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Obama, Clinton assail GOP rival’s climate plan
05/13/2008
Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton swung back at Republican rival John McCain’s global warming plans today, saying the presumptive GOP nominee hasn’t lived up to his own claims as an environmental champion and wouldn’t do enough to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.
"It is truly breathtaking for John McCain to talk about combating climate change while voting against virtually every recent effort to actually invest in clean energy," Obama, an Illinois senator, said in a press release.
Obama criticized McCain for giving a major climate change speech in Portland, Ore., today at a Danish wind company when McCain has on several occasions opposed legislation—or skipped votes—that would promote domestic expansion of the wind industry.
"You don’t have to look further than the wind turbine plant where Senator McCain is speaking today to assess his commitment to this cause," Obama said.
Clinton, a senator from New York, went after McCain specifically on his global warming platform.
"Senator McCain’s proposal simply does not go far enough to address the growing threat that the climate crisis poses to our children and grandchildren," Clinton said in a press release. "Real leadership means taking this problem head on with a comprehensive, science-based plan instead of halfway measures. While Senator McCain’s proposals may be [an] improvement on President Bush’s, that’s not saying much."
McCain outlined his climate position this afternoon in a speech that leaned heavily on a major cap-and-trade climate bill he introduced on Capitol Hill in January 2007 with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
If elected president, McCain said he would introduce legislation that would seek to return U.S. emissions to 2005 levels. By 2020, McCain promised emission levels would fall 15 percent below 2005 levels. And by midcentury, McCain would set a goal to cut emissions 66 percent below 2005 levels.
Both Clinton and Obama support stronger emission limits that fall closer in line with many scientific warnings: a midcentury cut in U.S. emissions of 80 percent. For comparison, a Senate bill scheduled for floor debate early next month from Lieberman and Virginia Republican John Warner would be less aggressive than what Clinton and Obama would offer but more stringent than McCain’s: about a 70 percent reduction in 2050.--E&ENews PM, 5/12/08
McCain Differs With Bush on Climate Change
05/13/2008
Senator John McCain sought to distance himself from President Bush on Monday as he called for a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States to combat climate change.
Mr. McCain, in a speech at a wind power company, also pledged to work with the European Union to diplomatically engage China and India, two of the world’s biggest polluters, if they refuse to participate in an international agreement to slow global warming.
“I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears,” Mr. McCain said pointedly. “I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges.”
In speeches on the campaign trail, Mr. McCain frequently highlights the threat of climate change, but he has a mixed record on the environment in the Senate. In recent years he has pushed legislation to curb emissions that contribute to climate change, but he has missed votes on toughening fuel economy standards and has opposed tax breaks meant to encourage alternative energy.
In his address on Monday, Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, renewed his support for a “cap-and-trade” system in which power plants and other polluters could meet limits on heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide by either reducing emissions on their own or buying credits from more efficient producers.
Mr. McCain’s break with the Bush administration means that the three main presidential candidates have embraced swifter action to fight global warming.--The New York Times, 5/13/08
McCain to pitch climate-change plan in Oregon
05/12/2008
John McCain heads to the Pacific Northwest today to propose a climate-change plan, addressing an issue integral to his presidential bid in a region that could be crucial.
The Arizona senator, who often cites climate change as a policy difference with President Bush, plans to renew support for a "cap-and-trade" system that "sets clear limits on all greenhouse gases, while also allowing the sale of rights to excess emissions," according to excerpts of his speech released Sunday.
McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, plans to propose a series of goals for reduction of carbon emissions, ending at 60% below 1990 levels by the year 2050.
A cap-and-trade system would "change the dynamic of our energy economy," McCain says in the prepared remarks. It would encourage industry to adopt or develop cleaner forms of energy, such as wind, solar, nuclear and "clean coal."
Environmental organizations said McCain deserves credit for his cap-and-trade proposals, but some called them inadequate in face of the threats posed by global warming.
One group, the League of Conservation Voters, said McCain has a congressional career score of 24% on environmental issues.
In a statement, Gene Karpinski, the group’s president, said it appears that McCain "hopes to use global warming and the environment to distance himself from the Bush administration," but given McCain’s record, "that distance can be measured in inches."--USA Today, 5/12/08
Opeds & Editorials
Big Oil’s Friends in the Senate
05/05/2008
Listen to almost any politician, President Bush included, and you’ll hear that the fight against global warming cannot be won without cleaner technologies that will ease dependence on fossil fuels. Yet these same politicians are on the verge of allowing modest but vital tax credits to expire that are crucial to the future of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.
These credits are necessary to attract new investment in renewable sources until they become competitive with cheaper, dirtier fuels like coal. When the credits disappear, investments shrivel. The production tax credit for wind energy has been allowed to expire three times. In each case, new investment dropped by more than 70 percent. The credits for wind and solar expire at the end of this year, so action now is important.
Though there is plenty of blame to go around, Mr. Bush and Senate Republicans bear a heavy burden. The House approved, as part of last year’s energy bill, a multiyear extension of the credits, while insisting — under its pay-as-you-go rules — that they be offset by rescinding an equivalent amount in tax credits for the oil companies. The oil companies (though rolling in profits) screamed, Mr. Bush lofted veto threats, and the Senate, by a one-vote margin, refused to go along.
