6/24/2008
McCain runs into opposition over offshore oil plan
SANTA BARBARA, California - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday ran into opposition in environmentally conscious California to his policy switch in favor of U.S. offshore oil drilling. McCain appeared with California's popular Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to promote his ideas on how to wean the United States from foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. more>

6/13/2008
Green energy will be costly for Arizonans
Finally, a reality check about Arizona's energy future. Like their counterparts nationally, Arizona politicians have been proliferating green-fuel mandates and claiming that the transition will be painless. The Arizona Corporation Commission has required regulated electric utilities to steadily increase their use of renewable fuel, rising to at least 15 percent of their output by 2025. more>

6/10/08
Senate blocks debate on energy tax measures
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted against taking up a new energy package that would revoke $17 billion in tax breaks extended to big oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp and slap a 25 percent windfall profits tax on firms that don't invest in new energy sources. A week after U.S. oil prices hit an all-time peak of $139.12 a barrel and average U.S. pump prices topped $4 a gallon for the first time, Democrats moved to act on soaring gasoline pump prices, which are a growing political liability in the November presidential election. more>

6/9/2008
Cap and Burn
For months, Democrats and the environmental lobby promoted last week's Senate global-warming debate as a political watershed. It was going to be the historic turning point in U.S. climate change policy. In the event, their bill collapsed in a little more than three days. Democrats failed to secure a majority, much less the 60 Senators necessary, for a procedural vote on Friday morning that would have allowed the real work of amending the bill to begin. more>

6/3/2008
We Don't Need a Climate Tax on the Poor
With average gas prices across the country approaching $4 a gallon, it may be hard to believe, but the U.S. Senate is considering legislation this week that will further drive up the cost at the pump.The Senate is debating a global warming bill that will create the largest expansion of the federal government since FDR's New Deal, complete with a brand new, unelected bureaucracy. The Lieberman-Warner bill (America's Climate Security Act) represents the largest tax increase in U.S. history and the biggest pork bill ever contemplated with trillions of dollars in giveaways. Well-heeled lobbyists are already plotting how to divide up the federal largesse. The handouts offered by the sponsors of this bill come straight from the pockets of families and workers in the form of lost jobs, higher gas, power and heating bills, and more expensive consumer goods. more>

6/2/2008
Bush won't back renewable bill with oil tax
NEW YORK - The Bush Administration will oppose any tax credits for solar or renewable energy legislation that are funded through new taxes on oil industry, a senior U.S. Energy Department official said on Monday. "From our perspective, trying to single out the oil industry, and even a few companies in the oil industry, is not the way to increase production, increase supply, which is important for this country at the time," Deputy Energy Secretary Jeff Kupfer told the Reuters Energy Summit in a conference call from Houston. Last month, lawmakers unveiled an energy package that would revoke $17 billion in tax breaks extended to big oil companies and hit companies that do not invest in new energy technologies with a 25 percent windfall tax. more>

6/2/2008
Just Call It 'Cap-and-Tax'
We'll have to discard the old adage "Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." It is inoperative in this era of global warming, because the whole point of controlling greenhouse gas emissions is to do something about the weather. This promises to be hard and perhaps futile, but there are good and bad ways of attempting it. One of the bad ways is cap-and-trade. Unfortunately, it's the darling of environmental groups and their political allies. The chief political virtue of cap-and-trade -- a complex scheme to reduce greenhouse gases -- is its complexity. This allows its environmental supporters to shape public perceptions in essentially deceptive ways. Cap-and-trade would act as a tax, but it's not described as a tax. It would regulate economic activity, but it's promoted as a "free market" mechanism. more>

5/30/2008
Food Prices to Stay High as Biofuels Blamed
PARIS - Food prices will remain high over the next decade even if they fall from current records, meaning millions more risk further hardship or hunger, the OECD and the U.N.'s FAO food agency said in a report published on Thursday. Beyond stating the immediate need for humanitarian aid, the international bodies suggested wider deployment of genetically modified crops and a rethink of biofuel programs that guzzle grain which could otherwise feed people and livestock. The report, issued ahead of a June 3-5 world food summit in Rome, said food commodity prices were likely to recede from the peaks hit recently, but that they would remain higher in the decade ahead than the one gone by. more>

5/29/2008
Leading On Climate Change
The climate change bill that senators are to begin debating next week is a hugely important signal of intent on behalf of U.S. legislators. Yes, negotiations could still alter the legislation. But the bill's core proposition is correct: Unless the United States radically reduces its greenhouse gas emissions, along with other major emitters, the damage to the climate will be irreversible. Radical reduction is unlikely to happen through voluntary action alone. Measures in the bill, through a mandatory cap-and-trade scheme, would reduce emissions 70 percent from 2005 levels by 2050. These cuts would be based on a carbon market incentive system that moves with the grain of action around the globe. more>

5/27/2008
Senate set to debate emissions cuts
WASHINGTON - The international fight to control climate change heads to a new arena in June when the Senate is to debate a bill that could cut total U.S. global warming emissions by 66 percent by 2050. Environmentalists are supportive but want more in the legislation, the business community questions the economic impact, and the politicians who have shepherded it seem gratified that it has managed to get this far -- even though it is unlikely to become law this year. more>

5/21/2008
House Passes Bill to Sue OPEC Over Oil Prices
WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure. The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow. The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto. more>

