President-elect Barack Obama selected Nobel laureate Steven Chu to direct the Energy Department today as Medill News21 reporters wrap up their fall coverage. Chu, a physicist who heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, supports alternative energy fuels and research as a critical response to global warming. He faces a daunting job. National security risks from [...]
Category Archives: Politics and The Environment
Medill reporters wrap up fall News21 stories as Obama picks green leaders
December 15, 2008 – 10:07 am
Kirk Wins 10th, Buoyed by Strong Environmental Views
November 4, 2008 – 6:53 pm
GOP incumbent Mark Kirk may have beat Democratic challenger Dan Seals for the 10th Congressional District, but both candidates’ environmental and energy views are a photo-finish of similarities. During his eight-year tenure, Kirk’s work to prevent pollution of Lake Michigan has received positive ratings from Environment Illinois, the League of Conservation Voters and the Alaska Coalition, accolades [...]
Illinois politics and the fight for clean(er) coal
November 4, 2008 – 6:03 pm
Oil isn’t America’s only black gold. And with the emerald glow as every candidate claims to be greener than the next, the jury is still out on the long-term future of the country’s most prevalent fossil fuel: coal. In coal-producing Illinois, coal’s role in the environment and economy promises to play a critical role. A [...]
Immigration Organization of the Week: ALIPAC
October 25, 2008 – 3:32 pm
Immigration is a fraught issue, and in recent years dozens of groups have sprung up to advocate for one position or the other, to lobby Congress, to fund candidates, or to fight it out in the courts. With all the vague or patriotic-sounding names, it can get pretty confusing. You might see spokespeople from these [...]
Going green with an economy in the red
October 20, 2008 – 4:41 pm
With the markets in the midst of a crisis that many are comparing to the Great Depression, some environmentalists are starting to worry that the go-green wave may lose its momentum in the face of more pressing economic concerns. From bloggers to scientists, a new speculative trend has now begun, with thinkers placing their bets [...]
McCain weak on details for energy plan during debate
October 16, 2008 – 1:25 pm
The third and final presidential debate is over—thankfully, some would say – but we didn’t get much more substance out of the candidates than in the last two clashes. This debate was a little more intense with John McCain pushing harder on Barack Obama than in previous debates on all issues, and especially Obama’s connection [...]
A Little-Heard Voice in the Offshore Drilling Debate
August 8, 2008 – 3:21 pm
(Photo by Eric Kroh) Villager Thomas Napageak worries drilling will disrupt the Native way of life. By Eric Kroh/Medill – Nuiqsut, Alaska Thomas Napageak, at 25, is the youngest whaling captain in the tiny Alaska Native community of Nuiqsut. The village lies on a serene expanse of tundra just inland of the Arctic near the [...]
Awakening to Sea Level Rise
August 8, 2008 – 1:21 pm
By Kahrin Deines/Medill – Smith Island, MD Only one excited voice and the whirr of overhead fans broke the rapt silence of the open-air tabernacle where Smith Island’s annual “camp meeting” takes place. Itinerant Methodist preacher Eric Clark was working his way – and his audience – into a fervor. Between breaths and pauses to call [...]
