Recent Interviews
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…
Biden’s climate agenda faces yet another obstacle: Kyrsten Sinema
The most ambitious attempt yet to pass climate legislation in the US may have surprisingly won the crucial backing of a senator who owns a coal company. Now it faces a further, deeply ironic, obstacle – a lawmaker who was once a member of…
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…
Holy Shit, Democrats Might Actually Pass a Climate Change Bill
So maybe we’re not just going to hurtle headlong into a fiery climate doom without the U.S. government lifting a finger to save us, after all. Senate Democrats shocked Washington D.C. and climate activists by unveiling plans for the largest…
China Is Winning in Solar Power, but Its Coal Use Is Raising Alarms
China is installing about as many solar panels and wind turbines as the rest of the world combined, and is on track to meet its target for clean energy six years early. It is using renewables to meet nearly all of the growth in its electricity needs….
How Major League Baseball undermined the regular season and the winningest teams, including the Orioles
The trait that separates major league baseball from every other game on earth is the sheer length of its regular season. At 162 games, the baseball season is twice as long as basketball and hockey, and 10 times that of pro football…
Podcast: Labour’s Climate Policies, US Dems and the Coming Elections
Former environmental aide to US President Bill Clinton, Paul Bledsoe, the Telegraph’s environmental editor Emma Gatten, and the economist and former treasury advisor to Rishi Sunak, Tim Leunig, join Sam and Ayesha to discuss the economics and…
Hamas-Israel War Must Not Prevent Progress at COP 28 Climate Talks
The next United Nations climate change conference, COP28, is scheduled to begin at the end of November in Dubai. Beyond the challenges of getting the world to agree on difficult climate issues, progress…
Biden, Not Trump, Is Right on the Autoworkers’ Strike and Electric Vehicles
Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican Party, seemingly devoid of original policy ideas themselves, have tried to make Joe Biden’s advocacy of incentives for U.S. production of electric vehicles (EVs) a campaign issue in…
Rising Seas Imperil US Sites, Military Bases Worth $387 Billion
Rising tides and powerful storms turbocharged by climate change are poised to hobble federal facilities worth at least $387 billion in coming decades, disrupting everything from veterans’ medical care to…
Biden is tight with the head of GM. Could it affect the strike?
General Motors CEO Mary Barra has visited the White House eight times since Joe Biden became president. She’s led the auto industry in embracing his electric vehicle agenda. The president has spent years cultivating a…
Team Biden goes all in at New York climate week
President Joe Biden promised to use the whole federal government to tackle climate change, and he’s sending his climate hotshots to New York City this week in a bid to prove he’s following through…
IN BOTH U.S. AND UK, OVERTAXING VOTERS IS BAD CLIMATE POLITICS
No political comparison is as discordant to British ears as one suggesting commonality with the American scene, particularly with Donald Trump still at large. Nonetheless, recent UK contretemps over energy taxes and climate…
One climate disaster after another’: North America’s long hot summer
Thousands of people are scrambling to evacuate the northern Canadian city of Yellowknife as flames from another blaze in the country’s record-breaking wildfire season bear down on people’s homes, threatening North America’s second fire disaster in…
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