Policy & Legislation
China Vows Action on Climate Change. Where's the US?
Published August 28, 2009 @ 02:38PM PT
Above: Traffic in Shanghai. Via flickr/smokingpermitted
The Chinese parliament passed a significant climate resolution on Thursday, vowing that the world's largest emitter of human-created greenhouse gas pollution will "strive to control" its emissions, as well as promote energy efficiency, expand of clean energy generation, and lower energy demand.
It's a tad embarrassing that China's beaten the US to the punch here, since we have yet to enact any kind of federal law addressing global warming.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves: This resolution laid out no concrete steps for just how this "control" will happen, or even whether it will include carbon caps and reductions -- the cornerstones of the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty signed by most of the world's industrialized nations.
(As a developing nation, China is exempt from Kyoto's carbon caps.) And it made much of warning other nations off using global warming as an excuse to raise international trade protections or barriers that would hurt China's continuing ability to modernize.
Instead, the nation will "draft laws and regulations based on practical circumstances to provide more vigorous legal backing for fighting climate change," according to an environmental official.
Still, enviros are looking on the bright side. "It's very significant. For the first time, they have put climate change at the core of economic and social planning at all levels of government," Yang Ailun, climate and energy campaign manager for Greenpeace China, told the UK's Guardian newspaper.
What might this resolution mean to both international and US climate action?
Youth Activists to Obama: No more Katrinas, restore Gulf Coast
Published August 27, 2009 @ 07:09PM PT
Above: "International climate activists floated two roof tops in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool early Thursday afternoon in anticipation of the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina."
Related action: Tell the President: Lead Congress to Pass a Strong Clean Energy Bill
Just a few days before the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast, youth activists today floated mock rooftops in one of Washington, DC's signature water landmarks. "HELP-The Water Is Rising" was the message painted on one of the roofs, while the 30-foot banner the protestors held up urged President Obama to "Prevent the Next Katrina, Restore the Gulf, Stop Global Warming."
The protest evoked memories of TV images that held the nation transfixed four years ago, of homes of New Orleans underwater after the city's levees burst in the hurricane's wake.
A statement from the activists calls for "bold US leadership at the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December to pass a fair, ambitious, and binding global treaty that will prevent environmental disasters of the catastrophic magnitude of Katrina in the future."
Such a treaty, say the activists, will include financial support for developing nations that are simultaneously most at risk from the impacts of global warming, and least prepared to mitigate or protect themselves from them.
Close to two thousand people died on the Gulf Coast as a result of Hurricane Katrina; hundreds are still listed as missing. The storm also caused $80 billion in damages.
In New Orleans, the 1,400 or so deaths were not a direct consequence of the storm: the collapse of the levees was a human-caused disaster.
A coalition of 17 advocacy groups has also marked the approaching anniversary, calling upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fulfill President Obama's campaign pledge "to restore nature's barriers -- the wetlands, marshes and barrier islands that can take the first blows and protect the people of the Gulf Coast."
President Obama, meanwhile, has responded to continued criticism of the Corps' work in the Gulf since Katrina by establishing a federal interagency task force to manage restoration of the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines.
Video to Watch: "A Warming Web: The Blogosphere and Climate Change"
Published August 27, 2009 @ 05:12PM PT
Once upon a time, I volunteered to organize a discussion about blogging and global warming. Several excellent journo-bloggers agreed to participate. Then, I couldn't actually make it to the meeting in Pittsburgh. So I asked a keen fella to replace me as moderator, and everyone else showed up too, and had a scintillating discussion was had.
Thanks everyone, for carrying on without me in such fine style. Dave says there might be spanking somewhere in there; you're just going to have to watch the whole thing to find out.
- Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog
- Brentin Mock of The American Prospect (and elsewhere)
- Brad Johnson of Think Progress
- Dave Roberts of Grist
- Kate Sheppard of pure awesomeness
- Tim Lange, aka Meteor Blades of Daily Kos
- Miles Grant of National Wildlife Federation
See it all for yourself:
Senator Kennedy, Dead at 77, Was Champion for Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency
Published August 26, 2009 @ 12:11PM PT
Above: President Barack Obama and Senator Ted Kennedy walk on the grounds of the White House. White House Photo, Pete Souza, 4/28/09
Related action: Complete Kennedy's Unfinished Work -- Pass Health Reform
Senator Edward Kennedy died late last night, at age 77, after a 15-month bout with brain cancer.
The "lion of the Senate" is justly being praised today for his decades of effort to improving health care for all Americans -- not a surprise, given that his Democratic colleagues in Congress and President Obama, his chosen torch bearer for the future of Kennedy-brand American liberal reform, are locked in a battle to overhaul America's health care system.
But Senator Kennedy was also a strong, influential advocate for the environment, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy industry reform. Just a few of his long list of accomplishments include:
Cosponsoring the first law to establish fuel economy standards over 30 years ago, and in 2007, supporting stronger fuel economy standards, which will in turn help cut the nation's greenhouse gas pollution.
Sponsoring the "Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act of 2000," to compensate men and women who, while working on national defense, were often unknowingly exposed to radiation and other toxic substances, as well as their survivors.
In 1975, pushing to end an "oil depletion allowance," which for several decades had allowed oil producers to exclude 22 percent of their enormous revenues from any taxes. Kennedy’s initiative lowered the allowance for independent producers, and ended it for the major oil companies.
Sponsoring the “America COMPETES Act of 2007,” which established an Advanced Research Projects Authority at the Department of Energy to be the focal point of federal efforts to support breakthrough research on new clean energy technologies.
Long-time support of renewable energy funding and programs, including the weatherization assistance program and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program that helps low-income families reduce their energy bills by improving home energy efficiency.
Ted Kennedy is a singular example of someone who could have kicked back and coasted through life, but chose instead to help others. He was born into a position of social and financial privilege. The violent deaths of his brothers Jack and Robert gave them center stage in America's Kennedy mythology, and could have sucked a lesser character forever into stasis and regret.
Kennedy focused outward instead, on serving those who had less than he did, and needed help more. Publicly, he moved through his own disappointments, personal mistakes, and his family's terrible losses, to achieve a 46-year Senate career of steady liberal accomplishment and constructive leadership.
(Compare Kennedy's lifelong class act and embrace of responsibility for others, under intense public scrutiny and personal loss, to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's regular offloadings of blame onto anyone and anything for her political and personal setbacks, her extremist us-vs-them political philosophy, and her cynical political gaming with the nation's energy policy and climate future.)
Senator Kennedy took his advantages, and perhaps the tragedies as well, and turned them toward being one person who could change the lives of many for the better. Losing him is surely an incalculable grief for his family. But hopefully it will move a new generation, equally devoted to changing the world for the better, to fill the void he's left in American politics.
Over a Dozen Senators Working to Strengthen Climate Bill
Published August 25, 2009 @ 07:31PM PT
Related post: Citizenship 101: How to contact Congress
Although four senators recently floated the idea that climate legislation was dead in the Senate, over a dozen of their colleagues are working on measures to make it stronger.
According to the progressive political blog Wonk Room,
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has introduced the IMPACT Act, "Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology Act of 2009," which would create a $30 million revolving loan fund to "help small and medium-sized manufacturers finance retooling, shift design, and improve energy efficiency.” The act has been added to the Senate legislation, and over 150 businesses around the country have endorsed it.
Sen. Brown has been joined by nine other Democratic senators in urging President Obama to be sure the legislation includes strong support for American manufacturing. They include Russ Feingold (D-WI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Robert Casey (D-PA), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Robert Byrd (D-VW), Al Franken (D-MN), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Tom Carper (D-DE) are working on adding language to the bill to “regulate power plant emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.”
