Click the highlighted headlines for links to these stories. New stories are headlined in blue. Selections from this week’s EE News weekday editions are headlined in dark red.

John Larson Introduces Carbon Tax Bill.Press Release, USHouse, March 5, 2009. “Congressman John B. Larson (CT), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, introduced legislation [America's Energy Security Trust Fund Act of 2009, PDF, 21 pp] on Thursday that would tackle our climate change crisis while protecting hard working Americans from rising energy costs. The carbon tax legislation will put a tax on the producer of carbon emissions and pass the revenue on to working Americans as a payroll tax rebate. ‘I believe that the best way to address climate change is the way that is simplest and most transparent,’ said Larson. ‘Unlike a cap and trade system, my carbon tax would create no complex new bureaucracies or complicated auction schemes. Rescuing our environment should not be an excuse to create a new market for investors to exploit. We’ve seen the impact of rampant speculation and out of control derivative trading on our energy market, our housing market, and our stock market. Our planet is too precious to put in the hands of Wall Street executives looking to make a profit… ‘I have yet to meet one person who can explain a cap and trade auction in a way that someone at Augie and Ray’s, my local diner, could understand,’ said Larson. ‘But, a carbon tax is a simple solution that people can wrap their arms around.’ A carbon tax also offers the benefit of price certainty to American families and small businesses. A cap and trade system could lead to wild fluctuations in energy prices, making it hard for families and businesses to plan and budget. By regularly monitoring emissions and adjusting the rate of taxation, as this legislation does, it can also provide some certainty in emissions reduction. Congressman Larson’s carbon tax legislation fits within the broad framework the Obama Administration laid out in its budget outline. It would use the revenue of a new climate change policy to pass tax savings on to the consumer and help impacted industries.”

New Larson Bill Raises the Bar for Congressional Climate Action.By Charles Komanoff, CarbonTaxCenter, March 6, 2009. “Carbon taxing to safeguard Earth’s climate took several major steps forward — politically and intellectually — with the introduction yesterday of the America’s Energy Security Trust Fund Act of 2009 [PDF, 21 pp] by Rep. John B. Larson, chair of the House Democratic Caucus and fourth-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. The new bill builds and improves on Rep. Larson’s 2007 bill with these provisions: 1) The first-year tax rate is $15 per ton of carbon dioxide. 2) The rate rises by $10/ton per year. 3) After five years, that increase rate is automatically bumped up to $15/ton if U.S. emissions stray from an EPA-certified glide path to cut emissions by 80% from 2005 levels in 2050. 4) To protect domestic manufacturers, the bill authorizes the Treasury Department to impose a ‘carbon equivalency fee’ on carbon-intensive products imported from non-carbon-taxing nations. 5) Clean-tech R&D and investments are eligible for $10 billion a year in tax credits. 6) Impacted workers and industries are eligible for transition assistance of $7.5 billion in the first year; this is phased out after year 10 but still totals $41 billion. 7) All other revenue is tax-shifted to Americans via reductions in payroll taxes. Rep. Larson, a member of the powerful, tax-writing Ways & Means Committee, appears to have crafted his new bill to counter most if not all salient objections to carbon taxing.”

House Bill for a Carbon Tax to Cut Emissions Faces a Steep Climb.By John M. Broder, NYTimes, March 6, 2009. ”Representative John B. Larson embarked again this week on his lonely quest to enact a national tax on carbon dioxide emissions. His idea is to set a modest price on a ton of emissions, gradually increasing it each year until the desired reduction in heat-trapping-gas pollution is achieved. Under the bill he introduced this week, virtually all the revenues from the tax would be returned to the public in lower payroll taxes. ‘The American people want us to level with them,’ Mr. Larson, a moderate Democrat from Connecticut and a member of the House leadership, said in an interview. ‘We create price certainty without any new bureaucracies or complicated auction schemes.’ Many economists and academics, as well as a handful of Mr. Larson’s colleagues on both sides of the aisle and perhaps a few White House officials, if secretly, agree that a carbon tax is a simpler and more effective means of tackling global warming than the complex cap-and-trade scheme embraced by the Obama administration and most Democratic leaders in Congress… But for a variety of political, environmental and economic reasons, a national carbon tax is probably going nowhere.

“Many Congressional Democrats were around in 1993 when President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore pushed an energy tax and then abandoned it after it failed to generate any Republican support. Some noticed last fall when the Liberal Party in Canada suffered its worst loss ever running on a platform that included a national energy tax. Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, is leading a special committee writing the House version of climate change legislation. He voted for the 1993 energy tax bill, which is known — not fondly — as the B.T.U. tax, for British thermal unit, a measure of energy output. Mr. Markey has since become a faithful follower of the cap-and-trade school. ‘I am aware of the economic arguments for a carbon tax,’ Mr. Markey said, ‘but politics is the art of the possible, and I think cap-and-trade is possible.’ He added: ‘Somebody once told me that a smart man learns from his mistakes but a wise man learns from others’ mistakes. We can learn from 1993 or Canada in 2008, but we should learn.’

“Mr. Gore… has long advocated a tax on carbon dioxide emissions as a substitute for taxes on income (‘We should tax what we burn, not what we earn,’ he says). But in an e-mail message this week, Mr. Gore said that passage of a tax on carbon ‘appears to be beyond our reach for the foreseeable future’ and that he could accept a cap-and-trade program if it reduced emissions and provided relief for those most burdened by the costs. ‘For more than 20 years, I have supported a CO2 tax offset by an equal reduction in taxes elsewhere,’ Mr. Gore wrote. ‘However, a cap-and-trade system is also essential and actually offers a better prospect for a global agreement, in part because it is difficult to imagine a harmonized global CO2 tax. Moreover, I have long recognized that our political system has special difficulty in considering a CO2 tax even if it is revenue neutral.’

