Political Climate Articles
Climate wars
Does a warming world really mean that more conflict is inevitable?
AS THE planet warms, floods, storms, rising seas and drought will uproot millions of people, and with dire wider consequences. Barack Obama, collecting his Nobel peace prize, said that climate change "will fuel more conflict for decades". He took the analysis not from environmental scaremongers but from a group of American generals.
The forecast is close to becoming received wisdom. A flurry of new books with titles such as "Global Warring" and "Climate Conflict" offer near-apocalyptic visions. Cleo Paskal, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, predicts that floods, storms, the failure of the Indian monsoon and agricultural collapse will bring "enormous, and specific, geopolitical, economic, and security consequences for all of us…the world of tomorrow looks chaotic and violent". Jeffrey Mazo of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, also in London, calls climate change an "existential threat" and fears it could usher in "state failure and internal conflict" in exposed places, notably Africa.
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How Much Would Cap and Trade Cost?
In a preliminary look at the American Power Act-the climate legislation that has been put forward by Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman-the CBO found that the bill would actually reduce the budget deficit by about $19 billion over the 2011 to 2020 period. The CBO estimates that auctions of carbon allowances under the bill-which requires companies to essentially pay for the right to emit carbon dixoide-would raise government revenue by about $751 billion, more than bill would hike government spending through incentives for nuclear power, tax credits for energy efficiency and research and technology for new energy.
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U.S. to Test 'Cutting-Edge' Solar Energy at Former Nuclear Bomb Test Site
The U.S. Departments of Energy and the Interior have picked a former nuclear site in Nevada to be transformed into a zone for testing "cutting-edge" solar energy technologies.
The research will take place on 25 square miles of land owned by the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, an area larger than the size of Manhattan, the Energy Department said today in a statement.
The area lies in the southwest corner of the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, where the U.S. military used to detonate atomic weapons. The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration will oversee the project, according to the statement.
The DOE said it selected the Nevada site after evaluating 26 possible locations in terms of solar conditions, suitable terrain and other infrastructure needed for solar development.
Projects developed on public land "can significantly reduce the costs and environmental impacts of utility-scale solar power facilities and demonstrate the commercial viability of these facilities," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today at a press conference announcing the plan.
"The Nevada Test Site can and should be a proving ground for new ideas and for attracting new clean energy industries that will help our state and country compete globally," Harry Reid, Nevada's senior senator and the Senate majority leader, said at the press conference.
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Concerns Spread Over Environmental Costs of Producing Shale Gas
PITTSBURGH -- Around suppertime on June 3 in Clearfield County, Pa., a geyser of natural gas and sludge began shooting out of a well called Punxsutawney Hunting Club 36. The toxic stew of gas, salt water, mud and chemicals went 75 feet into the air for 16 hours. Some of this mess seeped into a stream northeast of Pittsburgh.
Four days later, as authorities were cleaning up the debris in Pennsylvania, an explosion burned seven workers at a gas well on the site of an abandoned coal mine outside of Moundsville, W.Va., just southwest of Pittsburgh.
The back-to-back emergencies were like a five-alarm fire for John Hanger, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. For a brief moment, the cable news channels turned their attention away from the BP PLC oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico to the apparent trouble in the nation's expanding onshore natural gas fields.
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Utilities Face the Decision Point of Big Shifts -- to Gas, Renewables and Efficiency
With or without a climate bill, electric utilities are shifting their investments to efficiency measures that cut long-term costs and integrate more natural gas and renewable energy into their power supplies, according to a new report.
"The business landscape for electric utilities is shifting quickly," says a report authored by Navigant Consulting for Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of institutional investors and environmental groups. "In turn, the traditional operating paradigm of building large generation facilities to sell ever-increasing amounts of electricity is changing."
The report says drivers of this shifting paradigm include the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80 percent by 2050 and policies in many states making it costly to build more fossil fuel-based electric generation.
The report says costs for renewable energy are coming down significantly, and regulatory policies now allow utilities to count large-scale energy efficiency as the lowest-cost energy resource. Further, utilities are adopting "smart grid" technology to help manage electricity use, and there is more interest in developing plug-in electric vehicles.
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Battle over California climate law pits polluters against clean energy economy
Victory for Texas oil interests would have national ripple effect
At CP, we'll be following California's fight to preserve its landmark global warming and clean energy laws against Texas oil interests throughout the summer and leading up to the Nov. 2 election. Here is a nice post from Solve Climate that frames the issue well. If you see other good pieces, send them our way.
