Political Climate Articles
"It is best to learn as we go, not go as we have learned." --Leslie Jeanne Sahler, American writer
- The Grill
"It's not my job to tell the American people what to think." -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), 2/13/11, on whether he should tell Americans that President Obama was born in the United States
VERSUS
"I think it's incumbent on the leaders in Washington, those of us, to go out and help the American people understand how big the [deficit] problem is." -- Boehner, minutes earlier
- FOX NEWS INSIDER: "Stuff Is Just Made Up"
Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: "I don't think people would believe it's as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up."
Indeed, a former Fox News employee who recently agreed to talk with Media Matters confirmed what critics have been saying for years about Murdoch's cable channel. Namely, that Fox News is run as a purely partisan operation, virtually every news story is actively spun by the staff, its primary goal is to prop up Republicans and knock down Democrats, and that staffers at Fox News routinely operate without the slightest regard for fairness or fact checking.
"It is their M.O. to undermine the administration and to undermine Democrats," says the source. "They're a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news."
And that's the word from inside Fox News.
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- Ex-Big Oil CEO: Subsidies For Oil Companies 'Are Not Necessary'
The Obama administration has, once again, proposed cutting the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies that are given every year to Big Oil companies (often for activities that they would have undertaken anyway). Republicans in both the House and the Senate are, once again, going to bat for the oil companies, as they have over and over for the last couple of years, calling an attempt to cut subsidies a "proposal to raise skyrocketing gas and energy prices and destroy American jobs."
House Democrats yesterday introduced legislation to cut $40 billion in oil subsidies. And bolstering their case is an unlikely ally - Former Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister:
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- GOP Proposes $1.6 Billion Cut to EPA Budget, Defends $4 Billion in Oil Subsidies
Republicans unveiled a budget plan on Wednesday that proposed a $1.6 billion cut to the Environmental Protection Agency, an agency whose authority they have sought to curtail, while business trade groups have complained about the burden placed on them by agency regulations. Politico also reported that the GOP's proposal would hit the Energy Department hard, with a proposal to cut energy efficiency and renewable energy programs in half.
Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has said he favors gutting EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions with a "legislative fix" rather than simply denying it funds. (See our overview of Upton's positions on energy.) He told the Wall Street Journal that his disagreement with the EPA is: "You don't subsidize different forms of power -- you let the market run on its own."
Energy subsidies are not a new thing, and efforts to remove them for oil and gas companies have repeatedly failed in recent years.
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- Bombshell: Bush EPA Administrator said the science necessitated action on global warming
- President "overruled" EPA due to "Cheney … and Exxon Mobil"
On the eve of the new House Energy and Commerce Committee's hearing (watch live here at 9:30 am) on legislation to block EPA from setting standards to reduce carbon dioxide pollution, Ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a January 2008 letter from then EPA Administrator Steven Johnson to President George W. Bush. Johnson's letter told President Bush that the administration must make an "endangerment finding" that carbon pollution endangers public health and the environment. He also told the president to use EPA's authority under the Clean Air Act to reduce this pollution.
The Supreme Court's Massachusetts v EPA decision still requires a response. That case combined with the latest science of climate change requires the Agency to propose a positive endangerment finding…. the state of the latest climate change science does not permit a negative finding, nor does it permit a credible finding that we need to wait for more research.
Johnson, to his credit, acknowledged that that there was more than adequate evidence that carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants endangered Americans. Johnson's successor, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, concluded:
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- The business case for EPA rulemaking
Why boosting our health boosts our economy, too
Efforts to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from doing its job would stifle job creation, hamper economic growth, and thwart the passage and implementation of rules meant to safeguard Americans, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. Yet hostile voices in Congress are currently trying to do just that. Top dirty energy lobbyists such as the Koch Brothers are allying with conservatives in Congress to make the EPA their top target. They don't realize, though, that they are advocating for an outdated, 20th century economy instead of an innovative 21st century one.
Many top businesses are fighting back against these efforts-and with good reason. As conservatives and dirty energy lobbyists gather on Capitol Hill this month to conduct a series of hearings and investigations hostile to EPA rules and rulemaking authority, several major utilities came together this winter in a Wall Street Journal Letter to the Editor to voice their support for the EPA's authority to set safeguards and standards to promote public health and the economy, which is currently under attack:
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- NRDC's Hawkins: Upton's dirty air bill is "extreme" and "the harm to the economy and jobs...
that is claimed as justifying this legislation has no basis in fact."