Senator John McCain — who is far ahead of his party on climate change — missed that crucial vote. He could be a hero if he now rode in off the campaign trail and corralled the Republican votes needed to extend the tax credits; his vote alone might be enough.--The New York Times (5/5/08)
Empty Promises on Warming
04/22/2008
White House aides had billed President Bush’s Rose Garden speech last week as a major turning point at which the president would unveil an ambitious set of proposals to address the problem of global warming — a late-breaking act of atonement, as it were, for seven years of doing nothing.
Sadly, Mr. Bush’s ideas amounted to the same old stuff, gussied up to look new. Instead of trying to make up for years of denial and neglect, his speech seemed cynically designed to prevent others from showing the leadership he refuses to provide — to derail Congress from imposing a price on emissions of carbon dioxide and the states from regulating emissions on their own.
Mr. Bush’s main proposal was to halt the growth of emissions in the United States, chiefly from power plants, by 2025. This means, of course, that after seven years of letting emissions grow, he would allow them to continue to grow for another 17 years — and would come nowhere near the swift reductions in emissions that scientists believe are necessary to prevent the worst consequences of climate change.
It is hard to find anything redeeming in this speech, though it contains two obvious truths: This president has no intention of addressing climate change. The next president will have no choice but to do better.--The New York Times, 4/22/08Cap Greenhouse Gases
04/02/2008
Just for a minute, let’s stop wringing our hands about the collapse of polar ice shelves, rising sea levels and other dire consequences of global warming. Instead, let’s focus on what we can do.
A report issued by a coalition of environmental groups concludes that, between 1990 and 2005, New England’s greenhouse-gas emissions grew by 10.9 percent. Connecticut’s grew by 8.3 percent.
The report also makes the point that New England is not on track to meet 2010 and 2020 goals for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Connecticut — and New England generally — are still a long way from being out of the weeds. Yet the latest figures on declines in greenhouse-gas emissions are encouraging. They underscore the simple truth that decisions made individually by a lot of people add up to major changes.
When it comes to global warming, however, we don’t have much time. Which is why lawmakers must approve legislation putting Connecticut as a whole — state government, municipalities, utilities, businesses and residents — on a path toward greenhouse-gas reductions.--The Hartford Courant, 4/2/08
Global Warming News
Carbon Dioxide at highest level in 650,000 years
05/14/2008
Wind Can Supply 20% of U.S. Electricity, Report Says
05/13/2008
The Energy Department said yesterday that the United States has the ability to meet 20 percent of its electricity-generation needs with wind by 2030, enough to displace 50 percent of natural gas consumption and 18 percent of coal consumption.
But in a report drawn up by its national laboratories, the department said that meeting the target would require more improvements in turbine technology, cost reductions, new transmission lines, an expansion of the wind industry and a fivefold increase in the pace of wind-turbine installation.
The report said a boost in wind capacity to 20 percent of electricity generation "could potentially defer the need to build some new coal capacity, avoiding or postponing the associated carbon emissions." The department said that expanding the use of wind to generate power could avert a need for more than 80 gigawatts of new coal-fired generating capacity; its current projections say that new coal-fired plants capable of producing about 140 gigawatts of power could be built by 2030 to meet rising demand.
The report noted that a big expansion of wind-power generation would also cut the amount of water used by the electricity industry by 17 percent by 2030.-The Washington Post, 5/13/08
Iowa’s Lutheran Churches Going Green
05/12/2008
Press Releases
Iowa’s Lutheran Churches Going Green
05/12/2008
Re: Climate Change Legislation – Urgent Plea for Enactment of Carbon Fees
05/09/2008
Dear Senators and Representatives:
We are writing to you about the urgent problem of climate change. Each of us has approximately two decades of public-sector experience in environmental enforcement.1 In addition, Allan has substantial experience with cap-and-trade programs. The purpose of this letter is to communicate the bases for our opinion that attempting to address climate change through a cap-and-trade approach alone (as is currently contemplated in most of the major bills before Congress) is an inefficient and ineffective strategy to address the most pressing problem of our time. We believe that failure by the United States to enact meaningful and escalating carbon fess in the near future will result in an unacceptable risk of devastating and irreversible global climate change. Even if you have doubts concerning the time-frame remaining for effective action, please join us in insisting on a strategy that will effectively address this unacceptable threat to our children’s future.--Laurie Williams & Allan Zabel
Iowa sportsmen want global warming leadership
11/01/2007
Newsletters
Debate Shifts On Global Warming
04/11/2007
A former presidential candidate and a potential presidential candidate from opposite ends of the political spectrum met to debate global warming this week, but unlike past events, this marked a noticeable shift in the debate on global warming.
New Hampshire Voters send strong message on Global Warming
03/27/2007
As the nation's warmest winter on record draws to a close, Granite State voters are demonstrating that global warming is a top priority for New Hampshire.
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by Andrew Snow