“One of the arguments against cap-and-trade is that it requires a complex market for trading pollution permits that could be manipulated by speculators and energy companies. Mr. Larson said the last thing the nation needed after its experience with the housing bubble and the banking collapse was a new market in carbon derivatives. His plan, he said, is simpler and fairer. But cap-and-trade advocates said a carbon tax could also be gamed, just as the Internal Revenue Code is. ‘The critical thing is to get the emissions you want, and a tax cannot do that without continually recalibrating the price,’ said Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. Mr. Profeta helped Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, draft the first cap-and-trade bill to get serious consideration. ‘Given the history of the carbon tax,’ Mr. Profeta said, ‘there’s a worry that it will poison and delay the debate.’” [Editors Note: The Clinton/Gore BTU tax came much closer to passing than the Lieberman/Warner cap-and-trade bill -- arguably a "mistake" that Markey and others should learn from. CCC takes particular exception to the notion that we and other carbon tax supporters might be 'poisoning or delaying' the debate for strong and effective climate legislation. As Dan Rosenblum said in The Obama Climate Proposal: A Giant Step Forward, CarbonTax.org, March 1, 2009, "We should not hesitate to point out the superiority of carbon taxes, but not in ways that might aid those who want to delay effective action on climate change." Now, more than ever, is a time for a robust debate, without resorting to dismissive or recriminating remarks aimed at either cap-and-trade or carbon tax supporters.]

NRDC Staffers Hired for Key Energy and Climate Legislative Posts.By Kate Sheppard, Grist, March 6, 2009. “Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Friday announced that he’s added Natural Resources Defense Council’s Michael Goo to the roster at the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming. Goo, NRDC’s climate legislative director, is serving as special counsel to the committee focusing on climate legislation. Prior to joining NRDC, Goo worked for two influential lawmakers with big environment portfolios — former House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), and Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). He also held a number of positions at the Environmental Protection Administration… Goo is the second high-level NRDC staffer to go to the Hill this year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hired NRDC legislative director Karen Wayland last month to serve as a policy adviser. Greenwirenoted that the growing ‘NRDC mafia‘ also includes Melissa Bez, a staffer for Waxman; Eben Burnham-Snyder, the select committee on global warming’s spokesman; Brad Crowell, an environmental aide to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.); and Chris Murray, who works for Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). Former NRDC air pollution attorney David McIntosh, who last year worked on climate policy for Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), recently took a new job as a senior legislative adviser to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.” [Editor's Note: NRDC is a key proponent of cap-and-trade legislation.]

Mixing Climate and Energy Legislation in the Same Bill is Not a Good Idea.Commentary by Joseph Romm, Grist, March 8, 2009. “Apparently Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has sold both Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the White House on the strategy of having a mega-bill that combines climate and energy legislation… [which] I believe that is both a tactical and strategic mistake… First, the climate bill is huge and complicated and uber-controversial and will be exceedingly difficult to get to Obama’s desk this year according to everybody I talk to (see here). So that means we are delaying important clean energy and smart-green grid bills that could otherwise probably get passed by the end of the summer… Second, and more importantly, the climate bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that any Congress will ever consider. You don’t want to add stuff to it that will lose votes or give people an excuse to vote against it… Third,… getting the kind of strong climate legislation that will be needed to avert catastrophe will require all of the messaging skills of President Obama and his team, which are necessarily focused elsewhere for the next few months. In short, as I’ve said many times, Obama can get a better climate bill in 2010 — but only if congressional leaders work with him to make that possible. Rushing through complicated mega-bells in the next two or three months mean we will inevitably end up with a weaker bill, indeed, a too-weak bill (see here).”

Reid: Energy, Climate Bills Will Be Combined. By Darren Samuelsohn, NYTimes, March 6, 2009. “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed today that he will package energy and global warming measures together into one large bill for consideration later this year, a decision that should put to rest questions about whether Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have different strategies for one of President Obama’s top agenda items… As recently as last week, Reid had spoken of splitting the energy and climate items up into at least three different bills, with the energy provisions moving forward first while holding back on the global warming measure for the late summer. Reid did not elaborate today on his change of plans… But sources tracking the Capitol Hill climate debate said Reid’s shift came after a month of intense lobbying for the one-bill strategy that originated with House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).”

Bingaman Says that for a Cap and Trade Bill to Pass, Permits Need to Be Free for Coal Plants.By Tom Doggett and Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters, March 5, 2009. “U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Thursday pledged to work with Congress to pass legislation that would impose a cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming… Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat who chairs the energy panel, said earlier that any climate bill that passes the Senate is unlikely to adhere to the administration’s plan that the government auction all the permits to emit greenhouse gases because such a plan would be too harsh on big industry. Instead, Bingaman said any Congressionally developed system capping and trading emissions probably will include carbon allowances given to polluters like cement factories and coal-burning power plants, along with permits that are sold… ‘I think it’s unlikely we will pass a cap-and-trade bill with 100 percent auction,’ Bingaman told reporters.”

Democratic Revolt May Slow Obama Agenda.By Alan K. Ota, CQ, March 3, 2009, subscription. “Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona have joined a quiet revolt in the House that could slow some of President Obama’s fast-moving priorities. The two are among 49 Democrats from congressional districts that backed Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential race and whose support for the Democratic majority’s progressive agenda is increasingly not assured… The defections could cause heartburn for Democratic leaders charged with ushering through Obama’s three biggest priorities: a health care overhaul, a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions and his fiscal 2010 budget blueprint. John B. Larson of Connecticut, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said party leaders would respond to recent defections by trying to slow the pace of bills to allow more time for hearings and debate. ‘Everything’s coming at them fast and furious. The more that people get an opportunity to go back and forth… the greater the comfort level they will have,’ Larson said. Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., acknowledged the defections, saying: ‘We have a very diverse party, with diverse opinions. We’re working on it.’ Many of the 49 Democrats in the group have particular concerns about Obama’s call for allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy families to expire.”

