politics

Today, we publish our fourth State of Green Business report, GreenBiz.com's annual effort to take the pulse of what and how the world of sustainable business is doing.

Speeches at political conferences are not renowned for their intellectual brilliance but they do provide, especially when it is the first one of a new party leader, a good idea about their major ‘branding’ themes.

A couple weeks ago, I sketched out an Oil Independence Plan for the United States that was based on a combined move to more efficient uses of petroleum as well as a much more aggressive move to oil- (and natural gas-) independent infrastructure, than is currently proposed in existing legislation in the US Congress. [Since posting that plan, Craig Severance has written an equally ambitious and more detailed plan which can seen here.

Today is a special day in America, particularly now and it is not another holiday. Over lunch I was watching TV, these military moms talked about their fallen loved ones. My heart aches so much when I hear each of them telling how old their sons were when they lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are 19 to 22 year old young men (and women) that never had the opportunity to experience life.

Tuesday's election results are being consistently characterized as the result of "anti-DC, anti-establishment" anger. Two winners from opposite political parties, Joe Sestak and Rand Paul, were on TV Wednesday morning talking about the need for accountability from politicians and that voters are tired of being ignored.

In the first part of this piece, I discussed how the fractured structure of cap and trade is either non-functional or marginally functional.  In the second part, I pointed out how cap and trade, due to its structure, is largely non-responsive to the ethical power of the climate action movement and concerned political leaders. Here I offer a context within which individual effective policy instruments can fit together.

In the first part of this post, I outlined how the components of cap and trade don’t work together to cut emissions.

2. Cap and Trade’s Perverse Ethics Threaten Climate Policy Effectiveness

In this 3-part post, I will outline how cap and trade’s composite structure contains within it fault lines that help defeat its and the climate action community’s goals.  In this first part, I will sketch out the components of the cap and trade hybrid

The Brown-Coakley Senate race in Massachusetts, which ended with the hugely unanticipated victory of unheralded newcomer Scott Brown for the Kennedy Senate seat, seems to be one of those "defining political moments" that you always read about in history textbooks. This, after all, was the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Ted Kennedy for over 40 years. The idea that an unknown Republican could win the Senate seat in the "bluest of blue states" -- especially after Barack Obama carried Massachusetts by more than 25 points just over a year ago - is staggering. And not just for political junkies.