Dr. Joseph Romm is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he oversees the blog ClimateProgress.org. He is author of a forthcoming book on climate science, solutions, and politics: Hell and High Water: Global Warming—The Solution and The Politics (William Morrow, January 2007). He is coauthor of the Scientific American article, “Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction” (April 2006) and author of The Hype About Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate, named one of the best science and technology books of 2004 by Library Journal.

Dr. Romm served as Acting Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during 1997 and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from 1995 though 1998. In that capacity, he helped manage the largest program in the world for working with businesses to develop and use advanced transportation and clean energy technologies—one billion dollars aimed at energy efficiency, hybrid vehicles, electric batteries, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, renewable energy, distributed generation, and biofuels. Dr. Romm helped lead the administration's climate technology policy formulation, and initiated, supervised, and publicized a comprehensive technical analysis by five national laboratories of how energy technologies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions at low-cost: Scenarios of U.S. Carbon Reductions.

Romm holds a Ph.D. in physics from M.I.T. and researched his thesis on physical oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. More information on him can be found in his Wikipedia entry.

Blog Entries by Joseph Romm

The Top 10 Things to Give Thanks For

Posted November 28, 2008 | 12:22 AM (EST)


10. Tina Palin [Sarah Fey?]. Palin helped ruin John McCain's chances by turning off independents and in general being emblematic of his erratic approach to decision-making. Plus she is the gift that keeps on giving as "

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The Politico Pimps Global Cooling for Congressional Deniers

34 Comments | Posted November 25, 2008 | 12:36 PM (EST)


If you like the old media's misreporting on climate (see "The NYT blows the bark beetle story" and so does NBC), then you'll love this whopper from the Politico, "Scientists urge caution on global...

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Election Results Liveblog

Posted November 4, 2008 | 12:23 PM (EST)



Read more Election Day Liveblogs, Reaction and Analysis from HuffPost Bloggers

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Palin Shocker: McCain Won't Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions

36 Comments | Posted October 29, 2008 | 12:31 PM (EST)


Palin Energy SecurityVoters who care about either global warming or clean energy have only one choice -- and it isn't McCain-Palin.

It's time to stop trying to guess whether the latest McCain campaign gaffe revision on global warming means the Arizonan has...

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The Best Economic Attack Obama isn't Using Against McCain

103 Comments | Posted October 14, 2008 | 11:31 AM (EST)


Did you know that John McCain has proposed a real cut in spending on:


  • breast cancer research

  • children's health

  • student loans

  • early childhood education

  • funding to help poor people pay their energy bills

  • loans to small businesses

  • solar energy

  • the...

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Note to McCain: Uncommitted Ohio Voters Just Aren't Into Nuclear Power

40 Comments | Posted October 7, 2008 | 10:18 PM (EST)


If you don't watch the debates on CNN, you are really missing something. CNN has set up a dial group of uncommitted Ohio voters. At the bottom of the screen CNN then shows the graph of the reaction by men and women as they rate statements they like or...

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Why Did McCain Sell Out to Big Oil? Ask Charles Keating.

67 Comments | Posted October 6, 2008 | 01:01 PM (EST)


John McCain's new coziness with Big Oil is in many respects just a replay of his old coziness with Charles Keating. In both cases, money and access bought influence. Let's start with oil.

Last month, Time reported that McCain tapped a "prominent Washington lobbyist," William E. Timmons Sr., to...

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Palin in Debate Still Gets Global Warming Backwards and Repeats Big Energy Lie Twice

38 Comments | Posted October 2, 2008 | 11:20 PM (EST)


Palin had told Katie Couric "I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate."

The debate transcript reveals she still can't get her talking points straight on this issue:

I'm not one to...

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Contemptuous, Erratic McCain Loses Tactically and Strategicially

30 Comments | Posted September 27, 2008 | 01:26 PM (EST)


Let's look at why McCain lost the debate by a large margin (13% or 14%) in the two insta polls out, from CBS and CNN.

Obama's twin strategies (his goals) were clear -- cross the Commander in Chief threshold and link McCain to Bush. His matching tactics -- what...

