Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) wants to pay for nuclear loan guarantees and clean energy incentives in exchange for one of our most precious natural treasures, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Kristen Miller of the Alaska Wilderness League has the story:
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Illusory revenues from ANWR strike again
March 13, 2010
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The best argument against global warming
March 12, 2010
Dr. Peter Gleick is co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California. He wrote a great op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, with that terrific Matt Groening cartoon:
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Energy and Global Warming News for March 12th: China finds itself awash in wind turbine factories; Japan’s cabinet endorses cap-and-trade bill
March 12, 2010China finds itself awash in wind turbine factories
China’s massive investment in wind turbines, fueled by its government’s renewable energy goals, has caused the value of the turbines to tumble more than 30 percent from 2004 levels, the vice president of Shanghai Electric Group Corp. said yesterday.
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Reframing the debate on climate science
March 12, 2010This guest post by communications expert Hunter Cutting is part of an ongoing Climate Progress series on climate messaging.
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The disinformers are winning, but mostly with the GOP
New Gallup poll shows sharp partisan divide in understanding of climate change
March 11, 2010
The partisan divide on climate science has been growing for a while, as I discussed in a 2008 review of the Gallup polling. No surprise, really, since the anti-science disinformation campaign uses “experts” that are more credible to conservatives, and that disinformation is repeated to death on conservative media outlets.
Now Gallup has updated its polling and just now released its own analysis, “Conservatives’ Doubts About Global Warming Grow,” with this fascinating ideological breakdown that shows how the divide has grown in the past 2 years:
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Wattergate: Tamino debunks “just plain wrong” Anthony Watts
March 11, 2010The leading anti-science blogger in the country, Anthony Watts, owes NOAA scientists an apology. So far, he’s passing the buck.
The former TV weatherman coauthored a “report” with Joe D’Aleo, “Surface Temperature Record: Policy Driven Deception?” accusing top U.S. scientists of various kinds of misfeasance and malfeasance in the global temperature record. I’m not linking to it because most of the report’s claims had already been long debunked (see Must-read NOAA paper smacks down Anthony Watts — Q: “Is there any question that surface temperatures in the United States have been rising rapidly during the last 50 years?” A: “None at all.”)
The blogger Tamino of “Open Mind,” has been dismantling one of Watts’ few new claims and wrote last week:
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Energy and Global Warming News for March 11: Rural utility loan bill designed to spur efficiency; Poverty and tyranny central to immoral practice of mountaintop destruction, water and air poisoning — RFK, Jr.
March 11, 2010Members introduce rural utility loan bill designed to spur energy efficiency efforts
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill today to provide homeowners and businesses with low-interest loans to make energy efficiency improvements to cut their energy use.
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Rep. Inslee: “This is a moment for scientists to channel their inner Rambo.”
Tells Senators to "put away your fear" and unleash clean energy jobs
March 11, 2010One of the Congress’s true leaders on clean energy and climate, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), was speaking at the Center for American Progress last week. Both Brad Johnson and I had a chance to interview him.
The above video was actually the second half of my (F)lip-camera interview. Here’s where Inslee explains the science and the need for action on clean energy — in a short elevator ride:
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You can support Van Jones and clean energy jobs
March 11, 2010So The Economist is running an online debate about green jobs with online voting. And they have used a poorly worded debate “motion” — some might call it a set up — “This house believes that creating green jobs is a sensible aspiration for governments.”
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Big Oil uses fake “Americans” to attack fake “energy taxes.”
March 11, 2010The American Petroleum Institute is using fake “Americans” to defend billions in tax subsidies, as WonkRoom’s Brad Johnson explains in this repost. API is running full-page ads in Politico and Roll Call that attack Congress for “new energy taxes” — using stock photos:
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Vote for Climate Progress in TreeHugger’s Best of Green Awards
March 10, 2010
Why should you vote for ClimateProgress in TreeHugger’s Best of Green Awards 2010 Readers Choice in the category of Best Political Website (click here to vote)?
Sure, you like the insider’s view of climate science, solution, and politics delivered every day to you for free. But the other nominees are pretty darn good, too.
Well, set aside all issues of merit, look at the competition, and vote strategically:
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Nature editorial: “Scientists must now emphasize the science, while acknowledging that they are in a street fight.”
Nature News: "Attack sparks memories of McCarthy witch-hunt."
March 10, 2010Nature, the highly respected British scientific journal, has an excellent editorial and news story tomorrow on the recent assault on climate science (excerpted below).
