New investigative report on climate, Big Oil and Big Auto: HEAT preview

by Emily Gertz

Published October 12, 2008 @ 03:49PM PT

"It's as if Tony Soprano had a seat in the Senate" -- this is so far my favorite quote from the preview for HEAT, the new investigative report from Frontline that will hit the airwaves and the internets on October 21. According to the advance materials, HEAT will explore how car makers, oil and coal companies, and other energy-related big business -- which have long used their financial might and political influence to hijack intelligent discussion of global warming and stall or kill environmental policy changes --  are now under pressure to change the way they do business.  While some are trying to "fend off new regulations," reads the HEAT promotion, "others are repositioning themselves to prosper in a radically changed world."

I couldn't make Frontline's advance screening of HEAT in Washington, D.C. last week (but watch this space -- I'm working on getting an advance screener in time to write a review). Gristmill's Kate Sheppard did, and  reported back on the post-screening encounter between David Sandalow, a climate and energy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy adviser for Sen. John McCain.

After a few minutes of mutual appreciation for representing candidates who are committed to throwing off the Bush/Cheney legacy of inaction on global warming, reports Kate, Sandalow and Holtz-Eakin picked up the boxing gloves to spar over the differences in each campaign's plans for re-stabilizing the climate:

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The Daily Climate, October 11, 2008 -- Business, Bailouts, Markets

by Emily Gertz

Published October 11, 2008 @ 02:57PM PT

• The Other Bailout: $25 Billion to Big Auto (Celsias)
• Carbon Market Is No Safe Haven Yet (Reuters)
• Solar Market Thriving in Spite of Credit Crunch (Business Green)
• Financial Fallout: Market Tumbles Shake Nuclear Clean-Up Funds (Environmental Capital - The Wall Street Journal online)
• Funds, Too, Are Mining New Energy Sources (The New York Times)

Image: "A NASA/university team has published the first global satellite maps of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in Earth's mid-troposphere, an area about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles, above Earth. The team's study reveals new information on how carbon dioxide, which directly contributes to climate change, is distributed in Earth's atmosphere and moves around our world." Source: NASA JPL

The 'stop global warming' ad ABC won't air

by Emily Gertz

Published October 10, 2008 @ 06:00PM PT

On September 24, former Vice President Al Gore called for civil disobedience to block construction of new coal power plants.  On September 25, broadcaster ABC refused to air a TV ad called "Repower America" from the We Campaign --  a project of the Al Gore-founded Alliance for Climate Protection.

Today AdAge picked up the story, which has  been building in the green blogosphere, reporting that "ABC defended its move not to air the spot on "20/20," citing its policy on controversial issue advertising. 'All of our advertising is reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and the context of this particular ad was determined not to be acceptable,' said Julie Hoover, a network spokeswoman, who read from a prepared statement.

"When asked for a copy of the network's policy, Ms. Hoover said she needed to check if it was public and that it was "unlikely" media could view a copy."

The We Campaign had wanted Repower America to run during the Sept. 26 episode of ABC's news magazine "20/20."  ABC ran the campaign's Free Us spot instead.  The We Campaign opted to go public with ABC's nixing the ad, Ad Age reports, "after watching the TV commercials aired during presidential debates Tuesday night on the network. 'The debate coverage on all of the channels looked like they were sponsored by carbon-based companies. Exxon. Chevron, they were all over the place,' Giselle Barry, director of communications for the Alliance for Climate Protection, told Ad Age. "'It begged for action.'" 

ABC objected in particular to an image of Capitol building in the ad (see above), according to the We Campaign, because it was "not incidental to this advertising. Please replace the image with one that is not of another national building or monument."  The inference seems to be that ABC decided, in light of former Vice President Gore's comments the day before, that the presence of the Capitol building in the ad was an encouragement to viewers to engage in potentially illegal protest actions against the federal government.

Here's the ad -- which began running Sept. 26 on networks and cable news channels including CBS, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, according to the Alliance:

What do you think: too "political" for prime time?  Tell us in the comments.