Letter Campaign to Obama Launched for Stronger Pollution Reduction Targets.Friends of the Earth, March 6, 2009. “Our planet is warming at an alarming rate, but scientists say we can solve the climate crisis if we act quickly. That’s why it’s so important for President Obama to strengthen the target he’s set for reducing global warming pollution by the year 2020. Unfortunately, Obama’s current proposal is to return to 1990 pollution levels by 2020. This would be a significant reduction, but not nearly enough. Let there be no mistake: if we fail to reduce pollution much more swiftly than the Obama administration is contemplating, we face the prospect of irreversible climate impacts that could devastate human civilization. President Obama is concerned there isn’t enough political support for the strong pollution reductions that are needed — that corporate lobbyists and Washington insiders are more likely to pay attention to policy details like a 2020 emission reduction than citizens and voters like us. Let President Obama know we’ll provide the grassroots support that will make stronger pollution reductions possible — and we’ll also forward your message to congressional leaders.” Send a letter to President Obama.

Never Waste a Good Crisis, Clinton Tells Young Europeans. By Pete Harrison, Reuters, March 6, 2009. “U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told… young Europeans at the European Parliament [in Brussels] that global economic turmoil provided a fresh opening. ‘Never waste a good crisis… Don’t waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security,’ she said… ‘Certainly the United States has been negligent in living up to its responsibilities,’ said Clinton, on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state. ‘This is a propitious time… we can actually begin to demonstrate our willingness to confront this.’ Clinton said she was encouraged by China’s stance on climate change during a visit there last month.”

Obama’s Restoration Species Protection Unlikely to Trigger Climate Regulation.By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, March 5, 2009. “In a move that will subject a number of government projects to enhanced environmental and scientific scrutiny, President Obama is restoring a requirement that U.S. agencies consult with independent federal experts to determine whether their actions might harm threatened and endangered species. The presidential memorandum issued yesterday, which marks yet another reversal of former president George W. Bush’s environmental legacy, will revive a decades-old practice under the Endangered Species Act that calls for agencies to consult with either the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on whether their projects could affect imperiled species. On Dec. 16, the Bush administration allowed agencies to waive such reviews if they decided, on their own, that the actions would not harm vulnerable plants and animals… House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-W.Va.), who had been seeking to overturn Bush’s endangered species rule through legislation, called the announcement ‘one more indication that the new administration truly represents change for the better and is committed to the protection of our natural resources and our environment’… Officials said the move is unlikely to trigger broad use of the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. While the Bush rule specifically prohibited endangered species consultations on the basis of ‘global processes’ such as climate change, an Interior official speaking on the condition of anonymity said that under the new policy, such a review would be triggered only if scientific evidence suggested ‘a causal connection’ between emissions from a federal project and its effect on an imperiled species or an identifiable part of its habitat.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Attacks Oil, Gas Tax Breaks. By Tom Doggett, Reuters, March 4, 2009. “U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday. It was one of the sharpest attacks yet on the oil and gas industry by a top Obama administration official, reinforcing the White House stance that new U.S. energy policy will focus on promoting renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and rely less on traditional fossil fuels like oil as America tackles climate change. ‘We don’t believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy (like oil and gas) that are dramatically going to add to our climate change (problem). We don’t think that’s good economic policy and we think changing those incentives is good for the country,’ Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing on the White House’s proposed budget for the 2010 spending year.”

EPA Reports Increasing U.S. Emissions.By Kate Sheppard, Grist, March 5, 2009. “Overall emissions increased 1.4% [in the U.S. in 2007], with the majority of that increase coming from fuel and electricity consumption, according to a new draft report released by the EPA on Wednesday. The draft of the the 2009 U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report found that total greenhouse-gas emissions for the country were about 7,125 million metric tons in 2007. Emissions grew 17.1 percent from 1990 to 2007, the report found. That includes carbon dioxide releases as well as methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. The annual report is a requirement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change international treaty, which the U.S. ratified in 1992.”

Holdren, Lubchenco Nominations Stalled. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, March 3, 2009. “The nominations of two of President Obama’s top science advisers have stalled in the Senate, according to several sources, posing a challenge to the administration as it seeks to frame new policies on climate change and other environmental issues. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has placed a ‘hold’ that blocks votes on confirming Harvard University physicist John Holdren, who is in line to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco, Obama’s nominee to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. According to sources who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, Menendez is using the holds as leverage to get Senate leaders’ attention for a matter related to Cuba rather than questioning the nominees’ credentials… The delay — which could end quickly if Menendez dropped his objection or Senate leaders pushed for a floor vote that would require 60 votes to pass — has alarmed environmentalists and scientific experts who strongly back Holdren and Lubchenco.”

Our 2009 Targets: Congress and Coal.By Ted Glick, CCAN, March 8, 2009. “[As Gary Houser, an Ohio coal country activist, said] The action in DC [on Monday] was more than a display of youthful exuberance. It was an aligning of this movement with the power of that truth. It was a moment for genuine celebration. While the battle has not yet been won, what was witnessed yesterday by those of us fortunate enough to be there may well have been a genuine turning point. The moral authority of our movement is now in the ascendancy, while that of the coal industry is in rapid decline’… Neither Power Shift 09 nor the Capitol Climate Action were in any way one-shot deals. Instead, they were the opening shots of an escalating campaign all throughout the year. Why is 2009 so important? It’s important because we finally have a President who understands that we need to take action to address the climate crisis and is doing so despite resistance from coal and oil interests and their paid mouthpieces in Washington, and despite his public support for non-existent “clean coal.” But it’s particularly important because of the international negotiations going on toward a stronger world treaty, negotiations which will culminate at the U.N. Climate Conference in mid-December in Copenhagen, Denmark. If that conference is to succeed — and it needs to because global warming is an urgent global problem — the world needs to see that the U.S. is prepared to reverse course and, instead of obstructing, give leadership to the world’s efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change.”

