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Environment America Campaigns for Clean Energy Economy
Ensuring that large investments in clean, homegrown energy are part of any global warming bill.

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Environment America just announced that it will launch a $5.8 million campaign for a new clean energy economy. From their press release:

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New Conservative or Neo-Progressive?
Progressives should take a que from today's British conservative revival that a new social contract is good politics.

David Brooks wrote an oped today, "The Conservative Revival," that should serve as a wake-up call to American progressives. Brooks suggests that the recent victories of the British Conservative Party reflect a larger conservative shift happening in Europe due to some fundamental political retooling. The new conservative strategy, it seems, may be to focus on a post-material, new social contract:

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A Shift in the Global Warming Debate
Questioning the conventional policy framework

The conventional wisdom about climate policy has long been that we need to make dirty energy expensive. Slap on a price for carbon and watch it work its market magic, so the logic goes. But a growing cadre of environmental thinkers is starting to question that policy framework, wondering if direct investment in clean energy might do more to slow global warming.
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Is CCS a Scam? Greenpeace vs Expert Consensus
Rapid deployment of CCS must be a central tenet of any sound global energy policy.

Greenpeace just released a new report that it claims "proves once and for all that 'clean coal' is nothing more than a slogan aimed at greenwashing the image of an irremediably dirty energy source." From their press release:

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Don't Count on China to Put the Brakes on Development
What's our plan for transferring clean, low-cost energy to China?

China is gearing up to announce an action plan for dealing with climate change, but chances are it's not going to include binding limits on its emissions. AFP reported yesterday that China will pledge to "actively join" a post-Kyoto Protocol deal to take action on global warming. The Japanese Foreign Ministry released a statement that said:

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Obama's Energy Advisor Speaks to Technology Investment
But questions remain on China and coal.

Obama took a great step last fall when he announced $150 billion over ten years for clean energy. A large and ever-growing number of energy experts believe the number should be at least twice as big, but this was a major improvement over the 2004 Presidential race when John Kerry put a whopping $0 on the table despite efforts by the Apollo Alliance.

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Overview of Our Debate with Energy Blogger Joe Romm
Many environmentalists did not take the news of Roger Pielke, Jr.'s Nature piece well.

Last month, Roger Pielke Jr. and two co-authors published a landmark commentary in the science journal Nature suggesting that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had probably dramatically underestimated the likely growth of carbon emissions over the next century. Many environmentalists did not take the news well, attacking Pielke, his co-authors, and the Breakthrough Institute, where Pielke is a Senior Fellow, for conspiring to undermine efforts to address climate change. Some of the harshest attacks came from Center for American Progress's Joe Romm.

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The Political Psychology of Fear
What is the proper place for fear in our politics?

The April 29 Special Issue of Breakthrough News described some of the work we've been doing on the relationships between fear and politics. Academics have done some important research, but we are just beginning to understand how this potent emotion interacts with complex and changing socio-political circumstances.

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Elements of Any Successful Approach to Climate Change
All of these elements are necessary, but none by themselves sufficient.

by Roger Pielke, Jr.

This post summarizes, in capsule form, what I believe to be the necessary elements of any successful suite of policies focused on climate mitigation and adaptation. This post is short, and necessarily incomplete with insufficient detail, nonetheless, its purpose is to set the stage for future, in depth discussions of each element discussed below. The elements discussed below are meant to occur in parallel. All are necessary, none by itself sufficient. I welcome comments, critique, and questions.

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What the Gas Tax Holiday Should Teach Us
How do we transition to a clean energy economy as quickly as possible?

Three weeks before the Senate is scheduled to vote on global warming legislation, presidential candidates John McCain and Hilary Clinton have both called for temporarily suspending the 18-cent gasoline tax. The proposal is anathema to anyone who is pushing for disincentives on dirty energy. But instead of just railing against political pandering, we should take this as an opportunity to rethink our politics. The big question is: how do we finance the transition to a clean energy economy?

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Breakthrough Blog

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Environment America Campaigns for Clean Energy Economy

New Conservative or Neo-Progressive?

A Shift in the Global Warming Debate

Is CCS a Scam? Greenpeace vs Expert Consensus

Don't Count on China to Put the Brakes on Development

Obama's Energy Advisor Speaks to Technology Investment

Overview of Our Debate with Energy Blogger Joe Romm

The Political Psychology of Fear

Elements of Any Successful Approach to Climate Change

What the Gas Tax Holiday Should Teach Us

Why an Emerging Chinese Middle Class is Good for the Environment

Tuesday Interview with Taxation Expert Monica Prasad

Breakthroughs Depend on Learning While Doing

Investing in Our Future

Russia Rejects Future Emissions Limits -- Who's Next?

In Praise of Petroleum?

Xenophobia Goes Global

Xenophobia Destroyed Immigration Reform -- Is Health Care Next?

Overcoming Fear in Foreign Policy

Against Fall Narratives

Fear, Insecurity, & Conservativism: an Interview with Sociologist Robb Willer

Against a Fear-Based Politics

Bush's Empty Legacy

China's Plea for Clean Energy

Malaria & Greenhouse Gases

Car Culture

The Wisdom of Investment in a World of Mounting Wedges

The Sixties Were the (Population) Bomb

Joe Romm's Fuzzy Math

Apres Earth Day, Le Coal

Against Narratives of the (Musical) Fall

GMOs: Organics Best Friend?

The Central Question of Mitigation

Can a Coal Power Plant Ever be Good?

