oil

"What has translated into a change in price for oil and gas has simply been a result of the greed of the oil industry," says author and GRITtv oil correspondent, Antonia Juhasz of rising oil prices and pain at the pump. Antonia is the director of the Energy Program at Global Exchange, and author of the newly released book, Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill. With prices two times higher than they were when President Obama took office, and up 37% just this year, Americans are feeling an additional squeeze at the pumps. The White House's plan to reduce fuel costs may be a step in the right direction, says Antonia. However, as we continue to navigate issues like speculative trading and a lack of regulation in the Intercontinental Oil Exchange, true progress may be difficult. Is there a responsible way forward? And, more importantly, is the Obama administration ready to set us on that path?

"This is what's interesting in Wisconsin: I think that the Right may have picked a fight they can't win rhetorically," says Harper's columnist Thomas Frank, who visited Wisconsin during the heat of the union battles this winter. He notes that Wisconsin was historically one of the most liberal states in the country, and the labor-liberal base there is fired up and ready to fight back. Thomas joins Laura in studio to talk Wisconsin and the bigger picture for progressives in the country--is the time of the Tea Party fading? "Because of the separation of women, we have created societies where we are cut in the middle. And when women have gone into public life they are forced to go into public life like men," says Gioconda Belli, Nicaraguan poet and author and former Sandinista revolutionary and later government member. Gioconda and her female comrades formed "The Party of the Lusty Left" in response to continued sexism by the revolutionary party. Gioconda is in New York for the PEN World Voices festival, and joins Laura in studio for a conversation about what modern revolutionary movements need, how women are leaders in the fight for equality, and why media matters. Finally, as gas prices are going up, Obama's approval ratings waver--and Republicans, who never met an oil and gas subsidy they didn't like, are preparing to exploit that. Laura has some thoughts. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Global climate change isn't an if anymore, it's a when, according to journalist Mark Hertsgaard. The planet is going to get warmer, and Hertsgaard says that only the "climate crooks and climate cranks" are still in the denial business. But legislation is stalled in Congress because those very same crooks control the purse strings of the politicians who make the decisions. How do the members of Generation Hot, like Hertsgaard's daughter Chiara, make it? Mark joined Laura in studio to discuss that and more in the second part of a two-part interview, this one focusing on the big picture, covered in his new book Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth.

"BP has gotten away with this, the government has helped them get away with it, we can't even get cooperation from the government to test the carcasses of dead mammals washing up on the shore because they're joined at the hip with BP," says Mike Papantonio, radio host and attorney representing Gulf Coast residents. It's the anniversary of the oil spill that became America's biggest, and news reports tell of BP's involvement with the decision to go into Iraq and their intent to control the research around the Gulf Coast recovery to help clear their name, we check in with Mike via Skype to give us the latest on BP's shady dealings.