One year on and its not looking so good for Obama. How the political land-scape can change in a year.. The Democrats are in deep political shock this morning as a truck-driving lawyer, Scott Brown took the prized seat of Massachusetts. Scott Brown’s previous greatest claim to fame was winning Cosmopolitan’s America’s Sexiest Man competition … Read More
Cap and Trade
“Its easier to defeat Hitler than Big Coal and Oil…”
Its not often now in journalism that someone tells you how it is and puts their neck on the line in no nonsense language. So good old Rolling Stone – the grandfather rock and roll mag that has a great article on how the oil and gas killed hopes of a climate deal in the … Read More
Battle Lines Drawn Over Senate Climate Bill
So the Senate Climate Bill has finally been released. After months of meetings and waiting, two Democratic Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer have released their 800 page tome – the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. But note there is no mention of the dreaded C word in the title – Climate.
Obama: Global Leader or World Leader Pretend?
Many American Presidents find their terms in office defined by one event: if we think of Nixon it was Watergate, Clinton it was the Monica Lewinsky affair and George Bush it was the war in Iraq. Whilst many Americans may think that Obama’s Presidency will be defined on whether he succeeds in reforming health care … Read More
Valero’s Flawed “Voices for Energy”
So the trickle turns into a tide. They are all at it now. There is a sudden rush amongst oil and gas companies in the US to garner grasssroots support to attack the Climate bill. Just days after Greenpeace released an internal memo from the oil boys at the American Petroleum Institute, detailing plans to … Read More
How Corporate Money Corrupted the Climate Bill
One of the issues that Oil Change has tried to highlight is how oil money corrupts and corrodes politics. Big Oil has always had hordes of cash to spend to influence legislation on energy and climate. Big Oil always expects to get its way as its pockets are deeper than its opponents. For years it … Read More
Enviros Say Climate Bill Should be “Fixed or Ditched”
Cometh the hour, the old phrase goes, cometh the man. Barack Obama is staking much of his high credibility by calling for the House to pass the landmark US Climate bill, that may come before the House this afternoon. Or it may not, depending on the political drama. While Democratic support has been growing, some … Read More
Fossil Fuel Lobby’s $45 Million Propaganda Campaign
You really did not expect them to lie down and roll over without a fight did you? Yesterday we highlighted how the sceptics were gearing up for one last push to undermine the science of climate change. Today its the turn of the oil and coal companies who are pouring millions into scuppering the Democrat’s … Read More
Lukewarm Response to “Centrist” Clean Energy Bill
As President Obama has breakfast with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and demonstrators start taking to the streets to protest at the G20, we should not forget the events of yesterday. Congressman Henry Waxman and Ed Markey released a discussion draft of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 – a massive 648-tome that … Read More