It’s Getting Hot In Here

As the ad campaigns intensified before tonight’s primaries, Hillary Clinton made the seriously Energy Dumb decision to promote a gas tax holiday as a way of demonstrating her supposed affinity for “the hard working American middle class.” Too bad the gas tax holiday won’t help anybody’s pocketbook but the oil companies. I guess Mrs. Clinton missed the memo from every single energy and economic policy expert out there! (Seriously, every one of them!)

While his opponent pandered for votes with empty promises of $30.00 in cash, Barack Obama, to his very strong credit, took the Energy Smart position and called the gas tax holiday proposal what it is: “a pander,” a cheap trick to buy your vote.

Here’s Obama’s clear, honest, Energy Smart response on the gas tax holiday (speaking on Meet the Press earlier this week)…

Continue reading ‘Barack Obama Shows Off His Energy Smarts on Gas Tax Holiday’

Hillary Clinton and John McCain support seriously Energy Dumb gas tax holiday

There’s Energy Smart, like Mark Udall and this slate of Energy Smart US Congressional candidates.

Then there’s seriously Energy Dumb, like touting a temporary gas tax holiday as an appropriate response to high gas and oil prices.

Hillary Clinton solidly aligned herself last week with the Energy Dumb camp, vociferously supporting a gas tax holiday first proposed by Energy Dumber John McCain that amounts to blatant pandering for votes.

This “quick fix” proposal, a three month suspension of the 18.4 cents/gallon federal gas tax during the summer “driving season,” would at best save the average American about $30.00 this summer. That’s right, Hillary Clinton and John McCain’s idea of a solution to high energy prices is to mail you a check for half a tank of gas!

So, is $30.00 enough to buy your vote?
Continue reading ‘Hillary Clinton Supports Seriously Energy Dumb Gas Tax “Holiday”’

Deval Patrick, the often-controversial governor of Massachusetts, has not had an easy year. Amidst a protracted legislative brawl with his Republican opponents on Beacon Hill, Patrick was the focus of a A New York Times Article depicting his tenure in office as a lot of campaign bark and no bite. Of all unlikely venues for bipartisan success, however, Patrick has succeeded in eliciting significant support in the State House for a slew of recent clean energy measures.

Today, Patrick addressed Massachusetts business leaders in an effort to gain crucial buy-in for his effort to encourage substantial growth in the state’s clean energy sector. Wracked with debt and staggering from the national economic downturn, the Bay State is looking for ways to get rich quick and climate-friendly. The portfolio of clean energy measures in the works is notably diverse - from incentives for renewable energy companies to set up shop in-state to proposals to eliminate the gas tax on biofuels.

That may have been the moment when your eyebrows shot up toward your hairline.  Although the Boston Globe describes the Governor as “Convinced that the age of fossil fuels is over” and highlights Patrick’s legislative favoring of biofuels derived from switch-grass and agricultural waste over energy-guzzling corn-based “biofuels”, the efficacy of the plan in terms of long-term climate impact may be undermined by its persistent emphasis on a traditional (read:  outdated?) economic growth paradigm. Even if Patrick could somehow convince us of the theoretical soundness of this approach, it is difficult to get comfy with the idea absent a mandatory emissions cap (for the state or nation - either would do) to ensure that the (clean) industrial growth in the state would in fact cause a rapid, significant, and consistent decline in overall emissions.

While the verdict may still be out on Deval, Bostonians with two wheels will be applauding the efforts of their Mayor, Tom Menino, during next week’s Bay State Bike Week . Cycling enthusiasts from numerous neighborhoods will “Kick Gas” in fine form, and possibly ride a few circles around the State House in the process.

Here in Washington we’re feeling like pretty good leaders in the climate change movement what with all our great climate change legislation passing and all. But there’s always more to be done, key among them keeping a wary eye out for false solutions as we move ahead. One of those false solutions has tried rearing its ugly head here and we aim to stop it before it’s got a change to flourish. That would be “clean coal“, the only coal option in Washington thanks to our strict emissions limits. You can read all about the plant and it’s history here. It’s currently on hold due to concerns from the Port of Walla Walla, but they plan to try again in the Fall and we’ll be there to say no again.

So, the campaign: It began out of a Fossil Fools Day idea but grew much bigger and just wrapped up last week. The Cascade Climate Network and friends collected 795 photo petitions from eight different universities and colleges in Washington, all speaking out against coal and advocating clean solutions and green jobs. We’ll be sending the finished book to key players in the clean energy future of Washington as well as a few Washington Congressmen who have yet to sign onto the new Clean Water bill that would effectively end mountain top removal.

All in all a bitchin’ effort and a great example of what students can do if they unite across the state and region.

You can check out the finished photo petition, put together in a high school yearbook-style format, as well as a similar photo petition calling for No LNG in Oregon at www.CascadeClimate.org.

The Ohio state Senate unanimously passed legislation setting strong new renewable energy and energy efficiency standards last week, sending the bill on to Governor Ted Strickland for signature. Sub. Senate Bill 221 establishes a 12.5% by 2025 renewable energy standard (RES), making the Buckeye State the 26th state in the nation to adopt a renewable energy requirement for electric utilities (see this previous post on numbers 24 and 25). The legislation also includes a strong energy efficiency standard that is expected to result in a 22% cumulative reduction in energy usage by 2025.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, the Ohio RES is expected to result in 5,000-7,000 MW of new wind power capacity by 2025 and early-year targets will drive 650-750 MW of new wind power installation over the next 4 years. The bill also includes a small solar “set-aside” to help boost solar power in the Buckeye State.

