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US Fossil Fuel Pledge Seen as Political Dynamite
The COP27 global climate summit in Egypt will continue on Saturday, adding an extra day to negotiations, to allow delegates more time to agree on divisive issues such as how to compensate…
GOP’s House Majority Complicates Podesta’s Climate Spending Role
Clean energy czar John Podesta’s task in overseeing $369 billion under the climate and tax law got several degrees tougher now that Republicans have won control of the House—and the power to closely scrutinize his…
Cop27: EU agrees to loss and damage fund to help poor countries amid climate disasters
A breakthrough looked possible in the deadlocked global climate talks on Friday as the European Union made a dramatic intervention to agree to key developing world demands on financial help for poor countries…
What a Republican House means for energy
Ahead of the midterm elections, many Republicans hoped a red wave would put pressure on the Biden administration’s energy agenda and help reverse it. But any plan to slow down clean energy spending looks more…
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…
Biden’s Message on Climate Might Not Be the One the World Wants
When President Biden walks into the United Nations climate summit here on Friday, he could fairly boast of returning the United States to the global fight to keep the planet from dangerously overheating, and of turbocharging America’s…
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…
Is it ‘I.R.A.’ or ‘Ira’? Advocates are split.
Policy nerds love a good acronym. But climate advocates haven’t settled on how to refer to the massive climate and health care law that Democrats have dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act. President Joe Biden prefers to say all seven syllables of…
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…
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…
It’s easy to be romantic about this Orioles team
In “Moneyball”, the best movie about modern baseball, Brad Pitt portrays Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane who cleverly uses analytics and shrewd talent judgment to propel his low-rent A’s to the playoffs…
Biden’s climate playbook: Propose strong rules, then soften them
As the Biden administration’s climate rules near the finish line, a pattern is emerging: The final regulations are weaker than the initial proposals. Last month, EPA removed existing natural gas plants from upcoming…
Biden’s new energy rules must stop an existential climate threat: Donald Trump
In his first three years in office, Joe Biden has done more through legislation, regulation, and diplomacy to combat catastrophic climate change than any president in history. But Biden knows all too well that much of this…
Biden should push plug-in hybrids, not just EVs
The battle for the climate will require electrifying America’s transportation system. But the Biden administration’s effort to push drivers into electric vehicles is unrealistic – and it risks setting back the country’s…
Fossil fuel firms must plug methane leaks to meet climate targets, warns watchdog
Fossil fuel companies must pay tens of billions to reduce the emissions of methane from their operations or it will be almost impossible to meet global climate targets, the world’s energy watchdog has warned…
How Trump could exit the Paris climate deal — and thwart reentry
Allies of former President Donald Trump have a plan to leave the Paris climate agreement and make it much harder for a future Democratic president to rejoin it. The idea: pull the United States out of the treaty that…
Biden backtracks on climate plans and ‘walks tightrope’ to court both young voters and moderates
Joe Biden, touted as the US’s first climate president, is presiding over the quiet weakening of his two most significant plans to slash planet-heating emissions, suggesting that tackling the climate crisis will…
Oil and gas profits triple under Joe Biden even as industry decries him
Profits for the biggest US oil and gas producers have almost tripled under President Joe Biden, even as the industry berates his administration’s “hostile” policies and warns that a second term would be “disastrous” for the…
Biden’s LNG Pause Might Be a Model for Other Energy Dilemmas
The Biden administration Friday halted the approval of new licenses to export US liquefied natural gas. The freeze is expected to last months, giving the government time to review how additional shipments might affect the economy and climate. The moratorium…
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…
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