EPA: Rep. Gardner bill would increase air pollution exposure in Alaska

Colorado 4th Congressional District Rep. Cory Gardner has been steadily trying to chip away at the regulatory authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since taking office in January, and Colorado conservation groups are increasingly targeting the freshman Republican for backing “Big Oil” interests above environmental concerns. More…

Attempts to restrict abortion access abound at state level

Anti-abortion measures are advancing in state legislatures all around the country. Here’s the latest:

Alaska: Legislators halt insurance program for low-income women and children.

State senators struck down a measure that would have expanded medical care to low-income women and children yesterday. More…

DISCLOSE Act advocates float GOP senators who might help their cause

My article on the DISCLOSE Act today mentions that Democrats are hoping, yet hardly confident, that a stripped-down version of the bill might do the trick and attract at least two Republican votes in the lame-duck session of Congress set to resume next week. The Hill, it turns out, More…

Murkowski calls for EPA climate preemption

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), amid the post-election hubbub of her tight re-election bid, renewed her call to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

In a statement from her office, Murkowski outlined ways to reduce greenhouse gases without a cap-and-trade system or EPA regulation, including “investment More…

Miller and Murkowski build legal teams before ballot count in Alaska

With write-in ballots — the vast majority of which are presumed to be for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — garnering nearly 41 percent of the vote in Alaska’s Senate race, compared to 34.3 percent for Republican nominee Joe Miller, why are both sides lawyering up in anticipation of the More…

Midterm Wrapup: What the Election Means for Energy and the Environment

Here’s a quick recap of the midterm results from last night that have implications for energy/climate/environmental policy.

It was mostly bad news for House Democrats who voted for the chamber’s cap-and-trade bill. The two most stinging defeats were Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), who worked furiously behind the scenes to More…

The Palin Factor in Today’s Elections

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) decided to lavish perhaps her last endorsement of the election cycle yesterday evening on former GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo, who’s now running for governor in Colorado as a member of the American Constitution Party and has pulled within striking distance of Denver mayor More…

Third-Party Candidacies Enjoy a Surge Unlike Any Since 1934

A lot of pundits have drawn comparisons between the current midterm election cycle and the GOP wave year of 1994, but the University of Minnesota’s politics blog argues that an equally apt comparison could be made with the year 1934:

While self-identified Republicans may enjoy an enthusiasm gap over

More…

On the Frontline/ProPublica Oil Spill Documentary

I just finished watching the Frontline/ProPublica documentary on BP. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s definitely worth your time. The documentary tracks BP’s spotty safety record, from a 2005 explosion at one of its oil refineries in Texas that killed four people to pipeline spills in Alaska to More…

Murkowski Says She’ll Flex Muscle as Senior Member of Energy Committee If Re-elected

All politics is local, especially when it comes to energy politics. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) proved that today in Fairbanks when she outlined a plan to lower energy costs in the city.

But the plan also has a number of potential national implications. In order to convince voters that it’s More…