Articles by Paul
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…
Winning the Global Race on Electric Cars
On Donald Trump’s watch, America is losing what is probably the most important new manufacturing opportunity in the world–the global race to produce affordable electric vehicles that people want…
Jam-packed primary poses a serious threat to Democrats in 2020
For tens of millions of Americans overridingly concerned with finding a presidential candidate who can beat Donald Trump in 2020, how the left-of-center and abnormally large Democratic primary field is shaping up is a topic…
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…
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…
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…
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