Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said today that she is putting on hold her effort to block EPA’s determination that carbon pollution is a danger to public health and the environment. This is a strong indication that she doesn’t think a majority of the Senate would vote for her resolution disapproving EPA’s endangerment finding.
Senator Murkowski...
The oil and gas industry spent a record $168.3 million in lobbying expenses in 2009, and a good deal of it was directed to blocking clean energy and climate legislation.
That is a staggering number, but after my 40 years spent fighting for environmental protections, I am not surprised. Every time we have advanced a new safeguard, there is always one sector of industry trying to stop it. It happened when we...
Forty years ago this spring, we were a nation divided by war in Vietnam. The Chevrolet Monte Carlo got 11 miles to the gallon. Simon and Garfunkel were making their way up the charts with “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” And the NRDC was just a handful of environmental lawyers sharing office space in New York City.
Environmental law itself was in its infancy. The government wasn’t organized to protect our country against the kind of pollution that had caused Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River to catch...
When I began the year with the resolution to reduce my global warming pollution, I was hit with the glaring reality that it was going to be a lot more work than I thought. The produce in my fridge is grown all over the U.S. and transported to me by fossil fuel-burning trucks, I forget my reusable bags at home, and yes, I confess, I turn on the furnace to heat my apartment in the winter (it’s cold in San Francisco!). Still, being environmentally conscious is not an all-or-nothing proposition and I know I...
Ah, Home Star – the legislative proposal that has eaten all my time over the last six months. What more is there to say? Creates jobs!…Slashes energy use!…Saves money!
All of that was said today and more, during a hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Congressional Research Service, the Department of Energy, and a...
