Political Climate Articles
President Obama orders for a trim in greenhouse gases at federal agencies
On Oct. 5, President Obama signed an Executive Order that sets sustainability goals for federal agencies and focuses on making improvements in their environmental, energy, and economic performance. The Executive Order requires federal agencies to set a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for 2020 within 90 days. The Order also requires federal agencies to increase their energy efficiency, reduce petroleum consumption of their fleets, conserve water, reduce waste, support sustainable communities, and leverage their federal purchasing power to promote environmentally-responsible products and technologies.
The Order makes reducing emissions a priority for the federal government; occupier of nearly 500,000 buildings, operator of more than 600,00 vehicles, employer of more than 1.8 million people, and purchaser of more than $500 billion per year in goods and services.
In his order, President Obama requires agencies to meet a number of energy, water, and waste reduction targets, including reducing their vehicle fleet petroleum use by 30% by 2020; beginning in 2020, designing all new federal buildings to achieve net-zero energy use by 2030; improving their water efficiency by 26% by 2020; minimizing their buildings' impacts on storm water runoff; recycling or diverting 50% of their waste by 2015; and meeting sustainability requirements in 95% of all applicable contracts.
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Energy Star Appliances May Not All Be Efficient, Audit Finds
WASHINGTON - The Energy Department has concluded in an internal audit that it does not properly track whether manufacturers that give their appliances an Energy Star label have met the required specifications for energy efficiency.
Some manufacturers could therefore be putting the stickers on unqualified products, according to the audit, by the Energy Department's inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman.
The Energy Star program, jointly managed by the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, has benefited from a renewed emphasis by the Obama administration, as a mechanism for reducing the waste of energy and curbing resulting greenhouse gas emissions. Under the federal stimulus bill, $300 million will go to rebates for consumers who buy Energy Star products.
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The Economic Case for Slashing Carbon Emissions
Amid a growing call for reducing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to 350 parts per million, a group of economists maintains that striving to meet that target is a smart investment - and the best insurance policy humanity could buy.
The climate change news from Washington is cautiously encouraging. No one in power is listening to the climate skeptics any more; the economic stimulus package included real money for clean energy; a bill capping U.S. carbon emissions emerged, battered but still standing, from the House of Representatives, and might even survive the Senate. This, along with stricter emission standards in Europe and a big push for clean energy and efficiency standards in China, provides grounds for hope for genuine progress on emissions reduction.
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Saudis ask for aid if world cuts dependence on oil
BANGKOK - There are plenty of needy countries at the U.N. climate talks in Bangkok that make the case they need financial assistance to adapt to the impacts of global warming. Then there are the Saudis.
Saudi Arabia has led a quiet campaign during these and other negotiations - demanding behind closed doors that oil-producing nations get special financial assistance if a new climate pact calls for substantial reductions in the use of fossil fuels.
That campaign comes despite an International Energy Agency report released this week showing that OPEC revenues would still increase $23 trillion between 2008 and 2030 - a fourfold increase compared to the period from 1985 to 2007 - if countries agree to significantly slash emissions and thereby cut their use of oil. That is the limit most countries agree is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
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Saudis redefine chutzpah:
After decades of overpricing, and with trillions of dollars in future revenues, they want aid if world cuts oil use in climate deal
Let's call it The Audacity of hOPEC. AP reported last week:
Saudi Arabia has led a quiet campaign during these and other negotiations - demanding behind closed doors that oil-producing nations get special financial assistance if a new climate pact calls for substantial reductions in the use of fossil fuels.
That campaign comes despite an International Energy Agency report released this week showing that OPEC revenues would still increase $23 trillion between 2008 and 2030 - a fourfold increase compared to the period from 1985 to 2007 - if countries agree to significantly slash emissions and thereby cut their use of oil.
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PG&E CEO: We left Chamber Of Commerce because they lied to us about climate policy;
Chu says "it's wonderful" companies are fleeing the Chamber
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Thursday applauded companies that have quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because they disagree with the business group's climate change policy. "I think it's wonderful," Chu told reporters at a solar energy event on the National Mall. He said companies that left the Chamber object "to foot dragging, to denials" and realize that efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses are "part of our economic future in the United States."
... "I would encourage the Chamber of Commerce to realize the economic opportunity that the United States can lead in a new industrial revolution," said Chu, a supporter of alternative fuels and strong regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
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World Bank warns of water shortage
ABU DHABI // Water is the Middle East's most vulnerable resource, and will become dangerously scarce within decades unless it is radically better managed, the World Bank said in a report released here yesterday.
In the Middle East and North Africa, the world's driest region, "per capita water availability is predicted to halve by 2050 even without the effects of climate change", said the Development and Climate Change study.
It added that climate change would make the problem worse by causing heat waves and droughts.
Jamal Saghir, the World Bank's director of energy, transport and water, presented the report to Majid al Mansouri, secretary general of the Environment Agency–Abu Dhabi.
A panel of experts in water management, chaired by Mr Saghir, then discussed the findings.
Mr al Mansouri also called for more home-grown scientific research on mitigating the impact of greenhouse gases and adapting to climate change
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Federal scientists: Limit offshore drilling plans
Citing danger to marine life, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration opposes opening large tracts of coast to drilling and recommends buffer zones off Santa Barbara.
