Brentin Mock

Yesterday, Gulf coast residents and advocates gathered in front of the Federal Emergency Management Agency building to protest eviction notices delivered to over 5,000 families still living in trailers some four years after Hurricane Katrina. The press conference speakers — a diverse bunch that included representatives from faith-based groups, conservative groups, student organizations and ACORN […]

One thing learned from Denver earlier this week, where Vice President Joe Biden announced the beginning of the Green Jobs Era, is that there is still no strict definition of what a green job is. Regardless, there will be many of them. As Biden told the audience at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature […]

Ezra Klein‘s “first day at school,” as he referred to it via Tweet, at The Washington Post included a keen observation about President Barack Obama‘s Notre Dame speech. Among the hullabaloo over abortion, Klein pulled out Obama’s newer nuanced framing of climate change, placed in both a religious and broader global context for the college […]

Back from a visit to China, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman yesterday confronted the ever worsening Co2 emissions problems that plague the globe as most nations are finally taking the consequences of climate change seriously. His China-malaise column noted that the country is the world’s largest carbon producer (they’re building new coal-burning plants at […]

The Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are looking to destroy any chance for a cap-and-trade measure to reach the final text of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, as it heads to markup next Monday. Led by Rep. Joe Barton, a denier of climate change who believes reducing carbon emissions would […]

After the House Energy and Commerce committee’s April hearings on its climate and energy bill, the markup phase was delayed for weeks. Perhaps the committee was nursing the stings and pelts from skeptical Republicans and agnostic coal-state Democrats about global warming. Today, the committee finally announced a new dawn for the bill: The Committee on […]

Has “health based” environmentalist activism become passe? The new green movement has called for concerted focus on green jobs as a way to turn economically devastated ghettos into functional neighborhoods. Activism that hopes to hold industrial facilities accountable for pollution that disproportionately impacts the health of vulnerable populations is weak and not worth the trouble, […]

What will newly minted Democrat Arlen Specter do for a climate bill’s chances? The consensus thus far: Not much. Having a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate would be generally cool for Democrats, but energy specifically isn’t a partisan issue. As Sen. Barbara Boxer said about the Specter effect, “I don’t think climate change is […]

Last week, Kai Wright questioned whether environmental justice was “enough” for black Americans, or should their green concerns be more rooted in jobs and economic sustainability: When policymakers systematically clump bus depots and waste treatment plants in black neighborhoods, driving up childhood asthma rates, it’s a civil rights concern. When slumlords refuse to strip lead […]