“They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: ‘This climate thing, it’s nonsense,’” an impassioned Al Gore told attendees at the Aspen Institute Thursday. “Bullshit! ‘It may be sun spots.’ Bullshit! ‘It’s not getting warmer.’ Bullshit!”
Despite the Gulf oil spill, a massive pipeline break in Michigan and broad concerns about global warming, ambitious climate-change and energy legislation is likely dead for the year. That poses a conundrum, going forward, for environmentalists: How to convince lawmakers of the need for legislation to sever the country’s decades-long ties to oil and to reform energy policy more generally?
The Washington Post does the math on the “revolving door” turning always between the federal government and the oil industry, underscoring the significant influence the industry has over Congress and the administration.
Key numbers:
BP and other companies involved
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Boulder resident Bo Fellinger is disgusted. She recently discovered that the Department of Labor yet again denied her husband Michael’s claim to compensation for chronic lung disease. Fellinger doesn’t have a good word to say about the department or its Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICPA). Her husband, a grad student at the Ames Laboratory in Iowa, died of lung failure in 2008 at age 62, his claim shuttled back and forth among bureaucrats for nearly four years.
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will retire this summer, a fact that has led conservatives to begin prepping for the coming appointment battle. Environmentalists are also already calculating the implications of the retirement. Jonathan Hiskes points out
Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will drop their climate change bill this month. Although success will depend on action and support from the Senate as a whole, key individuals inside and outside the halls of Congress will shape the legislation and steer it through the political and public relations minefields it will have to navigate successfully in order to pass into law. Here is a list of the ten climate legislation champions at the heart of the battle.
Americans continue to grow more skeptical of the threat of global warming, with a new Gallup poll showing that nearly half of all Americans believe the threat is exaggerated.
According to the poll, 48 percent of the population considers…
This week, the governor’s energy office hosted an Environment and Transportation Fair at the Colorado History Museum in Denver. Participants included green energy entrepreneurs and business representatives, environmental advocacy groups, and interested public observers. The event showcased…
Jeff Biggers, a civil rights activist and cultural historian, watched helplessly a dozen years ago as the hollers of Eagle Creek, Illinois — a corner of the Shawnee National Forest and his family’s home for roughly 200 years — were blasted away, the forested hills bulldozed by companies harvesting the lucrative coal seams underground — a scene from Avatar playing out before the movie was made.
One of the perks of political rock star-dom is that you get to write pretty much whatever you want and the nation’s leading newspapers will publish it. Take Sarah Palin: Judging from The Washington Post’s op-ed page, she’s now one…
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