global warming

The push is on to dilute the climate change bills moving through Congress, and it’s not coming only from conservatives. Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard reports today that 14 Senate Democrats are urging their leadership to amend the proposal to grant more free polluting permits to the coal-burning utilities that emit the most greenhouse gases. In [...]

Faced with the reality that reaching a global, binding climate treaty at Copenhagen next month may be next to impossible, world leaders announced yesterday that they were scaling back their ambitions for Copenhagen and putting off a comprehensive treaty until at least next year. The reaction so far? Cheers from across the political spectrum.
Marc Morano, [...]

The Charleston County (S.C.) Republican Party’s move to censure Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) didn’t strike me as too surprising–last year, Graham fended off a primary challenge from a member of the Republican National Committee. But the full resolution, via Beth Marlowe, is worth reading. Forming compromises with the likes of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is, [...]

Anyone who pooh-poohed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) politically courageous decision to work with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to help craft bipartisan climate legislation might reconsider his position after this news out of South Carolina:
The Charleston County Republican Party’s executive committee took the unusual step Monday night of censuring U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for stepping across [...]

This is a deeply strange story, ably picked apart by the smart conservative blogger Ed Morrissey. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has been making the rounds today claiming that the climate bill includes a provision that — in the words of the Washington Examiner — “requires President Obama to act like Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez” [...]

Lest you should think that Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-Mont.) “no” vote on the Environment and Public Works Committee’s climate bill signaled his opposition to comprehensive climate legislation in general, look no further than his opening statement this morning at the first hearing on the legislation in the Finance Committee, which he chairs:
[...] I am committed [...]

[UPDATE: Quick clarification. This is definitely a conservative media outrage, but Boaz is a libertarian.] I’m reporting out something unrelated, so I’ve almost missed this, but apparently President Obama has made a major error in not going to Germany for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Politico’s Arena is all over [...]

The Republican boycott persisted, but the Democratic side of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sent its landmark climate bill to the full Senate this morning, by a vote of 11-1. All Republicans were absent, as was Democratic Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) was the only Democrat to vote against passage, [...]

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced its support for sweeping climate legislation. The announcement surprised everyone — including the Chamber itself — and was quickly revealed to be a hoax.
Well, today we’re seeing a repeat performance — only it appears genuine. The Chamber has posted a letter on its Website that it [...]

The Iowa Independent reports that earlier this week, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.), the co-sponsors of a sweeping climate bill that Boxer hopes to mark up in committee next week. In the letter, Grassley trots out a lot of the usual GOP talking points [...]