Here is the testimony of David G. Hawkins, Director of Climate Programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council, to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power in their hearing on repealing US EPA's Finding that Greenhouse Gases Endanger Public Health and Welfare and Repealing Clean Air Act and Certain State Authorities Relating to Greenhouse Gases.
My name is David Hawkins. I am Director of Climate Programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). NRDC is a nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 1.2 million members and online activists nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Chicago and Beijing. During the presidency of Jimmy Carter I had the privilege of serving as Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation at the US Environmental Protection Agency where I was responsible for developing pollution standards under the Clean Air Act authorities that would be affected by the draft legislation.
Last week Chairmen Upton and Whitfield released draft legislation that would, among other things–
overturn the Supreme Court landmark 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA,
declare that greenhouse gases are not air pollutants, and
repeal the US EPA's finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare.
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- House Energy chair Fred Upton (R-MI) on global warming: "I do not accept that it is man-made" Watch the Video
Bizarrely asserts 2010 was "the warmest year in the last decade"
What do you think is scarier? Is it that the powerful chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee flip-flopped to become a denier of basic climate science, like most Congressional conservatives?
Or is that he's so ill-informed he actually told the National Journal's Ron Brownstein, "there was a report a couple of weeks ago that in fact you look at this last year, it was the warmest year in the last decade, I think was the numbers that came out"? In fact, the report from both NASA and NOAA was that 2010 was the warmest year (tied with 2005) in more than a century of temperature records.
Brad Johnson reports (with video) and you decide!
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- House Energy and Commerce "Committee from Koch" to conduct global warming witch trial
The Koch brothers contributed over a quarter of a million dollars to House Energy and Commerce Committee panel members in 2010
The committee is stacking the witness stand with big polluters and their allies
Americans strongly support protecting our air and holding polluters accountable
Public health professionals and business leaders oppose efforts to handcuff EPA
This fact sheet was put together by Noreen Nielsen and CAPAF.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing Wednesday to discuss blocking the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to reduce carbon dioxide pollution. We can expect the same old half-truths, misstatements, and outright lies from the new majority, with an extra dose of special interest pandering.
The reality, however, is that the draft legislation to stop EPA from setting pollution safeguards, proposed by Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Subcommittee Chair Ed Whitfield (R-KY), and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is nothing less than an attempt to give big polluters free rein to dirty the air we breathe and the water we drink. This proposed language-which was hatched at a secret meeting between the bill's sponsors and other energy-related trade lobbyists-would protect corporate polluters and their profits at the expense of public health. But a deeper look into the panel members' campaign money and political ties reveals that their efforts to shield polluters from regulation should really come as no surprise:
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- WikiLeaks: US concerned about Saudi Arabia's oil production
Trusting the word of a family run dictatorship is perhaps not a good idea. Add in the substantial energy needs from the always-growing economy in China and you're stuck with much higher gas prices. High gas prices are most like the new normal. The Guardian:
According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil".
Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be able to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment. He argued that Aramco had badly underestimated the time needed to bring new oil on tap.
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- Bush EPA chief prepped climate plan
The Environmental Protection Agency administrator under George W. Bush mapped out aggressive rulemaking plans for greenhouse gases before the White House ultimately shut him down.
Stephen Johnson outlined in a January 2008 letter to Bush a three-phase plan for tackling climate change that included strict new restrictions on power plants and transportation fuels.
Johnson's ideas - spelled out in a document classified as 'privileged: communication the president' - were released Tuesday by House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman. The California Democrat said the materials put a new spin on the GOP-led legislative hearing planned for Wednesday that's aimed at undoing the Obama administration EPA's authority to address the pollution that scientists have linked to climate change.
Democrats have often hammered away at the fact that even the Bush-led EPA had planned to issue the so-called endangerment finding labeling greenhouse gases as threats to public health or the environment.
In a 2008 investigation, the now-defunct Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming found that Johnson was ready to advance on greenhouse gas pollution limits but Bush overruled him after hearing counter-arguments from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, the Office of Management and Budget, the Transportation Department and Exxon Mobil Corp.
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- EPA Wants to Look at Full Lifecycle of Fracking in New Study
The EPA has proposed examining every aspect of hydraulic fracturing, from water withdrawals to waste disposal, according to a draft plan the agency released Tuesday. If the study goes forward as planned, it would be the most comprehensive investigation of whether the drilling technique risks polluting drinking water near oil and gas wells across the nation.
