Dear Secretary Clinton, In your husband’s years in office, the greenhouse effect was still fairly novel science; even eight years ago, when you were first running for president, climate change was not yet really a top-tier issue. In a sense, then, this summer marks the first chance most Americans have to really find out what […]
While the Pope sucks up all the media attention with his climate encyclical today, Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley has released a position paper on the environment that deserves more attention, even if he’s not frontrunner Hillary Clinton or progressive idol Bernie Sanders. In the paper, the former Maryland governor burnished his credentials as a […]
On paper at least, Texas Senator and declared 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz is an intelligent man. He graduated cum laude from Princeton University where he was a debate champion. He went onto Harvard Law School where he graduated magna cum laude and was primary editor of the Harvard Law Review. He’s not a scientist, […]
After first rejecting “fast-track authority” to prevent Congress from amending President Obama’s pending Asian and European trade agreements, 13 Senate Democrats change their votes Thursday. The Senators who flipped had obtained other concessions, on issues like the Export-Import Bank and currency manipulation—but tellingly most of the concessions were promises to let something be voted on, not commitments to pass […]
Three weeks ago, a slightly disheveled U.S. senator wandered out to the front lawn of the Capitol Building and declared his campaign for president. Bernie Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist from the small state of Vermont, was in. Some people aren’t taking Bernie Sanders’ campaign seriously, but that’s a mistake. Albert H. Teich / Shutterstock.com […]
For the past three years, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has been doing a weekly speech, “Time to Wake Up” on the Senate floor to urge his fellow members of Congress to take action on climate change. Yesterday’s speech was the 100th such speech in his weekly installment, which started on April 18, 2012. “Opponents […]
Throughout the last two decades state after state has passed renewable energy standards, often with big bipartisan majorities, as investment in technologies like wind and solar held great promise for economic growth and job creation in addition to cutting greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change and decreasing air pollution. The wind industry in Kansas has already […]
Just because you know doing something is a long shot doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. That’s the attitude of seven Democratic senators who introduced a bill in Congress this week that would set a federal Renewable Energy Standard (RES). “To protect public health and address climate change, and to boost our economy, we need to […]
Watch the recent The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann as Brendan Fischer, Center for Media and Democracy and ALEC Exposed, joins the show. Hartmann and Fischer ask: “Are we finally witnessing the beginning of the great Republican revolt against the Koch brothers? And if so, how will that impact the fight to take money out of politics?” The Koch brothers network […]