This is not your father's classic "tree hugger" vs. "big business" fracas.
Instead, a Nov. 2 ballot initiative aimed at derailing California's landmark global warming legislation pits a coalition of about 400 local business, civic, labor and environmental organizations against a smattering of out-of-state oil refiners and connected groups.
And it has observers plenty nervous about a ripple effect. With an economy that is the eighth largest in the world, and the biggest among all US states, California points the way to the energy future.
"This is polluters versus the new economy of clean technology," Steven Maviglio told SolveClimate in a telephone interview from his California office. "It's a cheap date for oil companies to try and kill this legislation and make political hay."
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Energy Department Lags in Saving Energy
WASHINGTON - Like flossing or losing weight, saving energy is easier to promise than to actually do - even if you are the Department of Energy.
Its Web site advises that choosing new lighting technologies can slash energy use by 50 to 75 percent. But the department is having trouble taking its own advice, according to an internal audit released on Wednesday; many of its offices are still installing obsolete fluorescent bulbs.
And very few have switched to the most promising technology, light-emitting diodes, which the department spent millions of dollars to help commercialize.
Many of the changes would generate savings that would pay back the investment in two years or so, according to the report, by the department's inspector general.
In one case, the Department of Energy made most of the investment by installing timers to shut off lights at night when it moved into a new building in 1997. But it got no benefit: as of March of this year, it had not bought the central control unit needed to run the system.
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Majority of judges hearing drilling moratorium appeal attended oil-funded junkets
Last month, Judge Martin Feldman, a federal trial judge in Louisiana, handed down a poorly-reasoned opinion lifting the Obama Administration's temportary moratorium on new oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Feldman owned stock in Exxon and other drilling companies.
Today in New Orleans, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will consider whether to stay Feldman's decision. According to a new report by the Alliance for Justice, however, it is unlikely that these Fifth Circuit judges will approach the case without the perception of bias. TP has the story in this cross-post.
Judges Jerry Smith and Eugene Davis, both of whom are assigned to today's panel, attended expense-paid "junkets for judges" sponsored by an oil-industry front group:
[Judge Smith] attended a seminar hosted by the Foundation for Research on Economics & the Environment (FREE) in Big Sky, Montana, for which he was reimbursed transportation, lodging, and meal expenses. FREE is a think-tank that promotes free-market environmentalism rather than environmental regulation and is funded largely by corporations like ExxonMobil and conservative foundations.
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WI GOP Senate candidate Ron Johnson owns over $100,000 in BP stock,
supports Great Lakes oil drilling, and is "glad there's global warming."
Ron Johnson, a wealthy business executive and leading Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin this year, is beginning to receive scrutiny for his extremist views. Last month he was asked whether or not he agreed that "man-caused global warming is a proven fact." His reply:
I totally disagree…I'm always surprised that people think this is the sweet spot in global history in terms of this is where we should be climate-wise. We live in Wisconsin – I'm glad there's global warming or we'd be standing on top of a 200 ft. thick glacier. So I think it's absolutely not proven, and for us to be contemplating fixing something that is not proven is absurd.
Johnson has been criticized recently for opposing an anti-sex offenders bill, the Child Victim Act,." Last month, when asked if he would support drilling for oil in the Great Lakes, Johnson - who owns more than $100,000 in BP stock - replied, "I think we have to, get the oil where it is." At a town hall on Wednesday in Howards Grove, Wisconsin, ThinkProgress asked Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI) - who was sporting a Ron Johnson for Senate bumper sticker - if he agreed with Johnson's support for Great Lakes oil drilling. Petri said he personally hasn't supported Great Lakes drilling, but seemed genuinely baffled by Johnson's radical views, and refused to comment:
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CO Senate candidate Ken Buck: "The greatest threat to this country is … the progressive liberal movement"
Republican says climate action is "a huge threat to this county."
Think Progress has a new contender for most extreme GOP Senate contender in this cross-post.
Republican Ken Buck, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Colorado, has been dubbed "the next Sharron Angle" and received far-right endorsements from conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and RedState editor Erick Erickson. However, on Thursday, Buck attempted to distance himself from his supporter Tom Tancredo, the former GOP congressman from Colorado, who called Obama "the greatest threat to our liberty" at a campaign event that also featured DeMint:
"The greatest threat to the United States today, the greatest threat to our liberty, the greatest threat to the Constitution, the greatest threat to our way of life, everything we believe in, the greatest threat to the country put together by the Founding Fathers, is the guy who is in the White House today," Tancredo said in a report by the Denver Post.
