Clinton: US should demonstrate energy solutions
Associated Press, Oskar Garcia, 8.19.08

The United States can capture the world’s imagination by creating an energy independent state, territory or nation, former President Bill Clinton told an energy summit.

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Carbon dioxide storage test begins in SWVa.
Bluefield Daily Telegraph (WV), Charles Owens, 8.18.08

With a simple flip of a switch, state and federal officials embarked Monday on a historic six-month test in rural Southwest Virginia aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal.

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National clean energy summit: wonk-in-chief
Grist Mill, David Roberts, 8.19.08

On Monday, Bill Clinton gave the opening remarks at the National Clean Energy Summit, speaking for almost an hour and taking questions for another 30 minutes. The energy issue is hot politics these days, but those hoping to witness some of the ’90s-vintage Clinton political jujitsu left disappointed. Instead they were treated to — or, depending on their tolerance for wonkery, forced to endure — an extended disquisition on the finer points of energy policy. Applause lines were scarce.

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Legislative lowdown: the do-nothing Congress
Human Events, Brian Darling, 8.18.08

For conservatives who have the stomach to monitor Congress, the 110th Congress has been especially unsatisfactory. Real Clear Politics has Congress with an average approval rating of 20% and a disapproval rating of 74%, strong evidence that the American people are nauseated with Congress.

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Chinese oil firm targets coal-to-liquids
Sydney Morning Herald, 8.19.08

A subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil giant has thrown its weight behind an ambitious, $3 billion coal-to-liquids (CTL) project planned for South Australia.

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France sticks with nuclear power oil prices and climate change, it says, vindicate ’50s choice
International Herald Tribune, Steven Erlanger, 8.18.08

It looks like an ordinary building site, but for the two massive, rounded concrete shells looming above the ocean, like dusty mushrooms.

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US exchanges launch cap and trade CO2 contracts
Reuters, 8.18.08

The U.S. Chicago Climate Futures Exchange has completed the first exchange-traded deals in permits to emit carbon dioxide under a U.S. cap and trade scheme, the bourse said on Monday.

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Renewable power’s growth in Colorado presages national debate
Washington Post, Peter Slevin, 8.18.08

When Colorado voters were deciding whether to require that 10 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable fuels, the state’s largest utility fought the proposal, warning that any shift from coal and natural gas would be costly, uncertain and unwise.

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Glacier Park: The next century - disappearing namesake may make pristine wildnerness symbol of climate change
The Missoulian (MT), Michael Jamison, 8.18.08

The tourists huddled in a shivering pack amid what should have been the heat of July, crowding around Laura Kloeck while she explained a bit about climate change.

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Dear 44: The energy debate
Politico, William Kovacs, 8.18.08

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports both public and private sector action to control greenhouse gas emissions. In order to be effective, such action must be based on sound science, rational debate and realistic solutions. Unfortunately, on climate change, this has not been the case.

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Udall’s U-turn on oil exploration
Townhall, Mark Hillman, 8.17.08

Mark Udall’s message to Colorado voters is crystal clear: just tell me want you want to hear, and I’ll say it.

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Oxfam sees climate change role for East Africa nomads
Reuters (South Africa), Daniel Wallis, 8.18.08

Pastoralist communities like the Maasai could offer insights into coping with climate change in East Africa, but their political marginalisation means valuable knowledge is not being used, aid agency Oxfam said on Monday.

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Truckers ask other drivers to take go-slower approach
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8.14.08

The American Trucking Association has called for Congress to set the highway speed limit at 65 miles per hour nationally — 5 mph below what’s now allowed on Minnesota interstate highways outside the metro area. But a mandated speed-limit rollback will be a tough sell, only 13 years after the widely flouted national 55-miles-per-hour standard was lifted.

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Traditional energy’s modern boom
Washington Post, Joel Achenbach, 8.15.08

The guys on the derrick, filthy with mud and grease, have the best view in the county. Their drilling rig rises from a bulldozed, flattened patch of meadow near the top of a hill. To the south is an old farmhouse and a white barn. Hay bales dry in the sun.

