West Virginia
In TNR, the Working Class Has Disappeared
Doooomed on Climate Change. Probably.
Is The Coal Industry Suicidal?
For years, the coal industry's strategy for dealing with climate change has gone something like this: 1) Fight off caps on carbon pollution for as long as possible. 2) Convince politicians to throw gobs of money at fancy low-carbon technologies like carbon capture and sequestration. 3) Pray that those fancy technologies actually work. The strategy has succeeded so far. Seeing as how half the electricity in the United States comes from coal, there's never a shortage of members of Congress willing to do whatever the industry wants. READ MORE >>
Is Joe Manchin Too Young?
Politico has a headline, "Manchin Gets Veteran Dem Challenger." "Veteran" turns out to be something of an understatement here: Former West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler, a nonagenarian Democrat who has held office in the state on and off since 1958, has filed to run in his party’s Senate primary against Gov. Joe Manchin. READ MORE >>
West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, a Democrat, confirmed today that he will run for Robert Byrd’s Senate seat this fall. Chances are he’ll be running against Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, although she hasn’t formally announced her candidacy yet. So who exactly is Joe Manchin? Here are some quick, essential facts: READ MORE >>
How Robert Byrd Won My Respect
Byrd's Late Coal Conversion
I didn't get a chance to mention this yesterday, but Robert Byrd's death definitely jumbles the political landscape for climate/energy legislation—though maybe not in the way most people would assume. For a long time, Byrd had been a staunch coal guy (it's West Virginia, after all) who was firmly opposed to doing anything about global warming. He was one of the Kyoto Protocol's biggest critics, and in 2008 he was the only Democrat who voted against even starting debate about a cap on carbon emissions. READ MORE >>
Traitors to Their Class
For Barack Obama’s inauguration, Washington Dulles International Airport had to close a runway to accommodate private jet traffic. According to aviation authorities, the D.C. area had never before experienced so large an influx of corporate jets—around 500 in total, or almost double the number for George W. Bush’s second inauguration. And this was to celebrate the presidency of someone who had run on a platform that included tax hikes for the rich and a crackdown on Wall Street. READ MORE >>
This story reads like it's from the Onion, but it's in Politico: John Kerry has been the most aggressive advocate of climate change legislation in the Senate this year — so aggressive that it’s rubbed some of his colleagues the wrong way. READ MORE >>
Murkowski's Showdown With The EPA
The Hill's Alex Bolton has a good preview of the Senate vote today on Lisa Murkowski's EPA resolution. This resolution, recall, would overturn the EPA's finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. READ MORE >>
