Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1177

EDF Video: 40 years of talk and still no action - Send Obama an email on the climate and clean energy bill

A Plea from Fellow Americans to President Obama: We Need You to Lead America to a Clean Climate & Energy Future

Good video from the Environmental Defense Fund below — and you can send Obama an email yourself (click here):

The time to act was decades ago, but now is a lot better than later.

Battle over California climate law pits polluters against clean energy economy - Victory for Texas oil interests would have national ripple effect

[image error] At CP, we'll be following California's fight to preserve its landmark global warming and clean energy laws against Texas oil interests throughout the summer and leading up to the Nov. 2 election.  Here is a nice post from Solve Climate that frames the issue well. If you see other good pieces, send them our way.

This is not your father's classic "tree hugger" vs. "big business" fracas.

Instead, a Nov. 2 ballot initiative aimed at derailing California's landmark global warming legislation...

Sharron Angle calls BP's $20 billion account to pay oil spill claims 'a slush fund' — then quickly flip flops

The GOBP is sounding more and more like Roseanne Roseannadanna ever day.  Think Progress has the story of the latest conservative politician to blurt pro-Big-Oil nonsense and follow it with a quick "nevermind" retraction in this cross-post.

Many conservatives have been criticizing the Obama administration for what they regard as a harsh treatment of BP in the wake of its Gulf oil spill. Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul called the White House pressure on BP "." Rep. Joe...

In a bizarre self-inflicted wound, The New Republic hires right-wing misinformer to debunk its articles - Jim Manzi's flawed critique of Al Gore's piece

Why would you trust a magazine that doesn't trust itself?  In a baffling display of 'balance as bias' — or perhaps 'balance as baloney' — The New Republic has hired right-wing misinformer Jim Manzi to spread confusion about their articles.

Maybe magazines don't bother employing fact checkers anymore, but when I coauthored the cover story for the Atlantic Monthly in 1996, "MidEast Oil Forever?" Drifting Toward Disaster, the magazine not only edited the piece, they made me provide a credible...

Energy and Global Warming News for July 8: Heat waves could be commonplace in the US by 2039; Methane releases in Arctic Seas could wreack havoc

By 2039, most of the US could experience at least four seasons equally as intense as the hottest season ever recorded from 1951-1999, according to Stanford University climate scientists. In most of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, the number of extremely hot seasons could be as high as seven.

Heat waves could be commonplace in the US by 2039, Stanford study finds

Exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next 30 years...

The food–energy–water nexus in China

China's rapidly growing economy is very quickly testing the limits of its resource constraints. While China is home to a quarter of the world's population, it is endowed with disproportionately less arable land, oil and water.

Such natural resources are vital to any nation's ability to be self-sufficient, but China's predicament is especially dire not only because of its large population, but also its rapid urbanization and climate change, both of which will exert more intensive...

Majority of judges hearing drilling moratorium appeal attended oil-funded junkets

Last month, Judge Martin Feldman, a federal trial judge in Louisiana, handed down a poorly-reasoned opinion lifting the Obama Administration's temportary moratorium on new oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.  Feldman  owned stock in Exxon and other drilling companies.

Today in New Orleans, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will consider whether to stay Feldman's decision. According to a new report by the Alliance for Justice, however, it is unlikely...

Climate scientist: "Positive carbon-climate feedback is still very likely" — and even without "a runaway feedback," warming will be "substantial and critical" - Plus a review of recent research on amplifying feedbacks

As the United States, like much of the rest of the world, bakes in record, killer heat, climate scientists continue to refine our understanding of the dire future of global warming in the years to come. The United Nations has named the 831 scientists who will author the fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, to be published in 2013 with new model runs and observations of the ongoing destruction of our habitable environment.

They do this work despite the endless...

BP slated to claim $600 million in ethanol tax credits this year

There are many reasons to dislike corn ethanol (see "The Fuel on the Hill — The Corn Supremacy" and "More corn ethanol = Bigger Gulf dead zone" and links below).  Wonk Room has one more reason in this cross-post

Yesterady, I [Pat Garofalo:] pointed to a Stateline report about state government struggling to cut wasteful tax subsidies for corporations, even when they are faced with billions in budget shortfalls. And the federal government has a similar problem with promulgating tax...

Rep. Tiahrt on the oil spill: 'accidents will happen'

Kansas Republican Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt, who are challenging each other for the state's U.S. Senate seat, faced off in a debate Tuesday hosted by Topeka's NBC 27 television station. Both of the men were trying to one-up each other, attempting to prove who is the most right wing.  TP has the story.

One contentious issue was immigration, where Moran hit Tiahrt for once supporting the DREAM Act, which would provide undocumented high school graduates a path to legal residency...