Articles by Paul
![Pollution](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/China_air-pollution_coal-664337446-e1687988817739-1024x682-1.jpg)
Sleepwalking Toward Climate Catastrophe
The last few weeks have brought unprecedented high temperatures in the U.S. and globally, including the four hottest days in a row worldwide ever in recorded history…
![Smoke stack pollution](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/China_air-pollution_coal-664337446-e1687988817739.jpg)
A Trade-Based Climate Policy Can Cut Emissions Globally
The recent reopening of diplomatic dialogue by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese leaders highlighted the enormous importance of climate change action by the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters. But it did not yield…
![Joe Biden](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Joe-Biden-1242401889.jpg)
Biden Needs To Remind Voters He’s Always Been Pro-Business
Anew AP poll found that only 31% of Americans approve of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, a result both shocking and familiar. Shocking because no modern president has received such poor marks during a period of…
![President Biden Speaking](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/YQPSWI2BRJCSTGP65JX5VNDRCA.jpg)
President Biden’s Earth Day promise: The incumbent has a real plan for a greener future, unlike Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis
Last week, a meeting of Florida flooding policy managers was washed out in South Florida by a deluge of 26 inches of rain in just eight hours, unprecedented rainfall made far larger due to the climate change crisis that…
![Wind turbines on a hill](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/6421864d8d0348.86806191.jpg)
Permitting reform can cut consumer energy costs and emissions
America could have cleaner, cheaper energy if only we could agree to get out of our own way. The obstacle we have created is a thicket of federal and state regulations requiring energy projects to undergo lengthy, expensive, one-by-one…
![Flames burning methane](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/74c2f80f61ec400eb3633d63b6e2bea1-e1680117046520.jpg)
Can the UAE help get a planet-saving methane deal at COP28?
Environmental advocates are rightfully skeptical that the head of a national oil company can credibly steer the parties at the upcoming UN climate summit COP28 to the strong climate mitigation needed to meet the climate emergency, especially…
![Tanker](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/LNG_tanker_istock_0921.jpg)
Maximizing the climate benefits of natural gas exports
A major question facing American energy and climate policymakers today is what role abundant U.S. natural gas should play in the global clean energy transition. Some environmental activists oppose all gas use. But a new…
![Financial Times Logo](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo_FinancialTimes_square-300x298.png)
Cutting Chinese emissions requires US and EU to work together
Thank goodness that Adam Tooze has questioned the recent EU and UK furore over America’s Inflation Reduction Act, a law that could be a turning point in global climate protection, but is hardly a protectionist disaster for western trade…
![President Biden speaking to a crowd](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/merlin_216110001_74d58154-5624-4a20-93b9-ee148c384696-superJumbo.jpg)
As History Shows, Incumbents Have the Edge
A key reason that Democrats should support President Biden for re-election is that history shows that a sitting president has the best chance of winning. Several recent Democrats have run again…
![COP27 sign](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/cop27_ap_1117-e1668722418391.jpg)
Cop out: Ignoring the dictatorships now causing the climate crisis at COP27
The big news out of COP 27, the UN climate negotiations, according to most media was a global agreement to create a fund to provide developing nations more aid to explicitly address rising climate change impacts…
![Trump, Desantis, Biden](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/unnamed.jpeg)
Who wins Trump v. DeSantis? Joe Biden
Joe Biden often says, “don’t compare me to God Almighty, compare me to the alternative.” Surprisingly, midterm voters did just that. By small but crucial margins, voters consistently preferred Biden-supported Democrats over dodgy…
![Burning methane](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/b13016dd488845cf918ad9262fde54c4.jpg)
COP27: A global methane agreement can prevent climate catastrophe
All the parties participating in the climate negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt this week and next would do well to remember that today’s climate emergency is about two basic concepts: time and temperature. It’s too…
![Coal burning plant in China](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/F6GCUFYJXNGUJJKI557NMVLZ2A.jpeg)
Call China’s climate bluff
While American climate advocates are still taking victory laps over the historic clean energy bill passed by Congress in August, the international climate challenge remains dire as diplomats gather in Egypt next week at the…
![Smoke stakes](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/smokestacks_coal-power-plant_kansas_climate_091821ap-charlie-riedel_regs-1.jpg)
US can improve energy security and climate together
Election seasons always feature exaggerated divisions, with candidates drawing bright lines between themselves and opponents. But lasting problems come when discourse devolves into false choices between important shared goals…
![President Biden](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/590159_6_.jpg)
Democrats’ Midterm Message Should Be Working-Class Opportunity
Conventional wisdom in cynical Washington has it, and recent history does suggest, that the easiest way for a Democratic president to be reelected is to run against a radical Republican Party who has just taken over Congress…
