Political Climate Articles
Energy secretary: Science demands action on climate
Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday laid out the scientific risks of inaction on global warming and went straight to his main point - the climate and energy bill starting its way through the Senate could help drive what he called "energy opportunity."
The Senate is only now taking up the bill - Tuesday was its first hearing - and much could change as senators demand amendments and compromises. No Republicans now support it, though Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has written that he's interested in a consensus approach.
The bill's Democratic supporters are looking for some Republican allies to help secure the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural blocks for passage. They're also working against the odds to get the bill finished in time for international climate negotiations in December in Copenhagen, Denmark. The House of Representatives passed a version in June, but before anything's enacted into law, the House and Senate must agree on identical terms.
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Plan B 4.0 by the Numbers -- Data Highlights on Poverty and Population
In Chapter 7 of the recently released Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Lester Brown lays out the Plan B goals for eradicating poverty and stabilizing population. Behind the scenes are a number of datasets and graphs that delve deeper into the trends discussed in the chapter. Here are some highlights from the Chapter 7 data:
World population has grown steadily over the past half century, increasing from 2.5 billion in 1950 to a projected 6.8 billion in 2009. The United Nations medium fertility level scenario projects that world population will grow to 9.2 billion in 2050. Their high projection takes the world to 10.5 billion in 2050. Under their low projection, which assumes rapid reductions in fertility rates, population peaks at just over 8 billion in 2042, then begins to decline.
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Are the GOP finally coming around?
It must be very lonely being the last flat-earther.
Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, committed climate-change denier, found himself in just such a position Tuesday morning as the Senate environment committee, on which he is the ranking Republican, took up legislation on global warming. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was in talks with Democrats over a compromise bill -- the traitor! And as Inhofe listened, fellow Republicans on the committee -- turncoats! -- made it clear that they no longer share, if they ever did, Inhofe's view that man-made global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
"Eleven academies in industrialized countries say that climate change is real; humans have caused most of the recent warming," admitted Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). "If fire chiefs of the same reputation told me my house was about to burn down, I'd buy some fire insurance."
An oil-state senator, David Vitter (R-La), said that he, too, wants to "get us beyond high-carbon fuels" and "focus on conservation, nuclear, natural gas and new technologies like electric cars." And an industrial-state senator, George Voinovich (R-Ohio), acknowledged that climate change "is a serious and complex issue that deserves our full attention."
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Obama announces $3.4 billion in smart grid investments "to build a clean energy superhighway."
ARCADIA, FLORIDA – Speaking at Florida Power and Light's (FPL) DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, President Barack Obama today announced the largest single energy grid modernization investment in U.S. history, funding a broad range of technologies that will spur the nation's transition to a smarter, stronger, more efficient and reliable electric system. The end result will promote energy-saving choices for consumers, increase efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy sources like wind and solar.
The $3.4 billion in Smart Grid Investment Grant awards are part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and will be matched by industry funding for a total public-private investment worth over $8 billion. Applicants state that the projects will create tens of thousands of jobs, and consumers in 49 states will benefit from these investments in a stronger, more reliable grid.
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Military experts say failure to address climate change brings national security risks
U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, viewing these and other potential impacts of global warming, have concluded if they materialize it would become ever more likely global alliances will shift, the need to respond to massive relief efforts will increase and American forces will become entangled in more regional military conflicts.
It is a bleak picture of national security that backers of a climate bill in Congress hope will draw in reluctant Republicans who have denounced the bill as an energy tax and jobs killer because it would shift the country away from fossil fuels by limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and industrial facilities.
At the current increasing rate of global carbon dioxide pollution, average world temperatures at the end of this century will likely be about 7 degrees higher than at the end of the 20th century, and seas would be expected to rise by as much as 2 feet, according to a consensus of scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The security implications of global warming were center stage Wednesday at a Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee hearing, one of a series of sessions in advance of voting on the climate bill, possibly as early as next week.