The agency wants to look at the potential impacts on drinking water of each stage involved in hydraulic fracturing, where drillers mix water with chemicals and sand and inject the fluid into wells to release oil or natural gas. In addition to examining the actual injection, the study would look at withdrawals, the mixing of the chemicals, and wastewater management and disposal. The agency, under a mandate from Congress, will only look at the impact of these practices on drinking water.
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- 'Massive' Closures of U.S. Coal Plants Loom, Chu Says
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. has an aging inventory of coal-fired power plants and many units might be closed before the end of the decade, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
"We're going to see massive retirements within the next five, eight years," Chu said today at a renewable-energy conference in Washington. "Much of our fleet of coal plants is 40 to 50 years old."
President Barack Obama said last month the U.S. should eliminate tax subsidies for fossil-fuel production worth $4 billion a year so it can boost spending on renewable energy and cars that run on alternative fuels, such as electricity.
The U.S. also should require that 80 percent of its electricity comes from "clean" sources, such as wind turbines and nuclear reactors, by 2035, Obama said. Only coal-fired power plants that capture and store their carbon-dioxide emissions would be considered clean under Obama's proposed standard.
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- Climate In Context: BP's Energy Outlook Shines Light On Future for Carbon
Three things you should know:
1) Average global energy intensity has been decreasing since the 1970s and the trend is expected to continue - which means the world is using less energy for each dollar of income generated.
2) On the other hand, world energy consumption is on the rise and is also projected to grow for the foreseeable future.
3) New projections from BP of energy intensity and energy consumption out to the year 2030 suggest that carbon will have to be removed from energy sources at a faster rate than has occurred before if the world is to keep average global temperatures below what most scientists think is a "safe" level.
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- Prince Charles condemns 'corrosive' climate change sceptics
The prince says green lobby must do more to sell the benefits of sustainable living
The Prince of Wales has condemned climate change sceptics for their "corrosive" impact on public opinion and accused them of playing a "reckless game of roulette" with the planet.
In a speech at a European parliament climate conference in Brussels, he also warned environmentalists they needed to do much more to convince people to adopt a greener lifestyle.
He challenged the green lobby to start selling the benefits of sustainable living instead of focusing on what people should give up.
Questioning why the public had not eagerly embraced sustainable living, the prince said: "My conclusion is that, for too long, environmentalists have tended to concentrate on what people need to stop doing. If we are constantly told that living environmentally-friendly lives means giving up all that makes life worthwhile, then it is no surprise that people refuse to change."
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- WikiLeaks cables: Saudi expert told U.S. his country's oil reserves vastly overstated
The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.
The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%. ... Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, met the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and told the US diplomat that Aramco's 12.5m barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached.
According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil".
Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be able to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment. He argued that Aramco had badly underestimated the time needed to bring new oil on tap.
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- GOP announces new climate strategy: Abandon Earth
New House Research and Education Subcommitte chair Mo Brooks rehashes climate zombie talking points
I'm also old enough to remember when the same left-wing part of our society was creating a global cooling scare in order to generate funds for their pet projects. So 30-some years ago the big scare was global cooling, and once they drained that [topic], they shifted to global warming….
… it's cyclical. So how are the proponents going to convince us that it's not just part of a cyclical pattern?
… to the extent that we have higher levels of carbon dioxide. That means that plant life grows better, because it is an essential gas for all forms of plant life. Does that mean I want more of it? I don't know about the adverse effects of carbon dioxide on human beings.
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- Good news for clean energy jobs: Ceres study shows new Clean Air Act rules will create 1.5 million jobs
At the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference in DC yesterday, Ceres released a report by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst that determined that two pending Clean Air Act rules would create nearly 1.5 million jobs. CAP Energy Intern Lee Hamill has the story.
The first of these is the "Clean Air Transport Rule,"which would reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that contribute to acid rain and smog. The second rule, known as the "UtilityMACT" (or toxic pollutant rule), would require industrial boilers to cut their hazardous air pollutants, including mercury, arsenic, lead, and hydrochloric acid. Both rules are expected to be finalized in 2011.
