Climate Politics

European Union unveils detailed plans to cut GHG emissions

European Union leaders today unveiled detailed draft plans to reduce E.U.-wide emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The plans would require utilities to buy all of their greenhouse-gas emissions permits beginning in 2013, as opposed to the current practice of allocating nearly all of them for free, which companies can then sell at […]

All the sudden, Pete Domenici supports renewable energy

Wow. You don’t see gall this unmitigated every day. Here’s Pete Domenici, with a “Statement on Renewable Energy Tax Credits in Economic Stimulus Package”: Over the last several years, it is apparent that America’s renewable energy industry has shown great promise. Much of the growth of these industries, such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal, […]

The real story behind the world’s favorite scolding of the U.S.

Last month, Kevin Conrad became somewhat famous representing Papua New Guinea at the Bali climate talks. Confronted yet again with U.S. intransigence, Conrad said: I would ask the United States, we ask for your leadership. But if for some reason you’re not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out […]

There’s coal money and then there’s war money

In an electoral year when climate policy will play an unusually high-profile role, the $35 million raised by coal front group ABEC seems like a daunting obstacle. Then again, all-purpose-right-wing-warmongering front group Freedom’s Watch is raising $250 million to spend on elections this year. So I guess it’s important to keep these things in perspective.

Thompson out

Fred Thompson is dropping out of the race today. A fitting time to reprint the Fredster’s classic bit on Paul Harvey’s radio show: Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently […]

EPA provides only some documents related to California waiver

The U.S. EPA has given Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) only some documents related to the agency’s refusal to allow California to regulate car greenhouse-gas emissions — not all, as she had asked. Missing or redacted documents include a presentation said to predict that EPA would lose if sued over its recalcitrance (which, of course, it […]

The latest in a string of endorsements for Obama from red-state Dems

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), notorious champion of Big Coal, has endorsed Barack Obama. Some greens are no doubt going to use this as evidence that Obama is too close to coal. I share the concern, but I don’t think it’s the most sensible interpretation of this case. Boucher’s endorsement is just the latest in a […]

Livestock registration, pitched by feds as voluntary, is creeping toward mandatory

You have read, in this space among many others, of the sinister nature of genetic modification and the patenting of seeds. I have ranted endlessly about the dangers of the food system being in the hands of just a few corporate land barons.

No reason to stop now.

For about five years now the USDA and many large corporate interests have been pushing a program called the National Animal Identification System. NAIS is touted as an effective tool in battling the spread of livestock diseases such as cattle tuberculosis and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow. It provides methods for tagging livestock of any kind with RFID, the same sort of microchip that many people have put on their pets in hopes of recovering poor Fido if he ever gets lost. The thinking is that if a side of beef in a Greeley, Colorado meatpacking plant tests positive for mad cow, authorities can quickly and easily identify said cow, trace it back through the system, and discover other animals with which it may have made contact.

Currently, at the federal level, NAIS is a voluntary program overseen by the USDA and administered by the several states with help from organizations like the Future Farmers of America and the Farm Bureau. Farms, feedlots, and confined animal feeding operations apply for and receive a formal numerical designation that is then applied to microchips injected into or ear-tagged onto each animal. According to the USDA, in 2007 the state of Iowa went from 11,000 registered sites to more than 20,000, an increase of over 80 percent -- all this despite a lack of any sort of government funding to participants for the program. Farmers must buy in if they choose to participate.

Setting aside for the moment that this system feels like a perfect bureaucratic method for closing the barn doors after the mad cows get out, all this seems fairly innocuous until we look a little deeper. The state of Texas has recently passed legislation requiring NAIS tagging for all dairy cattle. It goes into effect March 31. Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia, and Tennessee now require participation for goats and sheep. In Michigan, farmer and now reluctant revolutionary Greg Niewendorp has endured visits from the sheriff reminiscent of scenes from and old Billy Jack movie.

At Dem debate, candidates agree on green jobs, fight over everything else

Photo: AP/Mary Ann Chastain At the acrimonious Democratic presidential debate on Monday night, the three leading candidates bickered over a whole range of issues, but they all agreed on one thing: the need to invest in creating green-collar jobs. The CNN moderators didn’t ask any questions about the environment, but Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and […]

Barack Obama at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 20 Jan. 2008

Full transcript under the fold: —– Barack Obama at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 20 Jan. 2008 The Scripture tells us that when Joshua and the Israelites arrived at the gates of Jericho, they could not enter. The walls of the city were too steep for any one person to climb; too strong to be taken down […]