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Obama should go after McCain's delusional clean energy claims

Posted September 27, 2008 | 01:25 PM (EST)


Obama has begun to win the crucial clean energy and energy independence issue. He should deliver the knockout blow in the next two debates and his ads.

In particular, Obama should go after McCain's most delusional statement in the debate since it raises serious questions as to whether McCain is...

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McCain Blinks. How Obama Did It.

71 Comments | Posted September 26, 2008 | 01:54 PM (EST)


How did Obama beat McCain's erratic grand-standing on the debate? By constantly standing up to him and turning his erratic stunt against him.

McCain said it was time to drop everything, including campaigning, and stay in Washington until a bail-out deal was done. Obama turned that argument back on McCain...

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Erratic McCain Parachutes into Temperament Narrative

44 Comments | Posted September 25, 2008 | 12:03 PM (EST)


McCain has used the financial bail-out to try to bail out of his nose-diving campaign. But he doesn't seem to realize that he has landed behind enemy territory.

The most dangerous storyline for McCain is that he is an erratic hothead, a fighter jock who lacks the temperament to be...

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Obama's Can't-Lose Debate Strategy

58 Comments | Posted September 24, 2008 | 08:45 AM (EST)


Part 1 explored why debates are typically won by the candidate who presents the most compelling and persuasive character. If I can convince you I'm an honest, straight talker, you'll believe what else I say. If you can't, you won't.

The corollary, of course, is that another way to...

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Why Smart Talkers Lose Debates and How Obama Can Beat McCain Anyway

Posted September 23, 2008 | 09:55 AM (EST)


Democrats like Barack Obama have historically lost presidential debates because they made two fundamental mistakes: First, they have treated the debates as if they were high school or college debates, which are won primarily on the merits of the arguments and volume of evidence presented.

Second, relatedly, they seem to...

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Is the Financial Crisis More Dire than the Climate Crisis?

Posted September 22, 2008 | 10:37 AM (EST)


Not even close.

If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.

So warned IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri last fall when the IPCC released its major...

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Hill Dems Blow It for Obama: McCain Allies Kill Gang-of-20 Compromise Energy Bill

Posted September 19, 2008 | 11:42 AM (EST)


Both The Hill and Politico.com have reported that a bipartisan "gang" of 20 Senators will not introduce a compromise energy bill before the election. You can read details of the original compromise here: The Gang-of-10 drilling deal is something for nothing.

This is...

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Obama or 527s Must Tell Keating Five Story

Posted September 17, 2008 | 01:37 PM (EST)


It foreshadows McCain's ethical collapse, his coziness to fat cats, and his economic non-policy.

Time for the Obama campaign or some independent groups to raise John McCain's sordid role in the Keating Five scandal. And by "raise" I mean repeat over and over and over again because it is a...

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Obama Nails the Winning Message: "Honor Comes with Honesty." But Does He Know How to Win with It?

Posted September 15, 2008 | 11:28 AM (EST)


Finally, the Obama campaign has articulated the winning message to counterpunch the shameless lying from McCain-Palin. They have raised the issue of McCain's (lack of) honor.

Following Senator Claire McCaskill's catchy "Honor comes with honesty" rhetoric on ABC's This Week, Obama has released an excellent new ad titled "Honor"...

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Can Obama Win With Half a Messaging Strategy and Half a Ticket?

Posted September 11, 2008 | 02:02 PM (EST)


No strategic counterpunch and a self-emasculating VP makes Obama's job twice as hard. If his team understood messaging, he'd be doing much better against "Me-too" McCain, the make-believe maverick.

Winning presidential campaigns have four strategic messages and two messengers. Obama's glass is half empty. Let's start with "Political Strategy...

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Rebranding Slick Sarah, the Make-Believe Maverick

Posted September 9, 2008 | 07:27 PM (EST)


VP choice Sarah Palin keeps repeating her lie that she said "thanks but no thanks" to the "Bridge to Nowhere" -- even in the face of unusually strong and widespread media debunking and strong visual evidence to the contrary. When Fox News' Chris Wallace debunks your multiple...

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