Clean Action Commitments: World Waits on U.S.

White House, Congress Appear to be Stepping Toward Commitments
By Keith Schneider
U.S. Climate Action Network
Delegates from the United States and 191 other nations gather in Copenhagen next month to draw up a comprehensive, ambitious, and fair international agreement to solve climate change. Hundreds of public interest organizations and tens of thousands of citizens from around the [...]

Senate Committee Passes Climate Bill

The Clean Energy Jobs bill advanced through a key committee this Thursday. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee successfully passed their version of the bill, despite a boycott of the vote by the panel’s Republicans. The bill will now be merged with legislation being written by five other Senate panels.
Meanwhile, Senators John Kerry (D-MA), [...]

Senate Hearings Kick Off Climate Bill Debate

With Democrats and Republicans deeply divided about the need for and cost of curbing climate changing pollution and pursuing an energy economy that tilted away from dirty and expensive fossil fuels, the United States Senate today launched a potentially far-reaching debate on legislation designed to secure the environment and propel a new industrial chapter for [...]

Citizen Certainty on Climate, Energy

By Keith Schneider U.S. Climate Action Network
WASHINGTON – Just days before an influential Senate committee begins hearings on a comprehensive climate and energy bill that could reshape the American economy and clear the skies of climate changing pollution, Darcell Streeter was on Capitol Hill this week to urge lawmakers from her home state of Florida [...]

Everywhere But Washington: Support for Clean Energy, Climate Action Potent and Growing Across US

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 — As Capitol Hill scandals go, Brian McNeill’s story last summer in the Charlottesville (VA) Daily Progress generated none of the lasting scrutiny that followed, for instance, Wilbur Mills’ 1974 Tidal Basin romp with Argentine stripper Fanne Fox. But for advocates of federal action on climate change and clean energy, the events [...]

Gamechanger? Kerry-Graham Op-Ed Supports Climate Energy Legislation

Talk about a potential breakthrough. A day after Democratic Senator John Kerry and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham appealed for ”a legitimate bipartisan effort” to pass a climate and energy bill, their joint call for progress on the New York Times op-ed page appears to have shifted the political landscape in Washington.
“We refuse to accept the argument [...]

Boxer, Kerry Restart Climate, Energy Debate With New Senate Bill

Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachusetts today introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, a proposal that calls for reducing carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by mid-century. The bill seeks to achieve those goals with significant public investment in clean energy research, generating electricity [...]

USCAN Organizing Meeting Held in D.C.

By Keith Schneider
As leaders of the House of Representatives voted on June 26 to narrowly approve the American Clean Energy and Security Act, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and California Senator Barbara Boxer were already busy in the Senate holding weekly meetings with swing state lawmakers from the Midwest and Rocky Mountain region who were nervous [...]