Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1212

Green Portfolio Program achieves $160 million in savings after two years

Guest blogger Tom Murray is Managing Director of Corporate Partnerships for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

Earlier this month, private equity leader Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (KKR) and EDF announced the updated program results for the partnership that Environmental Defense Fund helped jumpstart in 2008 – The Green Portfolio Program – that harnesses environmental management and innovation to improve the financial and environmental performance of KKR's portfolio companies. The results ...

Exxon CEO: As an industry, "we are not well equipped" to handle oil disasters

ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told Congress we must do everything possible to prevent offshore drilling disasters, because once they occur, there is not any way to stop the damage. By admitting the unavoidable risk of catastrophe, Tillerson exploded the myths — promoted by the oil industry and right-wing supporters — that offshore drilling is "environmentally safe," and that the industry can handle these disasters when they occur.  TP's Brad Johnson has the story.

Tillerson made the...

Roy Spencer's satellite data website: "The temperature on 06/15/2010 is 457.23 deg F warmer than this day last year." - Hansen was right all along: We've become friggin' Venus!

This mistake won't be on Spencer's and Braswell's Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit satellite data plotting website for long, so here's a screen grab:

[Insert your joke here.:]

And yet Accuweather's expert long-range forecaster Joe Bastardi insists, "Keep in mind, the only records to 'trust' are 30 years of objective satellite measurements."

Seriously, though, there are two reasons I am wasting time tweaking Spencer on this.  First, for a long time, I (and many others) have been urging...

Can you solve global warming without talking about global warming? - Let's be clear: Strong action to reduce carbon pollution is crucial to preserving clean air, clean water, and a livable climate for our children.

In his analysis of Obama's primetime speech, WashPost blogger Ezra Klein underscores a point that I've made many times here:

To expand a bit on a point I made on Rachel Maddow's show, I'm just not sure how you do a response to climate change if you can't really say the words "climate change." And that's where we are right now: The actual problem we're trying to solve is politically, if not scientifically, controversial. And so politicians, rather than continuing to try to convince the...

Energy and Global Warming News for June 17th: First 4,400 Volt buyers to get free chargers

First 4,400 Volt buyers to get free chargers

General Motors will offer the first 4,400 buyers of its Chevrolet Volt the option of having a 240-volt charging station installed in their home when the car is released this fall, the company said Thursday.

The Volt is General Motors' upcoming plug-in electric car that promises a range of 40 miles on electricity alone before one is forced to switch to gas for fuel. GM refers to it as an extended-range electric vehicle, or EREV, instead of a hybrid...

Conservatives to Obama: Leave BP alone! - Joe Barton says it is "a tragedy of the first proportion" that BP agreed to Obama's request to set up a $20 billion fund to compensate Americans -- and then he apologizes to BP CEO Hayward!

At first it was only fringe libertarians who defended BP (see ).  But the dam broke yesterday when the mainstream conservatives of the Republican Study Committee labeled the $20 billion BP escrow account for victims of the tragedy a "Chicago-style political shakedown."

Today, in a must-see video from the House hearing, Joe Global Warming 'Is A Net Benefit To Mankind' Barton (R-TX) called the fund a "tragedy" and then apologized to BP ...

BP CEO testifying in Waxman hearing now

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GOP congressional candidate: The federal government and BP colluded to spill oil in the Gulf

The right-wing's favorite new conspiracy theory, via TP.

Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, disgraced FEMA director Michael Brown went on Fox News and claimed that the Obama administration wanted the devastating oil spill as an excuse to backtrack on its offshore drilling plan. Around the same time, Rush Limbaugh unleashed a conspiracy theory suggesting that someone intentionally blew up the rig in order to "head off more oil drilling." After widespread mockery and...

Dirty energy lobbyist-turned-Governor Barbour is concerned that escrow account will cut into BP's profits: "It bothers me"

BP and the Obama administration agreed upon on a $20 billion escrow account overseen by an independent third party that will handle claims from individuals and businesses affected by the company's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. "We need to make sure that the interests of people in the Gulf are protected," senior White House adviser David Axelrod said on Sunday.  As TP reports, however, conservatives hate the idea of corporate accountability.

Sticking with the "Obama is a socialist"...

When asked about Obama's prayer for the Gulf, Gingrich says he "hopes he means it."

On Tuesday, Obama delivered a national address on BP's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. "We pray for the people of the Gulf, and we pray that a hand may guide us through the storm towards a greater day," Obama said. Next morning, Fox and Friends invited former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to find fault with Obama's prayer.  In this repost, TP has the story of the man who would be president in 2012.

The hosts asked Gingrich — whose new book warns that progressives are trying to impose a...