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Energy-related CO2 emissions declined by 2.8 percent in 2008

The Energy Information Administration has released its flash estimate for 2008 energy-related CO2 emissions here.  Factors that contributed to the 2.8% decline in CO2 (and a 2.2% drop in total energy use) include: Energy prices In 2008, gasoline and diesel prices were at their all-time peak level Near the end of the year, despite lower […]

Auto industry’s litigation strategy may have backfired in showrooms

Telling it like it is: President Obama meets with auto industry executives Tuesday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House before moving to the Rose Garden to announce new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks.Official White House Photo by Pete Souza None of the employees at Turlock Auto Plaza in California’s smoggy […]

Putting the US in a Strong Position to Secure an International Climate Agreement: Waxman-Markey Bill

The Waxman-Markey “American Clean Energy and Security Act” (HR 2454) is now out (see here for the full bill and here for NRDC’s top line summary of the entire bill).  The House Energy and Commerce Committee is focused this week on intensive sessions to pass the bill (you can watch it all live on the […]

Tax junk food, but also subidize veggies

Soda can … harm your health.The taxman cometh for soft drinks. Or so it appears these days. We already know they’re on the table as a possible funding source for Obama’s health care reform. And behind the scenes, the co-author of an influential paper on the potential positive effect of soda taxes, New York City’s […]

Republican counter-strategy on climate: Revenge!

How much smaller can the climate denial tent get? We’re about to find out. With companies as diverse as Nike, Johnson & Johnson and Ford Motor Company having joined the call for comprehensive clean energy & climate legislation, the Republican Party has come up with its counter-strategy: “To fight bill, GOP turns on business,” declares […]

Utilities and coal-state Democrats are wrecking our last chance on climate change

Utility companies and their coal-state apologists in Congress are wrecking America’s last, best chance to solve global warming. By insisting on free pollution permits, utilities are creating a climate bill that is complicated, unfair, and destined to fail in future years. It’s now up to Congressman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and the House Ways and Means […]

Rally in Seattle Thursday for climate, clean energy, healthy communities outside EPA climate hearing

I have a fair number of readers in Seattle, so I’m happy to pass on this rally notice from Climate Solutions (reprinted below).  The 20-person nonprofit with a great name is organizing a rally in Seattle Thursday, noon, outside of the EPA hearing on the endangerment finding.  They have more than 1,500 people attending so […]

MIT doubles its 2095 warming projection to 10°F

Today’s question:  How the heck does the Greenland ice sheet survive accelerated disintegration from projected 20°F warming by the 2090s? I previously blogged on how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Climate Change has joined the climate realists — the growing group of scientists who understand that the […]

House GOP attacks big business, science, legislative process, and even Joe Barton!

“Business is not always going to be a good friend of the Republicans, and that needs to be reflected in our strategy,” said MWR Strategies President Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist. The GOP members of the House Energy and Commerce committee, led by Joe Barton of Texas, are, ironically, bereft of any ideas on […]

Southern Company, coal plants, and the latest gizmo

Who is behind the push for “clean coal”? Seems like it ought to be simple, but it’s not. Take a look at this list of members of the “clean coal” front group ACCCE. There are effectively three lobbies: producers, utilities, and legislators. Producers’ interest in “clean coal” is obvious: they want to sell more coal. […]