Climate Politics

All the green policy news I don't have time to write about

• The House is debating the economic stimulus package today, and is likely to vote on it on Wednesday. President Obama was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday lobbying Republican lawmakers to support the bill, though GOP leaders say they are holding out for more tax cuts.

• Meanwhile, mass transit advocates are already miffed that spending for their projects got reduced in favor of more tax cuts. And on the Senate side, the prospects for transit look even bleaker.

• Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) announced on Tuesday that they have formed a Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition caucus in the House of Representatives. In his announcement, Inslee noted that the group recently met with Carol Browner, the new assistant to the president on energy and climate policy, and that the caucus members are working on improving green technology provisions stimulus package. "The melting of the Arctic ice cap is speeding up toward a point of no return and the economy is in turmoil," said Inslee. "We are in need of bold, aggressive action, and that’s exactly what the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition is about."

• Apparently, a pair of Swiss filmmakers is working on a documentary about what happened to Jimmy Carter's White House solar panels.

• The brilliant minds at the Reality Coalition have bought ad space on all misdirected web pages on washingtonpost.com.

• Ed Markey, chair of the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming and author of the fuel-economy provision in the 2007 energy bill, sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on Monday asking him to strengthen the standards.

• The Heartland Institute has scheduled its annual climate change skepticism summit for March 8-10 in New York City, if you'd like to go give yourself an ulcer for a few days.

E.U. leaks details of its proposed Kyoto successor treaty

On Wednesday, the European Commission will release a communiqué outlining the E.U.'s vision for a successor agreement to Kyoto, to be hashed out this December in Copenhagen.

There have been some leaks related to the document, covered in The NYT and elsewhere, but now EurActiv has gotten a draft copy [PDF] to look over. It's got pencil marks on it, so obviously it's preliminary and could change by Wed., but it gives a good sense of the direction E.U. sees things going.

I write book reviews and talk on the radio

Because too much Roberts is never enough:

What seems like a million years ago (I'll never get used to paper media schedules), I wrote a review of Van Jones' new book The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems for In These Times. It's up now, with the somewhat unfortunate headline "It's Not Easy Becoming Green." (Note to eco-headline writers: no more Kermit references; no more inconvenient-anything references; no more "green is the new X.") Of course you'll want to read every scintillating word, but the basic thrust is, Van Jones in person is an unbelievable dynamo who's reshaping the political landscape in extraordinary ways; Van Jones in his book is rather flat and prosaic. With a few exceptions, it's difficult to hear the former's voice in the latter.

In other Roberts news, I appeared on the Liberal Oasis radio show while I was in D.C., discussing prospects for green legislation in coming years. My mellifluous tones and perspicacious insights are available via a variety of electronic delivery options: iTunes / XML feed / MP3. You should subscribe to the podcast -- host Bill Scher is a top notch thinker and communicator.

Obama names clean-energy proponent as acting head of FERC

With so much news in Washington this week, we almost forgot to mention big news at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). On Friday, President Obama appointed Jon Wellinghoff to be the acting chairman of the agency, where he will oversee interstate electric transmission, gas transportation, and opening wholesale markets to renewables.

The 59-year-old Nevadan is considered the front-runner for a nomination to the top spot at the agency. "I thank President Obama for the opportunity to lead FERC at a time when our nation faces the challenge of providing consumers with access to clean, renewable energy and ensuring that our nation can deliver that energy in the most efficient, smart and technologically sophisticated manner possible," said Wellinghoff in a statement.

This is exciting news for greens, who are big fans of Wellinghoff, an energy law specialist who has been with FERC since 2006. In December 2007, the U.S. Senate reconfirmed him for a full five-year term. While at the agency he has helped create a new division -- the Energy Innovations Sector -- to investigate and promote new efficient technologies and practices.

In his first full day on the job as acting chief, Wellinghoff stressed the need for automobile manufacturers and electric utilities to work together to integrate electric vehicles into the national grid, according to a Dow Jones report.