5/20/2008
Boxer to Propose Changes to Climate Bill
A climate bill will inch closer to the Senate floor tomorrow when Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will propose changes including $800 billion in tax cuts through 2050 as well as an additional $911 billion through 2050 to protect consumers from utility bill increases by promoting energy efficiency and giving out rebates. more>

5/23/2008
Oil Industry, Lawmakers Aim To Lift Bans on Drilling
Mounting concerns about global energy supply are fueling a drive by the oil industry and some U.S. lawmakers to end longstanding bans on domestic drilling put in place to protect environmentally sensitive areas. Increasing U.S. oil production would require overturning decades-old moratoriums that limit offshore drilling and accelerating leasing of federal lands, moves that would trigger a swift and vigorous political backlash. Still, as gasoline prices continue to climb and squeeze household budgets, the momentum appears to be gaining to open up new areas. more>

5/20/2008
Climate Change Bill Picking Up Steam
WASHINGTON - Boosted by all three presidential candidates, an ambitious plan to combat global warming is about to take center stage for the first time in Congress. After years of government inaction despite mounting public concern, senators will consider rules intended to slash greenhouse gas emissions and wean the economy from its addiction to fossil fuels. The coming debate on the Climate Security Act represents a major turning point for the U.S. government, which is better known for denying global warming than doing anything about it. more>

5/19/2008
Release the Rice
AS PRICES rise on global commodity markets, U.S. agriculture policies that contribute to higher food costs are coming under fire -- especially subsidies for ethanol production. That criticism is warranted.  more>

5/17/2008
Bush Halts Oil Reserve Purchases
The Bush administration yesterday halted purchases of crude oil for the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, reversing its policy on the emergency reserve three days after Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of suspending the purchases to ease the upward pressure on oil prices.  more>

5/16/2008
Trade group chief warns of job losses
A system to reduce greenhouse gases being considered in the U.S. Senate that would give industries a government allowance that they could sell would result in job and income loss in Wisconsin and across the nation, the head of the National Association of Manufacturers said Friday. In a meeting with Journal Sentinel reporters and editors, John Engler said he did not expect the proposal, sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) to pass in this session of Congress, even though the Senate may debate it next month. more>

5/15/2008
US disputes IMF on food prices
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Wednesday was downplaying the role of biofuels production in rising food prices.  more>

5/12/2008
McCain speaks on global warming
John McCain breaks with the Bush administration, but also with many environmentalists in a major global warming speech today. The presumptive Republican nominee declares that climate change is undeniable and urgent, suggesting that the United States hasn't acted quickly enough and pledging to return to international negotiations. Bush refused to sign the Kyoto global warming accord. "We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them," he plans to say, according to excerpts provided by his
campaign. more>

5/12/2008
Wind ($23.37) v. Gas (25 Cents)
Congress seems ready to spend billions on a new "Manhattan Project" for green energy, or at least the political class really, really likes talking about one. But maybe we should look at what our energy subsidy dollars are buying now. Some clarity comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent federal agency that tried to quantify government spending on energy production in 2007. The agency reports that the total taxpayer bill was $16.6 billion in direct subsidies, tax breaks, loan guarantees and the like. That's double in real dollars from eight years earlier, as you'd expect given all the money Congress is throwing at "renewables." Even more subsidies are set to pass this year. more>

5/8/2008
Bill Targets Oil Firms and OPEC
Democratic leaders in Congress unveiled energy legislation yesterday targeting big oil companies and members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The package drew sharp criticism from Republicans, oil firms and foreign policy experts. The legislation, dubbed the Consumers First Energy Act, features a 25 percent windfall profits tax on oil companies operating in the United States, a rollback of existing tax breaks for oil and gas companies worth $17 billion over 10 years, and an authorization for the U.S. attorney general to bring price collusion charges against OPEC members. more>

5/6/2008
With food costs rising, ethanol benefits now questioned
WASHINGTON -- Just months ago, ethanol was the Holy Grail to energy independence and a "green fuel" that would help nudge the country away from climate-changing fossil energy.  Democrats and Republicans cheered its benefits as Congress directed a fivefold increase in ethanol use as a motor fuel. President Bush called it key to his strategy to cut gasoline use by 20 percent by 2010.  But now with skyrocketing food costs _ even U.S. senators are complaining about seeing shocking prices at the supermarket _ and hunger spreading across the globe, some lawmakers are wondering if they made a mistake. more>

5/3/2008
Don’t Rush to Praise Sugar-Cane Biofuels
Re “Bring On the Right Biofuels,” by Roger Cohen (column, The New York Times on the Web, April 24): Biofuels contribute to deforestation and global warming regardless of which plant matter is used to make the fuel.  Even if ethanol is made from sugar cane and that sugar cane is grown miles away from the Amazon rain forest, the resulting shifts in where other crops are grown will lead to deforestation. more>

4/28/2008
Higher energy costs from climate bills
WASHINGTON -- People will be paying higher energy prices under a Senate bill to limit greenhouse gases, but how much will depend on how well the country can shift away from burning fossil fuels, an Energy Department analysis said Tuesday. The Energy Information Administration said annual energy costs could increase on average of as little as $30 or as much as 10 times that much by 2020. The projected cost increases per household ranged from $76 a year more to as much as $723 a year more by 2030. more>

