Articles by Paul
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…”
Gov. DeWine must prepare voters for possible delays in real election results
The plots uncovered recently to abduct and possibly assassinate Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and to kill law enforcement officials and storm the Michigan State Capitol, and a separate plot that may have targeted Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, should be shocking to all Americans…
Trump and Republicans are putting a Supreme Court seat ahead of America’s recovery
President Trump’s COVID diagnosis is cruelly ironic, coming as it does just as the president and Senate Republicans have decided to impede a national COVID and economic recovery bill and instead push through an unprecedented Supreme Court opening immediately before the election…
LETTER: A Biden win would be a chance to press China on climate goals
[Financial Times subscription required to read this article.]
Changing the climate of presidential debates
When future generations — or simply young people today — look back at the topics of recent U.S. presidential debates, they will be stunned that America’s political journalists ignored climate change, the issue that will overwhelm most others in coming years…
Raising the Sunken Road of American Politics
The bloodiest day in American history was not inflicted by Al Qaeda on 9/11, or the Japanese Empire at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, or Nazi Germany on D-Day June 6, all among the most famous dates in U.S. history. Instead, we did it to ourselves…
Amid Trump economic debacle, Biden’s central message must be his plan for American recovery
The beleaguered economy is far and away most Americans’ main concern. Yet Trump recently held an absurd and dangerous 10-point advantage on the issue…
Denier-in-chief: Trump, COVID and climate change
It is a tale of two worlds. In Real World, the COVID scourge continues to inflict massive human suffering and economic costs on the American people. More than 177,000 Americans have died. More than 5.7 million have been infected…
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.]
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…
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…
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