If you want to talk back to ABC about its refusal to air the spot, the We campaign provides this handy online form to make it easier.  As of this writing, 196,297 people have sent a message, according to the We Campaign.

The Daily Climate - October 10, 2008

by Emily Gertz

Published October 10, 2008 @ 06:05AM PT

• Truthiness in Campaign Soundbites, Science Department (Knight Science Journalism Tracker)
• How Green-Retrofitting Buildings is Beneficial (Triple Pundit)
• An Inconvenient Youth (Worldchanging)
• Barcelona Declaration 2008: Challenges and Pathways to Sustainability (Biopact)
• With Oil Prices Dropping, Is a Green Future at Risk? (Green Inc. - The New York Times)

A Little Drill & Fission, Part 2: Obama on Oil Drilling, Energy Efficiency at the Debate

by Emily Gertz

Published October 09, 2008 @ 07:56PM PT

More on energy from this week's debate between presidential candidates and senators Barack Obama and John McCain.  Click here for A Little Drill & Fission, Part 1.

Q/Brokaw, from Internet: Senator McCain, for you, we have our first question from the Internet tonight. A child of the Depression, 78-year-old Fiora (ph) from Chicago.

Since World War II, we have never been asked to sacrifice anything to help our country, except the blood of our heroic men and women. As president, what sacrifices -- sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we're now in?

Obama: ...I believe in the need for increased oil production. We're going to have to explore new ways to get more oil, and that includes offshore drilling. It includes telling the oil companies, that currently have 68 million acres that they're not using, that either you use them or you lose them.

[[Senator Obama here refers to tracts in the Gulf of Mexico that are already available for leasing and development. CNN Money reported back in June that it was 70 million acres, but the number of acres seems less important than how much oil might be recoverable from these areas: the Energy Information Agency estimates around 34 billion barrels, according to ClimateProgress.org's Joseph Romm. That's twice the amount of oil under areas that were included in the drilling moratorium. Some Congressional Democrats have accused oil companies of sitting on leases to these areas even as it pressures Congress to open the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling, reported CNN Money.

Senator Obama has softened his language on offshore drilling since earlier in the campaign, when, per NPR's Talk of the Nation, he said that opening up offshore drilling "would merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for 30 years." In June, Senator Obama said he would cease to oppose offshore drilling if necessary to make progress on alternative energy proposals. In other words, he made a compromise to help bring about bipartisan support for a comprehensive energy plan.]]

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Help Produce the News on Drill Baby Drill: Oil vs. Alternative Energy

by Emily Gertz

Published October 09, 2008 @ 12:26PM PT

The Brian Lehrer Show -- a two-hour news radio program produced each weekday out of WNYC-New York Public Radio -- has put out a call to listeners to help it produce   30 Issues in 30 Days , the show's pre-election issues coverage. The next segment (airing tomorrow) is called Drill Baby Drill: Oil vs. Alternative Energy.

I'll bet readers of this change.org blog could make great suggestions on the show wiki for:

• Which angles of energy policy to cover
• Candidate positions
• Possible guests for the broadcast
• Questions to ask them
• Links to research materials
• Concrete energy-saving proposals

So go chip in right away!

Brian Lehrer's show goes out nationally via satellite radio, online streaming, and podcast. Lehrer has a great knack for doing solid guest interviews and holding conversations with listeners.  His team has been using blogs, flickr, wikis and twitter to collaborate with listeners on producing the news for a year or two now.  Shows like this one, producing intelligent (and entertaining) news we can use, are part of what keeps me contributing my membership dollars to the station every year.

Image: "Offshore platform located in the Gulf of Mexico, port location Cd. Del Carmen." Source: Wikimedia Commons

Follow Stop Global Warming on Twitter

by Emily Gertz

Published October 09, 2008 @ 12:15PM PT

On Twitter? Want to keep up with globalwarming.change.org?  My posts here will be showing up on my Twitter service, ejgertz.