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May 2010 Blog Posts (23)

Oiled Dogs of May: Obama's Gulf Crisis

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Day 40. Great gouts of oil still rush from the ruptured BP well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. A frustrated president visits the scene of the disaster to literally dab his finger at a tar ball washed up on the Louisiana beach. Television news, enlivened by easy-to-get pictures, sets its stand-ups in strategic positions, broadcasting the drama of competition between spreading pollution and technological…

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Added by Keith Schneider on May 31, 2010 at 14:24 — No Comments

Jobs in Michigan: Where Clean Energy, Climate, and Efficiency Policy Really Count

On Friday, May 21, President Obama gathered in the Rose Garden the chiefs of his transportation and environmental departments to take the next big step to leverage federal climate policy and clean energy investment to spur new job growth.

The president directed Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 27, 2010 at 23:20 — No Comments

Christian Aid Welcomes New Evidence for Deeper Cuts in European Emissions

Cutting EU emissions deeply enough to help prevent dangerous climate change would be significantly cheaper than expected and would also have important benefits for Europe’s economy, the European Commission declared today.…

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Added by Rachel Baird on May 26, 2010 at 17:41 — No Comments

Obama Makes Progress on Climate Change But Environmental Community Divided

President Obama on Friday directed the EPA and the Transportation Department to develop a national policy to increase fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from medium and heavy-duty trucks in time for the 2014 model year. The action comes almost exactly one year (May 19, 2009) after President Obama set new fuel and emissions standards for new cars and light trucks sold in the United States beginning with the 2012 model year.

The 2009 standards… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 21, 2010 at 21:30 — No Comments

Principle Trumps Pragmatism: Grassroots Greens Campaign Against Clean Energy, American Power Act

As the expanse of the Gulf slick widened this week and climate advocates reckoned with an American public focused on more urgent risks closer to their front doors, 15 big activist organizations and a coalition of 200 grassroots advocacy groups from across the country, many of them green, lashed the American Power Act.

Greenpeace last Thursday… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 20, 2010 at 23:30 — No Comments

Rio Earth Summit 2012: Anything less than visionary action from our world leaders is greenwashing

Let's get one thing straight: the “Green Economy” is not a buzz word, nor a sound bite, nor the nom du jour. It is not a distraction to the discussions on sustainable development – it fundamentally underpins sustainable development.

While some may rightly argue that the UN's focus on the Green Economy here at the… Continue

Added by Luke Upchurch on May 19, 2010 at 14:55 — No Comments

Coping after Copenhagen: Maximizing Mexico - webcast

Tune in tomorrow (19 May) for a live webcast of a conference called "Coping after Copenhagen: Maximizing Mexico".

The meeting is at the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan and will take place at 13.00-1700 local time.

The keynote speakers are Michael Glantz (University of Colorado) and my colleague Saleemul Huq (International Institute for Environment and Development).

Full details of the… Continue

Added by Mike Shanahan on May 18, 2010 at 15:00 — No Comments

Rebooting the Rio Earth Summit

Talking to delegates and civil society stakeholders here at the 18th Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD18) at the UN’s New York HQ, there is a palpable sense that not enough has been done since the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992. It’s a very real frustration, not… Continue

Added by Luke Upchurch on May 16, 2010 at 16:58 — No Comments

All Eyes To The Future: The American Power Act's Imperiled Pragmatism

Over 70 years ago, in the General Motors-sponsored Futurama exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair, an estimated 10 percent of all Americans were transported across a landscape of innovation, creativity, and optimism that became the economic and cultural foundation of the great American century. The Futurama exhibit was a huge diorama of a highway-heavy, congestion-free, car-dependent, time-efficient, leafy green urban and suburban all American pattern of civilization… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 15, 2010 at 21:30 — No Comments

While Oil Gushes Into Gulf, A Flurry of Ideas This Week in Washington

The foreboding of the monstrous Gulf oil spill was accompanied this week by the opportune deeds of Washington lawmakers, policy makers, and activists hard at work to fashion a political response, including the Senate introduction of a comprehensive climate and energy bill. The new proposal was generally applauded for its expansive scope by business groups, labor, and environmental organizations,… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 13, 2010 at 23:12 — No Comments

Carbon Army gears up for food growing summer

BTCV's Carbon Army is on the march again and during June we'll be kicking off our food growing campaign.

