Obama's Energy Policy Needs a Tuneup

How else to explain them being OK with the exploding population?

(NEWSER) - Opponents of cap-and-trade legislation must believe that a massive plague will wipe out 2.5 billion people sometime between now and 2050. Otherwise, their stance makes no sense, writes Thomas Friedman of the New York Times . Even if you don’t believe climate change is real—and Friedman does—you can’t deny that the world is getting more crowded. According to a 2006 UN report, the population will rise 2.5 billion by 2050. More»

'Pathetic' Waxman-Markey at least puts a price on carbon: Friedman

(NEWSER) - Waxman-Markey is a "pathetic" and "appalling" bill that totally fails to respond to the urgency of climate change—and it should be passed by the Senate and signed into law straight away, writes Thomas Friedman. For the New York Times columnist, the flawed legislation has one great virtue: it finally puts a price on carbon emissions, and "will usher in a new mind-set among consumers, investors, farmers, innovators and entrepreneurs that in time will make a big difference." More»

(NEWSER) - The key issue behind both the global economic and climate crises is exactly the same: “mispricing risk,” Thomas L. Friedman writes in the New York Times. “We have been mispricing risk in both arenas,” he contends, “producing a huge excess of both toxic assets and toxic air that now threatens the stability of the whole planet.” Only “smart regulation and carbon taxation can heal both.” More»

3 years in the making; first of its size in the nation

(NEWSER) - While climate legislation flounders in Congress, California is taking the lead: Air regulators there voted yesterday to cap industrial greenhouse gas emissions and instate the first carbon-trading program of its size in the US, the Los Angeles Times reports. “Most political people said we should do as little as possible as slowly as possible” because of the economy, said an official. "We are being cautious and careful, but in the context of a very bold effort." More»

Public hungry for action, aides conclude

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama will call for a clean energy bill in his Oval Office address on the oil spill tomorrow, as part of a renewed push for the once all-but-abandoned legislation. The White House believes that the spill has whetted the public’s appetite for energy reform, top aides tell Politico . One Democratic pollster predicts the bill will “give Democrats a potent weapon to wield against Republicans in the fall.” More»