Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1218

Energy and Global Warming News for June 14: Twilight of the Coal Era? Natural gas, concentrating PV and advanced heat pumps

Twilight of the Coal Era?

The electricity market is in the doldrums, but the market for new generating stations that use natural gas is going strong, industry experts say. Why? Because gas is beginning to replace coal, according to Randy H. Zwirn, president of the Siemens Power Generation Group.

On Monday, Siemens is announcing that it has won contracts to supply five new high-efficiency gas plants to Progress Energy at two sites in North Carolina that have old coal-fired generators. It is...

PolitiFact labels "false" McConnell's claim Kerry-Lieberman climate bill "essentially written by BP"

The right-wing invents Rube Goldberg pro-pollution talking points faster than BP invents Rube Goldberg strategies to stop their undersea volcano.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been desperately trying to link the climate bill to BP.  As PolitiFact reports, he actually said in a June 9 floor speech

"The problem for Democrats is that debating the Democrat cap-and-trade bill might not fit neatly into the White House messaging plan, since it's been widely reported that a major...

After spouting anti-government rhetoric, Rubio solicits "assistance of the federal government" on oil disaster

Right-wing Florida senatorial candidate Marco Rubio is yet one more hypocritical conservative "suddenly discovering their inner FDR."

Earlier this month, ThinkProgress reported that — despite her much-publicized opposition to strong government action — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) slammed President Obama for not using his executive authority to "commandeer" boats in the Gulf region to "deal with that oil plume as it was coming up in the water."

And during an interview with Sean Hannity...

Pelosi: We'll stop blaming Bush "when the problems go away."

The speaker of the House says it better than anyone on MSNBC:

The news story is here.

Related Posts:

Cheney's culture of deregulation and corruption
Did the GOP hamper Obama administration oversight of oil drilling?

Webcast: Reducing Our Oil Dependence - 9:30 am ET: Sen. Merkley (D-OR) and panel of experts

Streaming Video today:  Click here to watch the event live.

Details on the event:

Our dependence on oil is not sustainable. The United States has only 2 percent of the world's oil reserves, yet we use one-quarter of the oil produced annually. One in five barrels of U.S. oil comes from countries that the State Department considers to be "dangerous or unstable." The BP oil disaster is a tragic reminder of the human, economic, public health, and environmental costs of oil dependence. And growing...

Drive Star: We can cut oil use in half by 2020 - CalCars' Kramer writes Obama's JFK energy moonshot speech

"I am not willing to be the latest in a succession of Presidents telling you we're going to end our addiction to oil. Finally, it's time to begin. Oil is holding us all hostage, economically and physically. If terrorists had poisoned 40% of our wetlands and 25% of our fisheries, we wouldn't ask, "How much will it cost to fight back? The good news? At last we have ways to get far within a few years, not over decades! And it will cost much less than you think."

Tuesday night, President Obama...

Drive Star: We can cut oil use in half by 2020 - Calcars' Kramer writes Obama's JFK energy moonshot speech

"I am not willing to be the latest in a succession of Presidents telling you we're going to end our addiction to oil. Finally, it's time to begin. Oil is holding us all hostage, economically and physically. If terrorists had poisoned 40% of our wetlands and 25% of our fisheries, we wouldn't ask, "How much will it cost to fight back? The good news? At last we have ways to get far within a few years, not over decades! And it will cost much less than you think."

Tuesday night, President Obama...

The unbearable lameness of being (Rahm and Axelrod) - Obama to address nation on BP disaster Tuesday, asserting it "echoes 9/11," vows he'll use his presidency to insure country embraces "new way of doing business when it comes to energy."

When it comes to a cap on carbon, the White House's strategy for 18 months has been to speak softly and … nothing more. Now the oil spill has forced Obama to ramp up his rhetoric. Does he mean it this time? Either he starts fighting or he doesn't. The "stealth strategy" is inoperative. The White House can't fake it any more.

That's Eric Pooley, former managing editor of Fortune, in an email to me about his new book, The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the...

The unbearable lameness of being (Rahm and Axelrod) - Obama to address nation on BP disaster Tuesday, asserting it "echoes 9/11," vows he'll use rest of his presidency to insure country embraces "new way of doing business when it comes to energy."

When it comes to a cap on carbon, the White House's strategy for 18 months has been to speak softly and … nothing more. Now the oil spill has forced Obama to ramp up his rhetoric. Does he mean it this time? Either he starts fighting or he doesn't. The "stealth strategy" is inoperative. The White House can't fake it any more.

That's Eric Pooley, former managing editor of Fortune, in an email to me about his new book out, The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save...

Palin tells Hannity, "I read Newsmax," the right-wing publisher bids for Newsweek, and who gets a fawning cover from the "money bleeding magazine"?

HuffPost asks, "How do you generate buzz if you're a magazine up for sale and fighting claims of irrelevance?"

Since you've already shown Palin's legs on the cover back in November — to much consternation – now you have to flip the classic dual image of women and make her a saint.  As if — see, for instance, Shill, baby, shill: Sarah Palin to "Extreme Enviros: Drill, Baby, Drill in ANWR – Now Do You Get It?"

The near-death news magazine is on the chopping block, and we learned earlier this...