In the report, "New Jobs-Cleaner Air: Employment Effects under Planned Changes to EPA's Air Pollution Rules," Dr. James Heintz of the Political Economy Research Institute at U-Massachusetts bases his projections on an estimated $200 billion to be invested in pollution controls, new plant construction, and the retirement of less efficient coal plants by the power sector. These investmentswould create 1.5 million jobs–an average of 290,000 new jobs each year for the next five years. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, praised the report's findings:
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- Who Needs Scientists When You've Got James Inhofe?
The big news so far from the current hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Power-concerning the so-called "Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011"-is that Senator James Inhofe, the leading climate change denier in the U.S. Congress, has a book coming out.
Inhofe had crossed chambers to testify in favor of the new legislation, which he co-authored with Energy and Commerce chair Fred Upton and subcommittee chair Ed Whitfield, and which would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. And in response to a question from Upton, Inhofe took the opportunity to mention his book, telling the committee that he just finished it and that it will be entitled "The Hoax."
The title, presumably, refers to Inhofe's most (in)famous statement: His 2003 claim that climate change is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." I suppose it's kind of like Carl Sagan entitling one of his last books Billions and Billions. Sagan didn't like being remembered by that phrase, which he'd never actually uttered--but it's much better than the one Inhofe is going to be remembered by, and did use to dismiss climate change.
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- Oily Strategists Mint Another Silly Climate Petition
The public relations man and energy industry front group promoter Tom Harris has partnered with the Exxon-sponsored Idso family on a new petition dismissing the risks of climate change as "small to negligible."
The petition is currently headlining at the WattsUpWithThat website, which probably shouldn't surprise anyone, given that proprietor and weather guy Anthony Watts was one of the original signatories to one of the original silly climate petitions: the Leipzig Declaration.
These petitions are, in the most important ways, all the same. They feature the same cast of discredited characters (Pat Michaels, Fred Singer) and the same discredited arguments. The biggest such effort of the last 20 years was the Oregon Petition, which used a fraudulent National Academy of Sciences letterhead to solicit something in excess of 30,000 signatures from "scientists," including a small handfull who had actually studied or practiced climate science.
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- Koch Brothers Positioned To Be Big Winners If Keystone XL Pipeline Is Approved
Obama's bitterest political enemies already import and refine 25 percent of oil sands crude reaching the U.S., and stand to profit from an increased flow
The Keystone XL pipeline, awaiting a thumbs up or down on a presidential permit, would increase the import of heavy oil from Canada's oil sands to the U.S. by as much as 510,000 barrels a day, if it gets built.
Proponents tout it as a boon to national security that would reduce America's dependence on oil from unfriendly regimes. Opponents say it would magnify an environmental nightmare at great cost and provide only the illusion of national benefit.
What's been left out of the ferocious debate over the pipeline, however, is the prospect that if president Obama allows a permit for the Keystone XL to be granted, he would be handing a big victory and great financial opportunity to Charles and David Koch, his bitterest political enemies and among the most powerful opponents of his clean economy agenda.
The two brothers together own virtually all of Koch Industries Inc. - a giant oil conglomerate headquartered in Wichita, Kan., with annual revenues estimated to be $100 billion.
A SolveClimate News analysis, based on publicly available records, shows that Koch Industries is already responsible for close to 25 percent of the oil sands crude that is imported into the United States, and is well-positioned to benefit from increasing Canadian oil imports.
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- EXCLUSIVE: US Chamber's Lobbyists Solicited Hackers To Sabotage Unions, Smear Chamber's Political Opponents
ThinkProgress has learned that a law firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the big business trade association representing ExxonMobil, AIG, and other major international corporations, is working with set of "private security" companies and lobbying firms to undermine their political opponents, including ThinkProgress, with a surreptitious sabotage campaign.
According to e-mails obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Hunton And Williams' attorney Richard Wyatt, who once represented Food Lion in its infamous lawsuit against ABC News, was hired by the Chamber in October of last year. To assist the Chamber, Wyatt and his associates, John Woods and Bob Quackenboss, solicited a set of private security firms - HBGary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) - to develop tactics for damaging progressive groups and labor unions, in particular ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to Win, the SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com.
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- Breaking: Climate science "denier" Harrison Schmitt out as head of NM energy department
Harrison Schmitt, a former NASA astronaut who was chosen by Gov. Susana Martinez to head up the state's Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, has withdrawn his nomination after a squabble with the Senate Rules Committee over background checks.
