Climate conspriricists pounced at the opportunity yesterday to draw grandiose conclusions from the illegal hacking of private emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. 

They wasted no time declaring global warming a vast science-wing conspiracy, orchestrated by a powerful handful of white-coats who, when...

The mood was markedly improved on the final day of the Barcelona climate talks, as delegates, observers and non-governmental organizations all brushed off the pessimism that dominated much of this week and announced that there is still hope for a global deal at the Copenhagen COP15 sumit.

The chief negotiator for the European Commission announced this afternoon in Barcelona that the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass legislation before December has doomed the chances for success in Copenhagen.

Europe now predicts that a legally binding treaty is impossible to expect in Copenhagen, and...

The African delegation insisted today in Barcelona that its decision to walk out on negotiations Tuesday was necessary in order to jolt the intransigent European Union and other developed nations to move forward with serious discussions, rather than obstruct progress by bringing only lofty rhetoric and no numbers to...

In a massive blow to the climate skeptic movement, the Associated Press has conducted a blind test of statisticians that unequivocally confirms that no global cooling trend exists. Despite the best efforts of a small handful of climate skeptics, who argue that the globe has cooled rather than warmed...

Mohawk Fine Papers became the latest company to resign from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over climate policy disagreements, adding more embarrassment to an already rough week for the Chamber.

According to the Mohawk press release:

"We believe that our continued membership in an organization...

It turns out that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce only has 300,000 members, not the “more than 3 million” it claimed to represent just a day ago, before Mother Jones magazine questioned the business lobby’s inflated numbers.

The Chamber has now “quietly backed off” the...

A controversial plan by Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno to lay off 17,000 government workers in the coming weeks, and possibly up to 30,000 in the coming months, has enraged the island's labor force. Stoking the fires, the Governor's administration has now threatened to charge picketing civil servants...

Attorney General Eric Holder did not hesitate to release Senator Ted Stevens and overturn his wrongful conviction when evidence emerged of the government's botched prosecution of the former Republican Senator from Alaska.

So why has Holder's Justice Department left Democrats Paul Minor and Judges Walter Teel and John Whitfield...

The Justice Department announced a much-needed new policy last week that will impose strict limits on government agencies' use of the state secrets privilege in order to block lawsuits for national security reasons. Under the new rules, any military or espionage agency wishing to assert the privilege in...

America’s Power Army, the sister organization to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), sent an email this week to its Astroturf ‘army’ laying out the coal lobby’s plans to barrage key Democratic targets in the coming weeks to ensure that energy and climate legislation provides sufficient loopholes to...

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) announced today that the utility giant is dumping its membership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, citing the business group’s "extreme position on climate change."

Announcing the pull-out in a company blog titled "Irreconcilable Differences," PG&E says that its...

After much deliberation and an unprecedented three rounds of post-oral argument supplemental briefing, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is primed to issue a judgment on the appeal of prominent Mississippi attorney Paul Minor. Minor was wrongly accused and convicted of bribery stemming from his campaign fundraising for...

A ‘GOP Energy Summit’ held today at Ohio State attracted more protesters outside than attended the event hosted by Ohio Congressman Bob Latta inside a campus building. 

The summit, hosted by five Republican legislators, including several members of the GOP American Energy Solutions Group, was...

UPDATE: Pete Altman at NRDC's Switchboard blog has discovered that ALCOA appears to have also jumped ship from ACCCE.

Duke Energy announced today that it has left the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), the dirty coal front group lobbying against Congressional action on climate...

In the wake of the forged letters scandal involving lobbyists for the coal industry, D.C. astroturf firm Bonner & Associates claimed to have reached out to Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) and several Virginia charities whose names appeared on the fraudulent letters.  It turns out that Bonner never contacted...

An interesting and potentially explosive attachment was included with a letter sent to Congressional investigators by Steven R. Ross, an Akin Gump attorney working to defend his client Bonner & Associates, the D.C. public relations firm embroiled in an embarrassing scandal over forged letters sent from its offices...

Usually PR firms like to be behind the news, not in the headlines themselves.  But Bonner & Associates – the D.C. Astroturf shop busted for mailing forged letters to Congress attacking the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity – finds...

Like a bad habit, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) has dropped Bonner & Associates, the Astroturf lobbying firm led by Jack Bonner, whose “white collar sweatshop” forged at least a dozen letters to Congressmembers urging them to vote against the Waxman-Markey climate...

Now that it is beyond doubt that Karl Rove was more involved in the U.S. Attorney scandal than previously confirmed, it is critical for the Department of Justice to determine Rove's role in the political prosecution of prominent Mississippi attorney Paul Minor. Minor's heavy funding of Democratic candidates likely drew...