Gristmill

Obama's team shows it's unprepared to defend his cap-and-trade proposal

The president's surrogates are fanning out in the press to defend his budget proposals. To my eye, they're not doing a very good job defending the cap-and-trade system that was laid out in the budget.

Right now, the intellectual leader of the Republican Party, Newt Gingrich, is out bashing the cap-and-trade system as an "energy tax" on everyone who uses electricity or gasoline. This is entirely predictable -- it has been and will be the central attack on carbon pricing.

On The Week, Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag was pressed relentlessly by host George Stephanopoulos (the very essence of a Conservative Conventional Wisdom Delivery System [CCWDS]) to admit that the cap-and-trade system is a tax. Orszag kind of rambles around and concludes by saying yeah, it will raise energy costs, but overall, American families will come out ahead under Obama's budget. Which is fine, as far as it goes, though it ends up sound somewhat evasive and doesn't constitute a defense of the program at all.

For one thing, Orszag might try using the words "climate change." More specifically, in the budget Obama specifically tied carbon revenues to a payroll tax that would offset the rise in energy costs for the bottom 60 percent of American income earners. What was the point of doing that if not to have a specific and pointed rejoinder to douchebags like Gingrich? It's not just the overall budget that would benefit most American families, it's the carbon cap-and-trade system itself. (See also Jefferson Morley.)

Similarly, here's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel on Face the Nation (the energy bit comes about seven minutes in):

$80b per year in carbon revenue to go to clean energy, tax payer rebates

President Obama recently announced a plan to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term, in part by raising revenue through the auctioning of carbon permits under a cap-and-trade system. In one sense, there's no new information here. Obama campaigned heavily on cap-and-trade and he's always favored auctioned permits, so the plan is just a restatement of some prior campaign pledges. Right?

Sort of, but this is still a very big deal. The new budget has at least four big implications.

The first is purely political. By including carbon revenue in his budget projections, Obama is not only presenting cap-and-trade as a fait accompli, he's also casting it as a matter of fiscal responsibility. Deficit reduction is the ultimate bipartisan fetish object, and with this announcement Obama has performed an effective flanking maneuver on opponents who are going to try to worry a climate bill to death over economic concerns. Don't get me wrong: the political battle over cap-and-trade will be bruising. But the rhetorical ground on which it will be fought just tilted more heavily in the favor of environmentalists.

High energy requirements make the manufacture of algal biofuel prohibitive

Robert Rapier has an important post on the prospects for algal biodiesel:

Obama budget proposal would cut off funding for Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump

Here's one bit of news I missed in all the hubbub about Obama's proposed budget: apparently it kills Yucca Mountain dead, once and for all.

Here's what Harry Reid says on the Senate website:

Dear Fellow Nevadan-

Today was an extremely important day in our fight against the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. In his budget request for 2010, President Obama will announce plans to devise a new strategy to find another solution to deal with the nation's nuclear waste that does not include storing it in Nevada.

As Nevadans know, I have been successfully fighting the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump since I began my career in the Senate. I have had tremendous help from our state's leaders and thousands of Nevadans along the way. President Obama joined the fight against the nuclear waste dump in his Presidential campaign, and I am proud that now he will deliver on his promise.

President Obama has made a critical first step towards fulfilling his promise to end the Yucca Mountain project, and I could not be happier for the people of Nevada. Make no mistake: this represents a significant and lasting victory in our battle to protect Nevada from becoming the country's toxic wasteland. I have worked for over two decades with help from our state's leaders and thousands of Nevadans to stop Yucca Mountain. President Obama recognizes that the proposed dump threatens the health and safety of Nevadans and millions of Americans, and his commitment to stop this terrible project could not be more clear.

Thousands protest against coal in front of D.C.’s Capitol Power Plant

No one was arrested, but not for lack of trying. An estimated 2,500 people protested outside Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Power Plant on Monday — the nation’s largest act of civil disobedience against coal power. Anti-coal activists from all corners of the country braved the sub-freezing temperatures and six inches of snow the city received Sunday […]

Snow doesn't dampen turnout for anti-coal rally in D.C.

The day's scorecard:

1) Largest anti-coal action yet in the United States: Thousands and thousands of people flooding the streets around the Capitol Hill power plant.

2) Largest demonstration in many years where everyone was wearing dress clothes: The point was to stress that there's nothing radical about shutting down coal-fired power. In fact, there's everything radical about continuing to pour carbon into the air just to see what happens.

3) Smallest counter-protest in world's history: By my count, the Competitive Enterprise Institute managed to muster four demonstrators for its "celebration of coal" rally, which is about the right size. (But they were kind of sweet; they had signs that said: "Al Gore, Not Evil, Just Wrong.")

4) Number of arrests: None, zip, zilch, nada. The police said so many demonstrators showed up that they had no hope of jailing them all. So we merrily violated the law all afternoon, blocking roads and incommoding sidewalks and other desperate stuff, all without a permit or a say so. We shut down the power plant for the day. And we'd pre-won our main victory anyhow, when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid preemptively cried uncle last week and announced they were'nt going to burn coal in their plant any more.

5) Quantity of broad smiles afterwards: Almost unlimited. And in the air, there was the strong sense that we can do this. Really. What fun.

Bill McKibben, a Grist board member, is co-founder of 350.org, and author most recently of Deep Economy.

Photos of climate and coal protests in D.C.

Three rallies hit Capitol Hill on Monday. First, several thousand young attendees of the Power Shift climate conference rallied on the west lawn of the Capitol before heading off to lobby their representatives. Second, more than 2,000 people gathered for a high-profile protest at the Capitol Power Plant, demanding an end to the burning of […]

Berkeley's program to finance solar systems through property tax assessments is off to great start

The city of Berkeley, Calif. is pioneering a program to help homeowners finance solar systems through property tax assessments. How's that working out?

The first tranche of funds sold out in nine minutes.

And on Friday, the first two checks were handed out to proud owners of new solar systems. Meanwhile, we were able to tweak the federal tax code to ensure that program participants can still use the federal investment tax credit (thanks, Speaker Pelosi). And we are working with partners in eight states and counting to get enabling legislation on the books to allow more cities to replicate the model.

Note that this program can be set up to fund more than just solar electric.  Solar hot-water and energy-efficiency upgrades can and should be included as well.

A slideshow of mass transit’s massive artistic potential

Here’s some snowy-day fun (if you happen to live in one of the places getting socked by storms): Dave Burdick put together a slideshow highlighting the surprising beauty of subway maps old and new — yeah, New York City is in there, but you won’t want to miss the Milky Way!