Clean Energy
Fatalistic Friday: World watches as House votes on clean energy, climate bill
Published June 26, 2009 @ 02:07PM PT
"Why do we allow the US to act like a failed state on climate change?": "It would be laughable anywhere else. But, so everyone says, the Waxman-Markey bill which is likely to be passed in Congress today or tomorrow, is the best we can expect – from America.
The cuts it proposes are much lower than those being pursued in the UK or in most other developed nations," says George Monbiot. Why? "You have only to read the comments that follow this article to find out. Thanks to the lobbying work of the coal and oil companies, and the vast army of thinktanks, PR consultants and astroturfers they have sponsored, thanks too to the domination of the airwaves by loony right shock jocks, the debate over issues like this has become so mad that any progress at all is little short of a miracle." (The Guardian)
Barack Obama urges Congress to back climate change Bill: "The Bill would require utilities, by 2020, to get 15 per cent of their electricity from renewable resources — solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass — and show annual energy savings of 5 per cent from efficiency measures. The EU plan calls for getting 20 per cent of all electricity from renewable resources by 2020." (The Times Online)
Political paralysis as clock ticks on climate change: ...President Obama faces fierce domestic opposition to all measures, however modest, that aim to rein in Americans’ high-energy lifestyles. Legislation known as the Waxman-Markey Bill is now before Congress. It’s so watered down that if it were a medicine, it might well be classified as homeopathic. And yet, after eight years of Bush era anti-science, the very fact that a climate Bill is even on the table is cause for celebration. It would be inconceivable for the world’s largest polluter to arrive in Copenhagen without having its own national policy on climate change in place." (The Irish Times)
EU: we want US climate bill to succeed: "The Europe Union wants a U.S. climate change bill to succeed so the United States can move swiftly to curb greenhouse gas emissions, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Friday..."We want the U.S. to go as far and as fast as they can on climate change," Barroso said. "We want Waxman-Markey to succeed. ... Rarely, perhaps, has U.S. domestic legislation been so carefully monitored internationally." (Associated Press)
China welcomes U.S. climate bill, says more needed: "China's top climate change official on Friday welcomed a U.S. climate change bill but said Washington needed to take stronger action to ensure success at year-end talks to settle a global framework on warming. Xie Zhenhua, a deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission who steers climate change policy, said the bill was a positive break with the stance taken by the Administration of former President George W. Bush. But he said the legislation still did not meet international expectations for U.S. action, or ensure a strong deal could be reached at U.N.-led talks in Copenhagen in December. "We think that we should give a positive evaluation to this bill...But in the area of tackling climate change, especially on the issue of cutting emissions, if they could take some more positive, effective measures it would give a bigger impetus to the year-end talks," he added. (Reuters)
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Image: The Earth on August 2, 2005, from NASA's Messenger spacecraft.
State your case on #ACES: Climate Pass or Climate Fail?
Published June 26, 2009 @ 08:51AM PT
Okay kids, get your ya-yas out: What's your opinion of the clean energy and climate change bill that's being debated in the House today?
Should it pass, or will it do more harm than good in stopping global warming? Will its' cap-and-trade provisions curb greenhouse gas emissions effectively, or have concessions to fossil energy and agriculture industry interests fatally weakened the legislation?
Note: As ever, courtesy toward fellow commenters is strongly encouraged. References to Nazis, or denials of the reality of global warming, will be deleted as troll posts.
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Image: View of the Sun from Baja California, during an eclipse on July 11, 1991. Source: NASA Earth Observatory
NY Times: "cautious" optimism that #ACES will pass in House
Published June 26, 2009 @ 06:01AM PT
This morning on The Caucus, the DC politics blog of The New York Times:
Democrats on the Hill are cautiously optimistic that the bill will make it through the House, but, as our John Broder found, “senior lawmakers acknowledge that they have not yet lined up the 218 votes needed for passage.”
Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who has helped shepherd the bill to this point, has negotiated with moderate and farm belt Democrats to capture some of their votes. Republicans remain opposed to the bill, labeling it an energy tax for consumers.
Mr. Obama called the energy bill a boon both for the environment and the economy. In his remarks, the president conceded the vote would be tight, “in part because of the misinformation that’s out there that suggests there is somehow a contradiction between investing in clean energy and our economic growth.”
Rep. James Clyburn: Clean energy bill would create jobs, energy security
Published June 26, 2009 @ 05:44AM PT
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) on MSNBC yesterday -- on how the passage of climate and clean energy legislation will create energy cost savings, cutting American reliance on foreign oil, and create new jobs.
