US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 09/19/13 By Michael Shank This week, as U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power regarding the administration’s climate change policy, there was the palpable absence of constituent opinion. […]
ROLL CALL 08/30/13 By Michael Shank and John Fair Something happened on the Hill recently that was pretty unusual for a congressional fair. Fifteen congressional interns presented policy recommendations to a packed room in the Capitol Visitor Center. Even Sens. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Rep. […]
NATIONAL JOURNAL 08/19/13 By Michael Shank A report released this week on how the American public is thinking and talking about climate change — published by the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication and the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication — may startle policymakers and the private […]
WASHINGTON POST 08/02/13 By Michael Shank That the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or any other entity for that matter, thinks we can defeat terrorism through an advertising campaign has no clue about how to undermine extremism, let alone prevent, manage, or transform violence. Yet, the FBI took out bus ads […]
NATIONAL JOURNAL 07/29/13 By Michael Shank While I am all for a renewable fuel standard that boosts our production and consumption of renewable energy – as opposed to non-renewable fossil fuel energy – I think it is worth identifying several myths about biofuels first. In a bipartisan column I wrote […]
NATIONAL JOURNAL 07/22/13 By Michael Shank If Washington wants to avoid another Canadian case study and minimize the disasters associated with transporting fossil fuels it should, simply, stop transporting them. Here’s why and here’s how: The fossil fuel spill legacy is long. Most memorable is the Deepwater Horizon spill in […]
NATIONAL JOURNAL 07/15/13 By Michael Shank Rarely does one turn to Congress for innovation. That is certainly the case with energy efficiency. Congress may be a go-to on oversight and accountability but not innovation. The Pentagon, in contrast, while not a leader in oversight and accountability (with no audit planned […]
HUFFINGTON POST 07/13/13 By Michael Shank Rarely does one turn to Congress for innovation. That is certainly the case with energy efficiency. Congress may be a go-to on oversight and accountability but not innovation. The Pentagon, in contrast, while not a leader in oversight and accountability (with no audit planned […]
THE HILL 07/11/13 By Michael Shank, Ph.D. With 150 negotiators in 24 working groups descending on Washington D.C. this week to take part in the first round of US-EU trade talks, and with the joint EU-US High Level Working Group saying that “ambitious outcomes” should be sought for the areas […]
NATIONAL JOURNAL 07/08/13 By Michael Shank The so-called “war on coal” that Senate Joe Manchin (D-WV) claimed recently is real, in direct response to President Barack Obama’s climate change speech in Georgetown, gained new momentum last month in a World Bank memo that pledged fewer Bank-funded coal projects. Manchin, who […]