![Schumer and Manchin](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/schumercharles_manchinjoe_080322pa_split_rich.jpg)
GOP killed permitting reform — giving Democrats a new campaign issue
Over the last two years, Congress has passed a series of landmark bills that together fund more than $500 billion in clean energy investment, by far the largest ever enacted. More importantly, generous tax incentives can spur…
![President Biden](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/587462_6_.jpg)
Why Democrats Must Support Biden in 2024
Despite good news for Joe Biden lately, many Democrats continue to be deeply worried about his chances of reelection. These concerns are understandable given that Biden, already the oldest president in history, will be…
![Joe Biden reaching for a pen](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/b0caf3cec2174e29a149dc2d20482d07.jpg)
Streamline power line permitting to achieve IRA climate goals
One of the most important goals of the clean energy and climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden is the decarbonization of the electricity system. The core of this effort is…
![PBS logo](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PBS-News-Hour-Weekend-500x500-1.jpeg)
A look at the policies in the Democrats’ historic climate bill
The Inflation Reduction Act is the largest investment in climate policy in U.S. history, including more than $300 billion to address global warming. It also sets a goal of reducing carbon emissions by…
![Pieces of toast](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ezgif.com-gif-maker-2.jpg)
Climate Change: Congress Needs to Act Now
Federal regulations have been a crucial part of U.S. efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions over the last 30 years. But such regulations are increasingly subject to reversal by Republican presidents…
![COP28 Stage](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/unnamed-8.jpg)
A quick fix from COP28 to address climate change? Mandatory methane cuts
After nearly three decades of negotiations, the annual United Nations climate talks concluded this week with a first: Its delegates finally mentioned the words “fossil fuels” in an agreement and the need to “transition away” from them…
![Coal processing plant](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/90787004d7ed40ca89415698515148a8.jpg)
To avert climate disaster, we need firm commitments on cutting methane at COP28
The key goal of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) negotiations beginning in Dubai this week must be to limit fast-rising temperatures, to prevent runaway warming that could destabilize the…
![Climate protesters](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/climate-protest-1778358379-e1700859318735.jpg)
Kings and Popes Attending COP28 Is Good — But Climate Crisis Requires Powerful Grassroots Movements
It’s important that older figures of religious and cultural influence like Pope Francis and the UK’s King Charles will be attending the United Nations COP28 climate change negotiations in Dubai beginning this week. However, their attendance…
![Xi and Biden](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/XiBiden-1244770124-e1699986870873.jpg)
Biden Must Confront China’s Xi on Looming Climate Disaster
As Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping prepare to meet in San Francisco today, extreme weather events caused by rising temperatures are increasingly wreaking havoc at home and around the world, with new studies indicating that…
![Rangers pitcher](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/RSZNY32EDNCA3KJYVBAYPD7I7E.jpg)
How Major League Baseball undermined the regular season and the winningest teams, including the Orioles
The trait that separates major league baseball from every other game on earth is the sheer length of its regular season. At 162 games, the baseball season is twice as long as basketball and hockey, and 10 times that of pro football…
![The president of the upcoming COP28 Sultan Al Jaber](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/SAUDI-CLIMATE-UN-COP28-1712284456-scaled-e1697630450545-1024x576-1.jpg)
Hamas-Israel War Must Not Prevent Progress at COP 28 Climate Talks
The next United Nations climate change conference, COP28, is scheduled to begin at the end of November in Dubai. Beyond the challenges of getting the world to agree on difficult climate issues, progress…
![Trump and Biden](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/trump-Biden-split-1228795132-1024x690-1.jpg)
Biden, Not Trump, Is Right on the Autoworkers’ Strike and Electric Vehicles
Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican Party, seemingly devoid of original policy ideas themselves, have tried to make Joe Biden’s advocacy of incentives for U.S. production of electric vehicles (EVs) a campaign issue in…
![car and pollution](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1_WxwIhEBHyvSQHAo2DgTzVg.jpg)
IN BOTH U.S. AND UK, OVERTAXING VOTERS IS BAD CLIMATE POLITICS
No political comparison is as discordant to British ears as one suggesting commonality with the American scene, particularly with Donald Trump still at large. Nonetheless, recent UK contretemps over energy taxes and climate…
![Powerline](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/powerline_51720203-1024x681-1.jpg)
Gas Is a Better Option Than Coal on Our Path to Draw Down Emissions
As the climate crisis worsens, the debate over emissions from natural gas is heating up, too. Unfortunately, both gas opponents and gas supporters have been cherry-picking the data, especially regarding the lifecycle emissions of…
![Solar farm and worker](https://paulbledsoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/TexasSolar_Getty.jpg)
Energy permitting is broken: New analytics can fix it
The energy permitting reforms included in the recent bipartisan budget agreement represented modest progress — but they didn’t fix the problem. The main challenge, and the huge economic opportunity, is the…
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