Domenici (R-NM) weighs in. Turns out he cares most about nukes and the poor
Let me summarize his remarks:
Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear.
We didn’t have any new nuclear plant orders until the Energy Policy Act [with its absurdly lavish subsidies and loan guarantees — Note, Domenici is proud of this].
Oil and gas prices blah, blah….
For those living paycheck to paycheck, the price at the pump is the difference between getting by or going into debt.
[Honestly — It is only during climate debates that conservatives sound like bleeding hearts who actually care about the poor and working class.]
… jeopardize global competitiveness …
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
thanks for the live bloging - enjoyed it!
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Los Alamos, NEW MEXICO. ‘Nuff said.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:09 am
The Siberian peat bogs are melting here just around the corner. They say the carbon in these “perma”frost bogs is hundred times more than all carbon in the atmosphere. 3.5 meter deep bog, melting 3.5 centimeter per year, makes that we reach 1000 ppm in a decade? Or in five years?
What about 10 000 ppm in a hundred years? Why not, you calculate.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:36 am
The problem with the bill is that it does not maximize deployment. Think back to the wonderful weeks of Breakthrough and Pielke. The number one priority is accelerated deployment of currently available technologies and efficiencies.
The cap part of the bill is not the problem. The trade part is.
The first principle of the market that is to be created should be maximizing the economic benefit of deployment. The limited auction in the bill (rightly seen as a tax or fee on large emitters) does nothing directly to favor deployment. Worst of all, it not only locks out the consumer, it even forces the consumer to bear the ultimate costs.
The auction system does not create a market. It only brings a lot of revenue to the government. In a real sense, it does not provide anything to trade. A market needs a currency, widely circulated and easily exchangeable. Everyone from the largest corporation to the lowest individual must be able to earn this currency. In most markets, money serves as the currency, but in this market a new currency must be developed. A properly drawn Cap/Trade system would give a CO2 value to every alternative or efficiency. This is a true market solution. The very thing you want most - deployment across the board at all levels - is the powerful engine of the market. Most importantly, it at long last allows consumer participation and influence in the market.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:39 am
Finnjor,
As long as you don’t dig up the peat and burn it, the carbon will stay right where it is. Methane, of course, is a different story.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:01 am
Oil and gas prices is rocking the whole world at the moment and let the government forget all the nuclear issues and concentrate on climate and environmental issues!
June 7th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
According to the laws of Physics global warming is impossible through any action of any trace gases in the atmosphere. Gasses cannot cause any backradiation of heat. Also any heat absorbed by gasses causes them rise and the heat is disbursed into the troposphere, thus no surface warming.