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This post was co-written with climate scientist Andrew Dessler.

Recently Harold Ambler, climate crank and proprietor of TalkingAboutTheWeather.com, published an essay on this site replete with gross factual errors about the science of climate change.

Word is that this was an editorial slip-up; HuffPo doesn't typically provide a...

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In last weekend's New York Times, conservatives Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) and Arthur Laffer had an op-ed claiming that a revenue-neutral "tax shift" would make conservatives "the new administration's best allies on climate change."

Color me skeptical. Laffer, of course, is a conservative legend, an economist whose...

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I've been reading the discussion sparked by Chris Hayes' latest piece in The Nation -- "The Pragmatist," about Obama's much-discussed pragmatism -- with great interest. Pragmatism is a subject dear to my heart and something I studied in grad school, though the kind you study there and what...

Obama just got done officially announcing his energy and environment team. A few things that jumped out at me:

Not for nothing: the guy's a rhetorical Jedi.

Unless I'm mistaken, the term "clean coal" was not uttered once.

Of Steven Chu, he said: "His appointment should send a signal to all that...

When Obama and Biden met with Al Gore on Tuesday, they were purposefully bland about what was discussed. Now that Obama has revealed his green team, it appears they may have been asking Gore's blessing. Of the four environment/energy appointees announced (or leaked), three worked in the Clinton/Gore EPA,...

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Anyone interested in understanding not only Bush's environmental legacy but the Bush Era simply must carve out the time to read "Smoke and Mirrors," a blockbuster series on the EPA put together by Philadelphia Inquirer. Go. Read it.

There's too much in it for a facile blog summary,...

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This NPR story on "clean coal" is astounding. Pardon the long post, but I had to transcribe several parts of it so you wouldn't think I'm making it up.

The story begins with Al Gore making (and repeating several times) a single point: clean coal -- insofar as that...

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Today brings two of the must jaw-droppingly moronic stories I've ever seen, both in Politico, both written by Erika Lovley, who one can only assume is either the most dimwitted, gullible reporter in D.C. or ... um, I can't think of another explanation.

Remember those articles you'd see five...

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As of Monday, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. was down to $2.22 a gallon, brushing up against $1.50 in some places. The price of oil was under $60/bbl.

When gas and oil prices fall, there...

It's frequently suggested that Obama appoint a Republican to his cabinet to demonstrate his bipartisan (or is it post-partisan?) bona fides. When it comes to Secretary of State, he reportedly has Sens. Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar on his short list.

Of course nothing's wrong with post-bipartisanship, but it's...

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In March 2007, Democratic primary contender John Edwards released an ambitious climate and energy plan, calling for greenhouse gas reductions of 80 percent by 2050, a cap-and-trade program with auctioned permits, and a ban on conventional dirty coal plants.

At that point in the race, conventional wisdom was that...

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(This is the third in a three-part series -- part one, part two -- but it summarizes the others, so you can probably skip 'em.)

Obama is stuck in a peculiar political moment. In substantive terms, he knows that our dire climate and energy situation requires huge and...

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I'm of two minds about this Politico piece on green jobs. On one hand, it's nice to see the notion getting into the political bloodstream. On the other hand, it does a woefully bad job of distinguishing the candidates and contains one horrific and fundamental error of fact.

First,...

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In a post yesterday I drew attention to an emerging battle over macroeconomics. To put it crudely: does the financial crisis mean the next president will need to trim his ambitions and focus on reducing the deficit? Or does it call for substantial public spending to get...

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I'm no expert in macroeconomics. You probably aren't either. But there's a battle over macroeconomics shaping up, and everyone keen on shifting the U.S. toward sustainability has a vested interest in how it turns out. (Which is why I keep writing about it.)

The question is how to react to...

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It's worth closely reading this Avery Palmer piece in CQ Politics: "The price of being green." It puts the frame around American energy/environmental politics in particularly crystalline terms.

To wit: environmentalists want to raise the cost of energy while everyone else wants to lower it.

Or more specifically:...

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There's heated debate in green circles about the Gang of 20 Senate energy bill -- the New Energy Reform Act of 2008 -- which would open up some offshore drilling in exchange for modest support for alternatives, paid for by closing tax loopholes that benefit the oil...

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In her Friday interview with Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin said that Alaska "produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy." McCain has said the same thing -- in an interview with Univision that aired Friday, he said, "Alaska supplies 20 percent of America's...

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Newt Gingrich's American Solutions for Winning the Future is an astroturf group funded largely by Republican billionaires. In the short-term, it's designed to staunch Republican electoral losses in November by creating a new wedge issue: drilling for oil. In the medium term, it's taking on a