Legislation Watch
Dissecting current legislation on marijuana, bills, and Internet regulation
On the Newsstand:Energy
Wind Farms: Green
In an op-ed this morning, Crimson columnist and HPRgument blogger Eli Martin argues that “wind energy is not as perfect as it might appear; a closer inspection reveals that it does not meaningfully reduce our reliance on non-renewable energy sources.” The gist of Eli’s argument is that the “unpredictability of wind power” requires about 80 percent backup power, which “means ... Read More
Quasi-Weighing in: Green Tech and Foreign Oil Dependence
Earlier this week, Jeff Kalmus responded to Will Rafey’s post “China in the Lead,” in which Rafey argues that China is poised to overtake the U.S. and “seize control of the emerging clean energy economy” (Max Novendstern weighs in here and Rafey responds here). Jeff weighs in to argue that it doesn’t particularly matter if China innovates more rapidly than ... Read More
Obama’s Oil Spill Talk
While anything from uninspiring to boring has been used to define President Obama’s primetime speech on Tuesday, Gail Collin’s has a great column on it, I believe that the speech was not just flawed because it was unexciting, but rather because it was reveals fundamental disconnects from the Obama Administration. First, the rhetoric of the speech rang something along the ... Read More
Do Conservatives “Just Hate All Taxes”?
In a generally well-written article, HPR staff writer Will Rafey recently addressed the need to raise the gas tax “to make the private cost of driving a car reflect its actual social costs: global warming, air pollution, traffic congestion, and highway maintenance,” and how difficult this has become in the current political climate. I have no disagreement with the thrust ... Read More
Drill, Baby, Drill: Searching for Nuance
In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill,there has been no shortage of finger-pointing. There’s plenty of blame to go around, no doubt, but there is one group that the Right has mysteriously implicated in this disaster: environmentalists. In an editorial in the Washington Post last Friday, Charles Krauthammer wrote that environmentalists are partially to blame for the spill ... Read More
Divining the Progress of the Climate Bill
Since the recent explosion of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the politics of the climate bill have become more complicated, according to the New York Times. The newly perceived safety risks make it difficult to include increasing offshore drilling as part of any new policy. The Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill is being pitched as an energy independence and climate ... Read More
Ousted for Being Gay?
Such a headline is perhaps not so surprising coming from elements of the Republican Party’s religious right, see Larry Craig. The uneasy balance of openly and forcefully opposing gay marriage while still attempting to be accepting of gay Republicans like the Log Cabin Republicans has made it difficult for many leaders. The fact remains that being exposed as a gay ... Read More
My Visit to the Tea Party
Today, I did something which went against the deepest instincts of my time at the Harvard Political Review: reporting. I heard two days ago that Sarah Palin was going to be in town for the Boston Tea Party rally, and I knew this was something that I simply had to see. So this morning I woke up bright and early, ... Read More
