Two surprising news items having noting to do with the environment or my life:
(1) Sen. Murkowski loses her GOP Primary in Alaska. See here.
(2) Sports Illustrated picks the Packers to be in the Super Bowl. See here. Go Pack.
Politics
Archived Posts from this Category
September 1, 2010
August 27, 2010
VT Governor Democratic Primary: Shumlin Winner, Racine Wants Recount
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under PoliticsLeave a Comment
August 26, 2010
Greenhouse Gas Regulation through the EPA, Not Congress or the Common Law
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate Change, Environment, Law, PoliticsLeave a Comment
I have been of the view that climate change regulation would happen through the executive branch and the EPA, and that this course might, in fact, be preferable to other avenues. The Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA permitted the EPA to go forward with regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Air. And now with the government’s brief in AEP v. Conn., arguing that common law claims are not available, and no hope of passing climate legislation in Congress, this seems to be the path. Greenwire’s two topic articles today sum the story up best with their titles– “Obama admin urges Supreme Court to vacate ‘nuisance’ ruling” and “With Hill hopes dashed, advocates circle wagons at EPA.”
UPDATE: An interesting take on this over at Legal Planet.
August 26, 2010
Will there be Recount in Vermont Governor Race?
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under PoliticsLeave a Comment
I earlier blogged about the close Vermont Democratic gubernatorial primary here and here. Now the question is whether there will be a recount, as asked here by the Times Argus. The current AP totals are:
Peter Shumlin 18,192 25%
Doug Racine 18,000 25%
Deb Markowitz 17,503 24%
Matt Dunne 15,242 21%
Susan Bartlett 3,774 5%
I hope someone like Nate Silver at 538 will take the time to do a statistical analysis to determine the likelihood of a new leader if their is a recount. The expectation is that the VT Sec of State will announce official totals next week, and canadidates have 10 days from election day to request a recount.
August 25, 2010
Shumlin Ahead in VERY CLOSE Vt. Gov. Dem. Primary – UPDATED
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Politics1 Comment
Peter Shumlin – 18,244 votes (25.0%)
Doug Racine – 18,066 votes (24.7%)
Deb Markowitz – 17,854 votes (24.4%)
Matt Dunne – 15,100 votes (20.7%)
Susan Bartlett – 3,795 votes (5.2%)
UPDATE: I have never been a fan of run-off elections, but here is a case where one would certainly be appropriate given the large number of supporters for Markowitz and Dunne. Also, the candiates can request a recount in a race this close (less than 2% margin of victory). We’ll see if any of them do so, but reports indicate that such a recount would not be resolved until sometime in September, further shortening the time to campaign against the Republican candidate for governor Brian Dubie.
UPDATE 2: Shumlin declared Winner by Times Argus. I have not yet seen this declared by AP. Not certified by the state yet.
UPDATE 3: The AP numbers differ from the above. And Racine has not yet conceded. See here and here. Still no official results. All precincts have reported.
Peter Shumlin 18,183 25%
Doug Racine 17,993 25%
Deb Markowitz 17,499 24%
Matt Dunne 15,034 21%
Susan Bartlett 3,773 5%
UPDATE 4: Expect the Vt. Sec. of State to announce the official results early next week.
August 25, 2010
VT Governor Democratic Primary Too Close to Call
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Politics1 Comment
See results here and here. Apparently I was right on in my earlier post when I said no one had any idea who would win. Apparently, there’s a gentlemen’s agreement that there will be no recount, but I’m not sure I buy that. Of most interest, the town of St. Albans has yet to report vote totals (population just over 5,000).
In other primaries around the nation, there don’t seem to be any surprises–Meeks, McCain, Rubio all won.
UPDATE 1: 22 vote difference in VT Dem. Gov. Primary. See http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100825/THISJUSTIN/100829956.
UPDATE 2: Racine ahead of Shumlin by 60 votes. Markowitz 3rd.
UPDATE 3: Maybe a surprise in Alaska GOP US Senate Primary. See here.
UPDATE 4: Upset in Fla. GOP Gov. Primary. See here.
