Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1207

Futbol's Footprint

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is being broadcast this month in dozens of languages to viewers all over the planet. At its best, the world's soccer tournament promises to remind its audience that they share a planet, a community, and a future as well as a favorite sport.

But at its worst, the World Cup threatens to create a greenhouse...

Energy and Global Warming News for June 24: Texas oil firms bankroll CA ballot initiative to kill clean energy jobs, climate action; GE to spend $10 billion on cleantech R&D this decade

Texas oil firms behind California greenhouse gas initiative

California is headed for another showdown over greenhouse gases.

A citizen's ballot initiative approved Tuesday could suspend AB32, the state's landmark 2006 law mandating a 25 percent reduction in industrial greenhouse gases by 2020.

Backed by manufacturers and Texas oil companies Valero Energy Inc. and Tesoro Corp., the ballot initiative would halt enforcement of the law until California unemployment, now at over 12 percent...

Tony Blair for BP chairman?

I was interviewed on British radio today and was asked about this idea.  Seemed hard to believe — Blair is a climate activist and this is a no-win, resume-destroying job.

But some British pundits are actually proposing this radical solution to BP's PR woes (see "Tony Blair is the right man to be BP chairman" and "Tony Blair's Hiring Is Step One in a BP Comeback: Matthew Lynn."

Why Blair?

"The former British prime minister is a brilliant communicator. They love him in the U.S. He already...

Yet another major poll finds strong public support for global warming action, "even if it means an increase in the cost of energy"

The drumbeat of public support for comprehensive clean energy and global warming policies beats louder every day.  The latest Wall Street Journal-NBC Poll found overwhelming support for comprehensive clean energy legislation that includes carbon pollution reductions.  It also registered that cleaning up the BP oil disaster and energy reform is the number two priority of Americans.  Finally, it registered another drop in support for the expansion of offshore oil drilling.

CAP's Daniel J...

Tea Party favorite for OK Governor: BP oil disaster proves government should "never be involved in the private sector"

Rep. Joe Barton's (GOBP-TX) apology to embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward for the government's efforts to ensure compensation for Gulf coast residents last week highlighted two competing visions of government. The first is the progressive vision, that says government should aggressively champion the public interest, holding massive corporations accountable. The second, Barton's, is the reflexive conservative embrace of big corporations.

GOP state senator Randy Brogdon (OK), who is the "tea...

Peak readership for anti-science blogs? - Tobis: Denyosphere Jumps the Shark

Comparative traffic rankings are always dicey — certainly Alexa.com is unreliable.  Compete.com is considered perhaps the best available.  Click on image for  larger figure of ranking over 12 months, which shows the rise and fall of the anti-science crowd.

Back on March 26, Watts wrote, "Traffic has slowed from about half of what it was during the heady days of Climategate and Copenhagen in December, but I note that this is not unique to WUWT, as other climate blogs have also experienced...

Joe Barton is the sorriest man in town. He retracts the retraction of the apology for his apology to BP.

The above tweet appeared from Joe Barton (GOBP-TX) today.  It seemed to retract the apology for Barton's apology to BP, which had saved Barton's job (see "Who's sorry now?").  It was quickly removed and then Barton's press secretary fell on his sword to protect his boss.  TP has the story:

Shortly after Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward for what he called a White House "shakedown" of the oil company, the Texas congressman apologized for apologizing. "I apologize for...

Podesta: Canada's "green tar sands" like our "error-free deepwater drilling" and "clean coal"

John Podesta, the head of an influential center-left think tank here in DC,  whose many alumni populate the Obama administration, gave a keynote speech at a forum this morning about the "Greening the Oil Sands" put on by Canada 2020. Podesta said that he didn't want to be the "skunk" at the party, but he still managed to drop quite a stink-bomb into a gathering otherwise focused on promoting the environmental measures underway in Alberta.

That's how Canada's only national weekly current...

Obama shows backbone in the 'lithium war', will he show it in the carbon war?

TP reports, "Speaking from the White House Rose Garden this afternoon, President Obama announced that he has accepted Gen. Stanley McChrystal resignation as head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, following the four-star general's unprofessional remarks in a Rolling Stone interview."

Okay, this decision is only indirectly connected to clean energy, although the Pentagon very much wants us to understand that Afghanistan is "the Saudi Arabia of lithium," an element that will be crucial to...

Obama shows backbone in the lithium war, will he show it in the carbon war?

TP reports, "Speaking from the White House Rose Garden this afternoon, President Obama announced that he has accepted Gen. Stanley McChrystal resignation as head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, following the four-star general's unprofessional remarks in a Rolling Stone interview."

Okay, this decision is only indirectly connected to clean energy, although the Pentagon very much wants us to understand that Afghanistan is "the Saudi Arabia of lithium," an element that will be crucial to...