4/22/2008
Ethanol's Failed Promise
The willingness to try, fail and try again is the essence of scientific progress. The same sometimes holds true for public policy. It is in this spirit that today, Earth Day, we call upon Congress to revisit recently enacted federal mandates requiring the diversion of foodstuffs for production of biofuels. These "food-to-fuel" mandates were meant to move America toward energy independence and mitigate global climate change. But the evidence irrefutably demonstrates that this policy is not delivering on either goal. In fact, it is causing environmental harm and contributing to a growing global food crisis. more>

4/22/2008
Food-to-Fuel Leaves Less to Eat
Recently enacted federal mandates requiring the diversion of foodstuffs for production of biofuels are a significant source of the harmful global effects of U.S. policies on biofuels ("Food Inflation, Riots Spark Worries for World Leaders," page one, April 14). These "food-to-fuel" mandates were supposed to reduce dependency on foreign oil and mitigate global climate change. By any measure, that hasn't occurred. Instead, corn and food prices have skyrocketed, and the effects are being felt around the world. more>

4/21/2008
Bio-Foolishness
Poverty, famine and violence are among the supposed products of global warming in the future. Yet these calamities are with us today thanks to a key element of "green" policy, biofuels. This feel-good measure is becoming a real-world disaster. The prices of wheat and rice this year will have doubled since 2004, according to World Bank projections. Soybeans, sugar, soybean oil and corn are expected to be 56% to 79% costlier than in 2004. more>

4/19/2008
Corn-Based Ethanol Tied to Higher Food Costs
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Friday that the growing emphasis on corn-based ethanol has contributed to higher food prices, and he said the nation should begin "moving away gradually" from ethanol made from food such as corn. "As we pursue diversity in our overall energy mix, we must also pursue diversity in our biofuels," Mr. Bodman said at a conference in Alexandria, Va. "This means moving away gradually from ethanol produced from foodstocks like corn." more>

4/17/2008
Businesses in Bay Area May Pay Fee for Emissions
SAN FRANCISCO — Air quality regulators in the San Francisco Bay Area appear set to begin charging hundreds of businesses in the region for their emissions of heat-trapping gases. It is believed to be the first time in the country that any government body would charge industries directly for emissions that contribute to climate change. The regional agency that is considering the fee, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, would be effectively leapfrogging the continuing debate in Sacramento and Washington over how to control emissions. more>

4/16/2008
Bush to Give Goals for Greenhouse Gases
WASHINGTON — President Bush will deliver a Rose Garden speech on Wednesday to lay out specific goals for limiting the greenhouse gases that scientists say are responsible for warming the planet — a first for a White House that has been accused of dragging its feet in addressing the problem of climate change. Mr. Bush will use the speech to “make a commitment” to other nations about the intentions of the United States and will announce “an intermediate goal that will lead to a long-term goal,” said Tony Fratto, the deputy White House press secretary. more>

4/15/2008
US governors to plot climate fight at Yale meeting
NEW YORK- Governors from across the United States who bypassed the Bush administration by introducing laws to cut greenhouse emissions are slated to meet this week to broaden their fight against climate change. At least five governors including Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger from California and Democrats Rod Blagojevich from Illinois and Jon Corzine from New Jersey will meet at Yale University on Friday to discuss uniting the developing markets for trading of credits representing carbon emission reductions. more>

4/13/2008
Development ministers urge action on food prices
WASHINGTON - Top finance and development officials from around the globe on Sunday called for urgent action to stem rising food prices, warning that social unrest will spread unless the cost of basic staples is contained. "We have to put our money where our mouth is now, so that we can put food into hungry mouths. It is as stark as that," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said at the end of a meeting of the IMF and World Bank's Development Committee. more>

4/10/2008
More Global Warming Nonsense
Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the implications of climate change for human health. Malaria will top the menu, but so will ignorance and disinformation. The lead witness will be Dr. Jonathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has suggested that U.S. energy policy may be "indirectly exporting diseases to other parts of the world." more>

4/7/2008
Grains Gone Wild
These days you hear a lot about the world financial crisis. But there’s another world crisis under way — and it’s hurting a lot more people. I’m talking about the food crisis. Over the past few years the prices of wheat, corn, rice and other basic foodstuffs have doubled or tripled, with much of the increase taking place just in the last few months. High food prices dismay even relatively well-off Americans — but they’re truly devastating in poor countries, where food often accounts for more than half a family’s spending. more>

4/3/2008
US Cites Recession Fear in Climate Talks
BANGKOK, Thailand -- U.S. negotiators at a United Nations climate conference say steep emission cuts could further rattle the world economy, especially in the developing world. The EU has proposed that industrialized countries slash emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of global climate pact. The U.S., one of the world's top polluters, has repeatedly rejected mandatory national reduction targets of the kind agreed to under the Kyoto Protocol a decade ago. more>

4/3/2008
It's Not Easy Being Green
Environmentalists would have us believe global warming is as important as nuclear war, terrorism, infectious disease or global economic collapse, but the 2008 presidential campaign has been virtually devoid of discussions on the topic. While this was often a source of high dudgeon from activists, it has also been logical. A cursory review of their websites would have shown that the Democratic positions were so tightly aligned as to make for little internecine debate, while most Republican candidate positions were so diffuse that there was little to actually debate. And, as opinion polls show, environmental issues rank fairly low on peoples' priority lists when compared to issues of health care, crime, drug use, immigration and energy affordability.  more>

3/31/2008
Talks on Global Warming Get Under Way With Deep Divisions
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Negotiators began their first talks Monday on forging a devilishly complex global warming pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol -- and faced wide divisions between rich and developing countries over how to slash greenhouse gases.
more>

