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Barbara Boxer is desperate for having Global Warming legislation under her belt.  Can there be a better explanation for her strong championing of the fatally-flawed Lieberman-Warner Climate (in) Security Act? (For a great discussion of CISA’s flaws, see this comment to a post by Environmental Defense at Grist defending CISA.)  A quick review:

• CISA would give 40% of pollution permits (between $500 to >$1000 billion in value) to serial polluters. This will make dealing with climate change more expensive for society while rewarding bad actors for their past bad behavior and lowering their incentives to change future behavior.
• CISA’s targets are inadequate according to the science.
• CISA has paths via an appointed board for weakening targets but not the potential for that same board to strengthen targets, if that is what is required.
• CISA heavily subsidizes carbon capture & sequestration (CCS), which is little more than science experiment at this time and uncertain whether it will make sense, rather than being more balanced in potential remedial paths into the future.
• And, so on …

According to E&E (behind firewall), Barbara Boxer has begun behind-the-scenes lobbying to whip up enough votes to get L-W through the Senate.  And, they are pushing hard on Republican “moderates”.

Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) said Boxer approached him on the House floor before Bush’s nationally televised speech on Monday. Asked if he remained undecided, Martinez replied, “I still am. I’ve been talking to Senator Boxer and I’m going to be studying it more carefully.” 

with John Warner (R-VA) noting:

“Democrats are very solid on this. I think the Republicans, particular the ones running for re-election, are going to recognize they can’t go back home and say in an empty message we haven’t done anything about global warming.” 

Yes, let us work hard to get something, anything, passed before the election rather than passing good legislation.

Now, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) commented that Lieberman-Warner might fail like immigration legislation,

“It’s so big, so complex and has so many parts, that it may fall of its own weight.”

We can only hope.

To take someone else’s words, when it comes to Lieberman-Warner, “Thank God for Friends of the Earth” and their voicing reason on CISA.

The battlelines are being drawn when it comes to what makes sensible legislation to respond to Global Warming.  Sadly, the lines are being drawn among the environmental community, with Global Warming Deniers, Skeptics, and Delayers watching the developing battle with amusement.

In December, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) committee passed out for full Senate consideration the Lieberman-Warner Climate (in)Security Act (CISA).  As discussed elsewhere, the CISA is fundamentally flawed.   Among its problems:

• Giveaway of $500+ billion in pollution permits, raising the cost and lowering the efficiency of the US economy’s finding a path toward a climate friendly society; and
• Inadequate targets for reducing CO2 to lower the risk of catastrophic climate change …

These are just a taste of the CISA problems.  Even with these known, serious, high-risk problems, too many people have found their way to praise LW, seemingly desperate to be able to claim victory on the Climate Change legislative front, even if this seeming battlefield victory could doom us to defeat in the war on Global Warming.

The CISA’s risks and inadequacies need daylight shown on them to either ensure fixing its faults or keeping it from going to George W Bush’s desk for signature. 

Earlier today, Friends of the Earth began a campaign to shine this light.

Fix or Ditch the Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill

After years of ignoring global warming, the U.S. Senate is finally considering legislation to cap greenhouse gas pollution. Unfortunately, the Lieberman-Warner bill being advanced by Senate Democrats lavishes up to $1 trillion on industries responsible for global warming, and in return asks for reduction targets well below what scientists say are necessary. If this is the best Senate Democrats can do, the world is in trouble.

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Yet again, Shell’s CEO, Jeroen van der Veer, has put himself out in public speaking truth that merits attention.  Last year, van der Veer made the case for serious energy efficiency as part of the energy path forward:

More than half the energy we generate every day is wasted.

What’s the point of producing even more energy if we continue to waste most of it? Instead, we should aim to become twice as efficient in our use of energy by the middle of the next century. That is entirely feasible, provided that the will is there.

I discussed that Times (London) oped in Powerful Call (by a powerful man) for Energy Efficiency.

Well, van der Veer has spoken up again.

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Amid all this crazy talk of economic problems around the globe and that irrational fearmongering about so-called “Global Warming”, our hearts should be warmed to hear that Exxon-Mobil is about to announce the largest corporate profits in world history:  $39 billion in 2007, $10.37 in the fourth quarter, just $111 million per day, just $4.4 million per hour, and a paltry $73,000.00 per second. 

Question: How many seconds for your annual household income?  More than it takes to read this paragraph?  If so, then you are likely to have been quite happy with George Bush’s tax increases on America’s unborn that have dug such an ugly hole in the US Government’s finances.

Remember that $13 billion in financing for renewable energy programs was dropped from the 2007 Energy Security Act due to the unfair burden this would place on Exxon and the four other largest oil companies.

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Energize America has joined 29 other organizations in writing to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to call on them to ensure that the stimulus package doesn’t put tax increases on America’s unborn, but

to make smart investments in longer-term, sustained economic prosperity by moving our nation towards a clean energy economy that provides employment opportunities for poor and working-class Americans.

Crisis translates to opportunity.  

The current crisis offers an opportunity to make choices for a more prosperous, climate-friendly America.

ACTION:  It is time to add all of our voices to this call.

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The world has changed. The sole face, the sole name that seems to compete with Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald or a Pokemon figure for instant awareness among children seems to be Martin Luther King.  The world does change. And, it can change for the better.

I have a dream …

Thus, my young children know who MLK is without even needing prompting from their parents.  He is, even for my 3-year old, a hero, a name of excitement and power.

Thus, they paid attention when I took them to hear the man who I told them might be, hopefully will be the Martin Luther King of the 21st Century:  Van Jones.

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Today’s Washington Post had a long story about electricity supply disruption in South Africa.  Reading it, a clear conclusion: South Africa hasn’t been building coal-fired electricity plants fast enough to keep up with growing demand. 

The blackouts are the result of surging demand and stagnant supply, exacerbated by a failed push toward privatization that made it difficult for Eskom to build the power plants needed to serve new customers in this country of 44 million. 

Yes, demand has been rising faster than supply, but the problem identified is not enough privatization.   

But, the article has not a word about demand destruction (controlling demand), efficiency, or renewable power.  There are tremendous opportunities for these in South Africa.

To the extent that distributed power generation made the discussion, it was about commercial establishments buying generators.

Again, whether solar power or small-scale wind, there are real opportunities for creating sustainable local systems to backup the grid.

The good news in the story: white and black, rich and poor, are all suffering disruptions in their electrical power supply, with rotating blackouts hitting all neighborhoods. [Read more →]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) gave a contract to the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) to do an analysis of Congressional websites; all 618 of them. Among the recipients of the Golden Mouse Award (warning: 115 page pdf), the highest available, the minority of the Senate Environmental & Public Works Committee.  This is, to remind you, the site of Senator James Inhofe (R-Exxon) and his Global Warming denier / skeptic crowd who regularly peddle misleading and false material to the nation, using their taxpayer funded site.

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The World Bank is a magnificent institution, with many tremendous people working at it, with a highly valuable large charter in terms of changing the world for the better.

The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. 

 our mission of global poverty reduction and the improvement of living standards. … we provide low-interest loans, interest-free credit and grants to developing countries for education, health, infrastructure, communications and many other purposes.

Sadly, as is all too known by anyone who pays attention, the World Bank’s core charter does not speak to sustainability, does not address ensuring that the path for generating wealth does not foster disaster for tomorrow.

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According to Washington Post reporting, the coal industry is using an Astroturf organization, the Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, to wage a $35 million dollar effort to gain traction in the 2008 Presidential campaign for a more polluting future for America and the Globe.  (Note, this is not how the Post described it, but less face facts …)

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