Thousands Protest Coal at D.C. Capitol Power Plant. By Kate Sheppard, Grist, March 2, 2009. “No one was arrested, but not for lack of trying. An estimated 2,500 people protested outside Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Power Plant on Monday — the nation’s largest act of civil disobedience against coal power. Anti-coal activists from all corners of the country braved the sub-freezing temperatures and six inches of snow the city received Sunday night. The uncharacteristically wintery conditions egged on global-warming skeptics, but the crowds marching around the plant weren’t deterred by the bad weather. Nor were they deterred by last week’s good news that congressional leaders are planning to convert the Capitol Power Plant to natural gas by the end of the year — a move that seemed designed to preempt the protest. They came bearing signs: ‘Topless mountains are obscene.’ ‘Clean coal is like dry water.’ ‘Renewable is doable.’ They had chants: ‘Clean coal’s a giant lie. We won’t let our planet die.’ ‘Coal companies stop your whining. We don’t want your dirty mining.’ ‘Why are we standing out in the snow? ‘Cause dirty coal has got to go.’ Many protesters planned to get arrested, but even after several hours of occupying the plant’s northeast corner gate, they got no reaction from hundreds of police officers stationed nearby. Organizers declared the protest a success without arrests at around 4:30 p.m., as the sun started to set.” To find out more about Monday’s action and for photos, go to www.capitolclimateaction.org. [Editor's Note: CCC Cofounder Fr. Paul Mayer, who was prepared to be arrested notes that although no arrests occurred, the fact that people like Dr. James Hansen, Bill McKibben, Gus Speth, CCC Cofounder Ted Glick and many, many others were also ready to be arrested for their strong anti-coal convictions made for a very powerful experience and notable event.]

Despite Snow — and Irony — a Climate Protest Persists. By Bryan Walsh, Time, March 3, 2009. “It would be heartbreakingly easy to mock a global warming protest that was nearly snowed out, but what happened in Washington could be a significant step in the climate change movement. For all the attention paid to it in the media, global warming remains an amorphous issue for many Americans, one with consequences that are far-off and unconnected to their daily lives. If that is ever going to change, warming advocates need to make climate change a matter of justice, appealing to Americans’ sense of fairness — just as social movements like civil rights once did… As speaker after speaker addressed the crowd — from African-American activists whose cities are blanketed by pollution to protesters from Appalachia, where coal mining has stripped the land bare — the message wasn’t about polar bears or sea level rise, but the essential injustice of climate change. Unjust because in the U.S. and around the world it is those who are least responsible for climate change who will suffer the most from warming, and because it is a form of “generational theft,” as one activist put it, with the young standing to inherit a ruined Earth. ‘My generation has blown it,’ said Rocky Anderson, the former mayor of Salt Lake City, one of several politicians who joined the march. ‘But this power is going to be fueled by the young people.’ The young people were fully present, both at the Capitol plant march and over the weekend at the Power Shift conference, which brought together more 11,000 college-age activists from around the country to strategize and rally over climate change. For this generation — post-Cold War, post-9/11, perhaps post-prosperity — global warming is emerging as their issue. Averting dangerous climate change is going to take smart policy, vast technological change and brave entrepreneurs — but it will also require a popular social movement that can alter American values. Global warming is far from inspiring that kind of change — the Capitol plant protest still only attracted a few thousand people — but it is beginning and it is growing, and a snowstorm isn’t likely to stop it.”

Broad Coalition of Groups Pushing for ‘Clean Energy Corps’.ENS, March 2, 2009. “More than 80 labor, environmental, civic, and policy organizations have endorsed a proposal to secure America’s economic recovery and environmental health by applying energy-efficient measures to over 15 million existing buildings — from adding insulation to replacing inefficient boilers. The Clean Energy Corps would combine job creation, service, and training to combat global warming. ‘The beauty of the Clean Energy Corps is that it doesn’t just create jobs,’ said Green For All founder Van Jones. ‘It also creates pathways out of poverty.’ The Clean Energy Corps is a proposal of the Clean Energy Corps Working Group, which includes representatives of the Apollo Alliance, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Corps Network, Energy Action Coalition, Green For All, Innovations in Civic Participation, and 1Sky… The Clean Energy Corps website, www.greenforall.org/clean-energy-corps, features the full Clean Energy Corps report, a petition in support of the proposal, Congressional updates, and a complete list of endorsers.”

Dot Eco Partners with Gore to Secure the ‘.eco’ Web Domain. Press Release, Dot Eco, March 4, 2009. “Dot Eco LLC (www.dotecotld.com), the applicant for the new .eco top level domain, today announced it has entered into an integrated partnership with former Vice President Al Gore and his philanthropy, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to secure and promote the .eco top level domain [as an equivalent of '.org' or '.com.'] .eco will be established for individuals to express their support for environmental causes, for companies to promote their environmental initiatives, and for environmental organizations to maintain their websites in a namespace that is more relevant to their core missions. By charter, a majority of the profits of the .eco initiative will be distributed to support environmental causes.”