3/31/2008
Oil execs to take heat from lawmakers Tuesday
WASHINGTON - Five U.S. oil company executives set to testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about soaring gasoline prices and record industry profits will likely offer a common defense: It's not our fault. U.S. average pump prices have risen steadily since the beginning of 2008 and recently hit a record above $3.20 a gallon, heaping yet more pressure on a U.S. economy beleaguered by an imploding housing market and recession fears. more>

3/27/2008
EPA Signals Caution on Global Warming
WASHINGTON -- The government made clear on Thursday it will not be rushed into deciding whether to regulate emissions linked to global warming, as the Supreme Court directed nearly a year ago. Such action "could affect many (emission) sources beyond just cars and trucks" and needs to be examined broadly as to other impacts, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency wrote lawmakers. more>

3/27/2008
How much will it cost to fix the climate? The numbers vary.
One of the biggest questions about climate change is: What will it cost to fix? Figuring that out is a huge challenge. While most scientists believe that global warming already is happening and that human activity is a main reason, predicting future temperature trends decades, if not centuries, from now remains controversial. What will be the impact on land, water, natural habitat, and people? What will it take and how much will it cost to prevent or adapt to the effects of climate change? Theories involving risk management and cost-benefit ratios are major factors here. more>

3/26/2008
Saving the Planet? Not With My Money
GREEN is green has become a mantra of environmentalists and, increasingly, corporate chiefs. Between money saved by energy efficiency and money made from selling environmentally sound products, they say, going green is great for shareholders as well as the planet. But apparently many shareholders remain unconvinced. Two professors at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College have tracked the movement of stocks immediately after companies proclaimed their commitment to sustainability. And they found that share prices dropped much more often than they rose. more>

3/24/2008
As Biofuels Catch On, Next Task Is to Deal With Environmental, Economic Impact
The world's economy is acquiring a new energy addiction: biofuels. Crop-based fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are quietly becoming a crucial component of the global energy supply, despite growing concerns about their impact on the environment and world food prices. Biofuels production is rising rapidly, while other fuel sources are failing to keep pace with demand. As a result, biofuels are making up a larger portion of the world's energy-supply gap than many analysts expected. more>

3/21/2008
Inflation Hits the Poor Hardest
Inflation is walloping Americans with low and moderate incomes as the prices of staples have soared far faster than those of luxuries. The goods and services Americans consumed in February were 4 percent more expensive than they were a year earlier. But there is a big divide in how much prices are climbing between the basic items people need to live and get to work, and those on which they can easily cut back when times are tight. more>

3/20/2008
Grumbling over ethanol mounts among food execs
CHICAGO - Prices for commodities are steadily rising and top food industry executives are grumbling that costs will not fall as long as the U.S. government continues to subsidize corn growers for making ethanol. The ethanol industry has been blamed for everything from rising food prices to environmental damage, and its heavy use of corn has even divided the farm community. Grain farmers celebrate record prices while livestock producers and bakers complain about rising costs. more>

3/12/2008
RPT-Valero CEO: corn ethanol worse than climate change
SAN DIEGO - Using corn to produce ethanol will make food so expensive in poor countries that it will cause more misery than global warming, the chief of the biggest U.S. refining company claimed this week. "Corn and ethanol production and the resulting high prices will impact the world in a much more acute negative way than greenhouse gas emissions and climate change ever will," Valero Energy Corp Chief Executive Bill Kless said on Tuesday at a refining conference in San Diego. more>

3/11/2008
Ethanol-Gasoline Mixes Can Hurt Fuel Mileage
Several of us who have been patronizing gas stations now advertising "10% ethanol," are of the impression that our gas mileage has been slipping. Any basis for that?
A: Yes. Since ethanol has less energy per gallon, vehicles that use it log fewer miles per gallon than they would with standard gasoline. But the decline in mileage with so-called E10 shouldn't be more than a mile or so per gallon. more>

3/10/2008
Food, Energy Costs Risk UN Poverty Goals
UNITED NATIONS -- Pricey food, high oil costs and grim projections of damage from global warming are the biggest challenges to meeting the United Nations' 2015 deadline for reducing poverty around the globe, officials said Monday. After a meeting on the world body's eight Millennium Development Goals, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, world financial officials and African and European leaders told reporters that sub-Saharan Africa is the region most off-track from achieving the poverty goals. more>

3/7/2008
‘Gusher of Lies’
Americans love independence.  Whether it’s financial independence, political independence, the Declaration of Independence, or grilling hotdogs on Independence Day, America’s self-image is inextricably bound to the concepts of freedom and autonomy. The promises laid out by the Declaration — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — are the shared faith and birthright of all Americans. Alas, the Founding Fathers didn’t write much about gasoline. more>

3/4/2008
Speculation Adds to Oil Price Surge
WASHINGTON -- Market speculation on energy prices may have added as much as 10 percent to crude oil costs and the peak may be yet to come, a top Energy Department official said Tuesday. Guy Caruso, head of the department's Energy Information Administration, told a Senate hearing that supply and demand would suggest a price of about $90 a barrel. Prices fluctuated around $102 a barrel Tuesday _ although futures prices later dropped below $100 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange _ on word that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are likely to keep production as is when they meet on Wednesday. Oil prices had surged to $104 a barrel on Monday. more>

