Blogs: New Energy

Today, President Bush is getting a fresh round of favorable headlines for announcing this ahead of next week's summit of the powerful G-8 nations:

By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases. To help develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce most greenhouse gas emissions, including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China.

Sounds nice, almost like he wants one of them Kyoto treaties.

Except that yesterday, Reuters reported:

President George W. Bush is under pressure from European allies to give ground on climate change at next week's meeting of the world's richest countries, but policy experts say prospects for a breakthrough are slim.

The sticking point is Bush's longstanding opposition to measurable goals for reducing emissions of the greenhouse gases that spur global warming.

...

As negotiators try to hammer out the final language in a communique, the United States has blocked an emerging consensus in favor of firm targets.

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It’s Memorial Day in America / Everybody’s on the road / Let’s remember our fallen heroes / Y’all be sure and drive slow
-- James McMurtry, "Memorial Day"

Gas prices are at all-time highs, yet more drivers -- 38 million total -- are expected to hit the road this Memorial Day weekend.

Why? The folks at AAA (the American Automobile Association) say it's "America's love for the motorist and love for the car."

That's spin to make you think there's nothing that can be done to break our dependency on oil.

People still drive with high gas prices because they have no choice! Not out of blind love for a vehicle. more »

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ABC News reports that average gas prices are as high as ever been recorded, after adjusting for inflation: $3.22 a gallon.

High prices for fossil fuels wouldn't be a big deal, if consumers had affordable, cleaner alternatives.

But we don't, thanks to years of conservative energy policy.

President Bush ran in 2000 by saying "we need an energy policy." But the policy has been empty rhetoric and inaction. Without any serious investment into renewable fuels, gas consumption has risen, along with gas prices on Bush's watch.

As a result, we're squeezed -- dependent on dirty oil from abroad thanks to bad energy policy, made more expensive thanks to the global instability fed by bad foreign policy.

To get out of Big Oil's choke-hold, not to mention solve the climate crisis, we need new policies that create a market for renewable fuels brewed at home.

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As the Capitol Hill debate on "cap and trade" global warming legislation continues, always keep in mind that not all caps are the same. Loopholes and poor structure can make a cap ineffective.

Here, we've talked a little more about possible loopholes than the overall structure of a cap-and-trade program. But over at Gristmill, Tom Athanasiou sums up the different structures and where the pitfalls and potential benefits are.

A must-read for anyone trying to follow the overall debate.

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Confronted with the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, rising gas prices and the "inconvenient truth" of global warming, Americans are looking for leadership on energy independence and the threat posed by catastrophic climate change. Even George Bush, Big Oil's pocketed president, now pays lip service to the need to end our "addiction to oil." But with his policies making us more, not less, dependent on foreign oil, energy will be at the center of the 2008 campaign. The question is whether the presidential candidates have caught up with the voters.

Energy independence now rivals health care as the top domestic concern. In an April Center for American Progress poll, 60 percent of Americans supported bold action on global warming. A staggering 79 percent believe shifting to alternative energy sources will help the economy and create, not cost, jobs. Voters think the United States is falling behind other countries, and they want government to lead.

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Blue Climate flags this New York Times article about a study from the economic research arm of management consultant giant McKinsey & Company, backing strong government standards on energy efficiency.

Blue Climate makes the common sense point that: "Energy efficiency is only part of the solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions but it is an important part."

But common sense eludes the NY Times, which inaccurately poses a false either-or choice: more »

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Speakers at the Apollo Summitin Washington earlier this year emphasized the importance of making our buildings energy efficient, slashing carbon emissions and creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs. The Los Angeles chapter of the Apollo Alliance talked about raising $100 million to retrofit 100 municipal buildings and create 2,000 union jobs.

Now, former President Bill Clinton announced his William J. Clinton Foundation has securing $1 billion in financing to retrofit municipal buildings in 15 cities across the globe.

Former Vice President Al Gore recently summed up the source of global warming as "cars, coal and buildings." "Buildings" tend to be talked about the least of the three. Hopefully, this initiative will call more attention to what can be done at the state and local level while inertia reigns in the White House.

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At our Apollo Summit, speakers emphasized the importance of making our buildings energy efficient, slashing carbon emissions and creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs. The Los Angeles chapter of the Apollo Alliance talked about raising $100 million to retrofit 100 municipal buildings and create 2,000 union jobs.

Now, former President Bill Clinton announced his William J. Clinton Foundation has securing $1 billion in financing to retrofit municipal buildings in 15 cities across the globe.

Former Vice-President Al Gore recently summed up the source of global warming as "cars, coal and buildings." "Buildings" tends to be talked about the least of the three.

Hopefully, this initiative will call more attention to what can be done at the state and local level while inertia reigns in the White House.

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As noted here before, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who chairs a key environmental committee, is close to the auto industry and may be an obstacle to strong global warming legislation.

But yesterday at the Detroit Economic Club, Dingell said his committee is "working to fashion an economy-wide cap-and-trade policy," putting him on the same page as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., his Senate counterpart Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and of course, the American people -- raising the likelihood that both houses of Congress can pass a cap.

As always with environmental issues, the devils in the details. Any carbon cap bill can be weakened with loopholes or structured ineffectively.

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When the Supreme Court last month told the Bush administration to follow the law and treat greenhouse gases as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, environmental groups noted that the ruling should end the administration's efforts to prevent states from adopting their own vehicle emissions standards.

But after today's White House announcement, Frank O'Donnell at Clear Air Watch sees more stalling:

...the new Bush administration Executive Order regarding greenhouse gas emissions ... appears to be an attempt to sideswipe the greenhouse gas standards developed by the state of California and adopted by 11 other states... more »

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