Taking Nature’s advice, I urge the administration to send science advisor Holdren and NOAA Administrator Lubchenco and Energy Secretary Chu on a media blitz and national tour to explain and emphasize the science.
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Glenn Beck Attacks You!
March 10, 2010A must-see video, but it only works if you have a Facebook account (click here).
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ConocoPhillips chair mocks clean energy advocates as “hydrocarbon deniers”
CEO of Saudi Aramco worries about "a bottleneck" in oil production. Seriously!
March 10, 2010
Oil prices and profits are on the rise again. The anti-science disinformation campaign funded in large part by Big Oil is having unimaginable success. And the powerful minority of do-nothing ideologues appear to have the upper hand in the Senate.
And that means a modern day Mr. Potter oil company executive can speak his mind and tell us what he really thinks of clean energy, as Greenwire (subs. req’d) reports:
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Energy and Global Warming News for March 10: Climate’s a hot issue in Arkansas; New Senate ‘gang’ gathering on energy?
March 10, 2010Climate’s a hot issue in Arkansas
Arkansas is rapidly emerging as ground zero for climate politics, as advocates from all sides swarm embattled incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln.
Lincoln’s approval rating — at an all-time low of 27 percent — has made her one of the most politically endangered Democrats in the Senate. Last week, Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter jumped into the race, posing a serious challenge from the left to the conservative Democrat.
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The Do-Nothing Energy Tax: $3 Gasoline Dead Ahead
March 10, 2010
As long as we keep taking no serious action on climate and clean energy, there’s nothing to stop the energy bills of Americans from rising. Daniel J. Weiss, CAP’s Director of Climate Strategy, explains what’s in store this summer.
The mounds of snow blackened by auto exhaust have barely melted in Washington, D.C, yet the Energy Information Administration’s Short Term Energy Outlook already predicts that:
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USA Today: Some scientists misread poll data on global warming controversy
Stanford researcher: "It is certainly possible that public confidence in climate scientists has declined since our last survey in December, but it's not likely."
March 10, 2010Polling data is misunderstood and misread all of the time. The public strongly supports action on climate and clean energy legislation, even if it raises their energy bill by $10 a month, but even (lazy) environmentalists are unaware of that.
Now it turns out that polling on the science may be equally misunderstood, as USA Today reported Tuesday:
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American farm bureau’s Rick Krause lies to farmers about EPA ‘cow tax’
March 9, 2010The American Farm Bureau is continuing to lie to farmers about the threat of Clean Air Act regulation of greenhouse gases. Brad Johnson has the story in this Wonk Room repost.
The Bureau, the largest lobbying group for American agriculture, denies the threat of global warming of farming, instead fearmongering for years about a mythical “cow tax.” Speaking to members of the Kansas Farm Bureau yesterday, AFB lobbyist Rick Krause claimed the Environmental Protection Agency “will require all farms with more than 25 dairy cows and more than 50 head of beef cattle or 200 head of hogs to get a Clean Air Permit”:
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The Lazy Environmentalist joins the circular firing squad
Dorfman on HuffPost: "Let's Stop Debating Global Warming, Instead Convince People To Solve It"
March 9, 2010I understand why anti-science disinformers like Marc Morano kick climate science messaging when it’s down. But why Josh Dorfman?
The Host of “The Lazy Environmentalist” writes on Huffpost how he got truck drivers and other car enthusiasts excited by the “fast speeds, raw power, and American self-reliance” of electric cars running on American electricity. Cool. I’m all for it. Been pushing electric drive vehicles myself for quite some time. Heck, been pushing the American self-reliance pitch a long, long time (see my 1996 Atlantic Monthly article, “MidEast Oil Forever”).
But then he feels obliged to join the circular firing squad:
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American Petroleum tells lawmakers it supports carbon fee because it’s easier to demonize
March 9, 2010
The bipartisan effort of Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Kerry (D-MA), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to craft comprehensive clean energy legislation that caps global warming pollution has brought some positive words from Big Oil and their political allies. Brad Johnson explains why in this Wonk Room repost.
In particular, the senators are considering a proposal by ConocoPhillips, BP America and ExxonMobil to exclude petroleum producers and refiners from a carbon market and instead levy a carbon fee. “Once you have oil people saying, ‘We can live with this, this was our idea,’ then hopefully everybody else begins to look at this thing anew,” Graham told reporters. “That’s the hope.” However, the American Petroleum Institute’s Jack Gerard explained that the “support” from the oil industry for a carbon fee on petroleum will come in the form of “signs at the gas pump letting people know they’re paying more because of U.S. efforts to deal with climate change”:
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