Hill Heat

From the Wonk Room.

As a powerful storm that killed eight people and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands continues to drench the Northeast, Tomas, a Category Four cyclone, is ripping through Fiji, and Tropical Storm 90Q, the “second known tropical cyclone to form in the cooler South Atlantic Ocean,” is circling off the Argentina coast.

The $379 billion cost of “developing Canada’s controversial tar sands between now and 2025 could be used to decarbonize the western economy,” according to a new report from the Co-operative and WWF.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) “secured a $750,000 earmark for a coal gasification technology company that has given him $14,250 this election cycle” and Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) “won a $300,000 earmark for a syngas technology company that has contributed $3,000 to his re-election campaign.”

In a letter to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) outlined his policy priorities for the comprehensive climate legislation Sen. Kerry is authoring. Levin’s letter highlights “some of the points I made at the March 2 meeting on climate legislation” :

• Eliminate California waiver for automotive emissions
• Pre-empt EPA from Clean Air Act regulation of stationary sources
• A “realistic and firm” price collar
• A “delay of at least 10 years in regulation of industrial sources”
• “Sufficient” allowances for industrial sources
• Trade provisions “to assure a level playing field”
• A “100% emissions-based distribution formula” for permits to electricity generation

Although Levin’s language is unclear, the “delay of at least 10 years in regulation of industrial sources” appears to refer to individual site performance standards, not a decade-long delay in including industrial polluters under a market-based cap.

Giving allowances away to polluters for free based on their historic emissions, or “grandfathering,” says Environment America, “rewards owners of highly polluting facilities and discourages innovation.” Europe’s grandfathered cap-and-trade system generated $100 billion in windfall profits before they moved to an auctioned-credit system.

The liberal organization MoveOn is strongly opposed to pre-emption of the Clean Air Act in climate legislation.

Full text of the letter below:

From the Wonk Room.

The first group of what will become a 15,000-photo set from the Documerica project from the 1970s, when the Environmental Protection Agency “sent out 100 photographers to document the nation’s environment writ large,” are now available on Flickr Commons.

“My my guess is there will be a clamoring for an energy bill when gas prices go up, as they normally do, as we get closer to more driving as we get closer to the summer,” Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a briefing yesterday.

Scientists report that aquatic dead zones are exacerbating the impacts of global warming and contributing to ozone depletion, a increase in corn-based ethanol would change land use ” enough to cancel out the benefits,” and peak oil may come in 2014.

From the Wonk Room.

“Climate change is a fact,” said the Chinese government, as it officially joined the Copenhagen Accord and challenged the United States to “make stronger commitments on climate change and provide environmental expertise and financing to developing nations.”

Governors from 18 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam, led by Govs. Haley Barbour (R-MS) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) , sent a letter to Congress to “stop harmful EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions” and instead “pass comprehensive legislation that balances the role of conservation and climate security with the production of abundant and affordable American energy.”

The Ethicurean makes recommendations for the making a sustainable seafood supply chain of wholesalers, retailers, and restaurants through labeling, removal of unsustainable fish from stores, and consumer guides like fish2fork.

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has endorsed the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal (CLEAR) Act (S. 2877), co-sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). In a letter sent to the senators, AARP Executive Vice President for Social Impact Nancy LeaMond embraced the CLEAR Act’s program of monthly rebate checks to all Americans paid for by a full auction of crabon credits.

The letter has some logical inconsistencies, claiming that AARP does not “advocate for any specific targets or structure for reducing carbon emissions and allocating emissions credits” but later stating that CLEAR’s “federal auction of 100% of emissions credits” is one of the features “essential to helping residential consumers transition to a clean energy economy.”

AARP has no official position on the existence of man-made climate change (“we do not take positions on the scientific issues underlying the debate on global warming”).

Full text of letter below:

From the Wonk Room.

Today is the National Call-In Day to stop mountaintop removal mining, as thousands are calling their representatives and asking them to become a cosponsor of H.R. 1310, The Clean Water Protection Act.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson “fought back on Monday against Senate attempts to challenge the agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions”: “Supposedly these efforts have been put forward to protect jobs. In reality, they will have serious negative economic effects.”

“Women hit hard by the effects of climate change – drought, floods, sea level rise and crop failure” – “climate witnesses” from the United States, Peru, Senegal, Uganda and other countries “aim to tell their stories to members of Congress on Tuesday in a lobbying effort timed to follow Monday’s International Women’s Day.”

Max Baucus (D-Mont)

E&E News For this bill [green tax extenders], most of the activity is behind us. This bill reached its stride. We see the finish line ahead on Tuesday or so, and we expect a final push then.

Mark Begich (D-Alaska)

E&E News I felt I got a lot [from K-G-L] of what I needed, understanding the timetable and the schedule, and what sources will be regulated first, which won’t be.

Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)

E&E News We want this bill to work for jobs. It’s ultimately an energy independence, jobs and environmental bill together. We don’t have details yet, but we’re making progress.

Ben Cardin (D-Md.)

E&E News There’s the potential for a broader coalition supporting this.

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

E&E News Offshore drilling and energy independence is essential to any bill I would support. There’s a way to drill for oil and gas offshore that will really lead to energy independence.

From the Wonk Room.

“California’s dirty air caused more than $193 million in hospital-based medical care from 2005 to 2007 as people sought help for problems such as asthma and pneumonia that are triggered by elevated pollution levels,” according to a new RAND Corporation study.

In a full-page ad in Variety, a coalition of green groups said “the predatory grab for resources the Oscar-nominated film Avatar portrays on the fictional planet Pandora is similar to methods used in northern Alberta” for tar sands extraction.