Continue reading ‘Buckeye State Goes Green: Ohio Passes Renewable Energy Standard’

Remember that number global warming deniers throw around — those 500 scientists that have supposedly signed onto a letter denying the existence of anthropogenic climate change? 500. It’s a number you hear on the nightly news near the end of many stories on climate change, and it’s also a number invented by the Heartland Institute, one of Washington’s most conservative thinktanks.

As it turns out, that the number is a fabrication. Our friends over at DeSmogBlog sent questionnaires to each signer, and received back some interesting quotes. Here’s a sampling of the responses they got:

I am very shocked to see my name in the list of “500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares”. Because none of my research publications has ever indicated that the global warming is not as a consequence of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, I view that the inclusion of my name in such list without my permission or consensus has damaged my professional reputation as an atmospheric scientist.”

Dr. Ming Cai, Associate Professor, Department of Meteorology, Florida State University.

They have taken our ice core research in Wyoming and twisted it to meet their own agenda. This is not science.”

Dr. Paul F. Schuster, Hydrologist, US Geological Survey Continue reading ‘Global Warming Deniers…Denied.’

Youth will represent 25% of voters in the 2008 election. We have the opportunity to change the course this country is on. And we can build the power of the youth climate movement dramatically. We’ve got a plan and it’s called Power Vote. http://PowerVote.org

Over the next several months we will build a youth voting bloc that is 1 million strong to elevate and prioritize the issue of climate change in this election. Together we will hold our elected representatives accountable, and build our grassroots base to win more clean, just energy victories on the local and national level. Don’t wait. Sign the Power Vote Pledge right now and then tell all your friends to do the same.

Right now when polled youth list health, the economy, and Iraq as issues motivating their votes. We KNOW that dirty energy dependence is intimately connected to everyone of these issues and we have an incredible opportunity to build our movement by connecting with people about what they care about.

Continue reading ‘The Next Big Thing- Power Vote’

The youth organization of the most powerful political party in West Virginia passed a multi-pronged resolution on coal & green jobs that included a call for No New Mountaintop Removal Permits. Our generation knows that Mountaintop Removal takes mining coal too far and we have safer ways to mine it as we transition to renewable energies & energy efficiency. This resolution passed in the midst of an above-the-fold article in the Washington Post, the Presidential Campaigns closing in on the May 13th WV Democratic Primary, and a record showing of grassroots involvement in the WV Democratic County Conventions. The political machine in West Virginia is getting scared of what true grassroots organizers are building here in West Virginia and we are in the year of a lifetime to build our movement for justice here!

The February 10th “Young Dems on Kayford” event that brought more than 35 Young Dems onto Kayford Mountain to see the effects of Mountaintop Removal was a crucial event in the organization learning about the issue and taking a stand.

This resolution on Mountaintop Removal was passed as a result of years of building awareness and involvement on the issue. This resolution passed with the solid margin of 32 votes in favor and only 10 votes against (with 2 abstaining votes). The WV Young Democrats have been a focus of education throughout the past year as we organized events to show both the leadership and the membership what Mountaintop Removal is doing to the people and land of Southern (and increasingly Central) WV. The resolution was formed and revised to its final content by a room of high schoolers, college students, deep miners, organizers, and concerned citizens to its final form. This resolution is causing reverberations through the WV Democratic Party and WV politicians (who have long been kinder to the coal industry than citizens) are taking notice.

Continue reading ‘WV Young Democrats Say “No New Mountaintop Removal Permits!”’

On Wednesday, President Bush gave a speech demonstrating his lack of leadership on the issue of climate, reiterating the false idea that bold action and economic growth must be mutually exclusive and touting nuclear and coal as solutions to climate change.

SustainUS, a youth organization active at the international level, issued a statement today responding to Bush’s speech. Here is an excerpt:

“President Bush’s call for halting emissions by 2025 is just a guise for his opposition to the Senate proposals to stop U.S. emissions growth by 2012, which are much more appropriate,” says Juan Hoffmaister, a SustainUS policy advisor.  The most recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading scientific body on the subject, indicate that global carbon emissions must peak between 2015 and 2020 in order to avoid irreversible damage.  It is irresponsible for a country as powerful as ours to adopt a target so far beyond the time frame strongly advised by the leading international organization on climate change.

Click here to continue reading the response.

Last year, Friends of the Earth Canada (FOE) launched a lawsuit against the Minister of the Environment to hold him accountable for the fact that Canada won’t meet its Kyoto target. Not only the country won’t meet its Kyoto target, but the actual Government didn’t even try.

The lawsuit rests on the fact that the Minister ignored the will of the Parliament by not complying with the requirements set by the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act (KPIA). The KPIA required the Minister of the Environment to release, within 60 days after the Act came into force, so before August 21st, 2007, an environmental plan that would enable Canada to meet its Kyoto target. Obviously, when the KPIA was adopted by the Parliament, I was hoping it would have an impact on the Government. Visibly, it didn’t.

Consequently, when Friends of the Earth launched its lawsuit, I was intrigued and excited, for different reasons. It was mainly about the fact that the “case raises the fundamental question of whether a Minister of the Crown is accountable for ignoring the will of Parliament” because what if he is, in fact, responsible? Wouldn’t it give us arguments and, more importantly, a strong mean of action? Lawsuits have been used for many years by individuals and by the Government against companies and other individuals that broke environmental laws and have been proven to work pretty well, so why not use the same mean against the Government itself! Continue reading ‘Is That Where We Are?’