Blogs: New Energy

Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., delivered a speech on global warming Wednesday, and announced a key development, which she deemed a "breakthrough":

I have been informed ... by Senators [Tom] Carper [D-Del.], [Lamar] Alexander [R-Tenn.] and [Bernie] Sanders [I-Vt.] ... that they will soon introduce [separate] bills, meaning in a matter of days, to cap pollution from power plants, including global warming pollution ... Now, I have a consensus developing on my committee, across the party lines, that we will in fact look at bills that do cap carbon [emissions].

As noted here earlier, the global warming debate is shifting.

Conservatives are beginning to surrender (I stress: beginning to) on the question of whether global warming is happening, and moving towards trying to block our government from implementing comprehensive solutions, like firm caps on carbon emissions.

But even that strategy will be difficult to sustain, if folks like Sen. Alexander break ranks and help legitimize caps.

This doesn't mean Boxer is on a glide path to passing legislation out of her committee.

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Yesterday's headline from the Associated Press read: "EPA chief: Bush climate policy working."

And why is that? Says the AP:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday the growth of greenhouse gases by less than 1 percent in 2005 shows the administration's program to address global warming "is delivering real results."

To repeat in non-spin: we put more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in 2005 than 2004. So our policy to do nothing about global warming is working.

If the AP is unable to write a fully truthful headline, it at least had the sense to quote Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch, who blogged yesterday:

It's a sad state of affairs when global warming emissions go up, yet the Bush administration tries to spin it as a victory.

Though David Roberts of Gristmill still knocks the AP for characterizing the accurate analysis as only coming from activists:

"Environmentalists," you see, view a continuing rise in greenhouse-gas emissions as less than a triumph for Bush's climate change policies. Not, say, "awake people," or "non-retarded people." Just "environmentalists."

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The Kerry-Newt debate on global warming wrapped up this morning (video is up on C-Span.org , more at John Kerry's blog).

It may well shift the overall debate, away from the definitively answered “is global warming happening?” to “what do we do about it?”

Crafty Newt Gingrich downplayed, but did not renounce, his global warming denial arguments (Kerry helpfully reminded us that Newt recently said there was no evidence of global warming, just "cultural anthropology," properly calling into question Newt’s sincerity.)

But Newt clearly realizes the conservative movement can’t continue being perceived as the Flat Earth Society, and in turn, sought to move the debate towards the question of our government’s role.

He also recognized that an anti-government approach would be understood as insufficient for the challenge we face.

So he sought to turn the tables, claiming he supports a “real solution” that is “radically bigger and more complex than the current proposals.”

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Paul Abrams of Washington State's Apollo Alliance) recently summed up Newt Gingrich's style of debate:

...after his high-minded talk ... Newt immediately descends to the gutter, throwing out red meat to his base...

So it will likely be tomorrow when Gingrich faces Sen. John Kerry in a debate over global warming.

Here's how Newt begins his website section on the environment:

America will be stronger if it develops coherent technology and market-oriented solutions to environmental conservation and energy consumption...

...It is possible to have a healthy environment and a healthy economy. It is possible to build incentives for a cleaner future. It is possible to have biodiversity and wealthy human beings on the same planet.

Practically sounds like a charter member of the Apollo Alliance.

But high-minded quickly shifts towards flat earth territory.

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We already knew the Bushies were trying to muzzle American climate scientists. Now, they're going global.

Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new report detailing how global warming, if left unchecked, will impact all the regions of the planet.

But before the report could be approved, Bush's people were working with Chinese officials to water it down and politicize scientific conclusions.

From the AP:

Agreement came after an all-night session during which key sections were deleted from the draft and scientists angrily confronted government negotiators who they feared were watering down their findings.

...

Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators but in the end agreed to compromises. However, some scientists vowed never to take part in the process again.

...

The United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised the many of the objections to the phrasing, often seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections.

...

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Yesterday, President Bush made three significant recess appointments, installing officials without Senate confirmation during the congressional recess.

The abuse of the recess appointment perhaps isn't Bush's most egregious attack on our Founders' carefully crafted system of checks and balances, since others before him have exploited this constitutional loophole.

But the implicit reasons behind each appointment are quite egregious, and each in their own way.

The one that's gotten the most attention is Sam Fox, our new Ambassador to Belgium.

It's typical, if still highly inappropriate, for cronies of the President to get cushy Ambassador gigs.

But Sam Fox wasn't just a big donor of Bush. He gave $50,000 to the Swift Boat liars that smeared John Kerry's war record.

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