Best of the Blogs 2: Reasons to Be Cheerful About #ACES Climate-Energy Bill
Published June 24, 2009 @ 03:42PM PT
Climate bill puts Americans in the green (NRDC Switchboard)
Zen and the Art of Anxiety Maintenance: Why David Roberts is not freaked out about the Waxman-Markey climate bill. "There is no reason to think that this bill is going to be Obama’s only legacy on energy. Already there’s been the stimulus bill, which will probably do more for clean energy in the next five years than Waxman-Markey, the new mileage standards, and the big climate impacts report. And there is plenty more to come." Plus, cleantech is the iPhone to dirtytech's semaphores; green manufacturing jobs are the only ones out there to create, and we need 'em; and the states and cities will continue to believe. (Grist)
New EPA analysis of Waxman-Markey: Consumer electric bills 7% lower in 2020 thanks to efficiency — plus 22 GW of extra coal retirements and no new dirty plants (ClimateProgress)
How Waxman-Markey tackles climate change by saving forests (Grist)
And some other good news:
Wind Could Power the Entire World (Mongabay)
Wind Jobs Now Outnumber Coal Jobs (fortune.cnn.com)
Detroit car makers would increase profits by $3 billion annually and significantly boost sales if they improve the fuel economy of their vehicles by 30 percent to 50 percent, according to a new study. (Yale360)
Cassini Probe Finds Compelling Evidence of an Ocean on Saturn's Moon Enceladus (BBC News) [[Nothing to do with Waxman-Markey bill. It's just cool.]]
Surprise! Floor Vote Set for #ACES Clean Energy-Climate Bill
Published June 23, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
UPDATE: 1Sky reports that the vote is scheduled for this Friday. The re-drafted American Clean Energy and Security Act, all 1,200 pages of it, is up for perusal at the House Rules Committee.
The Hill's Jared Allen is reporting that Reps. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Peterson (D-Minn.) have reached an agreement that will allow the bill to get a floor vote as early as this week, "but it remains to be seen whether the measure has the votes to pass."
Waxman filed the bill with the House Rules Committee on Monday night. House Democrats had previously suggested the measure would be voted on after the July 4 recess. The vote, whenever it occurs, will be one of the biggest roll calls of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) political career. She has labeled climate change her "flagship issue."
"There are some issues still under discussion, but we are confident we can resolve them by the time the bill goes to the floor on Friday," said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi. "The Speaker, [Majority] Leader [Steny] Hoyer [D-Md.] and Chairmen Waxman and Peterson have all agreed on this approach for moving this historic climate change and clean energy jobs bill."
Some House Democrats have expressed their desire to have healthcare reform hit the floor before climate change legislation, but it appears that revamping the nation's healthcare system will be handled after the energy bill in the lower chamber.
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Image: Rep. Colin Peterson, D-Minnesota. Via Politico.
Obama Urges Passage of House Clean Energy-Climate Bill
Published June 23, 2009 @ 10:28AM PT
President Obama opened his press conference this morning with an explicit endorsement of the Waxman-Markey clean energy and climate bill, which as of yesterday evening was being blocked by rural Democrats who want the USDA, not the EPA, to oversee programs that would "pay farmers to conduct environmentally friendly conservation practices."
Hard to say at the moment if this is a direct response to calls for him to take personal lead on climate action legislation, like this week's open letter signed by 20 U.S. climate experts.
Stay tuned to see if or how this shifts the situation in the House of Representatives. Whups -- the situation shifted late late last night -- read my next post.
The president's comments this morning, as prepared:
This week, the House of Representatives is moving ahead on historic legislation that will transform the way we produce and use energy in America. It is legislation that will finally spark a clean energy transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet.
This energy bill will create a set of incentives that will spur the development of new sources of energy, including wind, solar, and geothermal power. It will also spur new energy savings, like efficient windows and other materials that reduce heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer.
These incentives will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy. And that will lead to the development of new technologies that lead to new industries that could create millions of new jobs in America - jobs that cannot be shipped overseas.
At a time of great fiscal challenges, this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe. It also provides assistance to businesses and communities as they make the gradual transition to clean energy technologies.
This legislation is extraordinarily important for our country, and has taken a great effort on the part of many over the course of months...
We all know why this is so important. The nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That is what this legislation seeks to achieve - it is a bill that will open the door to a better future for this nation. And that is why I urge members of the House to come together and pass it.
Related:
Colin Peterson, Climate Villain: Big Ag aims its pitchfork at historic climate legislation (Grist)
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Image: Light through storm clouds over White House, June 9, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
