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…
Before China’s coal is even burned, its mines are warming the planet
To get a sense of the scale and severity of China’s addiction to coal, look no further than the scores of deep industrial mines and uncounted smaller pits dotted across the country’s north-central region, churning out more of the black rock than…
To avert climate disaster, we need firm commitments on cutting methane at COP28
The key goal of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) negotiations beginning in Dubai this week must be to limit fast-rising temperatures, to prevent runaway warming that could destabilize the…
‘Enough of endless delays’: will Cop28 force a course change for the world?
If current growth in renewable energy continues, and if countries take action on cutting greenhouse gases such as methane, then next year could be the year in which greenhouse gas emissions at last reach their peak…
COP28: What to expect at UN climate talks The future of fossil fuels and the question of who pays for climate damage will be up for debate
Tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in the next few days for the UN’s COP28 climate summit where, during the next two weeks, negotiators will spend long hours haggling over…
Kings and Popes Attending COP28 Is Good — But Climate Crisis Requires Powerful Grassroots Movements
It’s important that older figures of religious and cultural influence like Pope Francis and the UK’s King Charles will be attending the United Nations COP28 climate change negotiations in Dubai beginning this week. However, their attendance…
Biden Must Confront China’s Xi on Looming Climate Disaster
As Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping prepare to meet in San Francisco today, extreme weather events caused by rising temperatures are increasingly wreaking havoc at home and around the world, with new studies indicating that…
Sizing up Manchin’s legacy on energy, climate policy
Joe Manchin’s announcement Thursday that he plans to retire from the Senate caps off an extraordinary tenure marked by substantive policy wins but also high-profile clashes with fellow Democrats on energy and climate…
China announces plan for curbing methane emissions
China yesterday released an action plan for reducing methane emissions, pledging more “forceful” measures to tackle the potent greenhouse gas before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai later this month…
China releases plan to tackle methane emissions
China said Tuesday it would bolster efforts to crack down on emissions of methane, the greenhouse gas that is one of the top two drivers of rising global temperatures. If successful, China’s efforts to curb methane could have one…
Republicans’ climate stance sets up new 2024 election frontline
Republican lawmakers’ election of Mike Johnson as speaker of the US House of Representatives this month marks another shift by the party away from Democrats on the issue of climate change, political analysts say…
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