Political Climate Articles
Mr. President: Now is the Time For Clean Energy: by Robert Redford May 19, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010, marks one month since BP's oil rig exploded off the Gulf Coast, killing 11 people and unleashing one of the worst environmental disasters our nation has ever seen.
Since then, millions of gallons of oil have gushed into the ocean, poisoning marine life and threatening hundreds of miles of coastal waters, beaches and estuaries from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Florida Keys.
This is the clearest picture we could have of our failed national energy policy, which extends over many decades and administrations. Yet, shockingly, our elected officials in the Senate continue to drag their feet on enacting the policies that would bring the real change we need to shift our country from dirty to clean energy sources, while creating jobs and cutting our dependence on oil.
This oil disaster is threatening marine life and habitat in a region that accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. production of shrimp and oysters, as well as millions of pounds each year of red snapper, grouper, bluefin tuna, and other fish. Fishing has been shut down from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle -- an area of 46,000 square miles, or roughly the size of the state of Pennsylvania. These closures are devastating to thousands of Gulf Coast families who depend on this bounty for their livelihood. Many of these people are still reeling from the trauma of Hurricane Katrina five years ago.
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Graham's hopes fade on climate
Sen. Lindsey Graham warns that President Barack Obama will kill the last hopes for comprehensive energy and climate change legislation if he cracks down on offshore oil drilling.
In a sit-down interview with The Hill, the Republican senator from South Carolina said he is at a "crossroads" in deciding how to proceed on energy and climate change.
He doesn't think the signs look good given the fallout from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Why would a person who really believes in drilling put a bill on the floor right now to expand drilling and revenue sharing, knowing it can't get 50 votes?" Graham said. "The resistance to drilling has hardened on the Democratic side, so we [Republicans have] got more votes to make up."
Graham predicts that 10 to 12 Democrats will oppose the drilling provision he originally negotiated in the energy bill, undermining the reason he joined talks in the first place: to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
In his press conference Thursday, Obama called on Congress to pass the climate change and energy bill this year.
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Graham: Senate Will Pass Murkowski Bid to Block EPA's Greenhouse Gas Regs
A leading Senate Republican voice on climate legislation said yesterday that he expects the Senate can pass a resolution handcuffing U.S. EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
"I think it will pass," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). "There are a lot of people who will be in the camp of, 'We should do it, not the EPA.'"
Graham is a co-sponsor of the disapproval resolution (pdf) from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would effectively halt EPA's endangerment finding, the basis for its climate rules for cars and industrial facilities. The resolution, which needs 51 votes to pass, is expected on the floor by the week of June 7.
Murkowski's bid is seen largely as a symbolic one given the resolution's long-shot prospects in the House, as well as an expected veto from President Obama. Still, her effort is considered a critical early proxy for the Senate as Democratic leaders weigh whether they have the votes to pass a more comprehensive climate bill (E&E Daily, May 20).
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China gets tougher about protecting environment, cutting emission
BEIJING, May 28, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Provincial governments and key enterprises which fail to realize the year's missions in environmental protection and emission cut will be punished as the Chinese central government is taking a tougher stance towards improving the country's environment.
"Evaluation reports will be made public at the end of this year. Those companies which fail will be penalized and those which excel will be rewarded," deputy minister Xie Zhenhua of the National Development and Reform Commission told the ongoing 13th China Beijing International High-tech Expo Friday.
Calling 2010 "a year of decisive battles" for China to push forward energy conservation and reduce emissions, Xie said that the per-unit energy consumption of several energy-consuming industries had reversed the declining momentum to jump by a large margin in the first quarter, making it difficult for China to achieve the environment protection targets set for the 11th five-year period (between 2006 and 2010).
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U-Va. goes to court to fight Cuccinelli's subpoena of ex-professor's documents
RICHMOND -- Virginia's flagship university went to court Thursday to fight an effort by Virginia Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R) to get documents from a former climate scientist at the school, an unusual confrontation that will test the bounds of academic freedom and result in the college facing down its own lawyer in court.
In a motion filed in Charlottesville, the University of Virginia argued that Cuccinelli's subpoena for papers and e-mail from global warming researcher Michael Mann exceeds the attorney general's authority under state law and intrudes on the rights of professors to pursue academic inquiry free from political pressure.
