Articles by Paul
Climate devastation is upon us. Congress must act.
Last week, on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ida unleashed 150 mile-an-hour winds and slammed into New Orleans, super-fueled to huge size and rain-making power by the Gulf of Mexico whose temperatures are 3 to 5 degrees higher…
Letter: Autocratic states are thwarting climate action
Leslie Hook’s insightful story on G20 climate action (July 26) noted that autocratic regimes in China, Russia and Saudi Arabia deliberately prevented a decision to end fossil fuel subsidies…
VIDEO: Paul Bledsoe discusses extreme heat and climate change
California State Senator Melissa Hurtado and former Communications Director for the White House Climate Change Task Force Paul Bledsoe talk to Kendis Gibson and Lindsey Reiser about the dangerous new reality of extreme heat.
Radio Interview: Reality Check
Paul Bledsoe joined Charles to discuss his op-ed, It’s Time to Build the Clean Grid of the Future.
Major climate win that tees up more in reconciliation bill
Some far-left environmental activists are criticizing the bipartisan infrastructure deal that President Biden has reached with senators of both parties…
The Arctic is ground zero in the climate battle
Tony Barber’s important column on the growing rivalry of great powers over the Arctic rightly notes that Arctic climate change “is an urgent matter for everyone”. Since the Arctic is warming at twice as fast as the global average…
Attacks from far-right and far-left only prove Biden’s energy plan occupies sensible center
Republican critics are using the excuse of a cyberattack from Russian hackers on a key gasoline pipeline to show that somehow President Biden must move to the far right on energy and climate policy.
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…
Five myths about the Paris climate agreement
[The Washington Post subscription required to read this article.] Five years ago this month, negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed at a conference near Paris to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
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’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. Numerous news stories recorded “huge Democratic disappointment…”
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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