The Coming Bursting of the Green Bubble

Tuesday Interview: Vice Magazine: "Breakthrough Institute Wrests Environmentalism Away From the Dumbs"

Memphis, 40 Years After

Is global warming a higher priority today than it was 20 years ago?

Adaptation and Public Investment: The Expert View

What is Joe Romm Complaining About?

Return of the Prodigal Son

An Interview with Solar Power Expert Ken Zweibel

Maybe Horses Will Fly - Developing Countries and Global Warming

Maryland's Failed Global Warming Bill

Solar Energy Not Quite Ready For Prime Time

Holding the Poor Hostage

The Debate Gets Civil: Romm Apologizes For Unfair Attacks

No Clean Tech Breakthroughs Needed? Think Again

Romm vs. Expert Consensus on Energy Technology

An Interview with Energy Expert Frank Laird

Misinformation Campaign

The Global Warming Debate Grows Up

Case Closed

The Green Politics of Personal Destruction: Deconstructing Joe Romm

Joe Romm's Dissembling

Misinformation from Grist

Joe Romm's Challenge

"Dangerous Assumptions" FAQ

Expanding Wedges: a News Roundup

More Inconvenient Truths

The Technology Challenge: An Interview with Physicist Marty Hoffert

The End of Carbon Price Orthodoxy

YouTube's Political Revolution

On Scientific Progress and Politics

Adapting to a Changing Earth:

A Post-Partisan Al Gore?

Everyone an Investor: An Interview with Dalton Conley

Department of Energy grants $14 million dollars to Solar

Cold on Global Warming

Sugar and Oil: Learning the Right Lessons from Brazil

The Many Sides of Al Gore

Sugar and Oil: Learning the Right Lessons from Brazil

From Synthetic Trees to Carbon Sponges: an interview with Scientist Klaus Lackner

Where's Your Better Plan?

Will Prostitutes Be Better Off With Johns like Spitzer in Prison?

The "Serious Business" of Kyoto

Our Next Moonshot: an Interview with Activist Barbara Hill

Solar Thermal in the Southwest

The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind--and cheaply, too!

The Cloth of Science: an Interview with Roger Pielke, Jr.

Big Foot

Al Gore Misrepresents the Emissions Challenge

Gas Prices Soar, Threatening Global Warming Legislation

Gandhi versus Development: Part Two

Surprise, Transgression, and Dancing: An Interview with Political Theorist Bill Chaloupka

Misguided Mandating

Gandhi versus Development: Part One

Nature is no guide

For an "Investor Society"

Solar Breakthroughs Needed, Says New UC-Berkeley Study

Rethinking Deforestation: Macro Drivers Plow over the Amazon

High Energy Fashion

Obama's Nietzsche

Creating a "Solar Valley"

So Much for Peak Oil, Plug-In Hybrids, and Reliance on Foreign Dictators

Growing Calls from UK for New Apollo Energy Project

The NY Times has it Backwards

Michael & Ted Take on Conservatives

The Little Car that Environmentalists Love to Hate

More Electricity than you ever Dreamed of...

Against Eco-Asceticism

China to be #1 in Wind Power

No Impact, Man

Take Action to Stimulate Clean Energy!

The Ethical Environmentalist

Solar is Waiting in the Wings

Yeasayers Yea-Say Break Through

The Birth of Death, and the Hawaiian Sun

When Diplomats Boo: How Global Climate Talks Reached a New Nadir

A Small Step for CA

Breakthrough Institute 2008 Youth Conference: Breakthrough Generation

Open Letter to Senator Inhofe

Putting the Green in Green

Top Energy Scientists Call for $30 Bi Annual Investment in Clean Energy

The Peacock at Grist

Hansen's Holocaust Comparison: Or, Why Moralizing on Global Warming Won't Work

Gratitude

Pielke on the Politics of the IPCC

Connecting the Dots

Michael Pollan and Break Through on You Tube

From the Nightmare to the Dream

The New Climate Debate

The New Debate over Climate Erupts at the Times

A Hybrid is Born

New York Times on Break Through

Global Warming After Gore

Preparing for the Fires Next Time

How Global Warming Will Force Political Realignment

Off Message

Student Climate Movement Needs a Breakthrough

Prins and Rayner in Nature

Portland Strikes Back

Is Minneapolis the coolest town in America?

Tell them about the dream, Al!

Political Science

American Power

The DoD and Silicon Valley: A Model for the New Clean Energy Technologies

From Simmer to Boil

Environmentalism's Existential Moment

Abstract Art

Public Leery of Climate Change Remedies If Energy Costs Rise

Boston Phoenix on Break Through

The Failure of Carbon Pricing

Rear View Politics

How Scientism Enervated Environmentalism

Tom Friedman Cuts to the Chase on Global Warming

One Reason not to dis Barack Obama

Book Excerpt in The New Republic's Screaming Monkey

Energy Price Anxiety

John Marburger on the BBC

What Lomborg Gets Right

Making Solar as Cheap as Coal in China

Toxic by Nature

The Nietzsche Family Circus

9/11, Fear and Rational Thought

Break Through's Concrete Ideas

Monday Night Existentialism

Morphine as a human right

The Nokia Effect

Risking it All

Former Coal Lobbyist to Head Anti-Cape Wind Group

Fire Up the Chainsaws

The Power of Status

The Many Selves of Patti Smith

Daily Show on Cape Wind

Death of the Civil Rights Movement?

Solar Dreams

In Love with the Sun

Albert Ellis, 1913 - 2007

Enough with Chariots of Fire nostalgia

Our Wet Drought

When Pat Buchanan's Right, He's Right

What "Sicko" Misunderstands About Health Care

Your Grandma on Global Warming

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