Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1242

Politico: "Signs of life" for climate bill - Murkowski "dirty air" Amendment vote June 10 will be a key test

The inside-the-beltway media mavens at the Politico report today that the Senate climate and clean energy jobs bill has a heartbeat:

EXCLUSIVE – BIG SUMMER AHEAD FOR ENERGY LEGISLATION: Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a meeting of climate/energy chairs (Kerry/Boxer/Bingaman/Baucus/Rockefeller/Lincoln) for June 10, and asked them to give him feedback on the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act by June 8. "Shows new urgency – feeling very good," a Senate leadership source...

Stavins on Senate climate bill: "82% of the value of allowances accrue to consumers and public purposes, and some 18% accrue to covered, private industry."

Harvard economist Robert Stavins analyzes the American Power Act's allowance distribution in this repost .  Here are his main conclusions:

Going forward, many observers and participants in the policy process may continue to question the wisdom of some elements of the Kerry-Lieberman proposal, including its allowance allocation.  There's nothing wrong with that.

But let's be clear that, first, for the most part, the specific allocation of free allowances affects neither the...

Why do we give oil companies such large subsidies?

How can we hold oil companies more accountable? Sima Gandhi, Senior Policy Analyst at CAP has the scoop in this "ask the expert" video:

For more information, see:

The Big Oil Discount by Sima J. Gandhi
Eliminating Tax Subsidies for Oil Companies by Sima J. Gandhi

MN professor eviscerates Monckton in must-see video - TVMOB's talk proves "how easy it is to fabricate data."

"The number of errors Chris Monckton makes is so enormous it would take a thesis to go through every single one of them."

The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (TVMOB) is a shameless purveyor of hate speech and anti-science disinformation (see links below).

Nonetheless, you rarely sees such a thorough debunking of an anti-science disinformer as this astonishing point-by-point evisceration put together by John Abraham, an engineering professor at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, MN.

One of the t...

NOAA expects "active to extremely active" Atlantic hurricane season - 95% of above normal seasons have 2 Gulf hurricanes, 50% have at least one in June-July

Across the entire Atlantic Basin for the six-month season, which begins June 1, NOAA is projecting a 70 percent probability of the following ranges:

*  14 to 23 Named Storms (top winds of 39 mph or higher), including:

*  8 to 14 Hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or higher), of which:

*  3 to 7 could be Major Hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of at least 111 mph)

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center issued its seasonal outlook today.

It is a worrisome.  Administrator Lubchenco, says, "If this ...

Fox news anchors: "We can't trust BP"

Five weeks into the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of the United States, even the right-wing Fox networks are turning on BP, the foreign oil behemoth responsible for the undersea oil volcano now fouling the shores of Louisiana.  Brad Johnson has the story in this TP repost.

On Monday, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith challenged top White House adviser David Axelrod why the administration continues to trust BP, whose CEO Tony Hayward bet the disaster will have a "very very...

Rove finally admits Bush really blew it during Katrina

Today in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove pens an op-ed titled: "Yes, the Gulf Spill is Obama's Katrina." He predictably places blame on Obama for a supposedly inadequate response to the BP oil spill. But the real significance of the op-ed is not what conservative-strategist Rove has to say about Obama; rather, it's that Rove is implicitly acknowledging that Bush screwed up the response to Katrina. Rove is essentially trying to make the case that Obama mismanaged a disaster almost as ...

Obama: "Climate change poses a threat to our way of life." - Starts the pivot from spill to bill: "We're not going to be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use. This planet can't sustain it.... I'm going to keep fighting to pass comprehensive energ

UPDATE:  Transcript of Obama presser on BP oil disaster here.

Obama gave a big speech at Solyndra, a California solar manufacturing plant, yesterday, which I'll excerpt below.  For background on Solyndra, see "First Energy Department loan guarantee goes to … a solar manufacturer."

DotEarth opinion blogger Andy Revkin just tweeted,

Obama sci chief: POTUS will give major speech on climate (not imminent). "He believes it, he understands it, we're going to get it done."

Here are excerpts from...

Obama: "Climate change poses a threat to our way of life." - Starts the pivot from spill to bill: "We're not going to be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use. This planet can't sustain it.... I'm going to keep fighting to pass comprehensive energ

UPDATE:  Transcript of Obama presser on BP oil disaster here.

Obama gave a big speech at Solyndra, a California solar manufacturing plant, yesterday, which I'll excerpt below.  For background on Solyndra, see "First Energy Department loan guarantee goes to … a solar manufacturer."

DotEarth opinion blogger Andy Revkin just tweeted,

Obama sci chief: POTUS will give major speech on climate (not imminent). "He believes it, he understands it, we're going to get it done."

Here are excerpts from...

Obama: "Climate change poses a threat to our way of life." - Starts the pivot from spill to bill: "We're not going to be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use. This planet can't sustain it.... I'm going to keep fighting to pass comprehensive energ

UPDATE:  Transcript of Obama presser on BP oil disaster here.

Obama gave a big speech at Solyndra, a California solar manufacturing plant, yesterday, which I'll excerpt below.  For background on Solyndra, see "First Energy Department loan guarantee goes to … a solar manufacturer."

DotEarth opinion blogger Andy Revkin just tweeted,

Obama sci chief: POTUS will give major speech on climate (not imminent). "He believes it, he understands it, we're going to get it done."

Here are excerpts from...