Politics and Message | ModeShift

A Turning Point in Attack on Climate Science

by Keith SchneiderMay 10, 2010May 11, 20100

On May 5, in an unusually aggressive response to what they saw as an academic witch hunt, the University of Virginia Faculty Senate condemned state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelliâ€™s demand to turn over six years of documents related to the work of Michael Mann, a former UVa climate scientist. Two days later, members of the National Academy of Sciences published a letter in the journal Science that focused on the “political assaults” directed at climate …

Go Blue! “Be Nice” While You “Shape Destiny,” Obama Counsels at University of Michigan Commencement

by Keith SchneiderMay 2, 2010May 3, 20101

Barack Obama addressed 90,000 people Saturday at the Big House, the University of Michigan’s football stadium, where he was greeted warmly by the largest crowd to hear the president since the inauguration. Among the nearly 10,000 graduates was my daughter Kayla. The university is a place of innovation, stability, and optimism in a state that has endured more negative consequences of the recession, and the underlying transitional factors that caused it, than any other. The …

Though the Need is Urgent, Earth Day’s Best Moment May Lie in Past

by Keith SchneiderApril 23, 2010April 23, 20100

This week, just a day before the nation marked the 40th Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded 50 miles from the Louisiana coast, leaving 11 people dead, dozens injured, and a pulse of crude oil that is spreading across the Gulf of Mexico. The blast, which caused the platform to sink on Earth Day itself, came 16 days after 29 men perished in a West Virginia coal mine – the worst American mining …

Blocking Wood Biomass, Blocking Coal in Michigan — Does it Make Sense?

by Keith SchneiderApril 9, 2010June 29, 20111

Eartha Jane Melzer, one of the reporters in Michigan whose work merits close attention, posted a piece a week ago on Michigan Messenger that described the legal work the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council are doing to block a big new coal-fired power plant in Bay City. Here is one of the important events associated with the transition to the clean energy economy. On one hand environmental organizations are pursuing legal suits …

Obamaâ€™s Clean Energy Salute to Greensburg, Kansas

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 25, 2009January 26, 20121

Last night, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama commended Greensburg, Kansas, â€œa town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community, how it can bring jobs and businesses to a place where piles of bricks and rubble once lay.â€ America loves its small towns, and two presidents now have …

â€œBuilding Sprawl Forever, Those Days Are Over,â€ Obama Declares

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 10, 2009January 26, 20120

Today in Ft. Myers, Florida, President Barack Obama addressed what is arguably the central source of Americaâ€™s energy crisis, climate crisis, and jobs crisis. And that is the way weâ€™ve civilized ourselves. Or to put it more directly, the design of our spread out, energy-wasting, time-consuming, land-deteriorating, sprawling patterns of development. As Larry the Cable Guy would say, we could go on about this all day. A national smart growth movement that grew up in …

Energy From Apollo Alliance

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 23, 20080

Congress this week took up legislation to decide Americaâ€™s energy future.Â The question in Washington is the same as it is in the presidential campaign – â€œdrill baby drillâ€ or a policy that promotes real solutions, a plan for a reasoned future that invests in clean energy and good jobs. The Apollo Alliance is pushing back against drilling proposals that wonâ€™t solve our energy crisis and promoting a much better one that will, The New …

The Unfolding Clean Energy Economy

by Keith SchneiderMay 1, 2008May 1, 20084

Last November Senator Hillary Clinton delivered a major policy speech in Iowa, during which she described her clean energy and jobs proposal. Three months later, in a speech in Seattle, Senator Barack Obama outlined his clean energy plan. Every week now, in many of their public appearances, both Democratic presidential candidates mention the millions of “green-collar jobs” they anticipate from an energy strategy that stresses clean renewable sources and moves the nation away from a …

Take Back America, The Narrative

by Keith SchneiderMarch 17, 2008June 18, 20141

WASHNGTON — The Hip Hop Media Lab, an online non-profit that introduces low-income kids to the possibilities of making money with their creative talent, is a partner this week in producing the annual Take Back America conference. So is MoveOn.org, Living Liberally, Netroots Nation, and USAaction. This is the sixth edition of a three-day fest designed to introduce liberal America to some of the movement’s new icons — the New Organizing Institute, Hip Hop Caucus, …

Election Results for Smart Growth Are Strong

by Keith SchneiderNovember 8, 2007November 12, 20070

Smart Growth continues to flourish at the ballot box. With the exception of the defeat of a disputed highway and transit measure in the Seattle region, voters on Tuesday this week again overwhelmingly approved candidates and strategies that make their places cleaner, greener, more neighborly, and much more efficient consumers of land and resources. Voters across the country approved 34 of 55 conservationÂ measures on the ballot, generating $1.4 billion in new conservation funding. The election …