As expected, the climate change bill died in the Senate because of an inability to invoke cloture. See this from the AP. You didn't have to be a seer to predict this. See my item on this under "Melange" from May 3 below. Don't worry, though. We'll get this done in 2009. Early.
BofA Leader Wants Government to Help , Ken Lewis, the CEO of the Bank of America, ranked 12 in the Fortune 500 and with about $1.3 trillion in assets, had a terrific op-ed in the "FT" today. In it he notes the critical importance of government's role in "working to build a new economic future […]
Senate on Climate Change , In the US, the Senate began debate yesterday on legislation to address climate change. The "SF Chronicle" reports here that the opponents and proponents were so eager to start bare knuckling over the bill that they voted 74-14 to proceed to debate. The bill "would require about 2,100 major U.S. […]
I sat in on the last day of this event in New York City on Friday, hearing two fascinating panels discuss “Corporate Strategies For Carbon Reduction” (in the context of federal cap-and-trade legislation) and Clean Tech’s role in getting GHG’s down. The main sponsors of the summit were EcoSecurities, one of the world’s largest developers […]
Here's a post I had in February: Coal Takes Some Lumps. I looked then at the demise of the federal government's flagship project on coal capture and storage (CCS) and at the concerted, and sometimes vicious, counterattack launched by a utility in Kansas against the denial of its permits for two new plants. Today's lead […]
Not only is the planet heating up, but, as we've seen here, so is the intensity and the seriousness of the debate on how to get GHG's down. One persistent theme is the necessity of "setting a price on carbon." We've heard this from the Stern Review, the IPCC, Lehman Brothers in their reports on […]
I recently added this site to the links section here. It's a pretty extraordinary tool for accessing information. It is described as "a knowledge management project for international negotiations and related activities on climate change run by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Use it in good health.
I looked last month at the car of the future, and particularly a superb show from Nova. Zero emission cars fueled by zero emission power plants give zero emissions. That equation works for me. (See also A Little Automotive Fun – Plus Some Serious Business from a year ago, and other posts under Transportation.) There's […]
Tax Credits for Renewables – The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 (H.R. 6049) passed the House on Wednesday. See this from RenewableEnergyWorld.com and this from Gristmill. Although it was looking like a done deal not long ago , see Tax Breaks, Finally, for Renewables , there may yet be choppy waters reconciling […]
I wrote about Energy Efficiency for Fun and Profit back in February. Energy efficiency is where you get the most bang for the buck in reducing GHG. In fact, you save money with efficiency. Dow Chemical, for instance, reduced its energy intensity by 38 per cent between 1990 to 2005. They spent $1 billion and […]
Christians and Global Warming – Christians Launch Campaign against Global Warming Hype is the story from “The Christian Post.” “The “We Get It!‘ declaration, which currently has nearly 100 signers, is backed by prominent Christians including Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, award-winning radio host Janet Parshall, […]
Cap-and-Trade Bonanza , "Fortune" has a Sustainability column authored by Marc Gunther and this week he's got a story on how we're going to divvy up the proceeds from the inevitable U.S. cap-and-trade program that will be on the books sometime in 2009. See A $3 trillion climate change battle. As Gunther writes, "The issue […]
The big news came from John McCain on Monday. McCain Pledges To Combat Climate Change is the story from Reuters' "Planet Ark" service. In an obvious attempt to delineate the difference between President Bush and himself, he said "I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit […]
With the West Virginia primary tomorrow, and Kentucky next week, coal and coal mining become more visible as issues. I wrote about this in April at Quick Political Note , Coal and the Candidates. The Sundance Channel is going to premier a blockbuster movie, Burning the Future: Coal in America, tomorrow night. That’s 9:35 PM […]
