Kate Sheppard

Reporter

Kate Sheppard is a staff reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau. She was previously the political reporter for Grist and a writing fellow at The American Prospect. She can be reached by email at ksheppard (at) motherjones (dot) com.

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Her work has also been featured in the New York Times' Room for Debate blog, the Guardian's Comment Is Free, Foreign Policy, High Country News, The Center for Public Integrity, the Washington Independent, Washington Spectator, Who Runs Gov, In These Times, and Bitch. She was raised on a vegetable farm in southern New Jersey (yes, they do exist), but has adapted well to life in the nation's capital. She misses trees and having a congressional representative with voting power, but thinks DC is pretty great anyway.

Republicans Bail on Climate Markup

—By Kate Sheppard

| Tue Nov. 3, 2009 10:00 AM PST

As promised, the Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee boycotted the markup of the climate bill this morning.

Nearly all of the Democrats on the panel showed up, but of the Republicans only Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) made an appearance. He reiterated that he wanted more time to allow for further study of the bill, then left immediately after his 15-minute opening statement.

Committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), had offered several olive branches to placate Republcans, including a extension of the deadline for amendments until 5 p.m. today. She also adjusted the schedule on Tuesday to bring in EPA experts to answer questions about their modeling and analysis of the legislation. In addition, Boxer said she has confirmed with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will call for a five-week analysis of the legislation once it is combined with relevant measures from other committees. The EPA, Boxer noted, has compiled more than 340,000 pages of analysis on both the House and Senate bills already.

Voinovich, however, insisted that despite the stalling tactics he did really "want to work on a bipartisan basis." He said: "I'm pleading to you, the chairman, as a matter of the golden rule, or the second commandment ... for decency. I'm not trying to con you."

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

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GOP Still Blocking Climate Bill

—By Kate Sheppard

| Mon Nov. 2, 2009 12:19 PM PST

Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) says she will move forward on climate legislation tomorrow, with or without Republicans, who have pledged to boycott the markup.

Republican leaders sent a letter to Boxer on Monday afternoon saying they want more analysis before participating in a markup. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), a member of Boxer's Environment and Public Works committee, made the initial request. He's since been joined by a number of GOP ranking members of key committees: Lisa Murkowski (Energy and Natural Resources), Saxby Chambliss of Georgia (Agriculture), Chuck Grassley (Finance), James Inhofe (Environment and Public Works) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Commerce, Science and Transportation).

The big problem with the senators' claim is that there's already plenty of analysis available about the climate bill. The proposal largely mirrors the Waxman-Markey legislation that passed the House in June, which has been scrutinized by the EPA, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Energy Information Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency released a preliminary study of the Senate bill, along with the chairman's mark, on Friday, Oct. 23. And if that wasn't enough, Boxer's committee held nine different panels with 54 expert witnesses last week. For months, Voinovich has been asking for new studies from the EPA, presumably ones that produce doom and gloom predictions that the bill will devastate the American economy. But the raft of studies completed so far show just the opposite.

Although the GOP is trying to hide behind relative moderates like Voinovich—who at least admits that climate change is a problem—in its latest gambit, they're really aligning with the denialists like Inhofe. The goal is to mire the process in bitter partisan fights until the climate bill stalls indefinitely in the Senate.

EPW committee rules require that at least two Republicans be present to begin markup. In a statement on Monday, Boxer urged Inhofe to call the Republicans back to work and announced that she plans to proceed on Tuesday whether or not her GOP colleagues show up. The markup is slated to begin at 9 a.m. What will happen is anybody's guess.

Chamber Gets No Love on Facebook

—By Kate Sheppard

| Mon Nov. 2, 2009 11:47 AM PST

UPDATE: It appears the Facebook onslaught is a coordinated effort by the activist group MoveOn, rather than an organic uprising. You win this round, Chamber.

The US Chamber of Commerce is taking a real hammering on Facebook these days. A visit to its wall finds a significant number of visitors demanding that it stop fudging its membership numbers.

A few sample comments:

"Is it the 'spirit of enterprise' to tell a whopper like having 3 million members when you only have about 2-3 hundred thousand? And then continue to repeat that whopper even after you admit it's not true? This speaks very poorly for your credibility in other areas, such as health care."

"You guys are a complete joke...lol Did you guys give birth to Superman too?"

"Saying that you are for limiting CO2 emissions and writing letters lobbying to oppose H.R. 2454 are contradictory positions. At least represent your position honestly. It is time for business leaders to stop dragging their feet on climate change regulation. It's going to have to happen sooner or later. I hope it is sooner."

In a sign that the Chamber is still sticking to its guns despite mounting criticism of its policy stances, the page also features a poll for fans asking, "Which piece of legislation is worse?" The choices:

The Health Care Reform Bills including a government-run plan
The Climate Change Bill (Waxman-Markey Bill)

Who Has the White House's Ear on Climate and Energy?

—By Kate Sheppard

| Mon Nov. 2, 2009 8:41 AM PST

What could ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson be discussing with the White House?

Tillerson, the head of the wold's largest oil company, has made three visits to the White House this year, according to the vistor logs released on Friday evening. Tillerson was the only energy company CEO listed on the logs, though the logs only include names specifically requested.

Tillerson met with both Larry Summers, the director of Obama's National Economic Council, and Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy. This is the same Rex Tillerson who has questioned climate science, but also advocated for a tax on carbon rather than a cap-and-trade plan. Oh, and Exxon continues to fund climate change denial despite pledging to stop.

Notably, the list doesn't seem to include any coal industry executives, a topic that drew attention earlier this year when Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the records of visits from the CEOs of 16 major coal companies and lobby groups. It appears that none of those CEOs have been hanging out at the White House after all.

Other interesting visitors with an interest in climate and energy policy: General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, who visited five times; Al Gore, who visited four times, and Newt Gingrich, who visited once.

UPDATE: Sebastian Jones also searched the logs and notes that that Chevron CEO David J. O'Reilly appears to have dropped by for five meetings with high-ranking administration officials.

Republicans Threaten to Boycott Climate Bill Markup

—By Kate Sheppard

| Fri Oct. 30, 2009 1:37 PM PDT

After three days of hearings on the climate bill this week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee planned to start marking up the legislation on Tuesday. Or, at least the Democrats on the panel intended to do so. The Republicans are now threatening to boycott the session—which could prevent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.) from moving the legislation out of her committee.

Boxer doesn't need Republicans to actually vote for the bill—Democrats hold a 12-7 majority on the panel. But she does need two GOP senators present to hold a markup, according to committee rules. The proposed boycott is apparently being lead by Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Voinovich says he wants extra time so the EPA can produce a more comprehensive assessment of the bill (read: an assessment that he agrees with).

[Read more in the MoJo blog]