The moonstruck moonwalker refused the state-mandated background check and that was that. While I'm sure his replacement will also be a science denier, Schmitt was such an extremist everyone in and out of NM should be delighted by this:
New Mexico governor picks climate denier Harrison Schmitt to run energy department
Moonstruck: Climate science denier Harrison Schmitt, appointed to head NM environment agency, believes enviros and scientists like Holdren are communists
Arctic-gate: Harrison Schmitt, self-described "denier" of human-caused global warming, pushes myth that Arctic sea ice has recovered "to 1989 levels"!
The withdrawal was unexpected and essentially unexplained:
Schmitt, who's also a former U.S. senator, faced a bumpy confirmation process in the state Senate due to his outspoken views on climate change and other subjects. However, few people, if any, expected him to withdraw his nomination.
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- Charles Krauthammer: Global warming is a "religion"
Washington Post columnist catches Gore Derangement Syndrome
Look, if Godzilla appeared on the Mall this afternoon, Al Gore would say it's global warming, because the spores in the South Atlantic Ocean, you know, were. Look, everything is, it's a religion. In a religion, everything is explicable. In science, you can actually deny or falsify a proposition with evidence. You find me a single piece of evidence that Al Gore would ever admit would contradict global warming and I'll be surprised.
That would be Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, who like his colleague George Will, is a climate science denier. Of course, it is Krauthammer and Will whose denial can never be falsified because it isn't actually based on science, but rather ideology (see Krauthammer: The real reason conservatives don't believe in climate science and below).
The scientific literature is clear that indeed global warming will cause more snow - especially in warm years (see "An amazing, though clearly little-known, scientific fact: We get more snow storms in warm years!"). Indeed, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) U.S. Climate Impacts Report from 2009 reviewed that literature and concluded:
Cold-season storm tracks are shifting northward and the strongest storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent.
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- EPA administrator faces down GOP critics
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson faced down her Republican critics on Wednesday, defending her agency's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as critical to the public's health.
Jackson's appearance before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked the first time the administrator has testified at a hearing on climate change since the GOP took power. House Republicans have proposed legislation that would block the agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
One by one, Republicans on the committee railed against the pending regulations, arguing that climate rules would hurt the economy and kill jobs.
"Like cap-and-trade, these regulations would boost the cost of energy, not just for homeowners and car owners, but for businesses both large and small," committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said in his opening statement. "EPA may be starting by regulating only the largest power plants and factories, but we will all feel the impact of higher prices and fewer jobs."
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- GOP proposed cuts hit renewables, protect fossils
WASHINGTON (AP) - Proposals from Republican lawmakers could limit funding for clean energy projects while protecting the profits of fossil fuel companies, an analyst said.
Republicans have proposed cutting $1.4 billion from a Department of Energy loan guarantee program that supports renewable energy projects such as wind farms, solar installations and nuclear plants, FBR Capital Markets analyst Benjamin Salisbury said in a research note Thursday.
The nation's mounting budget deficit also will make it tough for President Barack Obama to increase incentives for electric- and natural gas-powered vehicles, Salisbury said.
But tax breaks for the oil industry appear secure, despite Obama's expected proposal to cut them, Salisbury said. Obama previously has proposed ending the tax breaks to pay for clean-energy programs. Salisbury said the idea will not withstand opposition from Republicans and Democrats from oil-rich states.
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- Tea Party's Congressional Allies Diverge on How to Gut EPA
Buoyed by big victories, including the recent extension of George W. Bush-era tax cuts and President Obama's call for a cut in corporate taxes, tea party leaders are still working to align their ambitious rhetoric with direct actions to rein in U.S. EPA.
The conservative movement has lined up behind one argument about the agency: Its regulatory reach under Obama threatens the economy and robs Congress of its rightful oversight and lawmaking powers. However, tea party favorites on and off Capitol Hill have taken different approaches to EPA's future in recent weeks, from bills that would specifically revoke its power over greenhouse gas emissions to a call by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to shutter the agency and replace it with a business-friendly "Environmental Solutions Agency."
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was one of several conservative stalwarts who took aim at EPA during a Tuesday town hall sponsored by the Tea Party Express, using it to demonstrate the overreach of the federal government.
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- Newt Gingrich calls for replacing the EPA
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich called for replacing the Environmental Protection Agency with an "environmental solutions agency" as part of a broader re-assessment of American energy policy in his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference today in Washington.
