Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., wants prospective voters for president who are environmentally-oriented to know he is on their side. He seeks this image to broaden his appeal for a 2016 White Houses bid, but his credibility is in question because of a dismal environmental record.

During a recent speech...

Environmental protection starts out at a disadvantage because it frequently requires high initial costs to realize long term gain. That can make it a tough sell when opponents counter with an alternative that provides immediate economic gratification, even if it is at the expense of future wellbeing.

Let's face it....

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is a very smart fellow, so you have to wonder if he really believes all of the things he is saying for public consumption.

Yes, he is ultra conservative and a fierce advocate of a smaller government. His resume reveals he was a champion...

Smarting from its 2012 presidential election defeat, the Republican Party appears intent on bringing the Obama Administration to its knees. Diversions and obstruction that impede numerous functions of the federal government are the GOP's primary tactics.

Most Republicans on Capitol Hill seem perfectly content to let the nation drift aimlessly...

Using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as an instrument of political intimidation and retribution is, sad to say, not new. That is why playing partisan politics with the recent selective targeting detracts from eliminating this alarming systemic practice once and for all.

Conservative organizations were the victims this time around....

It is ironical that the region of the country most vulnerable to economic loss from climate change-related extreme weather is the Southeast. One says ironical because most federal politicians from that area remain skeptical of any global warming threat, and have a voting record to prove it.

The...

When Bruce Babbitt was Interior Secretary in the Clinton Administration, he voiced the belief that "all the plants and animals in the natural world are together a direct reflection of divinity, that creation is a plan of God."

His statement immediately drew a predictable response from conservative ranks that persists...

You might wonder why an environmental writer would devote space to the topic of gun violence. The answer is not complicated. Public health is an environmental condition, and gun violence is indisputably a public health hazard.

That gives the writer license for an expression of outrage. The flimsy reasons senators...

Senator Bernie Sanders got it right when he said that the confirmation hearing on Gina McCarthy's nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was not about her qualifications. Rather, he declared, the hearing was really about the validity of global warming as a legitimate concern.

Sanders, an independent lawmaker...

The Republican Party pays lip service to renewable energy while striving to reduce government subsidies for research, development, and distribution of same.

In more candid moments, the contradictory thinking of the majority of congressional Republicans becomes quite clear. They maintain that renewables such as wind and solar are not...

The Republican members of Congress most outspoken about rolling back environmental regulations have been found to hail from states in greatest need of stricter enforcement.

It is a classic case of the "chickens come home to roost" -- and Utah has come to that sorry realization as its urban areas...

Statistics are all too often used as a cop-out in dealing with climate change instead of serving to sound the alarm and encourage the public to become more engaged.

That is the hypothesis of Ohio State University statistician Mark Berliner, and he makes a lot of sense. Berliner...

David Vitter is a conservative Republican from Louisiana, the ranking minority member on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and in the case of a carbon tax, blinded by his ideology.

One says "blinded" because the carbon tax can be shaped to fit the conservative mold if politicians...

To survive and prosper in the 21st century, agricultural-related companies are going to have to adapt to changing environmental conditions that will pose severe tests. Many businesses have yet to face up to the challenge, but one that is well on the way to doing so in an exciting, innovative...

From an environmental perspective, it is hard to imagine a better choice than Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., to fill the vacancy created by Senator John Kerry's departure to the State Department.

A special election will take place in June for the remaining two years of Kerry's term. It is unclear...

Matt Damon's yet to be released film, Promised Land, has already been dismissed as left-wing propaganda by two prominent conservative sources, Fox News and the Heritage Foundation. Thus, it's a good bet that every right-wing media outlet from here to Timbuktu will also denounce the movie when it debuts in...

What does it take to instill world leaders with a sense of urgency regarding climate change?

Just in the last three months, a half dozen peer reviewed studies from various respected scientific bodies issued grim warnings. Their admonitions ranged from human-induced global warming accelerating at an alarming rate to time...

Because of climate change, a permanent structure next to the water's edge in highly vulnerable coastal areas is becoming increasingly untenable from both an economic and public safety standpoint. For all practical purposes, rising seas and more intense oceanic storms make recreational beaches more suitable solely for visitation than serving...

If Congressional Republicans persist with their crusade against environmental protection, President Obama should meet then head-on in his second term. He ought to take his cue from the 1980s. It was then that a democratic-controlled Congress and the national environmental movement rallied public opinion to pressure President Ronald Reagan to...

Just as in the last two years, President Obama faces a Right Wing House Republican majority so tightly laced in an ideological straitjacket that it often ends up totally divorced from reality.

He will have to contend with a GOP absolutist manifesto in which states always do a better job...