February 3, 2010

Obama and Graham Call for a Full-Assed Senate Climate Bill

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Over on Blue Marble, you can find the latest on environmental politics. The highlights:

Obama, Graham Warn Dems Not to Settle For “Half-Assed” Climate Bill

After seeming to make room for Democrats who want to drop cap-and-trade in remarks at a town hall in New Hampshire, Barack Obama on Wednesday called on his party not to take “the easy way out” on legislation. Republican Lindsey Graham seconded the call to not settle for a “half-assed” climate bill.

Nuclear’s Slice of the Climate Pie

A leaked draft of the Senate bill’s nuclear title includes basically everything the nuclear industry has asked for: additional federal loan guarantees to spur the construction of new plants, tax breaks and a streamlined approval process for new plants.

House Trio Moves to Block EPA

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Missouri Reps. Ike Skelton (D) and Jo Ann Emerson (R) announced yesterday that they are sponsoring a bill to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases, arguing that regulations should be left up to Congress. Peterson did vote for the House climate and energy bill last year, but only after holding the bill hostage until he could wring as much out of it for Big Ag. And after getting what he wanted, he now says he would vote against the bill if it came back to the House, which casts doubt about his seriousness about regulating greenhouse-gases.

Big Oil’s Big Year

The oil industry spent $154 million on lobbying last year. That’s more than any previous year, and more than any other energy interest looking to shape the debate on Capitol Hill.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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