Coal Industry Reeling from Setbacks, Vows to Fight On.By Matthew Brown, AP, March 8, 2009. “Beneath the frozen plains of eastern Montana and Wyoming lie the largest coal deposits in the world — enough to last the United States more than a century at the nation’s current burn rate. The fuel literally spills from the ground where streambanks cut into the earth, hinting at reserves estimated at 180 billion tons. But even here lawsuits over global warming and the changing political landscape in Washington are pummeling an industry that has long been the backbone of America’s power supply… The exodus from coal has hit every corner of the country… President Barack Obama — once a reliable supporter of the industry — on Feb. 17 signed an economic stimulus package with $16.8 billion for renewable energy and efficiency programs. The coal industry was left with just $3.4 billion. Congress had earlier removed $50 billion in loan guarantees for coal-to-liquids plants and the nuclear industry… Last year, only five new coal plants totaling about 1,400 megawatts came on line. Meanwhile, the wind energy sector added a record 8,300 megawatts. Yet any proclamation of coal’s demise would be premature… After spending an estimated $40 million during the 2008 election on a pro-coal public relations campaign, a consortium of companies [CleanCoalUSA.org] that dig, ship and burn the fossil fuel may match that spending this year.”

New Life for ‘Clean Coal’ Project.By Kimberly Kindy, WashPost, March 6, 2009. “Deep inside the economic stimulus package is a $1 billion prize that, in five short words, shows the benefits of being in power in Washington. The funding, for ‘fossil energy research and development,’ is likely to go to a power plant in a small Illinois town, a project whose longtime backers include a group of powerful lawmakers from the state, among them President Obama. They were unable to prevent the clean coal research project known as FutureGen from being abruptly killed last year by the Bush administration, which had created it and promoted it across the world as an environmentally sound way to produce power. But now those same Illinois legislators — including Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, and Ray LaHood, now transportation secretary — control the White House and hold key leadership positions in Washington, and FutureGen is on the verge of resurrection. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said yesterday that he would support the plant ‘with some modifications.’”

Fight Over Yucca Mountain May Be Ending.By Steve Vogel, WashPost, March 4, 2009. “More than two decades after Yucca Mountain in Nevada was selected to be the national nuclear waste repository, the controversial proposal may finally be put to rest by the Obama administration. In keeping with a pledge President Obama made during the campaign, the budget released last week cuts off almost all funding for creating a permanent burial site for a large portion of the nation’s radioactive nuclear waste at the site in the Nevada desert. Congress selected the location in 1987 and reaffirmed the choice in 2002. About $7.7 billion has been sunk into the project since its inception. ‘Yucca Mountain is not an option, and the budget clearly reflects that,’ Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, said yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), a staunch opponent of the Yucca project, called the Obama action ‘our most significant victory to date in our battle to protect Nevada from becoming the country’s toxic wasteland.’”

Chu Tells Senate ‘Interim Options’ for Nuclear Wastes Now Under Consideration.By Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters, March 5, 2009. “U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Thursday that his department is now considering short-term options for storage of nuclear waste since President Obama does not support moving forward with the planned nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. The department will consider solidifying liquid radioactive waste that is currently held at 121 locations across the nation, as the government works to develop a permanent solution for safe nuclear waste disposal. Chu said the department could solidify waste at current sites without environmental risk. ‘The interim storage of waste with solidification is something we can do today,’ Chu told lawmakers at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.”

Recycled Nuclear Fuel Destined for Japan Arrives at French Port Stirring Concerns.AFP, March 4, 2009. “A convoy of recycled nuclear fuel moved under police escort Wednesday to a French port to be shipped half way round the world to Japan, despite fears it could be hijacked and used in bombs. Five trucks bearing the symbol for radioactive material and protected by dozens of police vehicles arrived in Cherbourg in the early hours from a nearby nuclear reprocessing plant. The mixed oxide, or MOX, is a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium that Japan… wants to start using as nuclear fuel for the first time. French nuclear group Areva, which reprocessed the Japanese fuel in La Hague, 20 kilometres (15 miles) from Cherbourg, insists the production of MOX is safe and that it helps reduce nuclear waste. Nuclear industry players say the risk of the civilian-grade plutonium contained in MOX being extracted to make nuclear weapons is negligible. But Greenpeace has asked the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to stop the shipment of ‘an extremely dangerous and proliferating substance,’ saying it is ‘unsafe and unnecessary.’ It says the recycled fuel to be sent to Japan contains 1.8 tons of plutonium, theoretically enough to make 225 nuclear bombs, making it the biggest plutonium transportation in history.”

Louisiana Energy Industry is Fighting Back Against New Taxes Proposed by Obama.By Jen DeGregorio, Times-Picayune, March 8, 2009. “Louisiana’s oil and gas industry has launched a crusade against President Barack Obama’s proposed 2010 budget, which critics say will increase the tax burden on fossil-fuel producers to the tune of $30 billion. The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association is urging members to ‘take action’ against the budget by signing a petition on its Web site. By Friday afternoon, the solicitation had drawn more than 18,000 signatures from states as far away as North Dakota.”

Obama Says He’s Gearing Up for a Fight Against Oil and Gas Companies. Weekly radio and Web address by Barack Obama, WhiteHouse.gov, February 28, 2009. “I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington. I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families. I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries. I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this: So am I.”

Cooking Oil for Diesel Cars Proliferates in the UK.By Elisabeth Rosenthal, NYTimes, February 21, 2009. “Hundreds of small plants in Britain that are processing, and often selling to private motorists, used cooking oil, which can be poured directly into unmodified diesel cars, from Fords to Mercedes.”

