Climate Policy Program: Latest Articles

Oil & Water, Hazard & Cure

Articles — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 12:11:00 -0400

Almost every American can tell you about the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This spill is a national yardstick for environmental catastrophe and rightly so: oil covered so much of the Alaskan coast that, had it taken place further south, it would have covered every inch of beach between Oregon and Mexico. Although Exxon claims it spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound’s pristine waters, the true number is much larger.

But as big a disaster as the Valdez was, it is dwarfed by the world’s largest spills and the accumulation of the thousands of smaller oil… more

Advice on Warming: Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way

Articles — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:37:00 -0400

It was a legal knockout. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court told President Bush that he can no longer hide behind the federal Clean Air Act in pleading that he is powerless to fight global warming. The Court rebuked the President and sided with a dozen states that had sued the federal government for the right to slow the pollution that is warming the earth.

The lawyers may still be sorting through the historic case’s legal implications, but the political message on global warming is loud and clear: To steal a line from the great provocateur Thomas Paine, it… more