Author Archive

No Conflict of Interest Found in Favorable Review of Keystone Pipeline

New York Times: A State Department contractor who prepared an environmental analysis of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline did not violate conflict of interest rules, even though the contractor had previously done work for TransCanada, the company seeking to build pipeline, a State Department inspector general’s investigation concluded on Wednesday. The results of the investigation could further pave the way for the Obama administration to approve the 1,700-mile, $5.4 billion pipeline, which would move heavily...

Obama to Propose Shift in Wildfire Funding

New York Times: President Obama’s annual budget request to Congress will propose a significant change in how the government pays to fight wildfires, administration officials said, a move that they say reflects the ways in which climate change is increasing the risk for and cost of those fires. The wildfire funding shift is one in a series of recent White House actions related to climate change as Mr. Obama tries to highlight the issue and build political support for his administration’s more muscular policies,...

Obama to Announce Aid for Drought-Racked California

New York Times: President Obama will continue to push his climate change agenda on Friday when he speaks in Fresno, Calif., in the heart of the Central Valley, where farmers are experiencing the worst drought in the state’s modern history. Mr. Obama is to announce that he will ask Congress for $1 billion to create a “climate resilience” program as part of the administration’s annual budget request next month. He is also to announce that the administration is moving several million dollars from existing programs...

Study Finds Methane Leaks Negate Climate Benefits of Natural Gas

New York Times: The sign is ubiquitous on city buses around the country: "This bus runs on clean burning natural gas." But a surprising new report, to be published Friday in the journal Science, concludes that switching buses and trucks from traditional diesel fuel to natural gas could actually harm the planet's climate. Although burning natural gas as a transportation fuel produces 30 percent less planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions than burning diesel, the drilling and production of natural gas lead...

Report May Ease Way to Approval of Keystone Pipeline

New York Times: In his second term, Mr. Obama has sought to make his fight against climate change a cornerstone of his legacy. In a major speech on the environment last summer, Mr. Obama said that he would approve the pipeline only if it would not "significantly exacerbate" the problem of carbon pollution. He said the pipeline's net effects on the climate would be "absolutely critical" to his decision. The conclusions of the report appear to indicate that the project has passed Mr. Obama's climate criteria,...