The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged regional protectionism

Has Byrd Shifted Positions on Mountaintop Coal Mining?

By | 12.03.09 | 3:56 pm

Aaron just hit this from the angle of climate change. I found Sen. Robert Byrd’s (D-W.Va.) op-ed interesting because, as recently as March, he was attacking the administration’s moves to rein in mountaintop mining as a threat to jobs in West Virginia, More…

Protecting Coal, but at What Cost?

By | 11.16.09 | 3:10 pm

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 More…

Yes, Taxpayers Paid to Trade Clunkers for Clunkers

By | 11.12.09 | 9:56 am

In June, when the Cash-for-Clunkers program — which provided a government subsidy to people who traded in older low-mileage vehicles to buy new, supposedly better-mileage vehicles — was humming to the tune of $1 billion, we wrote a piece warning that the program was hardly the environmental benefit More…

The Perils of Regional Protectionism, Part CXXVII

By | 10.19.09 | 5:48 pm

The hospitals have pledged more than $150 billion over a decade. Drug makers have chipped in another $80 billion. And the medical device manufacturers’ voluntary contribution to health reform? $0.

Indeed, as The Washington Post reported over the weekend, that failure to lend a financial hand for the More…

Going After Obama on Mountaintop Mining

By | 07.08.09 | 5:05 pm

Missed this over the long holiday weekend, but The Washington Post on Friday published a biting op-ed from Robert Kennedy Jr. in which the prominent environmental activist calls mountaintop coal mining “the worst environmental tragedy in American history” and attacks the Obama administration for doing far too little to More…