Recent Interviews
As wildfires rage, US voters still divided on climate
Wildfires are burning out of control in the western United States, cities are choking on toxic air, and Hurricane Laura battered the Gulf Coast on August 27. So why isn’t the threat of global warming dominating the election contest between President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden?
How a Democratic victory might shape climate policy
The 2020 election was always going to be an inflection point for U.S. climate change policy, but a pandemic and a bad economy suggest 2021 might not work out as the Democrats had planned…
Democrats Attempted to Make a Quiet Platform Change. Climate Activists Objected Loudly
Day three of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday featured meetings of the Black and Hispanic caucuses, the run-up to Senator Kamala Harris’s primetime speech, and delicate attempts by the Democratic…
Biden gambles on placing climate change at heart of US energy policy
He served in an Obama administration that oversaw a historic surge in American oil and gas production, as shale went mainstream. Tens of thousands of wells were drilled and energy-bearing rocks fractured from North Dakota to…
Kamala Harris Came Out of California With a Cautious Climate Record
An unlikely consensus developed soon after Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris as his running mate. President Donald Trump and his petroleum-industry allies fell into near perfect agreement with climate activists and…
Kamala Harris brings record on climate change and environmental justice to Biden ticket
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his running mate, elevating the senator from California who has made climate change a political priority and who will be able to trumpet her state’s…
Environmental justice center stage for Biden-Harris ticket
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate brings significant environmental justice credentials to the ticket, just as awareness and concern about the outsize impact…
Roadblock to Biden climate plans: Centrist Democrats
While Joe Biden is known for his bipartisan deal-making, he must overcome a potentially more significant roadblock to fulfill his pledge of passing aggressive climate change legislation: winning over centrists from fossil-fuel states in his own…
Kamala Harris goes big on environmental justice as Biden considers her as running mate
Days before Joe Biden makes a final decision on his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris is making her case for the job by issuing a series of environmental justice bills. The California Democrat put out her second bill tackling…
Campaign 2020: Why Biden’s car plan might not be a ‘clunker’
Former Vice President Joe Biden wants millions of Americans to trade in their older, polluting cars for shiny new electric vehicles. The strategy aims to make a significant dent in greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, the largest…
FERC kills anti-net metering plan as PURPA fight rages
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission made two decisions yesterday that affect renewable energy, prompting starkly opposing reactions from wind and solar supporters. In a unanimous vote, FERC rejected a contentious petition…
Biden amps up plans for climate, clean energy
Joe Biden is significantly escalating his climate change agenda with a new $2 trillion infrastructure and clean energy plan that would get fossil fuels entirely out of the nation’s electricity supply in less than 15 years. In the most substantial…
Biden aims for ‘sweet spot’ with upgraded $2 trillion clean energy plan
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden outlined his much-anticipated upgraded clean energy agenda on Tuesday, seeming to reach for a political “sweet spot” by proposing to eliminate carbon emissions from power plants by 2035…
Biden promises $2tn green energy and infrastructure plan
[Financial Times subscription required to read this article.]
Alabama Votes for Tommy Tuberville, and Democrats Name a Challenger in Maine
Jeff Sessions spent his final days on the campaign trail reiterating his support for President Trump’s agenda, reminding voters of his efforts to curb illegal immigration while attorney general and emphasizing how, as a senator…
Democrats drive toward 100% clean cars by 2035
[E&E subscription required to read this article.] House Democrats want to zero out emissions from all new cars by 2035 — an enormous boon for the climate if the long-term goal is achieved and a significant statement in today’s…
House Democrats unveil ambitious climate package, steering toward a net-zero economy by 2050
The nation’s automakers would manufacture only electric cars. Utilities would have to stop producing pollution linked to climate change. And the federal government would double its investment in mass transit. All this and more was…
HOUSE: Democrats’ green infrastructure bill faces perilous road
[E&E subscription required to read article.] House Democrats today will formally introduce a nearly $500 billion green transportation bill — a big step toward advancing a climate-friendly infrastructure package that advocates have…
Biden Names Ocasio-Cortez, Kerry to Lead His Climate Task Force, Bridging Democrats’ Divide
With the climate task force that Joe Biden named Wednesday, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is making a clear bid to bridge the divides in his own party that threaten his candidacy and the long-term fight for action on…
Donald Trump took credit for US oil independence. How will coronavirus change that?
“Make America Great Again”. It was the slogan, slapped across T-shirts and baseball caps, that propelled Donald Trump to the White House. A protectionist platform promising to rip up global trade pacts, reduce the country’s…
Biden’s 100% clean electricity plan may hit CCS wall
President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to reach 100% clean electricity in 15 years may hinge on a technology that has been deployed at few power plants and faced financing challenges…
A youth group helped Biden win. Now they want him to fix climate crisis
The Sunrise Movement helped reach 3.5m voters in swing states and are determined to hold the president-elect to his promises…
Here’s what congressional Republicans are thinking on climate following the election
Republicans in Congress are poised to block some of President-elect Joe Biden’s most aggressive climate policies, such as a carbon tax or clean energy mandate, if Mitch McConnell keeps control of the Senate…
Joe Biden could bring Paris climate goals ‘within striking distance’
The election of Joe Biden as president of the US could reduce global heating by about 0.1C, bringing the goals of the Paris agreement “within striking distance”, if his plans are fulfilled, according to a detailed analysis…
Executive orders: Biden’s best bet on climate
[E&E News subscription required to read this article.] If Democrat Joe Biden moves into the White House next year, the path to action on climate and the environment will likely run through the executive branch…
A Bipartisan Climate Policy? It Could Happen Under a Biden Administration, Washington Veterans Say
Biden’s 40 years of experience reaching across the Senate aisle may help him to craft a stable climate plan, though not the one that progressives hoped for…
Path for Biden’s $2 trillion green revolution narrows with Democrats falling short of expectations in the Senate
The Democrats’ failure to sweep to victory in the Senate election means it will be much harder to get bold climate change policy passed in the coming years, researchers and analysts said on Thursday…
Why a President Biden could fail on clean energy
Democrats seemingly failed to deliver a “green wave” in races across the country, leaving Joe Biden — who was edging out President Trump in vote tallies today — facing daunting odds if elected to achieve sweeping action on energy policy and climate change…
Democrats see Green New Deal yielding gains despite GOP attacks
Democrats are sensing political gains from the Green New Deal heading into Election Day, even as Republicans deride the progressive proposal and some Democratic candidates slink away from it…
The Energy 202: Biden’s oil ‘transition’ comment may not be as damaging as Trump hopes
[Washington Post subscription required to read this article.] To President Trump, it was “perhaps the most shocking admission ever uttered in the history of presidential debates.”…
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