Throughout June BTCV is helping communities and…

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Added by Jane Whitham on May 13, 2010 at 16:02 — No Comments

Hour of Choosing Arrives: American Power Act Introduced

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In a long-awaited proposal designed to secure existing domestic energy sources and develop new ones that begin to reverse the damaging effects of global climate change, New England Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman today introduced comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation.

The co-authors of the bill, one a Democrat from Massachusetts and the other an Independent from Connecticut, insisted that its vision is to change… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 12, 2010 at 23:30 — No Comments

10 Reasons I Support the Nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court

While most Republicans wring their hands in anguish over the nomination of former Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court justice to replace Justice Stevens, I shout for joy. Why, you may

ask? Because she and I believe many of the same things about

administrative law. Here are 10:

1. She calls the administrative state in the United States "The Administrative State." See. 114 Harv. L. Rev. 2245.

While most Americans don't…

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Added by Rod Sullivan on May 11, 2010 at 18:01 — No Comments

Evo Morales rams up climate justice call at the UN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAY 6, 2010

CONTACT:

MEGAN MORRISSEY – 202-365-6900

INGRID SABJA – 973-738-2301

Bolivian President Evo Morales to Deliver Results of People’s Conference on Climate

Change to UN Sec Gen Ban Ki-moon

New York – On Friday, May 7th, President Evo Morales of Bolivia will personally

present UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with the conclusions of the World People’s

Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth, which… Continue

Added by Hilary Chiew on May 11, 2010 at 5:51 — No Comments

Turning Point in Attack on Climate Science

On May 5, in an unusually aggressive response to what they saw as an academic witch hunt, the University of Virginia Faculty Senate condemned state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s demand to turn over six years of documents… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 11, 2010 at 5:30 — No Comments

Fighting for the ‘C’ in SCP

“Fundamental changes in the way societies produce and consume are indispensable for achieving global sustainable development” 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, Chapter III

In mid-May 2010 preparations will shift up a gear for the next World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in Rio in 2012. Held every ten years, this is the seminal event on sustainability and will have huge implications for how…

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Added by Luke Upchurch on May 10, 2010 at 19:52 — No Comments

Gulf Spill, Climate, and the Politics of Oil Devotion

The one-foot waves today in the Gulf of Mexico were described as “tranquil” as BP started to lower a 70-ton case through 5,000 feet of water to contain the source of an oil leak that threatens the shorelines of four states. Guiding the steel cover over the well shaft in pitch-black waters at crushing depths, said engineers, is like floating a toy parachute… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 7, 2010 at 22:16 — No Comments

Live webcast - European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard

On Tuesday 11 May, the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, will give a speech in London hosted by the International Institute for Environment and Development (for the 2010 Barbara Ward lecture, named after IIED’s founder).

You can follow the speech live online from 1pm UK time at the IIED website -- …

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Added by Mike Shanahan on May 7, 2010 at 15:00 — No Comments

Bubbling and Crude: Gulf Coast Spill Reflects Devotion to Wealth, Power, and Oil

On March 17, two weeks to the day before President Barack Obama laid out a new plan to expand offshore oil exploration in the United States, a government auction of federally controlled oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico was held at the New Orleans Superdome. It took just a few hours for 77 energy companies to pledge $1.3 billion to the U.S. Treasury to look for oil and natural gas across a 2.4 million-acre expanse of bottomlands 200 miles from shore, and in most cases thousands of feet… Continue

Added by Keith Schneider on May 6, 2010 at 15:49 — No Comments