Recent Interviews
3 climate takeaways from the GOP speaker meltdown
The Republican brawl over whom to elect House speaker hasn’t changed anything about climate policy — yet. But the chaos this week has underscored concerns that the new Congress is ill-equipped to address…
Cutting Chinese emissions requires US and EU to work together
Thank goodness that Adam Tooze has questioned the recent EU and UK furore over America’s Inflation Reduction Act, a law that could be a turning point in global climate protection, but is hardly a protectionist disaster for western trade…
How to Hand Out Billions in Climate Subsidies? Very Carefully.
ohn Podesta, President Biden’s clean energy adviser, said the administration was working to ensure that a record $370 billion in new federal subsidies for electric vehicles, wind farms, batteries and other clean energy technologies is spent…
New E.U. carbon tariff draws interest on Capitol Hill
The European Union’s climate import tax could galvanize a congressional conversation about enacting a similar policy in the United States. The E.U. parliament struck a deal Tuesday on its long-awaited carbon border adjustment mechanism…
E.U. seeks to pressure China on climate by taxing steel and cement
European Union policymakers struck a deal on Tuesday to impose a border tax on highly polluting products such as steel and aluminum — an unparalleled move to safeguard Europe’s own climate ambitions while pushing China and others to be greener…
As History Shows, Incumbents Have the Edge
A key reason that Democrats should support President Biden for re-election is that history shows that a sitting president has the best chance of winning. Several recent Democrats have run again…
New Cumbrian coalmine would prove UK hypocrisy, say experts around world
For the UK to open a new coalmine would be “hypocritical”, would “send the wrong message”, and makes “a mockery” of climate action, developing country activists and experts involved in global climate negotiations have said…
DOE girds for House Republican oversight
The Department of Energy, critical to deploying President Joe Biden’s clean energy and climate goals, will likely be facing a two-year onslaught of subpoenas, hourslong hearings and letters demanding information now that Republicans have…
While suffering countries plead for action on climate change, China stokes its coal furnaces
The recently ended COP27 climate change conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, resulted in a mixed bag of tepid pledges to address climate change. The conference made no progress on upping global ambition to…
Fears over oil producers’ influence with UAE as next host of Cop climate talks
Fears are growing among climate experts and campaigners over the influence of fossil fuel producers on global climate talks, as a key Gulf petro-state gears up to take control of the negotiations.The United Arab Emirates, one of the…
Cop out: Ignoring the dictatorships now causing the climate crisis at COP27
The big news out of COP 27, the UN climate negotiations, according to most media was a global agreement to create a fund to provide developing nations more aid to explicitly address rising climate change impacts…
US receives stinging criticism at Cop27 despite China’s growing emissions
The US, fresh from reversing its 30 years of opposition to a “loss and damage” fund for poorer countries suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis, has signaled that its longstanding image as…
World still ‘on brink of climate catastrophe’ after Cop27 deal
The world still stands “on the brink of climate catastrophe” after the deal reached at the Cop27 UN climate summit on Sunday, and the biggest economies must make fresh commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions…
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…
Podesta’s permitting reveal
White House clean energy adviser John Podesta is set to unveil the Biden administration’s priorities for reforming the nation’s permitting rules this morning in a heavily promoted…
Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People of 2023
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bledsoe wrote reports warning that the EU’s dependency on Russian gas represented huge geopolitical and climate risks, in part due to high methane-leakage rates from Russia’s gas system…
Granholm’s Mountain Valley pipeline support creates firestorm
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s endorsement of the controversial Mountain Valley pipeline on Monday is putting environmentalists on high alert and stirring speculation about how the move will affect the project and congressional permitting negotiations…
Many Young Voters Bitter Over Biden’s Support of Willow Oil Drilling
In the past three weeks, President Biden’s administration has proposed regulations to speed the transition to electric vehicles, committed $1 billion to help poor countries fight climate change and prepared what could be the first limits on…
President Biden’s Earth Day promise: The incumbent has a real plan for a greener future, unlike Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis
Last week, a meeting of Florida flooding policy managers was washed out in South Florida by a deluge of 26 inches of rain in just eight hours, unprecedented rainfall made far larger due to the climate change crisis that…
Permitting reform can cut consumer energy costs and emissions
America could have cleaner, cheaper energy if only we could agree to get out of our own way. The obstacle we have created is a thicket of federal and state regulations requiring energy projects to undergo lengthy, expensive, one-by-one…
Can the UAE help get a planet-saving methane deal at COP28?
Environmental advocates are rightfully skeptical that the head of a national oil company can credibly steer the parties at the upcoming UN climate summit COP28 to the strong climate mitigation needed to meet the climate emergency, especially…
Hello, high oil prices, my old friends
One of President Joe Biden’s most persistent political headaches — high oil prices — could make an unwelcome return just in time for the summer driving season…
He wrote the book on crushing ‘wokeism.’ Now he’s running for president.
Ron DeSantis rails against the “woke mob.” Nikki Haley calls wokeness a “virus.” But for all their use of the W-word, these and other GOP politicians cannot claim to have written the book on attacking it: That distinction goes to a little-known…
Inside the Biden team’s wild week on the environment
The Biden administration made big environmental news this week, with something to love — or hate — for just about everyone. It began Sunday, when the Biden administration rolled out a drilling ban in the Arctic Ocean. On Monday…
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