Cuccinelli, a vocal skeptic of global warming who is suing the Environmental Protection Agency over the issue, has said he is investigating whether Mann committed fraud by knowingly skewing data as he sought publicly funded grants for his research. Mann left U-Va. in 2005 and now works at Penn State.
Mann's case has been embraced by academics across the country, who wrote numerous letters encouraging the university founded by Thomas Jefferson to resist the attorney general. The university's governing board -- whose members were appointed by former governors Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, both Democrats -- had first signaled that it would likely comply with the April order but then hired a major Washington law firm and prepared to take action.
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Obama Says U.S. Can't Lag Behind on Energy Technology
May 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said the "heartbreaking" oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which has fouled wetlands and closed fishing grounds, underscores the need for the U.S. to rapidly develop alternative energy sources.
The Earth can't sustain continued dependence on fossil fuels and the U.S. is in a race with other nations to find renewable sources to power cars and companies, the president said after touring the Solyndra Inc. solar-panel manufacturing plant in Fremont, California.
"Even as we are dealing with this immediate crisis," he said of the BP Plc spill, the U.S. is in competition with countries including Germany and China to develop advanced energy technology.
"Nobody is playing for second place," Obama said.
He vowed to keep pressing Congress to pass energy legislation that would spur alternative energy development and lessen consumption of oil, most of which the U.S. imports.
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Obama vows U.S. will remain green-tech leader
FREMONT -- President Obama, speaking at a solar panel factory in Fremont, said Wednesday he was "not prepared to cede America's leadership" in green technology or the global economy, and called the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill a stark reminder of the need for America to develop alternative energy technologies that create new jobs.
"The spill in the gulf, which is heartbreaking, only underscores the necessity of seeking alternative-fuel sources," he said, addressing a crowd of about 250 people - including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - at Solyndra Inc., a solar panel manufacturer.
"We will not rest until this well is shut, the environment is repaired and this job is complete," Obama said. "But even as we are dealing with this immediate crisis, we have to remember" that the risks of deep-water drilling are "not the only costs of our dependence" on fossil fuels, he added.
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President Obama Orders Fuel Efficiency Standards for Trucks
Improving Truck Fuel Economy Would Create Thousands of Jobs, New Study Finds
President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum on May 21, directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to create the first national policy to increase the fuel efficiency of medium- and heavy-duty trucks while decreasing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The directive will target new trucks from the 2014-2018 model years. U.S. trucks consume more than two million barrels of oil every day and average 6.1 miles per gallon, while emitting 20% of the GHG pollution related to U.S. transportation. The president also called for an extension of the groundbreaking fuel efficiency and GHG emissions policy he announced on May 19, 2009, which covers cars and light-duty trucks in the model years 2012 to 2016. That national policy represented an unprecedented collaboration between the DOT, the EPA, the world's largest auto manufacturers, the United Auto Workers, leaders in the environmental community, the State of California, and other state governments. The president wants that policy extended to cars and light-duty trucks produced in model years 2017 and beyond.
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Oil companies have a rich history of U.S. subsidies
It was close to 2 a.m. when Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and others on a House-Senate conference committee saw just how much clout the oil industry had when it came to winning special tax breaks and other financial benefits from Congress.
At issue was the 2005 Energy Policy Act - the largest energy bill in years. The committee chairman, Rep. Joe L. Barton (R- Texas), a friend of the industry, had saved some big issues for the end: billions of dollars in tax and royalty relief to encourage drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico and other offshore areas. There was even a $50-million annual earmark to support technical research for the industry.
At the time, drilling was already proceeding at a brisk pace, and industry profits were setting records. "With all the money they are making," Markey said to his top energy aide, who recalled the scene, "why does the government need to subsidize their work and their research?"
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Did the GOP hamper Obama administration oversight of oil drilling?
Most of the blame for the BP oil disaster rests with BP, Big Oil, and its strong-arm supporters in Congress for the voluntary, "trust us," self-regulation we have today (see St. Petersburg Times: "It's becoming increasingly evident that self-regulation has not worked"). Some of the blame certainly resides with the Minerals Management Service, which became absurdly cozy with the industry under the Cheney-Bush administration (see "Flashback to 2008 MMS sex-for-oil scandal").
That doesn't let the Obama administration off the hook entirely. In theory they could have cleaned up the MMS from day one, but in practice Republicans made that task infinitely harder.