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Texas energy producers push for more gas, offshore drilling
Marshall News Messenger (TX), Jamaal E. O’Neal, 8.15.08

The legislative push to allow more oil and gas drilling throughout the nation continues to grow, and now one Texas organization is getting in on the action.

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Power failure
Washington Post, Editorial, 8.14.08

THE BUSH administration is not known for undying concern for the environment in general or clean air in particular. That’s why it was a stunning setback when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last month struck down the administration’s single boldest move in favor of clean air: a regulation from its Environmental Protection Agency that sought to clean up the air from power plants. In an odd twist, the ruling was handed down on the same day the EPA opted to avoid issuing rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In both cases, the action now turns to Congress.

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Giving parents, students, and school officials a voice in the American energy debate
Townhall, John Boehner, 8.15.08

All summer long, Americans have been hit hard – and continually – by high gas prices. Vacation plans have been altered. Family visits have been shortened or cancelled. And commutes to and from work are more costly than ever. While Americans are forced to deal with this reality each and every day, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues adjourned Congress and left Washington on August 1st for a five-week break, essentially telling families and small businesses to fend for themselves in the midst of this energy crisis.

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SF Exploratorium’s window on climate change
San Francisco Chronicle (CA), Jane Kay, 8.15.08

In Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, near the largest and fastest-moving glacier in the world, paleontologist Billy D’Andrea drills ice cores from frozen lake beds, looking for the single-celled algae that tell the story of global warming.

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Endangered Species: In More Danger
Time, Bryan Walsh, 8.12.08

Environmentalism is synonymous with loss. We fret about the loss of the rain forest, the loss of the Arctic ice cap and, eventually, the loss of a livable planet to climate change. But while that decline is undeniable, it can sometimes obscure several decades of real environmental achievement, including the rehabilitation of scores of animals rescued from the brink of extinction.

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What the airlines want from Washington
Forbes, Joshua Zumbrun, 8.13.08

If the airlines of the U.S. were single issue voters, there’s no doubt what that issue would be: fuel prices.

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Business leaders hear climate talk
Wichita Eagle (KS), Dan Voorhis, 8.14.08

Lawyer: Local environmental efforts useless…
Any action Kansas takes on its own to cut greenhouse gases is futile environmentally and harmful economically.
That was the word from environmental lawyer and nationally known speaker and writer Tom Mullikin.

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Ice Getting Thinner
Hartford Courant, Robert M. Thorson, 8.14.08

New England is on thin ice getting thinner. Our lakes and ponds are freezing later, thawing earlier and getting more dangerous. This aspect of climate change hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.

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Ghana to spend 1.4 billion dollars on climate-EPA
Accra Daily Mail (Ghana), 8.14.08

Ghana would need more than 1.4 billion dollars for restoration purposes if bad environmental practices were not changed, Mr William Abaidoo, Public Relations Officer, Environmental Protection Agency has said.

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Scientists condemn ‘ill-informed, negative’ Prince over GM crops warning
Times Online (UK), 8.14.08

The Prince of Wales was accused of launching an ignorant rant about genetically modified crops last night after claiming that the technology would cause “the biggest environmental disaster of all time” and lead to “no food in the future”.

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Bush administration wants changes to Endangered Species Act
Agence France-Presse, 8.12.08

The administration of US President George W. Bush has proposed revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) so that the law can not be used to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases.

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Industry, state officials and enviros battle over coal-fired energy
New Mexico Business Weekly, Kevin Robinson-Avila, 8.12.08

Sithe Global Power LLC and the Navajo Nation are a major step closer to building a massive, coal-fired generating plant near Shiprock in northwest New Mexico.

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‘Snake oil’
Washington Post, Editorial, 8.12.08

THE NATURAL Resources Defense Council Action Fund has taken out full-page ads in this newspaper and others to decry offshore drilling for oil as “George W. Bush’s Gasoline Price Elixir” that is “100% Snake Oil.” The environmental group calls on supporters “to stop the giveaway of our coasts.”

