Articles by Paul
BP plan is chance to shed ‘Beyond Parody’ tag
[Financial Times subscription required to read article.] In the late 1990s when then BP chief executive John Browne claimed he was moving the oil company “Beyond Petroleum”, industry wags dubbed it “Beyond Parody”. They were entirely…
Letter: Shift to clean energy investment offers gains for shareholders
[Financial Times subscription required to read this article.]
Tackle unemployment, trade, manufacturing and environment: Invest in green infrastructure
More than 42 million workers have filed unemployment claims during the coronavirus pandemic, the jobless rate is over 13% and minorities are bearing a disproportionate share of the economic pain, just as people have taken to the streets…
Is Crying a Sign of Weakness? Tell That to Churchill
I was struck by Donald Trump’s simplistic and unsympathetic view that crying by men is a sign of “weakness.” In contrast, a recent biography, “Churchill: Walking With Destiny,” by Andrew Roberts, catalogs dozens of times both before…
Why Klobuchar should be Biden’s vice presidential pick
After Joe Biden’s strong debate performance on March 15 and third straight huge primary night two days later, it is increasingly obvious he will be the Democratic nominee. Even without the Ohio vote, the March 17 primaries all…
Biden must first unite the party to defeat Trump
While Super Tuesday’s dramatic results have boosted former Vice President Joe Biden more than anyone predicted, it’s still not enough, not yet. Nothing less than Biden going into the convention in Milwaukee with a sizable majority will…
To winnow primary field, Obama and other Democrats must speak out
As Super Tuesday looms, none of the seven remaining Democratic presidential candidates has signaled any intention to leave the race. If allowed to continue, this could spell disaster for Democrats, increasing the already significant…
Will Bloomberg’s Bucks Help Beat Trump — or Boost Sanders?
Many Democrats are now understandably fixated on the strong showings of former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders, or on the disappointing performances of former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren…
Our Future Depends on the Arctic
MADRID — Delegates from nearly every nation spent the last two weeks here at a United Nations climate summit struggling to chart a course to meet the extraordinarily difficult goal of net zero emissions of carbon dioxide by the year 2050. Yet long before…
Trump’s Ukraine-Gate Attacks on Biden Echo Watergate
Those viewing and participating in tonight’s Democratic debate should ignore the spin, and cut right to the chase. Trump’s Ukraine-gate outrages are about exactly the same thing Watergate was: A corrupt President of the United States…
Winning the politics of the climate crisis
Democratic presidential candidates will try to outdo one another when they participate in CNN’s “Climate Forum” Wednesday. They will propose evermore ambitious plans to fight climate change. Given the increasingly dire…
No place for fossil-centric schemes in net zero future
[Financial Times subscription required to read article.] I agree with Repsol chairman Antonio Brufau that immediate action is needed to address climate change. But his contention that slightly more efficient oil-burning cars are…
Tax Credits for Affordable Electric Vehicles Gain Speed, But Legislation Must Avoid Stop Signs
As Congress begins to turn toward tax policies to help clean energy manufacturing, electric vehicle tax credits aimed directly at more affordable vehicles are gaining speed, just as a previous Forbes column and a Progressive Policy…
Fighting climate change – Letters to the Editor
In her June 7 op-ed, “The no-brainer climate solution,” Catherine Rampell pointed out that the Democratic presidential candidates have omitted our biggest policy tool in fighting climate change: a carbon tax…
Biden’s domestic climate plan is good, but his global strategies are crucial
As many climate activists had hoped, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden came forward this week with an ambitious domestic climate change plan that proposes to cut U.S. emissions deeply while growing America’s…
Biden manages not to offend centrists or climate hawks with ‘B-plus’ plan
Joe Biden managed to please both climate change hawks and centrists with his $5 trillion “clean energy revolution” plan introduced Tuesday. Biden assuaged fears from critics to his Left who predicted he’d be too moderate on…
The Energy 202: Democrats slammed Biden on climate change. But what would a ‘middle ground’ even look like?
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote there is “no ‘middle ground’ when it comes to climate policy.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) condemned politicians seeking “a middle-of-the-road approach to save our lives.” Both standard-bearers…
Biden May Be The ‘Perfect Person’ to Enact A True Green Deal, But He Needs A Better Climate Plan
Rival Democratic Presidential candidates and climate activists continue to pounce days after the fact on the poor characterization of a “middle ground” on climate policy by an adviser to Joe Biden. The staying power of this…
EVs will have to replace oil-burning engines
[Financial Times subscription required to read this article.] In the US, coal’s share of electricity production has dropped by half in the past two decades, with not a single new coal plant built in almost a decade. Remarkably…
America Is Losing the World’s Biggest Manufacturing and Climate Race: Electric Vehicles
Suppose a Presidential candidate proposed a policy that would produce the following benefits: a resurgence of U.S. auto industry production and the creation of thousands of new, high-paying manufacturing jobs; cleaner air…
China’s emissions now eclipse the developed world — preventing climate protection
At the recent White House climate change summit President Biden made the extraordinarily ambitious pledge of reducing U.S. emissions by 50 percent over 2005 levels by 2030…
Slashing emissions by 2050 isn’t enough. We can bring down temperatures now.
Even as President Biden prepares to host a White House global climate summit on Earth Day, April 22, new science shows that the climate crisis is accelerating and demanding greater emergency measures…
Biden must compel China and Russia to act on climate
In recent weeks, a mini-Cold War has threatened to break out, with the American officials of all types becoming increasingly critical of authoritarian actions by both China and Russia…
Washington’s Most Influential People
THE 250 EXPERTS AND ADVOCATES—OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT—WHO’LL BE SHAPING THE POLICY DEBATES OF THE YEARS TO COME…
Government must come clean about the total costs of climate change
The March 18 front-page article “Regulators push Wall Street for disclosure on climate risks” noted that government statistics found 22 extreme weather events last year cost the nation nearly $100 billion…
Natural gas and America’s clean energy transition
President Biden has set the ambitious, important climate goal of achieving net zero emissions from the nation’s electric power sector by 2035. Already, natural gas has playing a key role in lowering U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in the past 15 years, in part by displacing higher emitting coal.
Electric cars are the future. Here’s how to get American drivers interested in them.
EVs are key to manufacturing jobs and reducing climate change emissions. The on-ramp to these benefits is exciting drivers the way the Model T did…
Biden’s climate plans can cut emissions and also be good politics
After a campaign in which climate change played a more prominent role than ever before, expectations for president-elect Joe Biden are nearly as daunting as the climate problem itself…
Biden knows healing the US means addressing pandemic and economy first
As President Joe Biden said in his inaugural address, “To restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than words, it requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy, unity…”
Biden’s defeat of Trump is the most important win since FDR
As the nation awoke the morning after Election Day, reactions seemed to suggest Democrats had lost nearly every office in the land…
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