Political Climate Articles
Let's Have a Grown-Up Debate About Climate Change
If, like me, you have been confused, frustrated, dispirited or all of the above by the health care debate in Congress, get ready for more as the U.S. Senate prepares to take up
climate-change legislation. The stakes are high. The debate will not be high-minded.
Expect opponents of mandatory carbon regulation to distort the science and economics of global warming, predicting an economic catastrophe if the bill passes, even as
environmentalists promise a green jobs nirvana and warn of an environmental catastrophe if it doesn't.
The fact is, any meaningful effort to regulate carbon will carry real but not catastrophic costs for businesses and consumers -- that's part of the point, to raise the price of burning fossil fuels
-- and that the transition to a clean-energy economy will be disruptive, under the best of circumstances. Solar-power manufacturers in China will gain at the expense of coal miners in West
Virginia. That makes the politics of the bill a challenge, but so be it.
Read More...
Climate Bill Splits Exelon and U.S. Chamber
Exelon, one of the country's largest utilities, said Monday that it would quit the United States Chamber of Commerce because of that group's stance on climate change. It was the latest in a
string of companies to do so, perhaps a harbinger of how intense the fight over global warming legislation could become.
"The carbon-based free lunch is over," said John W. Rowe, Exelon's chief executive. "Breakthroughs on climate change and improving our society's energy efficiency are within reach."
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Nike Resigns From The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Board Of Directors Over Global Warming Disagreements
Nike In the past couple weeks, three energy companies have ditched the reeling U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its opposition to global warming action. Although Nike has publicly
expressed its frustrations with the Chamber's anti-science positions, it hasn't started to sever ties with the organization - until now.
Facing increasing pressure from activists, Nike today announced that is resigning from the Chamber's board of directors:
It is important that US companies be represented by a strong and effective Chamber that reflects the interests of all its members on multiple issues. We believe that on the issue of
climate change the Chamber has not represented the diversity of perspective held by the board of directors.
Therefore, we have decided to resign our board of directors position. We will continue our membership to advocate for climate change legislation inside the committee structure and
believe that we can better influence policy by being part of the conversation. Moving forward we will continue to evaluate our membership.
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China leads way for solar energy: "If the U.S. doesn't get serious, China's going to own this industry."
Ending some nine months of closed-door deliberations, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) will release global warming legislation Wednesday that they hope will
be the vehicle for broader Senate negotiations and an eventual conference with the House.
The bill's authors said last week that they expect to start hearings early next month on the bill, with a markup in Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee to follow soon
thereafter. They also acknowledged that their legislation is just a "starting point" in a bid to win over moderate and conservative Democrats, as well as Republicans.
"I hope what we've done is constructive and well-received," Kerry, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday. "I have no pretensions, and neither does Barbara,
that this will be the final product. It is a starting point, a commitment, full-fledged, across party lines to do what we need to do to protect the planet for the next century."
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Boxer-Kerry Bill: It's Still All About Jobs
At last, the definitive version of the Senate's first stab at energy and climate legislation is out. Here's a quick summary, a section-by-section breakdown, and the whole beast.
We'll dive into some of the details later, but for now what's interesting is how the bill's biggest supporters are pitching what, if enacted, would be one of the most sweeping pieces of
legislation in U.S. history.
For co-sponsor Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the committee on environment and public works, the "Clean Energy Jobs and America Power Act" addresses the "major challenges" facing
the country:
protecting our children and the earth from dangerous pollution;
putting America back in control of our energy future;
creating the policies that will lead to millions of new jobs; and
Through our example, inspiring similar actions around the world to avoid an unstable and dangerous future.
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Governor's Climate Summit2
Lisa Jackson: Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson leads EPA's efforts to protect the health and environment for all Americans. She and a staff of more than 17,000 professionals are working across the nation
to usher in a green economy, address health threats from toxins and pollution, and renew public trust in EPA's work.
Watch the speech...
US official: China could lead in electric vehicles
BEIJING - China's fast-growing electric car producers could take the lead in the global industry if the United States fails to invest heavily in the technology, a U.S. energy official said
Wednesday.
