Get Energy Smart! NOW!

Yesterday, on 1 April 2008, the US Chamber of Commerce issued a memo that suggests that they want to make April’s Fools of all Americans through their continued efforts to distort discussion about energy issues in a way that takes the truth out of truthiness.   And, what is impressive (and depressing) is how the Chamber’s distorting material brings out April Fools who live in the black hole of denial.

In Pay to Play on Climate Change, the Chamber’s President and CEO, Thomas J. Donohue, moves quite directly into the Delayer mode of reacting to climate change issues.  He does not address the fact of Global Change or its (serious) implications, but asserts that there is not the public support for reacting to Global Warming while pursuing truthiness, by distorting the issue, rather than truth.

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One of the greatest joys in the 2006 election, amid the triumph of capturing both the House and Senate, came with now Congressman Jerry McNerney‘s defeat of Richard Pombo in CA-11. Pombo was in real competition to be the worst member of Congress when it came to energy and environmental issues.  On the other hand, McNerney knows energy, clean energy

During his career in wind energy, McNerney’s work contributed to saving the equivalent of approximately 30 million barrels of oil, or 8.3 million tons of carbon dioxide – the main greenhouse gas – as well as other harmful pollutants.

In 2008, across the country, we have the opportunity for similarly stark shifts from Energy Dumb to Energy Smart elected officials.  

This diary is an appeal for help in identifying Energy Smart vs Energy Dumb opportunities across the country, for developing a strategy for bringing attention to these campaigns and these issues, and helping change the balance in Congress when it comes to energy-related legislative activity.

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Tomorrow, Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection are launching a $300 million advertising campaign to mobilize American support for serious action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in “one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history.”

One of the real challenges when it comes to press reporting on Global Warming issues is the desire for “balance” in reporting, the desire to have all sides represented.  This balance, of course, can be contrasted (balanced) by the question of objectivity, of focusing on facts.  With the first, Flat Earth society members would be quoted in any discussion of NASA programs.  With objective reporting, they wouldn’t even be in the reporter’s rolodex.  Sadly, as Al Gore highlighted in An Inconvenient Truth, “balance” is more prevalent than “objective” when it comes to Global Warming reporting, truthiness rather than truth.

With that context, let us look at the prominent Washington Post article on the We campaign, by staff reporter Juliet Eilperin.  This was (is) a relatively good article that discusses the campaign’s approach and objectives, with the desire to change the way the public thinks about Global Warming, options for moving forward, and translating this into impetus for serious Congressional action: [Read more →]

General Motors’ Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz truly does not seem to enjoy being called out when he says absurdities.  There was a recent brouhaha over his  calling Global Warming a “total crock of s–t” in a meeting with reporters.  As the man seemingly converted, the driving force behind the Chevy Volt (a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) that could, quite literally, change the nation), some of his discussion, some of his focus seems determined to undermined the public support of developments in the PHEV world.

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Power2Change

The Sierra Club is launching a nine-state campaign, Power2Change, focused on bringing clarity about what is at stake in the 2008 elections. 

The choices we make in 2008 will define our future – especially when it comes to the election and energy issues. The contrast between competing visions of America’s energy future could not be sharper this year: we can move forward or continue the policies of the past.

The key points are clear …

We have the power to change direction.

Yes, we do. But, what is keeping us (the US) from moving forward to a sensible, prosperous, climate friendly society?

What we have lacked is the political will and leadership …

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Shouldn’t surprise anyone, but some of the worst polluters in the country, some of those most determined to fight action on Global Warming, are starting to color their political donations ‘purple’.  With Democratic Party control of Congress, high odds that the Hill will tinge even bluer come 2009, and that Barack Obama will be sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office, only a fool would not be hedging bets.  But, that these serial Fossil Fuel polluters might not be total fools when it comes to political influence games does not mean that this is something to celebrate.

Global Warming legislation will have $trillions of implications in the coming decades. This can be done with social equity or a way to enrich the pockets of serial polluters at the expense of the rest of US.   Should we wonder which way these polluters’ donations are trying to drive this equation?

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While the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation take their dog-and-pony show of supposedly independent but fully deceitful analysis about global warming legislation around the country, reviews of the work are coming in from across the country. And, the common reframe:

Thumbs DOWN!

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Al Gore likes to comment that Global Warming, its existence and the need to act on it, should not be a political issue. 

Protecting the earth from global warming is a mandatory part of following Jesus, former Vice President Al Gore said at a “Stewardship of the Earth” luncheon Jan. 31 2008 during the New Baptist Covenant Celebration in Atlanta.

“This is not a political issue,” Gore told a crowd of approximately 2,500 paying attendees. “It is a moral issue. It is an ethical issue. It is a spiritual issue.”

Yes, if things were working sensibly, were “Sound Science” not an operative framework of one of the political parties in the United States, the debate would be about “what to do about reality” rather than about trying to deny facts about “what is reality”.  And, this is one of the reasons why John McCain is viewed by so many as a breath of fresh air, because the Senator McFlip certainly can talk a good talk about Global Warming even though Senator McFlop simply doesn’t act on McFlip’s great words.  And, there is quite a strong contrast between Senators Obama, Clinton, and McCain’s positions on Global Warming with Obama’s/Clinton’s words and deeds far closer together than anything to be found with McFlip/McFlop (who risks being the McSame as Bush/Cheney in terms of political appointees and global warming issues). [Read more →]

Coal is a booming business, with price increases even exceeding those seen for oil. Fossil Fuels and the polluting of the atmosphere are, we can hope, burning their last embers of extravagant enthusiasm.

While coal is a booming business, it is also a business under fire, with people like Governor Sibelius standing tall in the fight against coal-plant expansions and plant after plant being canceled as, for example, the financial industry wakes up to the real risk with investing in such polluting infrastructure.  This reality seems to have a difficult time penetrating the dense barriers to reality that seem to exist in the great Commonwealth of Virginia, fostered by heavy investments in truthiness by Dominion Virginia Power.  Bit by bit, it seems, the veil shielding that truthiness is being lifted, for example in this Richmond Times Dispatch story: Utility reaches deal on plant: Dominion Va. Power loses proposed bonus for clean-burning facility.  Dominion had been pursuing a deal to have a proposed plant get a 1 percent bonus for being ready to be ‘clean’ via CCS, the regulatory body rejected that and took away the bonus. Poor Dominion VA Power.  For their aggressive pursuit of a polluting future, they will have to be satisfied with a guaranteed 12.12% profit, rather than a 13.12% profit.  Still my heart as the world’s smallest violin plays a song of mourning for Dominion Virginia Power and their serial polluting practices while the world sheds a tear.

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Operation Iraqi Freedom’s Global Warming implications are, of course, only a fraction of the conflict’s environmental impact: both directly and indirectly.  Over at Red, Green, and Blue, Ranjit Arab has an interesting post up: Tangled Up in Green: The Five Years War.

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