3/2/2008
Exxon Mobil Needs a Hug
AS I was sitting at my majestic TV in a majestic suite at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Miami a couple of weeks ago, going over notes for a speech the next morning and waiting for Crockett and Tubbs to speed by, chasing drug kingpins in their Miami Vice motorboat, I watched Barack Obama speak in Madison, Wis. As usual, Senator Obama gave a fine oration, with thunderous applause from the audience as his reward. more>

2/28/2008
House OKs New Taxes on Big Oil Companies
WASHINGTON -- The House approved $18 billion in new taxes on the largest oil companies Wednesday as Democrats cited record oil prices and rising gasoline costs in a time of economic troubles. The money collected over 10 years would provide tax breaks for wind, solar and other alternative energy sources and for energy conservation. The legislation, approved 236-182, would cost the five largest oil companies an average of $1.8 billion a year over that period, according an analysis by the House Ways and Means Committee. Those companies earned $123 billion last year.

2/28/2008
Big Oil may strike out with next U.S. president
WASHINGTON - Oil and gas companies for years have pushed for drilling access on more U.S. government lands, but they could be left out in the cold under the next American president when it comes to getting new acres to explore for energy. Energy companies say they need to develop more domestic gas and oil supplies to help meet growing demand, but federally owned areas that hold most of those reserves -- from onshore Alaska to waters off the West and East coasts of the lower 48 states -- have drilling bans. more>

2/27/2008
The Problem With Biofuels
AS THE United States searches for alternative ways to feed its addiction to petroleum, ethanol and other biofuels derived from organic material have been considered a miracle motor vehicle elixir. The energy bill signed by President Bush in December mandates that at least 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year be used by 2020. Yet separate studies released this month by Princeton University and the Nature Conservancy reveal that biofuels are not a silver bullet in the battle against global warming. In fact, they could make things worse. more>

2/26/2008
Rising energy prices create global climate conundrum
LONDON - The price of carbon is rising, which is what governments wanted in the fight against global warming, but now it is here no one is quite so sure anymore. Energy prices have risen sharply in recent months, driving up domestic gas and electricity prices, an effect governments had said would help promote increased energy efficiency and therefore reduce emissions of climate warming carbon gases. more>

2/25/2008
France, Germany warn EU climate plan risks jobs
BRUSSELS, Feb 25 - Brussels risks sacrificing European jobs with its plans to cut industrial greenhouse gas emissions, the euro zone's big two economies France and Germany said on Monday. Europe should lead by example but must not "change the competitiveness of our economy and our companies" by adopting tougher pollution measures than in other parts of the world," said Herve Novelli, France's junior minister for industry.  The European Commission announced proposals in January for curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the 27-country EU as part of the bloc's strategy for fighting climate change after 2012. more>

2/19/2008
Kansas lawmakers pass bill favoring coal expansion
OVERLAND PARK, Kansas - Backed by powerful business interests, Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday overturned a landmark 2007 decision that rejected a coal-fired power plant expansion in the state due to global warming concerns, though the vote fell shy of a veto-proof majority. Lawmakers in the Kansas House voted Tuesday 77-45 for a bill that would allow two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. The measure strips authority from Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment Rod Bremby, who last year rejected the $3.5 billion expansion because of health risks associated with carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. more>

2/18/2008
Chávez Backs Off Threats to Halt Oil Exports to U.S.
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez said on Sunday that Venezuela was not planning to halt oil exports to the United States. The statement may ease fears in energy markets over fallout from Venezuela’s legal battle with Exxon Mobil over compensation for the nationalization of a large oil project. Mr. Chávez’s conciliatory tone stands in contrast to recent comments made by him and other officials here in which they threatened to stop exporting oil to the United States. They said the Bush administration and Exxon Mobil were conspiring to wreak economic havoc in Venezuela. more>

2/8/2008
Biofuel drive might raise CO 2
Converting non-agricultural land to grow biofuel crops causes large emissions of carbon dioxide that worsen global warming rather than mitigate the problem, according to two independent studies published online today by the journal Science. They are the latest in a series of studies concluding that large-scale biofuel cultivation may do more environmental harm than good. One was carried out at the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy, the other at Princeton and Iowa State universities. more>

11/6/2007
Climate Is a Risky Issue for Democrats: Candidates Back Costly Proposals
All of the leading Democratic contenders for the presidency are committed to a set of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that would change the way Americans light their homes, fuel their automobiles and do their jobs, costing billions of dollars in the short term but potentially, the candidates say, saving even more in the decades to follow. more>

11/1/2007
Global Warming Bill Advances in Senate
WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers took the first step Thursday on a bipartisan global warming bill that would impose mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases from power plants, industrial facilities and transportation. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., pushed the legislation out of his global warming subcommittee by a 4-3 vote, agreeing to a number of changes aimed primarily at garnering the needed majority to advance it. more>

10/29/2007
Countries Launch Carbon Trading Market
LISBON , Portugal -- Senior officials from the European Union, three U.S. states, Canada, Norway and New Zealand launched an international effort Monday to fight climate change by building a global carbon trading market. The International Carbon Action Partnership aims to add momentum toward low-carbon economies by grouping countries and regions that cap and trade environmentally damaging carbon dioxide emissions. more>

