"During the fall campaign, California's attention was focused on the presidential race and Gov. Jerry Brown's tax measure. But in a historic, largely overlooked environmental shift, the state's voters also triggered a multibillion-dollar tidal wave of new green spending."

"When the Obama administration temporarily banned BP from federal contracts Wednesday, it pointed to BP's 'lack of business integrity' and conduct relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill. The sanction, however, has been years in the making."

"The 'American' in American Petroleum Institute, the country's largest oil lobby group, is a misnomer. As I reported for The Nation in August, the group has changed over the years, and is now led by men like Tofiq Al-Gabsani, a Saudi Arabian national who heads a Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) subsidiary, the state-run oil company that also helps finance the American Petroleum Institute. Al-Gabsani is also a registered foreign agent for the Saudi government."

"A bipartisan group of legislators said Wednesday that the failure to expand a critical subsidy for renewable energy could cost Americans tens of thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs."

"President Obama has signed into law a bill that requires U.S. airlines be excluded from European carbon emissions fees."

"The Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank skeptical of climate change science, has joined with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council to write model legislation aimed at reversing state renewable energy mandates across the country."

"A coalition of the world's largest investors called on governments on Tuesday to ramp up action on climate change and boost clean-energy investment or risk trillions of dollars in investments and disruption to economies."

"JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- At the time of day Friday when most workers are making plans for happy hour, Cheryl Johnson is making a final scan of the online job listings at the Jersey City One-Stop Career Center. Her skirt suit is wrinkled. Johnson lost her job after Hurricane Sandy lashed the mid-Atlantic states three weeks ago."