Recent Interviews
Global anger at Sunak’s Cop27 snub that raises fears over UK’s climate crisis stance
Rishi Sunak’s decision to snub the Cop27 UN climate talks, and to keep King Charles from attending, has angered and upset countries around the world, risking the UK’s standing on the world stage and raising concerns…
Delayed methane rule rams into rising gasoline prices
The Biden administration has delayed releasing its proposed rule to reduce methane at oil and gas wells for weeks now. It comes as the president faces criticism for stepping up climate regulations on American energy companies even as he…
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…
Republicans search for the next Solyndra
Solyndra is having a political renaissance. Thanks to the federal cash pouring in to renewable energy projects, Washington’s climate and energy insiders are abuzz again over the failed energy startup that went bankrupt more than a decade ago…
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…
UK risks ending Cop26 presidency in disarray over Truss climate policy
The UK is in danger of ending its presidency of the UN climate talks next month in disunity and disarray, amid cabinet rifts on green policy, and confusion over who will attend the Cop27 summit…
OPEC oil output cut fuels Dems’ gas price fears
OPEC’s move to cut oil exports on Wednesday is feeding an autumn of anxiety for Democrats over energy inflation as prices at the gas pump march higher — particularly in some states and districts that could swing in…
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 the defeat of Manchin’s energy bill could be a loss for the climate
On Tuesday, when Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) announced he was pulling his proposal to expand energy development across the country from a must-pass government operations bill, many environmental…
Washington’s latest energy drama: ‘Permitting reform’
Boring and technocratic as it sounds, “permitting reform” may be just about the most significant barrier facing the clean energy revolution Joe Biden wants to bring to America. Yesterday, Congress began debating it in earnest…
Manchin’s permitting reveal
The Progressive Policy Institute is out with a new report this morning that offers some support for Manchin’s efforts and disputes some of the criticism from progressives who argue the permitting changes would…
Why Republicans support Kigali
The Senate could ratify a major climate treaty by the end of the week. And it’s being pushed across the finish line by conservative Republicans and industry. The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol has long been a standout in…
Clean energy bosses urge permit reforms to meet US climate goals
Senator Joe Manchin to unveil bill revamping regulatory approvals for pipelines and power systems. A lobbying group has estimated that clean energy installations could be 100 gigawatts less without permitting…
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…
California hits the gas on electric cars
California regulators approved a rule today banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. The move could accelerate the electric vehicle transition and reshape the nation’s auto market, but meeting that deadline will bring…
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…
Joe Biden’s signature legislation passes the Senate, at last
This has been decades in the making, and it will reshape the decades ahead.” That is how Fred Krupp, a longtime champion of congressional action on climate change as head of the Environmental Defence Fund, a green group…
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…
Five Decades in the Making: Why It Took Congress So Long to Act on Climate
The Senate bill avoided the political pitfalls of past legislative attempts by offering only incentives to cut climate pollution, not taxes. In 1969, President Richard Nixon’s adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a memo describing a startling…
A closer look at Manchin’s asks on permitting
Manchin’s asks: The legislative agreement between Sen. Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calls for Congress to take up “comprehensive” permitting reform in a bill separate from their reconciliation deal…
China may be close to a climate tipping point
If you want to be hopeful about the world’s chances of tackling climate change, look to China. It is such a force in the electric car market that, last year, for the first time, it became home to more than half the electric vehicles on the world’s roads. An equally…
Joe Biden factors domestic energy costs into decision to pause LNG permits
Climate campaigners rejoiced last week when US President Joe Biden froze approvals for new liquefied natural gas terminals that export the fuel. But the White House hopes the “pause” in LNG permits will win it political kudos with a much bigger group…
Is Joe Biden a climate champion?
There is no doubt that climate activists scored a major win last week when President Joe Biden announced a pause in approvals of liquefied natural gas export terminals. In fact, Biden gave a nod to their pressure when making the decision by…
Biden administration freezes gas export approvals
The Department of Energy is pausing approvals of liquefied natural gas exports while it conducts an open-ended analysis of the impacts of the shipments — a move being blasted by fossil fuel groups and applauded by environmentalists who say…
Biden reins in gas exports that have raised both US prestige and climate fears
The Biden administration announced a freeze Friday on new export permits for natural gas while it studies their impact on climate change — despite those exports’ role in bolstering the U.S. economy and Washington’s influence in Europe…
By attacking Biden on climate, the far left risks true disaster with a Trump win
When it comes to climate change, Joe Biden has done what Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did not — and now, what Donald Trump vows to destroy. President Biden has executed a deft policy strategy that joins job creation…
Goodbye Mr Kerry, farewell Mr Xie: end of an era in global climate politics
As the final fraught hours of the Cop28 UN climate summit approached last December, a small but vital meeting was missing from the official agenda. While thousands of grumpy delegates trooped the vast and glitzy Dubai…
To Win in 2024, Biden Must Highlight Consumer Benefits of Clean Energy
President Joe Biden’s climate accomplishments thus far owe much to his framing of clean energy policy as an economic strategy. “When I hear climate, I think jobs,” he often says…
White House clean-energy spending boom puts Biden in the crosshairs
The Biden administration raised the stakes on its politically fraught bet on massive subsidies for nascent clean-energy technologies Friday, rolling out a plan for awarding billions of dollars in tax credits to the makers of…
A quick fix from COP28 to address climate change? Mandatory methane cuts
After nearly three decades of negotiations, the annual United Nations climate talks concluded this week with a first: Its delegates finally mentioned the words “fossil fuels” in an agreement and the need to “transition away” from them…
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