fuel economy standards.jpg A proposed rule by the Obama Administration to raise fuel economy standards for cars and “light-trucks” is facing mounting attacks by Republican lawmakers. The proposed rule would require all newly manufactured automobiles that fall under the car or light truck category to achieve a minimum gas mileage
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DeSmogBlog: Keystone XL Pipeline To Take Center Stage At Republican National Convention
money-pipeline.jpg Over the next few days, Republican lawmakers, Party officials, delegates, and supporters will gather in Tampa, Florida for the Republican National Convention. During their weeklong convention, we can expect to hear a lot of debunked talking points, particularly about the need to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. For more
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: US Chamber Rejoices As Courts Rule For Polluters
dirty-air.jpg Earlier this week, an appellate court in Washington, D.C. ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had overstepped their authority with their Transport Rule that was put in place to reduce the amount of air pollution being spewed from coal burning plants. The rule would have put stringent
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking Industry Paying Off Scientists For "Unbiased" Safety Studies
science-and-money.jpg As a whole, Americans have an unfortunate tendency to distrust scientists. The number of those who distrust science and scientists is skewed heavily by ideology, with self-identified “conservatives” overwhelmingly saying that they don’t trust science. DeSmogBlog’s own Chris Mooney has spent an enormous amount of time and energy devoted
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Media Fails Again On Climate Change Coverage During Massive Heat Waves
corporate media ball chain.jpg North America just witnessed the hottest month in the history of record keeping (about 117 years). The month of July shattered every previous record, but was certainly not a freak occurrence. So far, the first 7 months of this year have been the warmest on average
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What To Expect When You’re Electing: Representative Paul Ryan
Ryan Romney.jpg With the selection of Wisconsin Republican Representative Paul Ryan has his running mate, Mitt Romney has effectively pushed his campaign into the climate change denying fringe. While Romney hasn’t been considered a friend of the environment since he began running for national office, his tendency towards flip-flopping made
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Romney’s New Campaign Strategy: Attack Green Jobs During Massive Unemployment
Green Jobs US.jpg Since President Obama took office, industry-funded think tanks and faux grassroots organizations, along with oil-friendly politicians have been collectively demanding to know “where are the jobs?” And with last month’s jobs report showing an increase in the U.S. unemployment rate (even though there was a net job
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Republican Ohio Governor Kasich’s Trillion Dollar Shale Gas Lie
kasichshrug2.jpg About the only positive thing you can say about industry-funded astroturf groups is that they at least base their misinformation campaigns on phony “studies” and “reports.” Their lies are based on SOMETHING. The same cannot be said of Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has come up with a
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: House Republicans Sacrifice Human Health For Alleged Job Creation
redtape.jpg With July 2012 officially behind us, the U.S. jobs report for the month has economists and politicians concerned about the employment situation in America. And even though the economy added 163,000 jobs (economists had predicted only 100,000 jobs to be added for July,) the unemployment rate and the underemployment
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What To Expect When You’re Electing: Mitt Romney’s Energy Advisors
Romney and Bush.jpg In the last few months, the press has been drawing a lot of parallels between presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former Republican President George W. Bush. And they have plenty of reasons for doing so. Romney has already tapped many of the same Bush economic
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: How Do You Spend $375 Million A Day? Ask The Oil Industry
oil-money.n.jpg The average U.S. household has seen both their net worth and their average income steadily decline over the last seven years. Unemployment in the United States still remains at uncomfortably high levels, and the poverty rate is about to reach highs that haven’t been seen since the 1960’s. But
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: White House Wants Industry Help To Choose Which Regulations To Kill
white house.jpg When the Obama White House begins adopting the same talking points as the dirty energy industry, something has gone horribly wrong with our government. But that is exactly what is happening today, with the White House apparently buying into the repeatedly debunked industry talking point that claims that
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Texas Refineries And Chemical Plants Releasing Tens Of Thousands Of Tons Of Pollution
gas-emissions_1.jpg A damning new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) reveals some startling information regarding pollution in the state of Texas. According to the report, oil refineries and chemical plants in the state are releasing tens of thousands of tons of pollution every year, without as much as a
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: House Republicans Attempt To Block Black Lung Protection Funding
black-lung.gif In what could possibly be a new low for one of the most anti-environment, pro-dirty energy industry Congresses in history, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are attempting to gut funding for measures that would reduce the occurrence of black lung in mine workers. The funding cut was
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Romney, Obama Surrogates Spar Over Energy Policy
energy vote.jpg On Wednesday of this week, representatives from both the Obama and Romney campaigns debated issues of energy and environment, where the two campaigns’ differences on issues ranging from renewable energy subsidies to approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline were on full display. Speaking for the Obama campaign, spokesperson
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Republican Senator Scott Brown Suffering From "Subsidy Amnesia"
Scott-Brown-Campaign-SMS-Marketing1.jpeg With a straight face, Republican Senator Scott Brown told a crowd in Massachusetts this week that “oil companies don’t get subsidies” from the federal government. Brown tells us that, just like other companies, they are able to “take deductions,” but nothing more. The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) was
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What To Expect When You’re Electing: President Barack Obama
President_Official_Portrait_HiRes.jpg Part 3 in a series, see Part 1 and Part 2. Perhaps more than any other sitting U.S. President, Barack Obama has been Commander in Chief through some of the most obvious examples of what climate change will do to America. The last few weeks alone have given us
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Hot Enough For Ya? Extreme Weather Events Consistent With Climate Change Science
temperature map.gif Large portions of the U.S. are on fire. Record droughts currently encompass massive swaths of America. The areas not experiencing droughts have been inundated with flooding. Winter weather in many areas was almost non-existent. A few years ago, an Academy Award-winning film called “An Inconvenient Truth” warned wary Americans
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: FreedomWorks Fails Basic Math And Economics To Smear Renewable Energy Investments
Freedom_Works_Logo.gif The corporate funded, Libertarian/Conservative “think tank” FreedomWorks is doing their best to convince Americans that taxpayer-funded energy subsidies and loans are a waste of our resources. Of course, that doesn’t apply to the massive giveaways to the dirty energy industry, only to the federal loan programs established to invest
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What To Expect When You’re Electing: Part 2 – Mitt Romney
Romney.jpg In Part 1 of this series, we explored the overall environmental issues that are facing the U.S., mostly as a part of coordinated attacks by politicians in Washington. In the next few articles, we’ll take a look at what each candidate has said or done in regards to both
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