A submission by the UK Institute of Physics “to a parliamentary inquiry examining the behavior of climate-change scientists” was drawn from Peter Gill, a consultant for “oil and gas production companies, who “argues that global warming is a religion.”

Yesterday, the South Dakota legislature passed a resolution telling public schools to teach “balance” about the “prejudiced” science of climate change by a vote of 37-33. Earlier language that ascribed “astrological” influences to global warming was stripped from the final version.

There are at least fifteen state legislatures attempting to prevent limits on greenhouse gas pollution. The states of Alabama and global warming endangerment finding, with legislators in thirteen more states in tow. Several of these resolutions argue that the scientific consensus on the threat of manmade global warming is actually a conspiracy:

KENTUCKY: “WHEREAS, a recent disclosure of communications among scientists associated with the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia has cast serious doubt upon the scientific data that have purportedly supported the finding that manmade carbon dioxide has been a material cause of global warming or global climate change . . .”

MARYLAND: “WHEREAS, E–mail and other communications between climate researchers around the globe discovered as part of the recent “climate–gate” controversy indicate that there is a well–organized and ongoing effort to manipulate global temperature data and incorporate tricks to substantiate the theory of climate change . . . “

OKLAHOMA: “WHEREAS, intense public scrutiny has revealed how unsettled the science is on climate change and the unwillingness of many of the world’s climatologists to share data or even entertain opposing viewpoints on the subject . . .”

UTAH: “WHEREAS, emails and other communications between climate researchers around the globe, referred to as ‘Climategate,’ indicate a well organized and ongoing effort to manipulate global temperature data in order to produce a global warming outcome . . .”

Every resolution makes the claim that protecting citizens from hazardous climate pollution would hurt the economy, instead of spurring a green recovery. Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Alaska lawmakers talk about being “dependent” on their states’ coal and oil industries. Several of the resolutions, drafted early last year, call on Congress to reject the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454), which passed the House of Representatives in June but has languished in the Senate. The Alaska and West Virginia resolutions support Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) effort to rewrite the Clean Air Act (S.J.Res. 26), and Alabama’s resolution calls for the passage of Rep. Earl Pomeroy’s (D-ND) similar effort (H.R. 4396).

Bizarrely, Arizona state senator Sylvia Allen’s (R-AZ) resolution argues that the U.S. Congress does not have the Constitutional authority to regulate greenhouse gas pollution. Allen also believes the Earth is 6000 years old. The other Arizona resolution, along with the Kentucky, Virginia, and Washington resolutions, would attempt to block state enforcement of global warming rules.

These efforts to overturn the Clean Air Act and politicize established science are being supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a national organization that brings conservative state lawmakers together with industry. ALEC promotes a resolution opposing the endangerment finding drafted by its Natural Resources Task Force, which includes over 120 lawmakers from around the nation and a similarly sized group of corporate representatives. Although ALEC does not have an official position on the validity of climate science, the organization is “actively involved in helping people get together and share ideas,” a representative told Hill Heat. For example, the spring ALEC task force meeting will feature noted climate conspiracy theorist Paul Driessen, the author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death.

States With Resolutions Opposing Greenhouse Endangerment Finding
State	Bill	Sponsor	Status	Notes
AK	HJR 49	Stoltze ( R)	Pending	Supports Murkowski
AL	HJR 218	Gipson ( R)	Enacted	Supports Pomeroy
AZ	HB 2442 SCR 1050	Burges ( R) Allen ( R)	Pending	Blocks state enforcement Tenther resolution
FL	HR 1357 SR 958	Stephens ( R) Pearson ( R)	Pending	Supports overturn
IL	HR 961 SR 666	Phelps (D) Forby ( D)	Pending	Opposes Waxman-Markey
KS	SR 1809	Natural Resources Committee	Pending	Opposes “administrative fiat” by EPA
KY	HJR 20	Fischer ( R)	Pending	Cites hacked emails to block state enforcement
MD	HJR 13	Jenkins ( R)	Pending	Cites “climate change conspiracy” to oppose EPA
MO	HCR 46 HCR 59	Funderburk ( R) Brown ( R)	Pending	Opposes Waxman-Markey, EPA
OK	SCR 41	Lamb ( R)	Adopted by Senate	Cites “unsettled” science to support overturn
UT	EPA withdrawal
VA	HB1357	Morefield ( R)	Pending	“Carbon dioxide shall not be considered air pollution”
WA	S 6477	Stevens ( R)	Pending	Blocks state enforcement
WV	HCR 34	Shott ( R)	Pending	Cites “vigorous, legitimate, and substantive” scientific debate to support Murkowski

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

E&E News Yeah, it’s complicated, but doable. You have to look at it anew. There are different ways to price carbon from different sectors of the economy.

John Kerry (D-Mass.)

E&E News If we want to get the economy moving, it seems to me, you have to build out an American grid. We have a gaping hole in the middle of our nation, which prohibits investment.

E&E News We’ll be coming out with a bill sometime soon and start engaging in the debate. A lot is happening behind the scenes.

John McCain (R-Ariz.)

E&E News I appreciate anybody’s efforts that’s trying to do anything, but I can’t join in an effort where nuclear power is basically out of the equation. They announce they’re closing Yucca Mountain, and they will not recycle. You can’t get there from here. You can have all the titles you want, but it doesn’t work.

Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)

E&E News It [the Murkowski amendment] completely obliterates all of EPA’s functions. If it were to pass, I don’t think the president would sign it, an automobile company in Detroit making cars they send all over America, each state would have its own CAFE standards. Not the way to run a country.

It [Rockefeller’s proposal to delay EPA regulation] clears out matters of that sort, and leaves them with the powers they need to have, but concentrates on the emission problems and gives us more time.