10/25/2007
Sen. Boxer Seeks Answers On Redacted Testimony: White House Cut Climate Warnings
Bush administration officials acknowledged yesterday that they heavily edited testimony on global warming, delivered to Congress on Tuesday by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the president's top science adviser and other officials questioned its scientific basis. Senate Democrats say they want to investigate the circumstances involved in the editing of CDC Director Julie L. Gerberding's written testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on "climate change and public health." Gerberding testimony shrank from 12 pages to six after it was reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget. more>

10/22/2007
Climate Change on Capitol Hill: With Sens. Lieberman and Warner on board, maybe Congress will try something new: action.
THE AMERICA'S Climate Security Act, introduced Thursday by Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.), offers the United States a chance to finally move off the sidelines and start combating global warming. Five climate-change bills have been floated, reflecting a growing consensus on Capitol Hill for a cap-and-trade system to achieve mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. more>

10/16/2007
Canada says can't meet Kyoto targets
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada has no chance of meeting its commitments to cut emissions of greenhouse gases laid down by the Kyoto climate change protocol, the minority Conservative government said in a policy speech on Tuesday. The speech will need the approval of the main opposition Liberal Party, which strongly backs Kyoto. The party has yet to say how it will react to the proposal. more>

10/12/2007
Gore, U.N. Body Win Nobel Peace Prize
Former Vice President Al Gore Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today along with a United Nations panel that monitors climate change for their work educating the world about global warming and advocating for political action to stop it. more>

10/6/2007
John Dingell: Some Inconvenient Truths
At the beginning of every Congress, Michigan Democrat John Dingell offers a bill to create a national health insurance system -- the same bill first offered by his father in 1943. As the longest-serving House member, that means Mr. Dingell has been offering the exact same legislation for, oh, 52 years now. more>

10/4/2007
Lawmakers Will Proceed on Climate Plan: Leaders Focus on System of Tradable Allowances for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Legislative leaders in the House and Senate said yesterday that they plan to press ahead with proposals to limit U.S. emissions linked to global warming, focusing on mandatory, economy-wide caps of the kind that President Bush explicitly rejected last week in a climate conference he hosted. more>

9/28/2007
Corn Farms Prosper, but Subsidies Still Flow
RADCLIFFE, Iowa -- Corn farmer Jim Handsaker has found a slew of ways to ride the heartland boom in biofuels that is reshaping the economy of rural Iowa. He sold some of his 2006 crop this year for more than $4 a bushel, the highest price in a decade. His stake in two nearby ethanol plants brought in several thousand dollars more in dividends. Meanwhile, soaring farmland prices have pushed the value of the 400 acres he owns to around $2 million. more>

9/25/2007
World Leaders Meet for UN Climate Talks
UNITED NATIONS -- With tales of rising seas and talk of human solidarity, world leaders at the first United Nations climate summit sought Monday to put new urgency into global talks to reduce global-warming emissions. more>

9/19/2007
The High Costs of Ethanol
Backed by the White House, corn-state governors and solid blocks on both sides of Congress’s partisan divide, the politics of biofuels could hardly look sunnier. The economics of the American drive to increase ethanol in the energy supply are more discouraging. more>

9/17/07
Cap and Fly
Contrary to popular belief, Europeans do believe in unilateralism when it suits their purposes. They even have a term for it: "Alternative to mutual agreement." If that euphemism sounds sneaky, wait till you hear why the European Union will be using it over the next two weeks at the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) meeting in Montreal. more>

9/14/07
Exxon Is First To Go Legal Route In Venezuela Dispute Wall Street Journal,
International authorities could take three to four years before giving Exxon Mobil Corp. an answer to its dispute with the Venezuelan government over compensation for seized oil-production assets, analysts say. more>

9/13/07
Hopes Dim for Measures to Conserve Energy
WASHINGTON , Sept. 12 — The prospect of a comprehensive energy package’s emerging from Congress this fall is rapidly receding, held up by technical hurdles and policy disputes between the House and the Senate and within the parties. more>

9/11/07
Biofuels offer cure worse than the disease: OECD
PARIS - Biofuels, championed for reducing energy reliance, boosting farm revenues and helping fight climate change, may in fact hurt the environment and push up food prices, a study suggested on Tuesday. more>

9/8/07
APEC Leaders Set Goals For Climate Change
SYDNEY , Australia -- Pacific Rim leaders agreed Saturday to tackle global warming by improving energy use and managing forests better, as thousands of demonstrators rallied to demand the governments do more and act faster. more>

9/5/07
European carmakers stall in bid to cut CO2 emissions
Europe 's carmakers stalled last year in their progress to reduce carbon dioxide emissions despite their professed commitment to going green, according to figures published today. more>

9/3/07
Climate, Trade Top Bush's Agenda At APEC Summit
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush hopes to spur momentum for a world trade pact and a global target on climate change at this week's Asia-Pacific summit but the Iraq debate at home looms as a distraction. more>

8/31/07
Market Signals Relieve Pain At The Pump
Many summer headlines have been bemoaning high gas prices, but now that prices are falling, the pundits are strangely silent. While Congress struggles to address the issue, prices are coming down on their own and should continue to do so in the coming months. This good news is worth sharing. more>

8/27/07
U.N. Climate Talks Seek Deal on Warming
VIENNA, Austria -- More than 100 nations struggled Monday to strike a balance between what rich and poor countries must do to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming. The U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, said delegates to the Vienna meeting were trying to forge a practical way forward before a major international climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, in December. more>