Newsweek's Howard Fineman spelled out some of the key background on MSNBC a couple weeks ago (starting around minute 5:55):
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Feds serve as green tech 'test bed'
The Defense Department and General Services Administration, which control three-fourths of the government's office space, say they want to use those facilities to test the latest green technologies.
"We hope to be a test bed for new technologies and take advantage of our long-standing role as an early adopter and help to create a market," said Dorothy Robyn, deputy undersecretary of Defense for installations and environment.
Likewise, GSA Administrator Martha Johnson wants to reduce her agency's carbon footprint to zero - not just in the facilities GSA builds and manages, but in all of the goods and services agencies purchase through GSA. That will require GSA to test new energy sources for powering buildings, new technologies for measuring and reducing energy consumption and new green materials for office products and cleaning supplies.
"We will have to find innovative ideas like never before, and take risks that are absolutely not within our current comfort range," Johnson said last week at the U.S. Green Building Council's 2010 Federal Summit in Washington.
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The incubators
Local governments serve as idea labs for federal lawmakers, creating a 'safe' space as politicians consider changes to national climate and energy reform.
Call them the Silicon Valley garages of climate policy.
Local efforts to trim emissions, change economies and alter behavior are serving as idea labs where mistakes can be made and novel approaches honed in preparation for setting national climate and energy policy.
These ideas can have a powerful influence in the climate debate, say policy experts: Within the recently released climate bill are many lessons learned in these local laboratories. And as discussion in Congress intensifies, many lawmakers will find themselves pushed by proponents of these municipal efforts to extend their reach to the national stage.
"There's no doubt cities are the place where all these things are being tried," said Julia Parzan, coordinator of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, a group of civic leaders dedicated to sharing the experiences of various municipal sustainable development efforts.
"And when they're hitting walls, they're going for (changes in) state policy and federal policy."
Exhibit A is the firestorm of revisions to municipal codes and state laws concerning how residential renewable energy and energy efficiency projects are financed.
It started in the spring of 2007, when staffers for the City of Berkeley, Calif., were casting about for a way to make roof-top solar affordable for a typical homeowner.
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Vote Vets ad ties BP disaster with national security
In must-see video, Vet who served in clean-up with LA National Guard, explains "When I signed on with the National Guard, I did it to help protect America from our enemies... Not to clean up an oil company's mess here in the Gulf of Mexico."
Polls show that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans overwhelmingly support clean energy and climate legislation
Vote Vets has another hard-hitting ad tying the BP oil disaster with the threat our dependence on fossil fuels poses to our national security:
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U.S. Wasn't Ready for Major Spill
Despite Mature Off-Shore Oil Operations, Gulf Crews Are Improvising With Chemicals, Protective Boom And Outdated Maps
Crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and washing ashore in Louisiana is exposing how ill-prepared the U.S. has been to respond to a major offshore oil spill.
In the fight to limit environmental damage from the month-old spill-which is on track to rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in size-BP PLC executives, government officials, and scientists are learning as they go, even though the industry has been drilling in the Gulf for decades and has 77 rigs operating there, according to ODS-Petrodata, a research firm.
The Environmental Protection Agency says it is still assessing the ecological effect of the 600,000 gallons of chemicals that BP has sprayed into the Gulf to break up the oil so far. As of Sunday, the agency and BP were locked in a standoff over whether to continue using the same chemical dispersant.
Some scientists researching the spill don't have the right instruments to measure the spill or to study its impact. Maps that federal officials are using to identify priority areas to protect from spreading oil are outdated. And the Coast Guard says the country lacks enough plastic piping, or "boom," to keep the incoming oil away from the coast.
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Undersea Forces from Hurricanes May Threaten Gulf Pipelines
ScienceDaily (May 26, 2010) - Hurricanes could snap offshore oil pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico and other hurricane-prone areas, since the storms whip up strong underwater currents, a new study suggests.
These pipelines could crack or rupture unless they are buried or their supporting foundations are built to withstand these hurricane-induced currents. "Major oil leaks from damaged pipelines could have irreversible impacts on the ocean environment," the researchers warn in their study, to be published on 10 June in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
With the official start of hurricane season approaching on June 1, news reports about the Deep Horizon oil spill that began fouling the Gulf last month have raised questions about how a hurricane might complicate the unfolding disaster.
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