Ethanol Producers Press for Higher Limits.By Steven Mufson, WashPost, March 6, 2009. “The nation’s ethanol producers are urging the Obama administration to raise the 10 percent limit on ethanol in motor fuel to 15 percent or more, a move they hope will create new demand at a time when many distilleries are idle. The producers say higher ethanol blends would help create jobs and reduce petroleum imports. Moreover, without a change in the 10 percent limit, ethanol makers say it could be difficult to fulfill a congressional mandate for renewable fuel use and the makers of new forms of ethanol, which rely on raw materials other than corn, could be locked out of the fuel market.”

Vilsack Rallies Ethanol Producers.By Kris Bevill, EhanolProducer.com, March 5, 2009. “USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack offered words of support for the ethanol industry and inspirational comments for the agriculture industry during his keynote address held Feb. 26 at the department’s Agricultural Outlook Forum 2009. Vilsack reported that U.S. President Obama has instructed him that the USDA will expand energy opportunities and assist U.S. producers to create more forms of alternative energy and fuel. ‘If we’re to meet the president’s instruction that he wants more energy production out of our farm fields and ranches, and if we are going to turn this economy around and become less reliant on fossil fuels, we’ve got to create more biofuel,’ he said. As a former Iowa governor, Vilsack has not shied away from speaking out in favor of corn-based ethanol and it appears that his new role as agriculture secretary will not damper that position.”

Wind Power Record Set in Spain.By Giles Tremlett, Guardian (UK), March 7, 2009. “Spain set a new record for wind power generation on Friday as gales blew across the country, with more than 40% of the country’s energy needs being covered by wind turbines at one stage. The peak of 11,180mw of electricity supply came mid-morning yesterday, as fierce winds swept across much of north-west Spain, where most of the country’s extensive wind farms are situated. That covered 29% of Spain’s energy needs at the time. The percentage had been even higher, reaching above 40% for several hours, earlier in the morning when demand for electricity was lower… Wind energy alone has covered 11.5% of demand so far this year, with production up by a third on last year.”

Atlantic City to Unveil Nation’s Larger Solar Roof.By Steve Almasy, CNN, March 6, 2009. “With its energy-gobbling casinos, Atlantic City, New Jersey, isn’t exactly known as a city that conserves electricity. Its motto: ‘Always turned on.’ This oceanside gambling mecca seems an unlikely place for a pioneering solar energy project. But at a ceremony scheduled for Thursday, city and state officials commemorated the city’s convention center, newly powered in part by the largest single-roof solar-panel array in the United States. The 13,321 photovoltaic panels will produce an average of 26 percent of the convention center’s energy, according to consultants. The panels cover most of the roof’s usable space.”

Windmills in Malawi From Found Materials.YouTube, 6:06 min. “In late 2006, a Malawian newspaper wrote about William Kamkwmamba, a remarkable young man from a remote rural village north of the capital city. Forced to drop out of high school for lack of money, William saw a picture of a windmill in a textbook and decided to build one to power his family’s home. Using found materials and scrap yard parts such as a broken bicycle, tractor fan, melted plastic pipes, bamboo and used copper wires, he built a series of windmills which would change his and his family’s life. A visit to America reinforces his dreams to complete his education and bring power to his country. He is now attending school in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is his story.”

Mileage Tax Gaining Speed in Congress.By Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy, March 8, 2009. “Despite opposition from the White House, a proposal to tax motorists on the number of miles they drive each year is gathering speed on Capitol Hill. Its popularity is increasing as Congress searches for alternatives to the federal gasoline tax, which isn’t indexed to inflation and hasn’t been raised since 1993. Supporters say that a mileage tax would be a more reliable source of funding for the upkeep of the nation’s roads and bridges. Many environmentalists endorse it, saying that it would lead to less driving and less pollution. However, the proposal is raising privacy concerns — particularly if GPS devices were to monitor mileage — and opponents say that the last thing people need is a new tax, particularly in the middle of a recession. Some critics, moreover, fear that it would have a disproportionate impact in states such as California, which has longer-than-average commutes. A bipartisan commission that Congress created said last week that lawmakers should increase the gasoline tax by 10 cents per gallon but begin shifting to a mileage tax.”

Share My Ride.By Mark Levine, NYTimesMag, March 8, 2009. “Zipcar and its competitors are betting that your budget and your green conscience are ready to cooperate… At the moment, its 275,000 members in the U.S., Canada and London share 5,500 cars. But Zipcar, which has been doubling its ranks annually for much of its existence, sees many more prospective converts, an environmentally aware, cost-conscious, Internet-bred generation of urbanites who have come of age sharing information.”

’50 by 50′: A Global Call to Auto Industry to Halve Emissions. By Jorn Madslien, BBC, March 5,2009. “The motor industry has been urged to halve CO2 emissions from cars by 2050 by four leading international agencies. The 50 BY 50 initiative [PDF, 24 pp] is seeking ways to reconcile aspirations for mobility with reduced emissions and a global economic recovery. The number of cars in the world is set to triple by 2050, so the sector is being urged to play its part to reduce its contribution to global warming… The call for the cut in emissions came from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the FIA Foundation. ‘The world’s car fleet is expected to triple by 2050 with 80% of this in developing economies,’ predicted Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary General and executive director of UNEP. ‘We would urge the world’s car and component makers to get on board to prove that they too are part of the solution.’”

Tune Up Existing Technology for Quickest Reduction in Auto Emissions.By Carolyn Whelan, SciAmerican, March 5, 2009. “Refinements to the internal combustion engine, aerodynamics, drivetrains, and tires — not hydrogen fuel cells or plug-in hybrids — have the most potential to reduce emissions and kick up mileage, according to a new report.”

