Posts by Aaron Wiener
Amid GOP opposition, even a limited climate bill is an uphill battle
A meeting Tuesday between President Obama and key senators produced few answers on the path forward for energy legislation. But a consensus may be forming around a price on carbon for the utilities sector only.
BP agrees to $20 billion compensation fund
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In oil spill address, Obama offers no answers on carbon emissions
At a critical juncture in the Senate’s energy and climate negotiations, the president chose not to push concrete energy and climate solutions.
‘We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got’
Addressing the nation from the Oval Office for the first time, President Obama pledged on Tuesday night to compensate the people of the Gulf.
As Obama steps up engagement on spill, energy battles loom
President Obama is expected to lay out his plan Tuesday to force BP to create an escrow account to compensate people for losses they’ve suffered as a result of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmentalists will likely cheer the president’s full-court press against the oil giant, and some are growing optimistic that they can use the spill as a rallying point to clamp down on offshore drilling. But the biggest issue for advocates — comprehensive climate legislation — still looms large, and the oil spill is unlikely to be its savior.
A radical climate solution goes mainstream
A growing number of scientists are devoting their careers to researching geoengineering, a manipulation of the environment to counteract climate change. But while most scientists may agree on the need to study this worst-case approach to addressing the climate crisis, a political consensus on the issue remains a long way off, as liberals and environmentalists have been reluctant to consider this radical solution that some conservatives have been quick to embrace.
Last-minute nod to farmers could undermine climate bill
As the U.S. Senate takes up debate on climate legislation, environmental groups are slamming a biofuels provision.
Bachmann perpetuates Boehner’s refuted $3,000 light-switch tax myth
Last week, MIT professor John Reilly called out Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) for intentionally misrepresenting Reilly’s cap-and-trade study to claim that President Obama’s emissions reduction scheme would cost American families more than $3,000 a year. “It’s just wrong,” said Reilly in reference to Boehner’s use of his study. But that didn’t stop Rep. Michele Bachmann from hopping on board the Boehner train.