8/23/07
A Carbon Tax Would be Cleaner
Though skeptics may still grumble that the science isn't settled, some 84% of Americans think humans are contributing to climate change, with 78% (and 60% of Republicans) saying we should do something about it "right away," according to a recent poll. more>

8/21/07
Europe's Carbon Con-Job
With all the supposed truths out there about global warming, here's one that doesn't get reported very often. Europe isn't the climate-change champion that its leaders, and their American apologists, would have you believe. more>

8/16/07
Our Energy Needs Are Clear
Concerns over nuclear-safety issues are consistently overblown, to the dangerous detriment of other critical considerations ("Nuclear Safety Reports Called Into Question," page one, Aug. 3). Whether or not our carbon-dioxide emissions are responsible for the possibility of global warming or whether it may be caused by long-term cycles of solar-effects (or some other yet-undiscovered phenomenon), why not be prudent and substitute clean nuclear energy for fossil-fuel combustion in stationary power plants? Besides, the world's oil and gas resources are finite and should be conserved, especially considering the future needs of our children and grandchildren. more>

8/15/2007
Cellulosic ethanol: A fuel for the future?
In the pine forests of rural Georgia, Devon Dartnell sees a path into the global fuel economy. As the biomass program manager for the Georgia Forestry Commission, Dartnell is impatiently waiting for construction to begin next month of a plant that will convert forestry wastes into ethanol, a car fuel. more>

8/15/2007
Hastert to Leave After Over Two Decades on Hill
WASHINGTON -- Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, expected to announce that he will retire from Congress this term, wants to add one "last hurrah" to his career: enacting climate change, energy legislation with the woman who took the gavel from him, Nancy Pelosi of California. more>

8/13/2007
Cap and Blockade
Last Thursday, Lithuania's government said it will sue the European Commission for cutting its greenhouse-gas allocation, the seventh EU member state to take legal action over this issue. The conflict highlights the absurdity of the growth-retarding Kyoto Protocol and similar "cap and trade" schemes, which would be enormously expensive and relatively ineffective at addressing climate change. more>

8/10/2007
Bumper Crops of Corn, Problems by the Bushel
NEVADA , Iowa -- Farmers are up to their ears in corn and scrambling for places to store it. With demand for ethanol soaring, farmers around the country have planted more acres of corn this year than at any time since World War II. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts the fall harvest will yield 12 to 13 billion bushels of the grain, enough to fill 183,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools -- a far greater quantity than currently available storage capacity. more>

8/8/2007
Warming Draws Evangelicals Into Environmentalist Fold
LONGWOOD, Fla. -- At 8 on a Saturday morning, just as the heat was permeating this sprawling Orlando suburb, Denise Kirsop donned a white plastic moon suit and began sorting through the trash produced by Northland Church. more>

8/5/2007
House OKs New Taxes on Oil Companies
WASHINGTON -- Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the House on Saturday approved $16 billion in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and conservation efforts. more>

8/3/2007
Fight Over Oil Tax Threatens Energy Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A rebellion by oil-state Democrats over $16 billion in new taxes on oil companies is threatening to upend House Democratic leaders' plans to swiftly pass energy legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remained confident she would have the votes to pass the energy package Friday ahead of Congress' monthlong summer recess, according to her aides. But she needs solid Democratic support to overcome staunch GOP opposition. more>

8/2/2007
The Power in the Carbon Tax
Successful laws to protect the environment are built on simple concepts. They discourage harmful behavior -- the dumping of sewage or industrial waste into bodies of water, the destruction of habitat, the emission of toxic chemicals -- by a variety of measures, all of which raise the cost of engaging in certain behavior. You can't develop land, and profit, if you're endangering a threatened animal. You have to dispose of chemical substances responsibly. And so on. more>

8/1/2007
Democrats Lack Unity in House Over Energy Bill
This week's energy bill is Exhibit A of why it is difficult to hold House Democrats together and why energy policy and congressional politics don't mix easily. Last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spent an hour trying to mollify representatives from oil and gas districts by changing provisions on oil royalties and permitting on federal leases, but half a dozen of those 25 Democrats were still unhappy with provisions on water use, land rights and taxes. more>

7/31/2007
The Merit of a Carbon Tax
F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Congress is challenging this standard as it addresses the nation’s energy future. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) want Congress to complete comprehensive energy legislation soon. more>

7/26/2007
Hurricanes and Hot Air
Though the 2007 hurricane season is off to a slow start, my colleague Phil Klotzbach and I will be updating our seasonal Atlantic Basin Hurricane Activity Forecast on Aug 3. We still anticipate another active season -- an above-average number of major hurricanes with maximum sustained winds in excess of 110 mph. more>

7/23/2007
Bush Weighs Range of Emission Caps
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, under pressure from both U.S. business interests and foreign allies, is exploring a range of options to address climate change, including some form of economy-wide emissions caps. more>

7/18/2007
Ethanol Kool-Aid
Earth2Tech has a report by a group of nonprofits highlighting the downside of ethanol production. Chief among the shortcomings: Even if 100% of the U.S. corn harvest was dedicated to ethanol, “it would displace less than 15% of national gasoline use.” Easy subsidies for gas refineries and concentrated land ownership in rural communities are also on the list of complaints. more>

7/17/2007
Oil Industry Reality Check
There are two American oil industries. One exists only in the minds of its critics, many of whom are politicians. When prices and profits rise, as happens in a cyclical business, the critics demand new antitrust and other legislation. When prices and profits inevitably fall? Silence. more>

