A few days ago, New York City announced its “Cool Roofs” initiative, an effort to save energy by combining volunteerism and green design. According to the Mayor’s press release:
“Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and former Vice President and founder of the Alliance for Climate Protection Al Gore today launched an NYC Service initiative, “NYC Read More
This weekend found President Obama hitting every Sunday TV talk show to talk up health care policy. For some environmental advocates, this focus deepened their concern that the United States would lose this moment and punt on climate policy. However, take heart, this week the U.N.’s climate summit begins in New York and the President Read More
For those of us who worked closely with environmental professionals during the eight years of the Bush Administration, we know that it was a time of declining resources and reduced political support for environmental regulation. It was demoralizing and more than a little scary. Last weekend an excellent piece of environmental reporting by the New Read More
The civility of our political discourse was not helped the other night when South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson called President Obama a liar on the floor of the Congress. Fortunately, his outburst was followed by his rapid apology and the President’s quick acceptance of that apology. I would like to think that the follow-up may Read More
On August 27th, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that his office will provide $1.8 million of a $7 million settlement with a number of towns in Westchester that had been illegally dumping raw sewage into the Bronx River.
The idea here is to use existing ecosystems to filter pollutants Read More
Since 1981, I have taught a graduate course called Public Management at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. I care a lot about what government does and how it does it, and I know that government has a reputation for mismanagement – some of it deserved and some not.
At the heart Read More
A few days ago, at the West 181st Street station of the No. 1 subway line, the roof literally caved in. According to the MTA’s website:
“Due to a collapse of the brick façade from the ceiling above the tracks at the 181st Street station, 1 train service will remain suspended throughout the rest Read More
Since I am a long way from being a health care expert, I have tried to stay away from the increasingly nasty and difficult health policy debate now raging throughout America. As a parent and as someone who is treated for a variety of typical getting older ailments, I find myself in regular contact with Read More
The False Trade Off
Since 1985, the Gallup poll has asked survey respondents to trade off environmental protection against economic growth. This past spring, for the first time, more people chose economic growth than environmental protection. (See Gallup graph) The data is an accurate reflection of public opinion, and there is no question that Read More
On August 6th, ten Midwestern Democratic Senators sent a letter to President Obama that began the hardball phase of creating climate policy as it moves from the House’s Waxman-Markey bill to Senate deliberations in the fall. In this letter, the Senators insist that climate change legislation must protect U.S. manufacturers from unfair foreign competition. They Read More