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Natural gas provides solutions to high gasoline prices
Human Events, Sen. James Inhofe, 8.12.08

Fellow Oklahoma native T. Boone Pickens is back in the news and hitting the airwaves with an energy idea that I believe is pure common sense.

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Idiot economics
Townhall, David Strom, 8.11.08

It has become popular for politicians to advocate going after oil companies for their seemingly outsized profits. Otherwise rational people turn red-faced with anger when they think about the tens of billions of dollars flowing into the coffers of “big oil.”

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Australia cotton faces climate change threat
Reuters, 8.12.08

Australian cotton production will suffer from increasing water shortages as a result of climate change, the government’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said on Tuesday.

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Researchers work to turn car’s exhaust into power
Associated Press, Margaret Harding, 8.10.08

The stinky, steaming air that escapes from a car’s tailpipe could help us use less gas.
Researchers are competing to meet a challenge from the U.S. Department of Energy: Improve fuel economy 10 percent by converting wasted exhaust heat into energy that can help power the vehicle.

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Scientists debate whether we’re changing the climate
Philadelphia Inquirer, 8.11.08

What you hear about global warming can vary as much as, well, the weather.
One day, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is quoted saying: “We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late. The science is clear. The global warming debate is over.”

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Newsom signs groundbreaking green building ordinance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
California Chronicle, 8.10.08

On Monday Mayor Newsom signed San Francisco´s groundbreaking green building ordinance that imposes strict new green building requirements on newly constructed residential and commercial buildings, and renovations to existing buildings. The ordinance specifically requires newly constructed commercial buildings over 5,000 sq ft, residential buildings over 75 feet in height, and renovations on buildings over 25,000 sq ft to be subject to an unprecedented level of LEED and green building certifications, which makes San Francisco the city with the most stringent green building requirements in the nation.

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World Bank criticized for helping fossil fuel plants
Bloomberg News, Christopher Swann, 8.11.08

When the new Tata Ultra Mega power plant in western India is fired up in 2012 and fully operational, it will be one of the world’s 50 largest greenhouse-gas emitters. And the World Bank is helping to make it possible.

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Europe’s vital step to make carbon markets work
Guardian (UK), Mark Bell, 8.11.08

The creation of the European Union’s cap and trade system (EU emissions trading scheme) in 2005 was no small feat. Businesses face a cap on their emissions, and, in general, must either reduce their emissions or pay others to do so for them. It is the most sophisticated and successful carbon market yet, and the centrepiece of EU efforts to reduce its carbon emissions. And despite significant teething problems, the scheme is working reasonably well.

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EPA denies Texas temporary easing of ethanol rules
Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin, 8.8.08

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday denied a request by Texas to temporarily cut federal ethanol requirements for the nation’s fuel supply, saying the state had not proved that the recent rise in corn prices is severely hurting its economy.

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Unstable atmosphere: Survey finds state execs cool on climate change
The Business Journal of Milwaukee, David Doege, 8.8.08

Most Wisconsin business leaders do not believe climate change is a pressing problem, but many are taking steps anyway to make their operations more energy efficient, according to a survey of business executives statewide.

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Olympian effort needed to clear China’s smoggy skies
San Francisco Chronicle, Robert Collier, 8.8.08

The persistent smog that shrouds today’s opening of the Beijing Olympics is not just a danger to the lungs of international athletes. Nor is it merely an embarrassment to the Chinese government, which has long pledged that it would clean up the city’s notorious pollution problem and deliver blue skies for the Games.

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Global warming expert says change starts with public, not government
The National (United Arab Emirates), Sharmila Devi, 8.7.08

Susan Solomon, a leader of the team that won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change, says in the end it will be up to public opinion as well as governments to decide whether and how to take action to combat global warming.

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Carbon-registry link with U.N. set for October
Wall Street Journal (Asia), Alessandro Torello, 8.8.08

THE European Union and the United Nations will be ready to link their carbon-trading accounting systems by mid-October, the European Commission said.