Surviving 2 Billion Cars with China Leading the Way.By Deborah Gordon and Daniel Sperling, YaleEnviro360, March 5, 2009. “The globe now has more than 1 billion vehicles and is expected to hit the 2 billion mark within 20 years. And while the international economic crisis may have slowed things down momentarily, the desire for personal vehicles is powerful and the demand will not soon let up… We need long-overdue transportation innovations that will lead to cleaner, more efficient, safer vehicles running on greener fuels, together with an overhaul of public transportation systems and land-use development. Nowhere is this more urgent than in China… With its limited oil resources, rapid development, and polluted cities… China is a hotbed of innovation, well positioned to respond to internal demands and international initiatives. Novel technologies are already sweeping China. Electric two-wheelers are the most successful mass-marketed battery-powered electric vehicles in the world, with sales exceeding 15 million in China in 2007… Chinese automakers are also innovating with new ferrous batteries that could be much cheaper than lithium-ion or nickel-metal hydride batteries and could be recharged in 10 minutes. This breakthrough would enable large-scale introduction of electric vehicles in China, ahead of Western Europe and the United States.”

San Francisco Bay Area Mayors Sign Climate Pact.By Shaun Bishop, Silicon Valley MercuryNews, March 6, 2009. “In a move signaling local cooperation in the fight against climate change, the mayors of the Bay Area’s three largest cities Friday signed onto a regional agreement that outlines a series of goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions… [It] will allow the cities to pool their resources in developing green programs and increase their ability to obtain funding for projects, including money in the federal stimulus package… The compact includes 10 measurable goals, each with deadlines, on efforts ranging from promoting recycling to getting more electric cars on the road. One goal is to place 20,000 new graduates into green industry jobs by 2013. Another calls for using 3 percent less gasoline by 2013 than was consumed last year and 8 percent less by 2018.”

Too Close to Call for L.A.’s Solar Measure B.By Jonathan Lloyd, MSNBC, March 5, 2009. “Despite early claims of victory for solar-energy Measure B by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, campaign leaders and Department of Water and Power officials, the measure was being narrowly defeated early Wednesday, but thousands of still-uncounted ballots mean it could be days or weeks until its fate is decided. Measure B, which would allow the Department of Water and Power to install enough solar panels on the rooftops of city buildings to generate 400 megawatts of power by 2014, is part of the city’s plan to meet 10 percent of the city’s needs with solar energy by 2020. It is one-third of the city’s Solar LA plan, but the only component to appear on the ballot. As election results began trickling in Tuesday night, the measure appeared to be heading for victory, but late returns reversed the measure’s fortunes. With 100 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday morning, the measure was failing by 1,322 votes.”

Paterson to Increase Free RGGI Allowances.By Danny Hakim, NYTimes, March 5, 2009. “At the urging of the energy industry, Gov. David A. Paterson has agreed to reconsider a key rule New York adopted as part of a 10-state pact aimed at reducing the threat of global warming by cutting power plant emissions. Mr. Paterson appeared to overrule the State Department of Environmental Conservation in making the move, which would reopen state regulations to provide power plants leeway to release greater amounts of emissions at no additional cost. Administration officials said the governor was concerned the rule might unfairly burden the energy industry. His decision infuriated environmental groups, which learned of Mr. Paterson’s decision just this week, though he met with energy executives privately last fall and assured them he would take the step… The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which New York signed onto four years ago, established a system whereby power producers were required to obtain what are called allowances, which permit them to release certain levels of carbon dioxide emissions. They typically obtain the allowances by buying them at auction or trading them. The requirement for utilities to obtain the allowances in this way was established not only as a financial disincentive to discourage them from polluting, but as a way for states to raise money for greener energy initiatives. Mr. Paterson does not plan to withdraw from the climate accord, but has agreed to increase the number of free allowances provided by the state, which would lower the industry’s costs of compliance.”

Officials Downplay Impact of Paterson Move to Give Free RGGI Allowances.By Kate Galbraith, NYTimes, March 7, 2009. “A move by Gov. David A. Paterson to increase the free allowances for carbon-dioxide emissions that New York gives power plants is unlikely to undermine efforts by nine other states that signed a landmark pact to reduce global warming, officials said on Friday.”

World’s Stimulus Programs Offer Little Green.By Fiona Harvey, FT, March 3, 2009. “Economic stimulus plans being rolled out across the world could commit countries to rapid growth in greenhouse gas emissions, cancelling some of the green initiatives included within them, analysis has found. The packages of tax cuts, credits and extra spending have been trumpeted for their environmental credentials by the governments proposing them, but a closer look shows that green spending account for only a small part of the bigger initiatives… Tokyo will devote 2.6 per cent of its spending to green investments… out of a total stimulus package of $486 billion… New Delhi has no plans to spend any of its $14 billion fiscal package on low-carbon ­activities… France and Germany are leading the way in Europe, with a fifth of the $34 billion French package and 13% of Germany’s to be targeted at low-carbon industries. In the UK, where ministers have promised hundreds of thousands of new green jobs, about 7% will go to environmental goods and services… Italy will channel only 1% of its planned $100 billion to green measures and Poland, which is highly reliant on coal-fired electricity, does not plan for any of its stimulus to be green.”

E.U. Calls on All Nations to Set GHG Targets by Mid-Year. By Jennifer Rankin,EuropeanVoices, March 3, 2009. “The European Union will call on other developed countries to set greenhouse-gas targets by the middle of this year, a meeting of the bloc’s environment ministers decided yesterday (March 2). The declaration is an attempt to step up pressure on other wealthy nations, as the world prepares to negotiate a global deal on climate change at the end of the year. The EU has pledged to cut its emissions by 20% by 2020 and promised to increase this target to 30% if other countries join in. At yesterday’s meeting in Brussels, the environment ministers of the 27 EU states re-confirmed their 30% target and called on other developed countries to come up with plans for emission limitations or reductions as soon as possible and no later than the middle of the year.”