"It's time we passed an aggressively pro-American energy policy," said Gingrich to a crowded room of conservative activists who greeted his proposals warmly if not with great fervor. "What you have from Obama Administration is a war against American energy."
Gingrich proposed eliminating the EPA, which he described as "top down" and "bureaucratic." He also advocated what he argued was a centrist agenda that includes things like the repeal of President Obama's health care, repeal of the estate tax and a "10th amendment implementation act".
Gingrich, the former speaker of the House who is widely considered to be a candidate for president, was in classic form -- delivering what felt at times like a college lecture weaving together topics as seemingly disparate as the German purchase of the New York Stock Exchange and flexfuel vehicles in Brazil.
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- Toward a clean energy future
A Republican House raises the odds that the rest of President Barack Obama's term could be deadlocked. But one issue could develop into a bipartisan success: energy reform - which could be a victory for national security, public health and new job possibilities for all Americans.
Despite all the rhetoric in recent years, little has been done to address the nation's energy problems. To get oil, we still send hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. wealth annually to nations that are not friendly toward us.
The U.S. is also rapidly falling behind - if not dropping out of - the race to develop and deploy newer, cleaner and more efficient power plants. China is becoming the leader in cutting-edge, job-producing energy technologies.
The path to sustained energy security, economic prosperity and public health means shifting from outdated fossil-fuel-fired power plants to cleaner, more efficient energy sources that position the U.S. to compete in a global economy. For this, we need a bridge to a future where our nation's energy needs are supplied by a mix of lower-emission resources, like cars and trucks powered by clean alternative fuels, including electrification. That affordable bridge is natural gas.
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- Bombshell: Chamber of Commerce lobbyists solicited firm to investigate opponents' families, children
Thursday, ThinkProgress published an exclusive report that the law firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a right-wing trade association representing big business, is working with set of "private security" companies and lobbying firms to undermine their political opponents, including ThinkProgress. According to e-mails obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Attorneys for the firm solicited a set of private security firms - HB Gary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) - to develop a sabotage campaign against progressive groups and labor unions, including ThinkProgress, the labor coalition Change to Win, SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com.
New emails reveal that the private spy company investigated the families and children of the Chamber's political opponents. The apparent spearhead of this project was Aaron Barr, an executive at HB Gary. Barr circulated numerous emails and documents detailing information about political opponents' children, spouses, and personal lives.
One of the targets was Mike Gehrke, a former staffer with Change to Win. Among the information circulated about Gehrke was the specific "Jewish church" he attended and a link to pictures of his wife and two children (sensitive information was redacted by ThinkProgress):
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- Revealed: how energy firms spy on environmental activists
Leaked documents show how three large British companies have been paying private security firm to monitor activists
Three large energy companies have been carrying out covert intelligence-gathering operations on environmental activists, the Guardian can reveal.
The energy giant E.ON, Britain's second-biggest coal producer Scottish Resources Group and Scottish Power, one of the UK's largest electricity-generators, have been paying for the services of a private security firm that has been secretly monitoring activists.
Leaked documents show how the security firm's owner, Rebecca Todd, tipped off company executives about environmentalists' plans after snooping on their emails. She is also shown instructing an agent to attend campaign meetings and coaching him on how to ingratiate himself with activists. The disclosures come as police chiefs, on the defensive over damaging revelations of undercover police officers in the protest movement, privately claim that there are more corporate spies in protest groups than undercover police officers.
Senior police officers complain that spies hired by commercial firms are – unlike their own agents – barely regulated.
Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, which until recently ran the secretive national unit of undercover police officers deployed in protest groups, said in a speech last week that "the deployment by completely uncontrolled and unrestrained players in the private sector" constituted a "massive area of concern".
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- Industry supports EPA action on Clean Air Act
On Capitol Hill last week, industry leaders and other experts explained why the upcoming U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) standards on carbon dioxide emissions can benefit U.S. business and help drive innovation while keeping our air and water clean.
In the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, I moderated a panel featuring representatives from businesses and public interest organizations: Paul Allen, Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs and Chief Environmental Officer at Constellation Energy, Dan Greenbaum, President of the Health Effects Institute, Franz Litz, Senior Fellow at WRI, and Dick Munson, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at Recycled Energy Development. Representative Jay Inslee (WA-1) opened the discussion.