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The antithesis of a rational American energy policy
Wall Street Journal, Rep. Edward J. Markey, 8.8.08

Ask most Americans how to break our dependence on oil and expensive fossil fuels and bring down prices, and they’ll tell you to expand renewable energy production, produce more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and be smart about using energy. Ask the oil industry, or their allies in Congress and the White House, and they’ll have a singular answer: drill.

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“I think research into alternative energy technology is moving ahead way faster than the Washington politicians realize. (But we still need to exploit oil and coal and nuclear to bridge the gap from a hydrocarbon to post-hydrocarbon economy.) And it is all happening without spending trillions of dollars in taxpayer money for energy-themed Manhattan Projects or Apollo programs. This possible breakthrough came from MIT’s Solar Revolution Project, which was funded to the tune of $10 million by telecommunications entrepreneur Arunas Chesonis. Heroic capitalism strikes again.”

Good stuff. And I can’t help but wonder how much faster private-sector research into alternative energies would move with a cap & trade policy that encourages entrepreneurs to make more green ($) by being more green…

Nukes need money
Forbes, Brian Wingfield & Joshua Zumbrun, 8.6.08

It’s late summer in Washington at the tail end of a lame duck presidency. And that means one thing for Beltway insiders: open season for lobbying.

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San Francisco’s carbon footprint is shrinking, mayor says
San Francisco Chronicle, Heather Night, 8.6.08

San Francisco has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels and is on track to meet its goal of a 20 percent reduction in four years, Mayor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday.

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Learning to speak climate
New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman, 8.6.08

Sometimes you just wish you were a photographer. I simply do not have the words to describe the awesome majesty of Greenland’s Kangia Glacier, shedding massive icebergs the size of skyscrapers and slowly pushing them down the Ilulissat Fjord until they crash into the ocean off the west coast of Greenland. There, these natural ice sculptures float and bob around the glassy waters near here. You can sail between them in a fishing boat, listening to these white ice monsters crackle and break, heave and sigh, as if they were noisily protesting their fate.

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Brussels lays groundwork for next climate change conference
Times of Malta, Ivan Camilleri, 8.6.08

The European Commission set the ball rolling yesterday to plan its position for next year’s world conference on climate change in Copenhagen.

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Climate change hits Africa hard
Pretoria News (South Africa), Barry Bateman, 8.6.08

Educating the masses in Africa on the causes and effects of climate change is imperative if the continent is to survive this global phenomenon.

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Pelosi: At-risk Dems back drilling
Politico, Martin Kady II & Patrick O’Connor, 8.5.08

California Democrat Nancy Pelosi may be trying to save the planet — but the rank and file in her party increasingly are just trying to save their political hides when it comes to gas prices as Republicans apply more and more rhetorical muscle.

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Fossils add more proof of global climate shift
New York Times, Henry Fountain, 8.5.08

The Antarctic Dry Valleys are among the most extreme environments anywhere, so dry and windswept and barren that they are thought to be the closest analog to the surface of Mars.

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Washington County schools prepare to implement climate change curriculum
Bristol Herald Courier (VA), Debra McCown, 8.5.08

After an in-service training session last week, some Washington County, Va., school teachers are preparing to implement a curriculum on climate change and environmental stewardship.

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The Congressional oil embargo
Human Events, Ernest Istook, 8.5.08

Congress and America united when we suffered from an Arab Oil Embargo in 1973. Now we’re suffering from a Congressional Oil Embargo. This time, America is starting to unite on energy issues but Congress is not doing anything to solve the most urgent problem facing the country.

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Coal’s future is safe - but what about the climate?
Reuters, Gerard Wynn & Jacqueline Cowhig, 8.4.08

Does coal have a future? Climate change protesters and coal traders alike say it’s a daft question, but agreement ends there.

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Climate change protesters deny they are armed
Guardian UK, Elizabeth Stewart, 8.5.08

Climate change protesters today accused police of conducting a smear campaign after officers said they had recovered knives and makeshift weapons during searches of the protest camp at Kingsnorth power station in Kent.

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