Articles by Paul
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.]
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Democrats: Don’t just declare a climate emergency — make clean energy a winning campaign issue
The decision by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to walk away from more than a year of negotiations over a landmark clean energy legislation is a bitter pill for President Biden and other Democrats who made passing effective…
As UK conservatives dump Johnson, most in GOP still embrace Trump’s far graver threat
Winston Churchill, the figure embattled UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims as his role model, once defined a politician as someone who “is asked to stand, wants to sit, and is expected to lie.” Yet in the end, Johnson’s…
Democrats in Congress, not courts or GOP, must address climate — a good bill is waiting
The Supreme Court decision this week to restrict federal regulatory authority over carbon dioxide emissions from power plants should provide Democrats in Congress the last impetus they need to finally act on comprehensive climate change legislation. And…
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