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Energy Department, change is coming
Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney
DOE is expected to get shaken up under Obama’s administration, playing a central role in its plans to move the economy to a greener
future.
—
President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for energy secretary will likely lead the department through a new era with a sharp focus on
renewable energy, but who’ll lead a revamped agency is far from clear.
Despite what some may think, the current Department of Energy isn’t really about wind or solar power. It’s not even about coal, oil or
gas. Mainly, the agency is about nuclear – nuclear weapons to be exact.
The new agency is likely to focus on a big push into renewable R&D greater conservation efforts and some role in curtailing greenhouse gas emissions.
(4 December 2008)
Obama quietly drops windfall tax proposal
David Ivanovich, Houston Chronicle
President-elect Barack Obama has quietly shelved a proposal to slap oil and natural gas companies with a new windfall profits tax.
An aide for the transition team acknowledged the policy shift Tuesday, after a small-business group discovered the proposal — touted throughout much of the campaign — had been dropped from the incoming administration’s Web site.
“President-elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel,” the aide said. “They are below that now and expected to stay below that.”
(2 December 2008)
A sad day for Canada
Michael Stickings, The Guardian
The political situation in Canada – coup, crisis, call it what you want – continues to take new and dramatic turns. On Thursday morning, as expected, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seeking to avoid a confidence motion – which he would lose, given that his Conservative government only has a minority of the seats in the House of Commons – met with governor general Michaëlle Jean to ask her to prorogue, or end, the current session of Parliament. Instead of calling for another election or turning to the Liberal-New Democratic coalition (which, with support from the Bloc Québécois, holds the majority in Canada’s House of Commons), Jean granted his request.
(4 December 2008)
