Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1158

EPA strongly reaffirms scientific basis for regulating greenhouse gas emissions that endanger public health

EPA determined in December 2009 that climate change caused by emissions of greenhouse gases threatens the public's health and the environment. Since then, EPA received ten petitions challenging this determination. On July 29, 2010, EPA denied these petitions.

The petitions to reconsider EPA's "Endangerment Finding" claimed that climate science can't be trusted, and asserted a conspiracy that calls into question the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , the

How the status quo media failed on climate change

The Washington Post has one of the best op-ed analyses of the climate bill I've seen.  In the print edition, it's titled "How Washington failed on climate change."

The irony is that it is by Stephen Stromberg, "Deputy opinions editor of washingtonpost.com."  He get two thirds of the blame about right.  First, he notes, "With few exceptions, Republicans have behaved shamefully on climate issues in this Congress, opposing policies that their party embraced in the 1990s (think...

Taking advantage of Citizens United, dirty coal groups form 527 to elect industry-friendly Republicans

Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported on coal baron Don Blankenship's foray into the 2010 congressional elections in West Virginia, where he has contributed thousands of dollars to help elect coal-friendly Republicans. One of the candidates, Spike Maynard, previously served as chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and vacationed with Blankenship on the French Riviera while his company, Massey Energy, had millions of dollars in cases pending before Maynard's court.

But...

EXCLUSIVE: Sandra Bullock disowns BP-backed greenwashing campaign

Academy Award-winning actress and New Orleans resident Sandra Bullock has severed her involvement in a campaign to call attention to the BP spill, after learning from ThinkProgress that it was a greenwashing effort by the oil industry.

Bullock is prominently featured in the Restore the Gulf campaign, run by Women of the Storm and sponsored by America's Wetland Foundation.

In an online video with other major celebrities, Bullock called for American people to "speak up" and "sign the...

Energy and Global Warming News for July 29th: Electric carmakers focus on incentives; China, India shift to gas in quest for clean growth; New CA poll shows steady support for state's climate-change law

New poll shows steady support for state's climate-change law, while opposition to drilling shoots up

The state's climate-change law, AB 32, has been a hot topic on the campaign trail this year — with the Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate branding it as a "job-killer," as opponents of the law marshal support for a November ballot measure that would suspend implementation until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5% for a year.

But despite the controversy over the...

Big Oil showdown in California: A bipartisan partnership to defeat Proposition 23

George Schultz, former Ronald Reagan Administration Secretary of State, and Tom Steyer, CAP Board member, have teamed up as the co-chairs of Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs, the effort to fight Big Oil's Proposition 23 on the California ballot this coming November. Prop 23 is Big Oil's blatant attempt to destroy California's landmark climate bill and supporting clean energy legislation.

What makes this unlikely partnership so significant is that in addition to his duties leading...

Report finds big clean energy opportunity in the South. If we only had a renewable electricity standard

Potential Utility-Scale Generation in the South

The dramatically scaled-back energy and oil-spill bill released by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday lacks both a carbon pricing mechanism and a renewable electricity standard (RES).  While support for a RES increased as the chances of passing more substantive legislation dwindled, Reid insists that 60 votes for an RES simply do not exist in this Senate.  That is particularly true for an RES that would actually push renewables beyond b...

More climate baby steps: Federal government to reduce its own carbon pollution by 100 million tons

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With hopes of squeezing a national clean energy and climate bill out of the 111th Congress rapidly dimming, many are now asking whether the federal government can use its existing authority to reduce global warming pollution. One issue on which the Obama Administration has shown leadership is in using executive authority to reduce the emissions of the federal government itself (see here).  CAPAF's Sean Pool has the story.

Last week, the President upped his ante by announcing that the federal g...

After the hottest decade on record, it's the hottest year on record, hottest week of all time in satellite record* and we may be at record low Arctic sea ice volume - But how about the world's heaviest hailstone?

FoxNews had me on twice for the big snowstorms (during the hottest winter on record), but no invitations during the record-smashing heat waves hitting the nation and world.  Go figure!

This is Roy Spencer's much rejiggered UAH satellite data comparing 2010 lower trososphere temperatures (green) with average temps (blue) and record highs since 1979 (purple):

*It would appear we've set the all-time record high absolute temperature in the satellite dataset for the last week or two, but see John...

After the hottest decade on record, it's the hottest year on record, hottest week of all time in satellite record, and we may be at record low Arctic sea ice volume - But how about the world's heaviest hailstone?

FoxNews had me on twice for the big snowstorms (during the hottest winter on record), but no invitations during the record-smashing heat waves hitting the nation and world.  Go figure!

This is Roy Spencer's much rejiggered UAH satellite data comparing 2010 lower trososphere temperatures (green) with average temps (blue) and record highs since 1979 (purple):

It would appear we've set the all-time record high absolute temperature in the satellite dataset for the last week or two.

NOAA's annual...