UPDATE 5: VT Dem Gov Primary – Racine leads by 88 votes. http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100825/THISJUSTIN/100829956
Update 6: Shumlin wins VT Dem. Gov. primary by 178 votes.
August 24, 2010
It’s my birthday and election day–what an awesome combination. The most watched race is the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary where 5 candidates are vying to match up against the current Republican Lt. Governor in the fall, since Givernor Jim Douglas is not seeking re-election. The candidates are: State senators Susan Bartlett and Doug Racine; a former state senator and Google exec, Matt Dunne; Secretary of State Deb Markowitz; and State Senate President Peter Shumlin. No one has any idea who is going to win the primary. Let’s hope it’s not too close (like recount close) because there is a unity rally tomorrow at noon. I’m not going to predict a winner, but I will go out on a limb on predict the President with come to VT to campaign for the Democratic nominee at some point; something that hasn’t happened in VT in a long time according to long-time Vermonters.
August 22, 2010
How to Deal with Overpopulation?
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under China, Consumption, Environment, Law, Politics[2] Comments
The subject of overpopulation has become taboo. American public interest groups no longer discuss the issue as an environmental problem, the issue has been removed from policy platforms and websites of environmental groups, and, to the extent the issue of population has been mainstream, its focus is on human rights, gender equality, and the ability to have children.
Yet, population growth and the Earth’s carrying capacity are major issues. China and India, each with over 1 billion people, view overpopulation as a major economic and national security issue. China is often criticized for its one-child policy, mostly due to reports of its aribitrary and sometime brutal enforcement of the policy. And now India is using cash bonuses to delay citizens from having more children.
When I was in China, the Chinese were (a) often upset that the West criticized their one-child policy, and (b) were surprised that I both recognized that population size was a legitimate concern and commended the Chinese government for recognizing overpopluation as a legitimate issue, even if I strongly disagreed with the arbitrary and capricious nature of its enforcement and admitted such a policy could not and would not work in the U.S.
Unfortunately, in America and globally, population growth is sort of a political hot potato. Obviously for political and constitutional reasons, setting a child limit in the U.S. would never fly, but, even though I acknowledge American individualism and personal autonomy, it pains me that open policy discussions cannot be had about incentives to keep family sizes, and thus resource consumption, down at both the domestic and international level. In the 1990s, phrases like ‘zero-population-growth’ (ZPG) and carrying capacity were big buzz words, but these debates/discussion seem to have been lost.
August 20, 2010
Connecticut v. AEP & Climate Change Legislation
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate Change, Environment, Law, Politics1 Comment
Legal Planet has an interesting post about the Obama Administration’s response in the case Connecticut v. AEP, and whether it will act strategically in order to pressure Congress to pass climate change legislation. But again, as I posted before, are we better off without new legialstion and instead having the EPA regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act?
August 18, 2010
Those Who Believe in Global Warming Are “Crazy” says U.S. Senate Candidate
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate Change, Environment, PoliticsLeave a Comment
Republican Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Rob Johnson, the future opponent of Democratic U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, has said that people who believe in global warming are “crazy” and that the idea of climate change is “lunacy.” He is also quoted as saying, “I absolutely do not believe in the science of man-caused climate change. It’s not proven by any stretch of the imagination.” See the full article with many other choice quotes here.
Al Gore might respond–‘I hope he is correct.’ Gore, in his NY Times Op-Ed “We Can’t Wish it Away,” states, “It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.”
Gore continues, “I, for one, genuinely wish that the climate crisis were an illusion. But unfortunately, the reality of the danger we are courting has not been changed by the discovery of at least two mistakes in the thousands of pages of careful scientific work over the last 22 years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In fact, the crisis is still growing because we are continuing to dump 90 million tons of global-warming pollution every 24 hours into the atmosphere — as if it were an open sewer.”
I also hope that that climate change is really no big deal, but I question the basic choice to not deal with potentially serious or catatrosphic risks due to environmental degradation, even if the risks are potentially low-probability (and climate science suggests they are not). And this does not even consider the major national security and economic concerns of America’s dependence on oil.
JASON J. CZARNEZKI 