Administration has no regrets on pushing healthcare before climate

Obama aims for tougher fuel economy rules for big vehicles
The Obama Administration has announced plans to develop more strict rules regarding the fuel economy of big vehicles such as school buses, garbage trucks, and delivery vans. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department are moving forward with a fuel economy concept for medium- and heavy-duty trucks. The first models to be subject to the new rules will be those produced in 2014. Proponents of the Regulation hope for 20 percent less Greenhouse Gas Emissions and fuel...

Obama takes to Dallas airwaves, urges listeners to vote
Obama takes to Dallas airwaves, urges listeners to vote 09:41 AM CDT on Thursday, October 28, 2010 By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News [email protected] Washington - President Barack Obama took his get-out-the-vote message to Dallas radio Wednesday morning, with a call to the Rickey Smiley Morning Show . "Anybody who's concerned about moving this country forward, I need you to go out and vote," said Obama, who devoted much of the day to interviews targeted...

EPA plan could cut truck emissions
Large commercial trucks would be forced to slash their Greenhouse Gas Emissions by as much as 20 percent under a new proposal from the Obama Administration.  The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department on Monday announced the first-ever Greenhouse Gas limits and Fuel-efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks and buses. Continue Reading Text Size Politico 44 The draft rules would mandate cuts in Fuel consumption and Emissions by up to 20 percent for long-haul...

Why Sacramento needs to be fumigated ... [Darleen Click]
I am now going to give you the exact first sentence on Prop 23 on my CA sample ballot. This is the way it appears on the official ballot at the polling place: 23 SUSPENDS IMPLEMENTATION OF Air Pollution Control LAW (AB 32) REQUIRING MAJOR SOURCES OF Emissions TO REPORT AND REDUCE Greenhouse Gas Emissions THAT CAUSE Global Warming, UNTIL Unemployment DROPS TO 5.5 PERCENT OR LESS FOR FULL YEAR. See? Manmade CO2 causes Global Warming. Settled science, you know. You can stop thinking about that...

Companies fight to keep global warming data secret
WASHINGTON – Some of the country's largest emitters of heat-trapping Gases, including businesses that publicly support efforts to curb Global Warming, don't want the public knowing exactly how much they pollute. Oil producers and refiners, along with manufacturers of steel, aluminum and even home appliances, are fighting a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency that would make the amount of Greenhouse Gas Emissions that companies release — and the underlying data businesses...

An angry electorate? You can't tell it in Texas
As a Recession-hobbled nation limps toward Election Day next week, polls and prognosticators agree: The electorate is in a grim and angry mood. Republicans at all levels are poised to take advantage of the enormous dissatisfaction with the status quo, which, for many voters, means the Obama White House and a Democratic-controlled Congress. In Texas, though, the status quo seems to be just fine, despite a looming Budget shortfall that threatens to exact deep cuts in public Education, Higher...

"The Politics of Populist Outrage Versus the Politics of Building"
Jonathan Simon at the Berkeley Blog: The politics of Populist outrage versus the politics of building, by Jonathan Simon, Berkeley Blog : The narrative choices faced by the Obama Administration in confronting the Great Recession were nicely outlined yesterday in the editorial pages of the New York Times. Columnist Frank Rich offered a blistering critique of the Administration for ceding Populist outrage to the right by failing to go after Wall Street executives responsible for the ...

Climate Action: Down to Business
This is the first two parts of a multi-part series by Guest Blogger William Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project . 1. THE SITUATION There will come a time when Governments are forced to Act on Global Climate Change. Its impacts will be increasingly devastating and undeniable. Its costs will swell like a Tsunami. We will see many more Katrinas with Victims stranded not because Governments are incompetent, but because they are overwhelmed. When that...

Vote could change direction of healthcare reform
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Washington | Wed Oct 27, 2010 7:41pm EDT Washington (Reuters) - With most Americans ambivalent about President Barack Obama's signature Healthcare overhaul or openly hostile to it, next Tuesday's Elections could have a big impact on the Reforms, experts said on Wednesday. Major Republican gains could mean years of hold-ups on implementing the Legislation -- but if Democrats manage to prevail against the odds, they may reward their base with even More...

Implementation Timeline
The implementation timeline is an interactive tool designedto explain how and when the provisions of the Health Reform law will be implemented over the next several years. You can show or hide all the changes occurring in a year by clicking on that year. Click on a provision to get more information about it. Customize the timeline bychecking and uncheckingspecific topics. Customize by Topic

Political Wisdom: The Most Expensive Midterm Ever
By Mary Lu Carnevale The nonpartisan Center For Responsive Politics came up with an eye-popping number on Wednesday: the Midterm Elections could reach about $4 Billion about $1 Billion more than the previous Midterm-election record four years ago. At the Los Angeles Times, Kim Geiger says that Candidates for Congress raised $1.7 Billion and spent $1.4 Billion, while political parties and outside Groups brought the total to $3.2 Billion. Spending this year has been about even between...

Gov't Pushing More Fuel Efficiency for Trucks
Monday, October 25, 2010 By Ken Thomas, Associated Press Washington (AP) - Future generations of semi-trucks, school buses and large pickups will need to cut Fuel consumption and Emissions by 10 to 20 percent under first-ever Fuel Efficiency rules for trucks announced Monday by the Obama Administration. For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department released proposed Fuel economy requirements and reductions in tailpipe Emissions for medium- and...