"Our economic, energy and climate change challenges are all inextricably linked," retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn told the committee. "If we don't address these challenges in a bold way and timely way, fragile governments have great potential to become failed states ....a virile breathing ground for extremism."
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Senate shocker: Second biggest U.S. coal producer believes in global warming and strong climate action
Preston Chiaro, chief executive for energy and minerals at Rio Tinto, a huge worldwide coal company and the second largest coal producer in the United States, who told lawmakers:
"Unmanaged climate change is a threat to our assets, our shareholders, and our employees, and also to civil society and political institutions in many of the countries in which we operate and across the globe."
Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., was kind enough to read into the record part of today's Gazette story, "Climate bill adds more sweeteners for coal industry. In it, I took a first cut at trying to describe some of the changes that were added to the bill to help coal, in response to efforts by, among others, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va.
Coal Tattoo readers know that some folks in the coal industry — such as United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts and American Electric Power President Michael Morris - are taking a much more progressive stance on the climate bill than others, such as Massey Energy President Don Blankenship, who wants the issue to just go away.
But Rio Tinto's testimony was a real eye-opener … for example, as far as the Boxer-Kerry bill's tougher near-term emissions reductions, Chiaro said:
… Our advocacy for funding of low-carbon technologies is not an argument against the levels of the targets, which we believe are consistent with the USCAP [The business-oriented U.S. Climate Action partnership] and are required in order to address the climate imperative. Rather, the funding of low-carbon technologies is intended to ensure we reach those targets at as low a cost as possible.
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No Deal: Chamber Chief Battles Obama
WASHINGTON -- With President Barack Obama bidding to overhaul the health-care system, tighten bank oversight and make industries pay for their greenhouse-gas emissions, some trade-association chiefs have decided to compromise with the party in power.
Not Thomas Donohue. On many of Mr. Obama's priorities, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is working to defeat the administration—delighting some members, causing some to quit and sparking a furious reaction from the White House and left-wing activists. In the process, he has made the Chamber one of Mr. Obama's most visible opponents.
On climate change, Mr. Donohue's group says warmer temperatures could help by reducing deaths related to cold weather.
On health care, a Chamber ad says Democrats' approach will kill jobs and slow growth.
On financial regulation, one ad says the administration's plan will hurt small businesses, "even the small butcher"—a line that prompted Mr. Obama to denounce the Chamber from the presidential podium this month.
Now, Mr. Donohue aims to spend $20 million annually for several years advocating free-market policies such as open trade and less regulation, taking aim at much of the Democrats' agenda. The public-relations campaign is the biggest undertaking in the Chamber's 100-year history.
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Must-have PPTs: GOP witness details harsh impact Bush-Cheney policies had on U.S. manufacturing jobs
The US manufacturing sector has lost over 5.1 million jobs in the last 10 years. Output and investment per GDP has fallen consistently and imports have risen sharply. (See charts below) This is not the time to implement risky unproven climate policy. The US economy cannot afford to lose any more jobs or shutdown facilities.
Approximately 40,000 manufacturing plants have closed during the seven years ending in 2008. We have lost eleven industries that we were once dominant since the late 1990s. By late 2008, the US trade deficit with China alone was running at close to $1 billion per day, amounting to more than $90 per month or more than $1100 per year for every American.
That's from one of the strangest pieces of testimony you're ever going to see — by Paul Cicio, Executive Director, Industrial Energy Consumers of America.
Cicio was the GOP witness at the landmark hearings for the Senate climate and clean energy jobs bill today. He seemed to think that a strong argument against the clean energy bill was that the U.S. manufacturing sector has been devastated by eight years of conservative rule. I have argued many times that conservative do-nothing energy and economic policies led to sharp increases in energy costs.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Sees Tide Turning For Clean Energy
In a barn-burning speech Wednesday at the Solar Power International conference in Anaheim, Calif., Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sounded a bit like a green Gordon Gekko.
