Citizen Cartwright

Obama pushing climate legislation

The president pressed for passage of a bill this year in a meeting Tuesday with a bipartisan group of 14 senators.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he and Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., were "moving very rapidly" to draft a bill — without cap-and-trade provisions — that could reach the Senate floor this spring.

China, India sign on to Copenhagen climate pact

The two nations have joined the list of countries "associated" with the three-page, nonbinding agreement, leaving Russia as the only big greenhouse gas emitter that hasn't endorsed the deal.

Climate panel to be reviewed by top science group

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has been under fire for mistakes in its 2007 reports, is bringing in the InterAcademy Council — composed of the science academies of 15 countries — to review its rules, procedures and reports, The Associated Press says.

Lindsey Graham's reach across the aisle

The South Carolina Republican senator says he'll help President Obama close the Guantanamo prison if Obama accepts his proposal to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators in a military tribunal rather than a civilian court.

And he and retiring Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., have written to both parties' Senate leaders calling for monthly bipartisan lunches to "facilitate a constructive dialogue between the political parties."

Of course, Graham already has been taking heat back home for working with the other side on climate change.

Climate change: Cap and trade declared 'dead'

Legislation being worked on by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., would jettison the approach that's been favored for the last decade in favor of targeting the emissions of electric utilities, transportation and industry separately.

Some environmentalists say it's the best way to get a bill passed this year.

Vermont Senate says no to nuke plant

A week after President Obama backed a nuclear power renaissance, the Vermont Senate voted 26-4 against renewing the license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

On top of safety concerns were accusations that the energy company misled state officials.

"Don't do business with someone you can't trust," said Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin.

Climate change legislation

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., this week will be discussing the options for moving a global warming bill, Reuters reports.

Climate science

Recent controversy over the quality of climate research has "really shaken the confidence of the public in the conduct of science [overall],” Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said at a conference Friday.

At the same time, top scientists at the meeting continued to say that action on climate change is needed.

"There's consensus that action is justified, indeed imperative to reduce the problem of a really serious long-term global effect on the climate," said Lord Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, Britain's academy of science.

Top U.N. climate official resigns

After failing to clinch a deal on a binding global warming treaty in Copenhagen, the likely exhausted Yvo de Boer announced on Thursday that he's resigning and will join the accounting firm KPMG as a climate adviser.

Meanwhile, 100 nations have signed on to the "aspirational" Copenhagen Accord — but not big greenhouse gas emitters China and India.

China is said to be unhappy with provisions on transparency and monitoring.

"The Chinese are inherently not transparent," says Mark Levine, co-founder of the China energy group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Bad news for climate coalition

After Arizona pulled out of the Western Climate Initiative, saying the cap-and-trade program would harm its economy during tough times, Utah was considering the same thing.