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GOP Reps Broun and Paul jump oily shark: BP and Obama conspired on oil spill to push climate bill
The latest right wing conspiracy theories pushed by Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) make the birthers seem rational. Think Progress has the story.
Following BP's oil disaster, Republican lawmakers lined up to attack President Obama's response to the spill, particularly efforts to rein in dangerous oil drilling and to create an escrow account to help expedite payments for BP's victims. After a wave of Republicans attacked the escrow account as a "shakedown," Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) went as far as formally apologizing to BP executives for how the Obama administration had treated them.
However, after rushing to the defense of a criminal multinational corporation like BP, now GOP lawmakers are ginning up conspiracy theories that Obama actually wants the oil disaster to be destructive. At a town hall yesterday in Athens, Georgia, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) said "maybe" Obama is "purposeful[ly]" giving a "poor response to this oil spill" so he "could promote his energy tax":
BROUN: Our President he is utilizing this crisis of this oil spill to try to promote this energy tax. And I've had numerous people, all over the district, question whether his poor response to this oil spill was purposeful so that he could promote his energy tax. I don't know, maybe.
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A Case Of Classic SwiftBoating: How The Right-Wing Noise Machine Manufactured 'Climategate'
In mid-November, thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit webmail server - a top climate research center in the United Kingdom - were hacked and dumped on a Russian web server. Polluter-funded climate skeptics, along with their allies in conservative media and the Republican Party, sifted through the e-mails, and quickly cherry picked quotes to falsely accuse climate scientists of concocting climate change science out of whole cloth. The skeptics also propelled the story, dubbed "Climategate," to the cover of the New York Times and newspapers across the globe. According to a Nexis news search, the Climategate story has been reported at least 325 times in the American press alone.
While the hacked e-mails may reveal that scientists might not have nice things to say about climate change deniers at times, they do nothing to change the scientific consensus that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use are raising temperatures and making oceans more acidic. As the right attempts to use the Climategate story to derail the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference this week, arctic sea ice is still at historically low levels, Australia is still on fire, the northern United Kingdom is still underwater, the world's glaciers are still disappearing and today NOAA confirmed that not only is it the hottest decade in history, but 2009 was one of the hottest years in history. But how did the right-wing noise machine hijack the debate?
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U.S. agriculture could be disrupted by climate change
DES MOINES, IOWA - Climate change is expected to disrupt agriculture in the U.S. Midwest, with high carbon dioxide promoting crop growth but stronger storms, drought, floods and migrating yields dampening yields.
Overall, there are signs that crops will be stressed, and that weeds and insects will change their range. The Midwest climate has already become wetter and warmer, said Gene Takle, an atmospheric scientist at Iowa State University. That could mean a longer crop-growing season and savings on air conditioning, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee higher crop yields.
Takle's model predicts that precipitation in the Midwest will increase by 21 percent by the 2040s, with stream flows climbing by 50 percent in the same period.
His findings are similar to those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Leaders in the breadbasket states have debated how best to respond, from cutting back on coal power to boosting wind energy, which has grown sharply in places like Iowa.
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Cuccinelli: Academic freedom won't shield scientist from fraud probe
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli argued Tuesday that the University of Virginia must comply with his demand for a trove of documents related to the research of former UVa climate change scientist Michael Mann, saying that Mann's academic freedom does not shield him from Cuccinelli's probe into possible fraud.
Cuccinelli, a Republican and global warming skeptic, has been attempting to subpoena the documents to investigate whether Mann violated Virginia's Fraud Against Taxpayers Act when he received four federal and one state research grants totaling $466,000 while employed by UVa between 1999 and 2005.
UVa, for its part, is challenging Cuccinelli's civil investigative demands, which carry the legal force of subpoenas in Albemarle County Circuit Court, arguing that compliance with the demands would infringe upon academic freedom and would have a chilling effect on all Virginia scientists conducting research into controversial subjects.
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China Surges Past U.S., Europe in Clean-Energy Asset Financing
(Bloomberg) -- China attracted more asset financing in clean-energy technology in the second quarter than Europe and the U.S. combined, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.
Financing of wind turbines, solar panels and low-carbon technology in China climbed 72 percent to $11.5 billion compared with the year-earlier quarter, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in an e-mailed statement. U.S. investments in clean energy rose to $4.9 billion while in Europe it fell to $4.5 billion.