Exiting chairman Joseph T. Kelliher praised Wellinghoff's appointment: "Jon has the intelligence, experience, judgment and independence to lead FERC as the agency discharges its historic responsibilities and confronts new challenges." Kelliher, who drew fire during the Bush administration for his involvement with Vice President Dick Cheney's secret energy task force, stepped down earlier this month.

Skeptics hope D.C. snow will put the freeze on Gore's testimony

The nation's capital is currently in the grips of Snowpacalypse '09 (meaning, in D.C. parlance, we have about 2 inches of snow on the ground).

Climate skeptics are already giddy about the fact that a) clearly this demonstrates that global warming is a ginourmous lie; and b) it may mean Al Gore's scheduled testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tomorrow gets put on hold.

There's a reason Republicans stump for a carbon tax, and it ain't to reduce emissions

This may piss off some people I respect a great deal. Nonetheless, after hearing it in several off-the-record conversations in D.C. last week, I believe it's something that needs to be said publicly:

The 111th U.S. Congress is not going to pass a carbon tax. Calls for a carbon tax, to the extent they have any effect, will complicate and possibly derail passage of carbon legislation.

It's possible that a carbon tax (and/or cap-and-dividend) bill will be introduced. One or both might even make it to a full vote, though I doubt it. But they won't pass. If you want carbon pricing out of this Congress, cap-and-trade is what you're getting. It follows that your energies are best spent ensuring that cap-and-trade legislation is as strong as possible.

Them's the facts.

Through some process I find truly mysterious, the carbon tax has become a kind of totem of authenticity among progressives, while cap-and-trade now symbolizes corporate sellouthood. Across the interwebs, lefties now proclaim with absolute confidence and no small sanctimony that we should entrust our children's future to economists (whose historical contribution to environmental policy has been hostility, doomsaying, and an unbroken record of error) and the Congressional committees that control tax policy (climate champions all). "Pay to pollute," once the scourge of the green movement, is now the sine qua non of keepin' it real. It is baffling.

It doesn't seem to daunt these folks that their hostility toward cap-and-trade and support for carbon taxes has been taken up by a growing cadre on the far right, including Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, economist Arthur Laffer, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), and yes, even climate wingnut Sen. James Inhofe (R-Gamma Quadrant). Hell, throw in a refunded gas tax and you get America's Worst Columnist© Charles Krauthammer too. Are we to believe that these folks understand the threat of climate chaos, want to reduce climate emissions the amount science indicates is prudent, and sincerely believe that a carbon tax is the best way to accomplish that goal?

Jamming coal subsidies into every conceivable spending vehicle

"He wants it as big as possible. He's going to just keep working for more and more and more money for this."

-- Jamie Smith, communications director for Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who's busy trying to get even more "clean coal" subsidies into the stimulus bill

What gas taxes don't do

Surprising: state gas taxes appear to have very little effect on either driving habits or fuel consumption. More precisely, there's no correlation between a state's gasoline tax and the amount of fuel its residents use or the amount of driving they do.

Don't believe me? Feast your eyes on these babies:

And:

Those are big, fat, completely uncorrelated blobs. What you're seeing is all 50 states plus D.C. plotted to show a relationship between state gas tax rates and per capita fuel consumption (in the first chart) and per capita miles driven (in the second chart). There is essentially no relationship whatsoever.

When to change that light bulb

"Often when I'm on TV, they'll ask what are the three most important things for people to do [to stop global warming]. I know they want me to say that people should change their light bulbs. I say the number one thing is to organize politically; number two, do some political organizing; number three, get together with your neighbors and organize; and then if you have energy left over from all of that, change the light bulb."

-- writer and activist Bill McKibben

Obama administration on green investment

From the energy & environment agenda on the spiffy new White House website:

Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.

Not create but help create jobs -- government as partner, not mommy or daddy.

Not just spending but strategic investment -- emphasizing positive rate of return rather than cost.

Not replace but catalyze private efforts -- use government to nudge markets in the right direction.

Not return to pre-industrial Nature but build a clean energy future -- active not passive, ahead not backward, implying work (build) and thus jobs.

They're just good at this stuff.