"We are in process of overthrowing the incumbents in a $1.3 trillion industry," said Mr. Kennedy, a veteran environmental activist, in a full-throated attack on one of his longtime foes, the coal industry. "We are going to democratize the energy industry and take it away from the incumbents."
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The Disappearing Deal American obstacles in Copenhagen.
This December representatives from around the world will meet in Copenhagen under U.N. auspices to hammer out a new agreement for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and taking other measures to tackle climate change. The deal is expected to include a commitment by developed countries to pay for measures in developing states to adapt to the impact of climate change and to cut emissions, as well as providing them with easy access to clean technologies.
If there is a deal, that is. In recent months, the prospects that states will actually agree to anything in Copenhagen are starting to look worse and worse. Although the Obama administration initially raised hopes by reengaging in the negotiation process, the U.S. Congress has since emerged as a potential spoiler. While the European Union has resolved to reduce emissions 20 percent (from 1990 levels) by 2020, and Japan's newly elected government has set an even higher target of 25 percent, the Waxman-Markey bill that passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June fell well short of this goal. And the Kerry-Boxer bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate seems unlikely to be passed any time soon.
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All GOP senators to boycott climate hearing
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is engaged in public partisan warfare over a climate bill, a battle that foreshadows the deep struggle the Obama administration will face as Democrats attempt to push a version of the sweeping legislation through the Senate.
Chairwoman Barbara Boxer of California announced last week that she will proceed with a markup of the bill beginning Tuesday, even though all seven Republicans on the committee say they plan to boycott the proceedings.
Republicans say that EPW rules prohibit Boxer from holding a markup without two Republicans present, but Boxer aides indicated on Sunday that they still planned to attempt the hearing.
"Sen. Boxer has said that she will use all the tools at her disposal to move forward," said a Boxer aide.
The boycott, led by the committee's two most moderate Republicans, Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, illustrates the difficulty for Democrats in getting significant bipartisan backing for their climate bill — even among GOP lawmakers who support taking action to combat climate change.
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Senate GOP embrace Inhofe's boycott of Clean Energy Jobs Act in effort to thwart Copenhagen deal
The GOP's approach to climate and clean energy policy has remained the same for decades - obstruction and obfuscation (see "Senate GOP propose 25% 'Do-Nothing' energy tax on Americans"). Now, led by James "the last flat-earther" Inhofe, they are trying to stall climate legislation as long as possible, on the flimsiest of excuses, presumably because they want to make sure that there is no Senate vote on the bill before Copenhagen.
The excuse this time is that EPA supposedly hasn't issued a full analysis of the bill — even though EPA has issued an analysis of the bill (see "EPA releases economic analysis finding cost to U.S. households of under $10 a month, bill consistent with global effort to stabilize at 2oC warming") pointing out that it has only moderate differences from the heavily-analyzed House bill (Waxman-Markey), none of which would significantly affect the economic conclusions.
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Nearly 200 organizations and companies urge Senate to adopt key energy-efficiency provision in climate bill
A diverse coalition of nearly 200 business, labor, civil rights, and environmental groups have sent a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) urging her to support an important energy-efficiency provision that would:
* Generate $100 billion in electric efficiency investments;
* Create more than 900,000 new construction, energy service, and building maintenance and operations jobs by 2020, and many more additional jobs at plants that supply these sectors (based on analysis by Green Economy, 2009), and;
* Reduce consumers' energy bills by $300 billion.
What is this magical provision? As the letter explains:
We are writing to request that the climate bill require an investment in energy efficiency equivalent to at least 1/3 of the value of the total allowance allocation given to electric utilities. Such an efficiency investment will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs retrofitting millions of buildings nationwide, and benefit consumers by lowering electricity costs by billions of dollars, as residential, commercial, and industrial consumers typically save in the range of $2 to $4 for every $1 invested in energy efficiency. It would also help decrease greenhouse gas emissions and thus reduce the market clearing price of carbon.
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