"China continues its extraordinary surge and Europe has suffered a setback according to our figures for asset finance in the second quarter," said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of New Energy Finance. "Where investors are placing their bets is changing rapidly."
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Big Giveaways To Big Oil
Last month, a proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would have cut $35 billion in taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil companies was soundly defeated in the Senate by a 35-61 vote, with every Republican and 21 Democrats voting against it. "Twenty-two percent of the children in this country live in poverty, we have record-breaking deficits, we have a $13 trillion national debt, and Exxon-Mobil receives $156 million in a tax refund after making $19 billion in profit," Sanders said at the time. Indeed, due to a series of tax expenditures (spending programs that are administered through the tax code) and other favorable tax treatment, billions of taxpayer dollars are transferred to an oil industry that has made record profits in recent years and whose product pollutes the environment and can cause catastrophes like the ongoing spill in the Gulf of Mexico. These subsidies are nothing more than corporate giveaways, and cutting them would have a negligible effect on domestic oil production or the wider economy. "Profitable and powerful oil companies, such as BP and ExxonMobil, pay lobbyists millions of dollars to scare lawmakers into believing that ending subsidies to oil companies will wreak havoc on the American economy," wrote Center for American Progress Senior Policy Analyst Sima Gandhi. "The evidence suggests otherwise."
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MIT: Simply dispatching natural gas plants before coal would cut U.S. power-sector CO2 emissions 10%
Gas can be a bridge to low-carbon future if we put a price on CO2
The overbuilding of natural gas combined cycle plants starting in the mid-1990s presents a significant opportunity for near term reductions in CO2 emissions from the power sector. The current fleet of natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) units has an average capacity factor of 41 percent, relative to a design capacity factor of up to 85 percent. However, with no carbon constraints, coal generation is generally dispatched to meet demand before NGCC generation because of its lower fuel price.
Modeling of the ERCOT region (largely Texas) suggests that CO2 emissions could be reduced by as much as 22 percent with no additional capital investment and without impacting system reliability by requiring a dispatch order that favors NGCC generation over inefficient coal generation; preliminary modeling suggests that nationwide CO2 emissions [from the power sector] would be reduced by over 10 percent. At the same time, this would also reduce air pollutants such as oxides of sulfur and nitrogen.
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Ads Backed by Fossil-Fuel Interests Argue 'CO2 Is Green'
A group with ties to the fossil fuel industry launched a new ad campaign today pushing the idea that carbon dioxide isn't an environmental pollutant.
The organization "C02 is Green" funded a half-page advertisement in The Washington Post urging people to call their senators and seek a vote against "the president's cap-and-trade bill that will increase your cost of living and not change the climate.
"The bill is based on the false premise that man-made CO2 is a major cause of climate change," the ad says. "Real, empirical evidence indicates it is not."
The ad makes a number of other charges, including that the bill from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will drive up prices for electricity, transportation fuel and food, that the country relies on fossil fuels and that the backers of the bill are "buying support from industries on Wall Street with various corporate giveaways."
CO2 is Green spokesman H. Leighton Steward sits on the board of directors of EOG Resources Inc., an oil and natural gas development company. He also is an honorary director at the industry trade group American Petroleum Institute, according to a biography on EOG's website.
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Spain Is World's Leader In Solar Energy
Spain is now the world's biggest generator of solar energy. That title was previously held by the U.S. Spain just opened a massive solar power station.
Our last word in business today comes from Spain, and it's numero uno.
Spain is not just the world's number one in soccer. It's now the world's biggest generator of solar energy. That title was previously held by the U.S., which, by one estimate, puts out 422 megawatts of energy. But Spain just opened a massive solar power station which boosts its overall output to 432 megawatts.
According Britain's Guardian newspaper, that's the same as a nuclear power station.
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More than half new power in U.S., EU is green: study
LONDON (Reuters) - More than half of all new electricity capacity added in the United States and Europe last year was from renewable power such as wind and solar, a body backed by the International Energy Agency and the UN reported.
Last year was also a record year for the amount of new green power added to the grid, partly a result of shifting deployment and manufacture to emerging economies including Brazil, India and China, from flagging developed countries.
"In 2009, China produced 40 percent of the world's solar PV supply, 30 percent of the world's wind turbines, up from 10 percent in 2007," REN21, or the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, said in a report on Thursday.
REN21, launched in 2005, is supported by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises 28 industrialized countries -- and by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Of an extra 80 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable power capacity added worldwide, China added 37 GW, more than any other country, said the study, titled "Renewables 2010, Global Status Report."
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