Electric vehicles are a priority in U.S. energy policy but China is also investing aggressively in development, said David Sandalow, an assistant energy secretary. He spoke after attending
a U.S.-Chinese forum on electric vehicles, which he said was attended by 80 Chinese and 60 American companies.
"They have the potential to be ahead if the United States does not invest heavily in this technology and in this industry. The Chinese are well positioned to be global leaders in the electric
vehicle industry," Sandalow told reporters.
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1,000 U.S. Mayors Have Signed Climate Protection Pledge
SEATTLE, Washington, September 30, 2009 (ENS) - U.S. Conference of Mayors President Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says that by Friday, 1,000 mayors, representing 85 million
Americans, will have signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement since it was introduced in February 2005.
The announcement of the 1,000th mayoral signatory and his or her city will take place during the Conference's Leadership Meeting, from October 1-3 in Seattle, where more than 60 U.S.
mayors will discuss the continuing recession and "green" economic recovery with White House and Obama Cabinet Officials.
At their Leadership Meeting Thursday, the mayors will release a Climate Protection City Profile report that outlines specific actions mayors are taking to make their cities more energy
efficient and meet the goals of the Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement.
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Hey Ya! (mal)
Interesting news this weekend. Apparently everything we've done in our entire careers is a "MASSIVE lie" (sic) because all of radiative physics, climate history, the instrumental record,
modeling and satellite observations turn out to be based on 12 trees in an obscure part of Siberia. Who knew?
Indeed, according to both the National Review and the Daily Telegraph (and who would not trust these sources?), even Al Gore's use of the stair lift in An Inconvenient Truth was done to
highlight cherry-picked tree rings, instead of what everyone thought was the rise in CO2 concentrations in the last 200 years.
Who should we believe? Al Gore with his "facts" and "peer reviewed science" or the practioners of "Blog Science"? Surely, the choice is clear….
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The brain waves of the American right continue to be erratic, when they are not flat-lining.
Modern conservative has nothing to say about the meaning and nature of progress. What more proof could there be than the hero Hayward turns to in this Dark Ages for the right wing:
Beck, for one, is revealing that despite the demands of filling hours of airtime every day, it is possible to engage in some real thought. He just might be helping restore the equilibrium
between the elite and populist sides of conservatism.
No, Hayward isn't writing a piece for The Onion. But he is stuck in the same anti-science, anti-intellectualism that blinds all conservatives. Remember:
Beck faked boiling a live frog on TV (see Glenn Beck proves he's a brainless frog, warning (?) "Barack Obama has galvanized the country.... He's forced us to think!")
Beck ate a friggin' watermelon before the House vote, confirming his not-so-subtle racist claim that Van Jones was "a watermelon" (see Fox News blurts out its agenda: "Now that
Jones has resigned, we need to follow through.... First, stop cap-and-trade, which could send these groups trillions," and then put "the whole corrupt 'green jobs' concept outside the
bounds of the political mainstream.")
Beck asserted "Almost everyone who does believe in global warming is a socialist."
But even outside of the realm of climate, Beck is a pure anti-intellectual wing-nut, as these factoids collected by a CAP intern make clear:
Beck stated that he "hates" the families of 9/11 victims because of their "complaining"
Beck argued that President Barack Obama hates white people or "white culture"
Beck claimed that President Obama and Congress are trying to turn the United States into a "fascist state"
Beck joked about killing filmmaker Michael Moore, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Beck compared this administration's policies to those of 1930's Germany and Saddam Hussein-era Iraq
Beck refused to debunk myths of FEMA "concentration camps" and governmental slavery
Beck claimed that President Obama's policies are driven by a desire to attain reparations for slavery
Beck compared former President Jimmy Carter to Kim Jong-Il, calling Jimmy Carter a "waste of skin"
Beck called the father of abducted and murdered American business man Nick Berg a "scumbag"
Yes, the American Enterprise Institute annoints Glenn Beck the new intellectual leader of the conservative movement stagnation. You can't make this stuff up.