This group of "strange bedfellows" had one thing in common: a strong interest in ensuring Congress does not extend the current period of regulatory uncertainty by preventing the EPA from using the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions. Panelists addressed several myths about the regulations often advanced by opponents of EPA action.
The first myth is that businesses and regulated industries are universally opposed to EPA standards that protect the public health and environment.
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- Taking Climate Denial to New Extremes
The spending plan the House GOP was supposed to roll out on Thursday included a number of cuts meant to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from doing anything about climate change. But Republicans had to take that plan back to the drawing board Thursday night after tea party members claimed the package of cuts didn't go deep enough. And if a trio of House members get their way, we won't ever have to worry about the climate-since we won't know what's happening with it, anyway.
This week, Reps. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) and Rob Bishop (R-Utah) called for a budget that would "reprioritize NASA" by axing the funding for climate change research. The original cuts to the budget outlined yesterday would have cut $379 million from NASA's budget. These members want climate out of NASA's purview entirely, however. Funding climate research, said Adams in a statement, "undercuts one of NASA's primary and most important objectives of human spaceflight."
"NASA's primary purpose is human space exploration and directing NASA funds to study global warming undermines our ability to maintain our competitive edge in human space flight," said Posey.
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- Exclusive: Richard Muller, Charles Koch, Judith Curry and the implosion of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study
How to kill a potentially not-bad idea in 5 easy steps
Let's say you're a major national lab, affiliated with a major university, concerned about critiques of the global temperature record. Let's say you get the bright idea to assemble some really smart scientists and statisticians "to resolve current criticism of the [global] temperature analyses, and to prepare an open record that will allow rapid response to further criticism or suggestions."
Let's set aside the fact that the various groups involved from NASA to NOAA to the Met Office have been undertaking their own reviews (see The deniers were half right: The Met Office Hadley Centre had flawed data - but it led them to UNDERestimate the rate of recent global warming and "Watts not to love: New study finds the poor weather stations tend to have a slight COOL bias, not a warm one").
You know that because you are prestigious, independent institution, you can bring fresh eyes and credibility to this supposed problem.
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- Heritage's David Kreutzer argues dirty air creates jobs
In a new blog post, the Koch-fueled Heritage Foundation continues to defend the fossil fuel industry at the expense of American jobs. Heritage attacked Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson for testifying that stronger limits on dangerous air pollution could create over a million jobs. Her testimony was based on a study by the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), which found that electric utilities would create 300,000 jobs (or 1.5 million job-years over five years) as they clean up aging, polluting power plants.
Brad Johnson has the story.
The PERI report used figures from a study by Charles River Associates for utility giant Exelon, which found that "EPA air regulations can be implemented without adversely impacting electric system reliability." The proposed transport rule would save up to 36,000 lives a year, worth hundreds of billions of dollars in health and welfare. Heritage's David Kreutzer, on the other hand, argues the higher health standards are bad because "these regulations increase energy costs":
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- EPA white paper spells out the health and employment costs of the Republican Dirty Air Act
On February 9, Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Bobby Rush (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Energy and Power Subcommittee, added yet another voice to the uproar over the proposed "Dirty Air Act." CAPAF's Valeri Vasquez has the story.
The draft bill by Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (R-MI) would overturn the scientific finding that carbon dioxide and other pollutants threaten public health and welfare.
Waxman released a white paper from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that describes the significant economic benefits from the Clean Air Act. For instance, implementing the Clean Air Act's public health protections would potentially amount to "2.8 percent of total U.S. health care costs." Total annual savings are estimated to be over $50 billion. Translation? Net economic benefits exceeding $1 trillion in 2010 alone, a number projected to reach $2 trillion by 2020.
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- Massive Flux of Gas, in Addition to Liquid Oil, at BP Well Blowout in Gulf
ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2011) - A new University of Georgia study that is the first to examine comprehensively the magnitude of hydrocarbon gases released during the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil discharge has found that up to 500,000 tons of gaseous hydrocarbons were emitted into the deep ocean. The authors conclude that such a large gas discharge -- which generated concentrations 75,000 times the norm -- could result in small-scale zones of "extensive and persistent depletion of oxygen" as microbial processes degrade the gaseous hydrocarbons.
The study, led by UGA Professor of Marine Sciences Samantha Joye, appears in the early online edition of the journal Nature Geoscience. Her co-authors are Ian MacDonald of Florida State University, Ira Leifer of the University of California-Santa Barbara and Vernon Asper of the University of Southern Mississippi.
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