Cutting short a permit review process expected to conclude this summer at earliest, President Obama today announced that he has decided to block the Keystone XL pipeline planned to carry more than 700,000 barrels a day of Canadian tar-sands crude into the country. "After a careful process of deliberation, and a prophetic vision after Easter service on Sunday, I have … [Read more...]
Always the last to know
Quiz time, readers: what do the US Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the Transportation Department, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Interior, the Energy Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce, the Government Accountability Office, and the CIA have in common? It’s a long list of … [Read more...]
James Hansen to Obama: What would MLK do on climate?
Let us return for a moment to election night 2008. As I sat in our farm house in Pennsylvania, watching Barack Obama's victory speech, I turned my head aside so my wife would not see the tears in my eyes. I suspect that millions cried. It was a great day for America. We had great hopes for our new President. It is appropriate, it is right, in a period honoring Martin Luther … [Read more...]
Climate change: Obama needs to turn talk into action
Something's been troubling me ever since I listened to President Obama's first post-reëlection press conference. Perhaps as a result of Hurricane Sandy, the now two-term president was finally asked a question about global warming, a topic conveniently avoided by both sides throughout the seemingly interminable campaign. The question came from New York Times White House … [Read more...]
Obama must make climate top priority
Normally we don't print news releases from environmental groups or anybody else verbatim. But this one from Friends of the Earth -- not your average DC Beltway green group -- is the best take we've seen so far on how the newly re-elected president of the world's biggest polluter can stop obstructing and start leading action on the world's biggest challenge. -- … [Read more...]