Reporting from Washington - The federal government's top ocean scientists are urging the Interior Department to drastically reduce plans to open the coast to offshore oil and gas drilling, citing threats to marine life and potentially devastating effects of oil spills in Arctic waters.
The recommendations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are informal and not binding. But if adopted, they would restrict development in some of the nation's most resource-rich untapped offshore areas and mark a significant departure from the pro-drilling policies of the George W. Bush administration. They also give added -- and official -- weight to environmentalists' concerns.
In a letter sent to Interior officials last month, NOAA recommended excluding large tracts of the Alaska coast, the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico from Interior's draft offshore drilling plan for 2010 to 2015.
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Memo to deniers, delayers, and disinformers: When I propose a sucker bet, the only conclusion you can draw is that I'm looking for suckers.
On September 22, I debunked the global cooling myth for the umpteenth time (see "NYT's Revkin pushes global cooling myth (again!) and repeats outright misinformation"). To see whether the status quo media and the professional Deniers, Delayers, and Disinformers believe the cooling crap they are pushing, I proposed what should be seen as a generous bet (from their unscientific perspective):
that the 2010s will be the hottest decade in the temperature record, more than 0.15°C hotter than the hottest decade so far using the NASA GISS dataset.
Led by Triple D All Star Chip Knappenberger ("Is Joe Romm a ‘Global Lukewarmer'?") my attempt to call out suckers deniers who insist we are entering a long-term cooling, was somehow turned into a statement of my belief as to what the science says is going to happen on our current emissions path. What is especially bizarre about that is I have written about 2 million words on the subject, so my views are no mystery at all (see, for instance, "Intro to global warming impacts").
What is especially laughable is that the deniers, led by Knappenberger, who should know better (well, I guess that's a contradiction in terms), then ascribe their ignorance of the science to my statement and with an anti-scientific linear extrapolation for what I am supposedly predicting the warming will be this entire century. That is to say, because I supposedly believe we will only warm 0.15oC next decade (which I don't), that means I am also asserting we will only warm only on the low-range this century, perhaps only 1.5oC.
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As the planet hits record high temperatures, a falsehood-pushing film-maker tries to shout down real journalists from asking Al Gore questions
Planetary warming continues unabated (see "It's the oceans, stupid!"), so the deniers are shouting even louder in their efforts to stifle genuine discussion.
The latest disinformer raising his voice and making headlines on Drudge is Phelim McAleer. We've all been at major speaking events where some jerk tries to hog the microphone, asking a series of questions that seem pointed - but are in fact just rude and nonsensical. In this case, however, the forum Gore was speaking at was a major gathering of journalists, so the refusal to give up the microphone was the equivalent of blocking other (i.e. real) journalists from asking Gore questions:
Former Vice President Al Gore shared his optimism about the "shifting momentum" of the climate change debate with about 500 environmental journalists Friday in Madison.
"We're very close to that political tipping point," Gore said at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference at the Madison Concourse Hotel. "Never before in human history has a single generation been asked to make such difficult and consequential decisions."
You can watch McAleer's version of events here in what the NYT's Andy Revkin (who was there) describes as a "whiny video." But while McAleer's a clever filmaker, he's a bad liar. He asserts of Gore, "He never takes questions." Not.
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Navy secretary seeks greener fleet
The vision
Hydrogen powered UAVs
One example of "green" energy with a battlefield application is an unmanned aerial vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.
Last weekend, at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the Ion Tiger UAV set a record for hydrogen-powered flight. The aircraft, which is developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Hawaii and two commercial companies, stayed aloft for 23 hours, 17 minutes.
At 37 pounds, the Ion Tiger is lighter than drones that use petroleum-based fuel. It hasn't been deployed but holds promise because it produces electrical energy directly from hydrogen gas and air. That means it's quiet and has a low heat signature.
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Coalition calls on 14 CEOs to drop chamber memberships
The CEOs of Air Products & Chemicals, Alcoa, American Electric Power and 11 other companies were urged to withdraw their memberships from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Associations of Manufacturers over disagreements on climate change, according to a statement from a group of 43 institutional investors and related organizations.
"Each of the companies has publicly stated that it supports action on climate change, which the chamber and NAM strongly oppose," the statement said.
Letters from the group, which were sent Tuesday to the CEOs, ask the companies "to address their disagreement with the chamber and NAM on climate change policy by withdrawing membership, publicly disclosing their disagreement, or asking the associations to refund the portion of their dues used to lobby on the issue," according to the statement.
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Entergy CEO: "We are virtually certain that climate change is occurring, and occurring because of man's activities.
We're virtually certain the probability distribution curve is all bad."
Last week, over a hundred CEOs of American companies broke with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to lobby Congress to "pass comprehensive climate change and energy policy legislation this year." The U.S. Senate is now considering the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, which would set a market-based limit on global warming pollution. Participants in a Clean Energy Economy Forum at the White House included J. Wayne Leonard, the Chairman and CEO of Entergy Corporation, the utility giant based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Speaking at the White House event, Leonard called for action on climate change and clean energy not just for economic reasons but starkly moral ones:
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