Alec Baldwin Says Sen. James Inhofe is an "Oil Whore", Should "Retire to a Solar-Powered Gay Bar"
At long last, a story of the omnipresent 'Celebrity Says Something Semi-Controversial on Twitter' variety graces the green world.
At long last, a story of the omnipresent 'Celebrity Says Something Semi-Controversial on Twitter' variety graces the green world.
Waxman Challenges Deficit Hawks To Become Climate Hawks
Speaking at the Center for American Progress Action Fund today, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) said he believes a price on carbon pollution can provide a unique solution to both the country’s fiscal challenges and its looming climate crisis, uniting climate and deficit hawks. His presentation put the challenge to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the House Republican budget chief, who has claimed that Congress has a “moral obligation” to reduce the country’s debt. With former Republican congressman Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Waxman explained how tackling climate pollution can address fiscal, energy, environmental, and economic challenges simultaneously:
A price on carbon can give you a substantial amount of money to help deal with our fiscal problems. A price on carbon can move us away from our reliance on fossil fuels which add to the greenhouse gas emissions in our climate, and by doing that we can become less dependent on oil. We would be able to be a challenger in the economic future of clean energy.
Watch it:
“Do people want to cut Medicare and Medicaid?” Waxman asked. A rising price on carbon pollution, Waxman said, could raise over $1 trillion over several decades.
Gilchrest rebuked Ryan for ignoring the climate crisis in his depiction of the “defining moment“:
Paul Ryan said this is a defining moment for future generations as far as a fiscal sense for reducing the deficit. This is a defining moment on the planet of seven billion people extracting resources faster than they can be replaced, becoming a geologic force by pumping more carbon dioxide in decades than nature is able to store in the earth over millions of years. The defining moment is realizing that the market, capitalism, our civilization is actually a subset of the earth’s ecosystem. We’re not independent of the living machine that gives us life on earth. We’re dependent on it.
“The U.S. is facing a range of unprecedented fiscal and environmental challenges,” said Waxman. “We’ve got a confluence of events happening all at once.”
Waxman and Gilchrest recently co-authored a Washington Post op-ed with Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sherry Boehlert (R-MD) calling for climate-change policies to be considered for deficit reduction.
Startup Simplifies Going Solar With Design-Your-Own Online Tool
A New Orleans based startup is creating a free online service to let people easily design a solar energy system and estimate how much energy it will produce.
T. Boone Pickens Wants 8 Million U.S. Trucks Running on CNG
Oilman T. Boone Pickens has always been an unlikely environmentalist. He's made a lot of money over the past few decades selling hydrocarbons, but it hasn't blinded him to the scientific facts of global warming.
Top States For Transportation Fuel Consumption – Romney Missed A Campaign Opportunity
Gasoline politics: nine US states consume half of the liquid transportation fuel sold.
Most Renewable Energy Subsidies Suck (But We Don’t Have Anything Better)
Government support for clean energy is crucial to getting off fossil fuels. But all too often it has unintended consequences.
Bipartisan Group of Senators Propose New PTC Extension
A bipartisan group of Senators who proposed an extension of the federal Production Tax Credit on Thursday. Proposing the two-year extension were Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
Chevron Execs to Face Charges of Environmental Crimes in Brazil
It's been less than a week since news went public of Chevron's latest oil spill off the coast of Brazil, its second in less than 6 months, but troubles for the oil company and the environment are clearly escalating.
