Archive
It’s Not Easy for Obama to Prove He’s Green
President Barack Obama’s spokesman, Josh Earnest, recently boasted that his boss will “go down in history as the greenest president we’ve ever had.” Yes, cars, trucks, and buses will increasingly burn less fuel because of this White House. If the courts don’t spike...
Life in Anxietyland
Greetings from Anxietyland. Or as some might know it, graduate school. I've got just a few weeks left of teaching and taking classes before the semester ends. You might see that as hectic yet manageable. It's not exactly fun, but it's only temporary. Logically, I can...
Fast Tracking the TPP
Making Science History
We've all seen those touchy-feely TV ads with baby deer, butterflies, and sylvan streams — claiming that some big corporate polluter is nature's best friend. There's a word for such hokum: greenwashing. Leave it to the Koch brothers, however, to invent a whole new...
In OtherWords: April 8, 2015
This week in OtherWords, I talk about how tax credit turbulence distorts the wind business and Phyllis Bennis explains why Iran's nuclear deal scored a win for peace over war. Do you want to make sure you don’t miss the latest from OtherWords? Please subscribe to our...
America’s Billionaires Owe You a Thank You Note
This tax season, America’s billionaires are toasting you, the ordinary taxpayer. That’s because you’re the one picking up the tab for our nation’s ailing infrastructure of roads, bridges, and rail transport. You’re also footing the bill for military forces, disaster...
Footing the Bill While Israel Thumbs Its Nose
It's tax season again. How about a little accounting? Every year, Washington sends $3.1 billion of taxpayers’ hard-earned money to Israel. It’s only fair to ask what Americans are getting in return. That seems especially appropriate now. Israeli Prime Minister...
Diplomacy Defeats War for a Change
With their groundbreaking agreement over Iran's nuclear enrichment program, negotiators in Lausanne, Switzerland scored a major victory for diplomacy over war. Both sides made major concessions. But Iran's concessions are far greater. Tehran agreed to severe cuts in...
Saving Coal Country
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell recently took the extraordinary step of calling on governors to ignore Washington’s Clean Power Plan, an EPA mandate to curb carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. "Declining to go along with the administration’s legally...
Blowing Past Political Turbulence
The gaggle of workers in Montana’s Carbon County hacking at the barely thawed ground in late December were on a mission: Secure Mud Springs Wind Ranch’s eligibility for a green-energy incentive. Why were they racing to catch a tax credit in that sparsely inhabited...