Sen. Carper is also seeking to improve the bill's funding for cleaner transportation. His Clean, Low-Emission, Affordable, New Transportation Efficiency Act (S. 575 / H.R. 1329) would allocate a share of the proceeds from carbon cap-and-trade "to transit, bike paths, and other green modes of transport.” Co-sponsoring the bill are Senators Arlen Specter (D-PA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Ben Cardin (D-MD) have co-sponsored the legislation.
Oil Lobby Responds to Change.org Questions, Defends Claims on Climate Bill Costs
Published August 25, 2009 @ 08:13AM PT
Above: "Photo of caribou walking alongside the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, taken July 1998 by Stan Shebs." Source: Wikimedia Commons.
----
Last week I asked the American Petroleum Institute questions about its criticisms of the American Clean Energy and Security Act -- the climate and clean energy legislation that was passed by the House of Representatives earlier in the summer.
Jane Van Ryan, New Media Coordinator of the American Petroleum Institute, has answered. I've added some extra paragraph breaks to make the text more readable on-screen, and links as relevant to the content.
Do Ms. Van Ryan's talking points hold up? If not, why not? There are a lot of them, so I'm asking the Change.org community to help me out:
Please pick a point or a few to check out, and post your findings in the comments.
More after the jump.
Astroturf Update: Coal lobby group parts ways with fraudster PR firm
Published August 23, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Above: Protesting "Naked Fraud" at offices of Bonner & Assoc. in Washington, DC. By DC Climate Action.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) announced Friday that it will no longer engage conservative campaign firm Bonner & Associates.
Bonner is the firm responsible for sending fradulent letters to three members of Congress in opposition to carbon cap-and-trade legislation -- letters that were made to look as if they were from legitimate grassroots citizen organizations.
"We will not be working with Mr. Bonner again," Joe Lucas, senior vice president for communications at ACCCE, told NationalJournal.com (which broke the story, as far as I can tell). "ACCCE did nothing wrong. Looking back, there would be many things we would do differently."
Opinion flew around the global warming blogosphere when the move was announced:
At the National Journal's Under the Influence blog, Amy Harder writes that ACCCE has yet to sever ties with PR firm Hawthorn Group, its primary contractor, which had in turn hired Bonner. Thus "the middleman in this scandal is not losing out."
ThinkProgress disagrees with ACCCE's claim of innocence: "In fact, ACCCE covered up the fraud and is now throwing Bonner under the bus. The coal coalition had been informed by the Hawthorn Group...days before the pivotal House vote on the energy legislation. But ACCCE kept silent, failing to notify lawmakers or the defrauded organizations."
ACCCE will continue to work with the Lincoln Strategy Group, a firm with its own troubled history of anti-Democratic voter fraud. "Makes you wonder," writes activist Jesse Jenkins at WattHead, "what else is the dirty energy lobby up to..."
OMB Watch worries that the fraudulent letters could have a chilling effect on grassroots organizing beyond the immediate situation. "Unfortunately, advocacy organizations may now be uneasy about any future letters they send to legislators and question whether they will be considered illegitimate."
In another blog post, OMB Watch makes the point most other blogging and reporting on this issue has missed: Under current law, there are no requirements for grassroots lobbying campaigns to disclose their origins and funding, "including the fake, Astroturf kind, even if specific pending legislation is mentioned and members of the public are encouraged to contact Congress."
Sine these corporate-funded campaigns can generally outspend and outshout public interest organizations and constituents, "the playing field is rendered unequal and the democratic process is hurt," writes OMB Watch.
Opponents of increased disclosure (who often include groups engaged in Astroturf lobbying) argue that requiring the public's access to such information is an unconstitutional regulation of speech and is intended to silence diverse viewpoints. Ethics watchdogs, however, say disclosure of grassroots lobbying is not intended to restrict free speech, but it is intended to bring increased transparency to both government and those who seek to influence government.
In addition, advocates note that nonprofit organizations and labor unions are already required to report on their grassroots lobbying activities via their annual IRS Form 990 reports.
Browsing a few of the more prominent conservative climate blogs, including Climate Audit, Watts Up With That, and Climate Depot, I've so far found no comment on ACCCE's break with Bonner & Associates.
