimed at stopping the construction of any new coal-fired power plants.
According to the saga, Coalfinger plans to cover the world in coal-fired power stations and destroy the climate, but the hero, Graverson Green is set upon stopping the super-villain with the help of his assistant Katrina Hurkane. Watch it:
“Although this is an animation, it greatly relates to the world we live in today. The use of coal for energy is having an incredibly negative effect on the climate, and like Coalfinger, many energy companies around the world are forging ahead with plans for new coal-fired power stations despite the evidence of their impact. Green, on the other hand, reminds us that we must work together to stop dirty coal plants and fight for clean and renewable energy.
Under the plan, South Florida’s Tri-Rail system is to operate 8 of its fleet of 10 locomotives on a 99 per cent blend of either soya or palm oil. The move has been hailed as an important step towards energy independence by the nation’s top transport regulator, the Federal Transit Administration.
Red, Green and Blue brings together voices from across the political and ideological spectrums to discuss and debate critical environmental issues and current events.
