Articles by Paul
Hickenlooper’s Real Green Deal
In announcing his candidacy for president this week, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper emphasized “getting things done” by citing Colorado’s jump from 40th in job growth to the top 10, its provision of health care…
Trump border emergency is fake and climate crisis is real. Guess which just got funded?
One emergency, the border wall, is fake, invented by a rogue president desperate for a political win no matter the price. Another, the climate crisis, is real, with tens of millions of citizen victims around the country. Guess which…
Green New Deal Must Grow Up Fast To Influence Bills Congress is Already Writing
Little noticed in the media circus surrounding the mere introduction of a non-binding Congressional resolution on the Green New Deal was the deletion of much-criticized and plainly unachievable mandates contained in previous…
Trump Suggests Raiding Money from Climate-Disaster Victims to Fund Border Wall
President Trump is considering raiding money from relief funds designated for victims of storms and wildfires exacerbated by climate change, in a last-ditch attempt to get money for his dubious border wall…
As U.S. Emissions Spike Under Trump, Democrats Pursue Real Climate Policies, Not Green Wish Lists
Leading researchers today released a report finding that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose by more than 3.4% in 2018, the first increase since 2006 and the largest rise in 20 years. This news comes both as…
Going Nowhere Fast on Climate, Year After Year
Thirty years ago, a NASA scientist, James Hansen, told lawmakers at a Senate hearing that “global warming is now large enough that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence…
Takeaway from Poland: Climate success requires action by global leaders — including US president
The biggest takeaway from two weeks of climate negotiations in Poland is simple, if breathtaking: climate change is such a massive and existential issue that it can only be effectively dealt with…
Climate studies say warming may cost US $500 billion a year — it will cost much more
Three stunningly dire climate change reports have emerged in the last month, including the UN “Emissions Gap” report released this week and the U.S. National Climate Assessment released last Friday…
Wildfire and other climate costs are rising — fast
[Financial Times subscription required to read article.] If anything, your recent coverage of California’s wildfires (“The stark message from California raging fires”, editorial, and “Insurers grapple…
House Democrats Must Be Strategic To Win On Energy And Climate Change
By all accounts, House Democrats return to Washington this week to begin planning their priorities for 2019 in an aggressive frame of mind. But on climate change and energy issues, rather than simply responding…
Trump’s Blowhard Tactics on Climate Change and Storms Foreshadow A Political Blue Wave
In the last two years the U.S. has suffered from record hurricanes, rainfall, floods, wildfires and other disasters made worse by rising temperatures and sea levels…
As Heat-Fueled Hurricane Threatens Washington, Global Climate Leaders Begin to Act in California
This week Hurricane Florence, a massive Category 4 storm made larger by warmer than normal ocean temperatures, is bearing down on the Mid-Atlantic coast, including the Washington, DC region, where President Trump…
John McCain Knew Climate Protection Would Take Legislation, Not Just Regulation
It is a sad irony that John McCain died within just a few days of President Trump overturning Clean Power Plan regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. For McCain was the prominent…
Lower-Emitting U.S. Natural Gas Can Gain Export Markets
President Trump’s efforts to expand European imports of American natural gas thus far have consisted of tweeting and jaw-boning, approaches notably ineffective with EU allies whom he has sometimes cast as “foes”…
Dems Need “Big Tent” Energy Policies that Appeal to American Heartland
For more than a generation, Democrats have valiantly advocated policies to combat the serious problem of climate change. But they have usually done so with indifference or disdain for the economic and energy views…
Trump’s Coal Fixation will Harm Americans’ Health and Wallets
Earlier this month, President Trump ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry to intervene in electricity markets to prop up failing coal power plants, falsely claiming the effort was needed to protect electricity grid reliability…
Democrats must embrace shale gas boom to win elections and climate battle
Democrats don’t have enough power to shape climate change policy. They can win the midterm elections if they embrace the shale oil and gas boom and their role in it…
Solar case shows climate protection requires globalized economy
Responses to President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese solar panels fall into two general camps. One holds that Chinese solar manufacturing subsidies are so egregious as to require U.S. tariffs…
Moynihan was right: The GOP tax giveaway will lead to safety net cuts
When Congress passed a massive tax giveaway to the richest that will add at least $1 trillion to America’s debt late last year, GOP lawmakers were remarkably candid about the next step: cutting the safety net for hundreds of millions of Americans by going after Social Security…
The Paris agreement: Whither the world after America’s retreat?
IN THE end, not even the pope’s pleas were enough to persuade Donald Trump to go back on his campaign promise to leave the Paris agreement. The arguments of his advisers, such as strategist Steve Bannon and the head of America’s Environmental Protection Agency…
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…
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