Kazakhstan Approves Kyoto Protocol, Leaving U.S. as the Only Signer of the Treaty Not to Ratify.AFP, February 26, 2009. “The Kazakh parliament Thursday approved the Kyoto Protocol on fighting global warming, making it the last signatory to the UN-led treaty to ratify the measures other than the United States. Kazakhstan, whose economic growth over the past decade had been the strongest in Central Asia, had resisted ratifying the landmark climate change conventions… Kazakhstan signed the treaty in 1998, but had not signed it into effect until Thursday. The US administration of then president Bill Clinton signed the Protocol but never ratified it and his successor George W. Bush in 2001 withdrew the United States from the Protocol, saying it would cripple the US economy. The Turkish parliament had on February 5 overwhelmingly approved the Kyoto Protocol [which] expires in 2012.”

China Plans 59 Reservoirs to Collect Meltwater From Its Shrinking Glaciers. By Jonathan Watts, Guardian (UK), March 2, 2009. “China is planning to build 59 reservoirs to collect water from its shrinking glaciers as the cost of climate change hits home in the world’s most populous country. The far western province of Xinjiang, home to many of the planet’s highest peaks and widest ice fields, will carry out the 10-year engineering project, which aims to catch and store glacier run-off that might otherwise trickle away into the desert. Behind the measure is a desire to adjust seasonal water levels and address longer-term concerns that downstream city residents will run out of drinking supplies once the glaciers in the Tian, Kunlun and Altai mountains disappear.”

Antarctica is Heating Up Ever Faster.By Scott Canon, McClatchy, March 8, 2009. “Even as changing climate brings more moisture, and ice, to Antarctica’s center, on its edges the frozen continent is becoming less so. Melting skyscrapers of ice crash into the ocean at ever faster rates. That’s raising sea levels, disrupting ocean food chains and reducing the region’s ability to moderate the planet’s climate. Climate scientists once were befuddled about why Antarctica seemed, if anything, to be cooling while the rest of the world got toastier. It turns out the bottom of the world has been warming after all. ‘More is happening than we thought, and it’s happening faster,’ said Douglas Martinson, who studies the impact of polar oceans on global climate at Columbia University. Average winter temperatures on the Antarctica peninsula — changing more than the rest of the continent — have risen 11 degrees since 1950. That’s five times the global warm-up and disastrous to the ice shelves that hang over water and act as corks to bottle up glaciers on land.”

No More Glaciers in Glacier National Park by 2020?By Anne Minard, NatGeographic, March 2, 2009. “It’s an oft-repeated statistic that the glaciers at Montana’s Glacier National Park will disappear by the year 2030. But Daniel Fagre, a U.S. Geological Survey ecologist who works at Glacier, says the park’s namesakes will be gone about ten years ahead of schedule, endangering the region’s plants and animals. The 2030 date, he said, was based on a 2003 USGS study, along with 1992 temperature predictions by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). ‘Temperature rise in our area was twice as great as what we put into the [1992] model,’ Fagre said. ‘What we’ve been saying now is 2020.’”

Atmospheric C02 Levels Could Remain Elevated for Thousands of Years.By Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers, February 24, 2009. “Until now, most discussion of climate change has been about what scientific evidence shows is likely to happen between now and 2100. However, scientific research shows that the carbon dioxide gas released from burning fossil fuels lasts in the atmosphere much longer than mere decades. David Archer, a leading climate researcher who teaches at the University of Chicago, has written a new book that looks at carbon dioxide’s ‘long tail’ and what it means for changes on Earth in the future. If the world continues its heavy use of coal over the next couple of hundred years until it’s essentially used up, it would take several centuries more for the oceans to absorb about three-quarters of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. In those centuries, there would be a ‘climate storm’ that Archer says would be significantly worse than the forecast from now to 2100. The remaining carbon dioxide — the long tail — would stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years, leaving a warmer climate. About 10 percent of it would still be in the atmosphere in 100,000 years, Archer writes in The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth’s Climate… Archer concludes that there’s still time to cut fossil fuel emissions enough to avoid disaster. ‘The question may come down to ethics, rather than economics,’ Archer writes, much as the issue of slavery did more than a century ago. ‘Ultimately it didn’t matter whether it was economically beneficial or costly to give up. It was simply wrong.’”

Aging Satellites: Climate Research Threat.By Jon Hamilton, NPR, March 6, 2009. “The U.S. satellites that monitor climate change are aging, and replacements are years away, thanks to more than a decade of budget cuts and squabbling about which federal agency should run the climate satellite program. Scientists say this means the United States will probably have to get along without some critical eyes in the sky at precisely the time it’s making multibillion-dollar decisions about how to respond to climate change.”

Citizen Scientists Invited to Track Seasonal Signs of Climate Change. ENS, March 5, 2009.“Citizen scientists are being recruited to help scientists observe the effects of climate change on the behavior of plant and animal species found across the United States. Volunteers are asked to study the seasonal cycles of plant and animals — the first leafing, first flowering, and first fruit ripening of plants, and animals reproducing, migrating and hibernating — a science known as phenology. A consortium of government, academic and citizen scientists known as the USA-National Phenology Network, or USA-NPN, is launching the new national program built on volunteer observations of these seasonal events… Scientists and resource managers will use these observations to track effects of climate change on the Earth’s living systems. The observations will be analyzed against satellite-generated remote sensing data and weather data, then compared with detailed ecological studies… Based at the University of Arizona in Tucson, the USA-NPN includes collaborations among the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Arizona, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Wildlife Society.”

Many of the stories posted by Earth Equity News are sent in by their readers to tstokes@kyotoandbeyond.org. Opinions presented do not necessarily represent positions taken by CCC.