7/16/2007
The Biofuel Fad
William Saletan argued in favor of biofuels on humanitarian and environmental grounds ["A Corny Cold War," Outlook, July 8]. He was wrong on both counts. more>

7/12/2007
Senate Crafts Climate Bill
WASHINGTON -- Congressional efforts to address climate change took a step forward with the introduction of a Senate bill backed by Republicans and Democrats working with labor unions and major utilities to regulate carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases. more>

7/11/2007
Senators to Unveil Bill to Limit Greenhouse Gases
New Mexico Democrat Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is planning to formally unveil bipartisan legislation aimed at combating global climate change. Bingaman will be joined by Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) at a news conference Wednesday to outline details of a bill that would create a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions, which most scientists say are warming the planet with dangerous results. more>

7/9/2007
Dingell Tries Reverse Psychology
In anticipation of what will likely be a contentious debate over climate-change legislation, House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell of Michigan said he will propose a new carbon tax, in an effort to dramatize the political difficulties of the coming fight. more>

7/6/2007
In London’s Financial World, Carbon Trading is the Next Big Thing
LONDON , July 5 — Seeking to match a desire to make money with his environmental instincts, Louis Redshaw, a former electricity trader, met with five investment banks in 2004 to propose the trading of carbon dioxide. Only one, Barclays Capital, was interested. more>

7/2/2007
The Drive-a-Toyota Act
The next time Democratic leaders lament the decline of American industry, please refer them to the current Congressional brawl over auto fuel-efficiency standards. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and most of their colleagues are siding with upscale environmental lobbies over American carmakers and workers. Call it their Drive-a-Toyota Act. more>

6/27/2007
Climate Legislation Gets a Lift
The prospects for action this year on climate-change legislation rose after two key senators, Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, announced they are joining forces to write a comprehensive bill intended to control greenhouse gas emissions. The two senior members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said their legislation would include an economy-wide cap-and-trade system designed to bring about significant reductions in the harmful emissions. more>

6/27/2007
El Jefe de Petroleo
Venezuela announced yesterday that ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips had refused to accept its rewrite of their energy contracts in the country's oil-rich Orinoco Belt and would soon be escorted out of the region. Score another socialist triumph for President Hugo Chávez, who has taken a step closer to his dream of fully nationalizing Venezuela's oil industry. more>

6/22/2007
Senate Passes Energy Bill
The Senate passed a sweeping energy legislation package last night that would mandate the first substantial change in the nation's vehicle fuel-efficiency law since 1975 despite opposition from auto companies and their Senate supporters. After three days of intense debate and complex maneuvering, Democratic leaders won passage of the bill shortly before midnight by a 65 to 27 vote. more>

6/19/2007
Senate Debates $32.1 Bln in Energy Incentives
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday rejected contentious incentives to convert coal into liquid transport fuels, as tax-writers proposed giving $32.1 billion in new incentives to produce cleaner energy, and sticking Big Oil with most of the bill in the form of new taxes. more>

6/18/2007
Energy Bill Faces Battle
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic leaders face two floor fights this week over their energy bill, one led by auto makers that want to weaken proposed fuel efficiency standards and another pushed by the coal industry for tax incentives to make diesel fuel from coal.  more>

6/15/2007
Green Goodies
First came Big Labor. Then the tort lawyers. What special interest lobby remains for the Democratic majority to reward for services rendered this past election? The answer rests in the ecstatic press releases tumbling out of the nation's largest environmental groups, as they oversee the House's pending energy legislation. That is, if "energy" is the right word for West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall's green-payoff of a bill. Ostensibly the legislation is a rollback of any energy production advances of recent years. But also tucked deep in its heart is an extraordinary new tool to allow environmentalists to lock up private property across the country. Bill presented; bill paid.  more>

6/15/2007
Road Trip – Biofuels of Bust

As debate over the viability of ethanol as an alternative energy source continues, few drivers know exactly what it is or where to get the biofuel. Along with an estimated 30 million other Americans, I spent Memorial Day weekend on the road. But, I was determined to use only to use E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, on the 1,907 mile trip from New York City to Indianapolis and back.  more>

6/11/2007

The Senate’s Energy Bill

Some key provisions include:

Using 36 billion gallons of biofuels yearly by 2022  more>

6/10/2007

The Democrats Lag on Warming

When Americans elected a Democratic Congress last November, they were voting to end politics as usual and special interest legislation. On the vital issues of energy independence and global warming they are not only in danger of getting more of the same but also, unless Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders step forward, winding up in worse shape than they were under the Republicans.  more>

6/7/2007

History 101: Price controls don't work

For decades, the price and availability of gas has generated political heat. As a former Nixon administration official, I've been there and seen that. But what is surprising is the unwillingness of some in today's Congress to learn from our mistakes. Bills in the Senate and House today want to impose price controls on gasoline.  more>

6/3/2007

Real price gouging

Mark Twain quipped that "America's only native criminal class is Congress." Once again last week, Congress proved Twain right when they passed a bill to forbid gasoline "price gouging" without, of course, bothering to precisely define the term, other than to say raising "prices unreasonably."  more>

6/1/2007

Bush Proposes Goal to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

WASHINGTON, May 31 — President Bush, fending off international accusations that he was ignoring climate change, proposed for the first time on Thursday to set “a long-term global goal” for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and he called on other high-polluting nations to join the United States in negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement by the end of next year.  more>

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