EERE News: Wind Power Could Provide a Fifth of World's Electricity by 2030: Study
A new study by the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace International reports that Wind could meet 12% of global power demand by 2020, and up to 22% by 2030. The "Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010" (GWEO 2010), announced October 12, finds that Wind power could play a key role in meeting the world's increasing power demand while also achieving major Greenhouse Gas Emissions reductions. The 1,000 gigawatts (GW) of Wind power capacity projected to be installed by 2020 would preclude the emission...

Who's Right on Biofuels?
WHO'S RIGHT ON BiofuelS?.... How can America achieve Energy Independence? The Obama Administration believes increased production of Biofuels is key, as most recently signaled by its decision to increase the amount of Ethanol that can be blended with Gasoline. Yet critics warn that Biofuels produced from corn and other crops damage the environment and drive up the cost of food. Who's right? In the current issue of The Washington Monthly , two authors square off on the question. The first is...

China to Institute Cap-and-Trade System
The same day that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that he did not have the votes to pass a cap-and-trade bill, even a scaled-down utility-only version, news broke that China has decided to institute its own cap-and-trade system, though the details remain fuzzy. Why is this significant? Republicans have long argued that there is no sense in capping Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States if major emitters like China refuse to impose caps of their own. The...

Soros Gives $1M to California Pot Legalization Measure
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 By Marcus Wohlsen, Associated Press (AP) - Billionaire financier George Soros has thrown his weight behind California's Marijuana legalization Measure with a $1 million donation a week before the vote. The contribution reported Tuesday by The Sacramento Bee is the single biggest donation from an individual other than Proposition 19's main sponsor, Oakland Medical Marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee. The high-profile liberal and philanthropist has long backed Drug Law...

Congress candidate Q & A: Reducing human-caused emmissions to moderate global warming
The Anchorage Daily News asked Candidates in statewide Elections their views on a variety of issues. Question: Do you support enacting any laws or regulations to reduce human-caused Greenhouse Gas Emissions as a way to moderate Global Warming?

James Cameron: a bully and a gigantic hypocrite
Director James Cameron is out to save the planet . If you are skeptical of the claims of the alarmists that Man is destroying the planet via Greenhouse Gas Emissions, he calls you a denier who has your head up your backside . He’d like to have a “shootout” with you, except that, when taken up on the offer, he suddenly has other things to do… Anyway, wouldn’t you expect that, being a good little cultist of the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming, he’d try...

A primary pivot point for California transit
0 from Solid Principles Only if Poizner, Whitman, and Brown join forces can they defeat the tiger that tried to eat Roy Horn By Nathanael Johnson, KALW News In California the Gubernatorial Candidates offer radically different visions for the future of transportation in the state. Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner are racing for the Republican nomination. Jerry Brown (barring a last minute Scandal) has the Democratic nomination wrapped up. As primaries approach, inquiring transit-obsessed voters...

Who's Right on Biofuels?
WHO'S RIGHT ON BiofuelS?.... How can America achieve Energy Independence? The Obama Administration believes increased production of Biofuels is key, as most recently signaled by its decision to increase the amount of Ethanol that can be blended with Gasoline. Yet critics warn that Biofuels produced from corn and other crops damage the environment and drive up the cost of food. Who's right? In the current issue of The Washington Monthly , two authors square off on the question. The first is...

California voters turning against Prop. 19 and Prop. 23, poll shows
By John Hoeffel and Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times California voters have turned against Controversial initiatives to legalize Marijuana and to suspend the state's Global Warming law, a poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found. Voters now oppose Proposition 19, the Marijuana legalization measure, 49% to 44%, and the measure to halt a law that aims to cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 48% to 37%.

The Senate livability bill has no teeth. That’s okay
More: Department of Housing and Urban Development , Department of Transportation , EPA , news , Obama Administration , Placemaking , Politics , Senate , Smart Growth , Transportation Atlanta was awarded $47 million last week for a new streetcar line.

White House seeks fuel efficiency standards for trucks, buses
Washington — The Obama Administration on Monday proposed the first Fuel-efficiency and Greenhouse gas reduction standards for trucks and buses and said the new program would reduce the nation's use of oil, cut Emissions of heat-trapping Gases and save money. The new standards will apply to semi trucks, heavy-duty pickups and vans, and vehicles such as school buses and fire engines. The standards phase in for model years 2014 to 2018. The new standards are what Environmental...

What Are You Going to Do With a House Full of Mad Democrats?
When we gather here again one week from today we'll pretty much know what the 112th Congress will look like and how many Democrats will be coming back to D.C. on November 15 to clean out their offices and lay off their staff.  If the current polling holds true Washington will be full of angry Democrats. The mood on Capitol Hill will be pretty tense.  Republicans will be stifling giggles of Glee while trying to look appropriately sympathetic toward their Dem colleagues.  And...

Commuter subsidy extension unlikely
Federal employees and some Private-sector workers who take Public transit have enjoyed a big break in their commuting costs since early last year, thanks to the stimulus law. The amount of Tax-free Dollars they could set aside from their paychecks has almost doubled. But after two years, the expanded commuter benefit is set to expire Dec. 31 unless Congress acts to extend it, an unlikely scenario given a Lame-duck session after the Midterm Elections and partisan gridlock over new...