6/1/2010

Envy with Green:Graham May Have Made the Right Political Choice in Backing Out of KGL,But Lindsey Makes It Clear His Heart Is Still Invested in CriminalizingCarbon. Greenwire(5/28, subs. req’d) reports, “A key Senate Republican voice on climatelegislation is floating yet another alternative way to price carbonemissions by focusing just on power plants. Sen. Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.) said yesterday that the electric utility industry is most inneed of a market signal for pricing greenhouse gases, while other majorindustries could be left out of a new U.S. carbon market, especially ifit means finding enough votes to pass a bill in the Senate. "We do needto price carbon to make nuclear power and wind and solar and somealternative technologies economically viable," Graham said. "On thetransportation side, maybe you can reduce emissions without a cap. Idon’t know. But you need to put a price on carbon in the powerproduction area at a minimum to jump-start these other technologies." "We thought this through 20 times, saying, ‘How can we do thisdifferently?’" Kerry said at a forum hosted by the Christian ScienceMonitor. “Every time you take one piece away, you make it moreexpensive for the other pieces to do it alone. And if you take certainpieces away, there’s no money to be able to help people transition andcushion for it."

Beautiful Disaster:Green Jobs Boondoggle in Spain Seen by Outsiders as Key Factor inNation’s 20% Unemployment Rate – Political Leadership Still in Denial. Associated Press(5/28) reports, “Fitch Ratings cut Spain’s credit rating Friday, sayingits government’s efforts to reduce debt would weigh down economic growth. The ratingsagency dealt a blow to state efforts to shore up confidence in itsfinances by cutting the country’s rating one notch from AAA to AA plus.Earlier Friday, the government defiantly ruled out calling earlyelections and instead promised more austerity, forecast lower economicgrowth and higher unemployment and acknowledged having almost noparliamentary support for spending cuts designed to combat Spain’sshare of the European debt crisis. "The people gave us their trust togovern for four years. That time is not up," Deputy Prime MinisterMaria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told a news conference after aCabinet meeting. Europe’s top job-creator only two years ago, Spain nowhas the region’s highest unemployment rate, at just over 20 percent,and is the slowest of the major economies to emerge from the globalrecession.

Justice Delayed:Effort to Use Endangered Species Act as a Means of Denying Millions ofCalifornians Access to Water Soundly (Finally) Rejected in FederalCourt. E&E News(5/28, subs. req’d) reports, “U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger lateyesterday delivered another win for farmers and water districts lookingto export more water from the San Joaquin-Sacramento Bay Delta, rulingthat federal agencies "completely abdicated" their responsibility toprotect economic interests in California alongside endangered deltasmelt. Wanger, ruling from the U.S. Eastern District of California inFresno, signaled his intention to provide San Joaquin Valley farmersand water districts relief from water pumping restrictions orderedunder the Endangered Species Act for the smelt. The decision mirrors asimilar ruling on salmon issued earlier this month that led to thelifting of pumping limits this week. "Judicial deference is not owed toarbitrary, capricious and scientifically unreasonable agency action," Wanger wrote. "FWS and Reclamation … must take the hard look underNEPA at the severe consequences visited upon [California’s agriculturalindustry] and the residents and communities impacted by the watersupply limitations."

EPA’s Jekyl-and-HydeApproach to Approving Use of Dispersants Expected to Be Called Out ThisWeek By Group of Independent Scientists – Who Know They’re Safe. Wall Street Journal(6/1) reports, “A federally convened group of scientists is set torecommend that BP PLC and the government continue spraying chemicalsinto the Gulf of Mexico to help prevent leaking oil from washingashore, even though the scientists have serious concerns about thepotential long-term damage to sea life. The group’s report, due thisweek, comes after BP’s latest efforts to plug the leaking Deepwater Horizon oil wellfailed. If further interim measures to cap the well don’t work, largeadditional amounts of the chemicals, known as "dispersants," could besprayed into the Gulf until relief wells can be completed and thegusher capped, which could take until late summer. Research shipssponsored by the Obama administration and universities have recentlyfound what scientists believe is evidence that clouds of tiny oildroplets are collecting deep underwater. Tests are under way todetermine whether the droplets are oil—and, if so, whether they werecaused by the dispersants. Scientists suspect those droplets could harmfish, birds and sea mammals in coming months and years.

Sec. SalazarTestifies Under Oath that MMS Director Left “On Her Own Terms, and OfHer Own Volition” – New Reporting Suggests He May Have Told Congress aLie. E&E News(5/28, subs. req’d) reports, “The now-ex MMS director was in her officeearly yesterday, preparing to testify before an congressional panelabout the agency’s role in handling BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, asshe had several times in recent weeks. Yesterday was different,according to sources. Someone from Secretary Salazar’s office calledand said the secretary did not want her to attend the House hearing.Following a harsh NYT profile that highlighted her low profile in thecrisis, that might have seemed like a bad omen. But Birnbaum, theformer veteran congressional staffer, was worried more about stiffing acommittee chairman than what this meant for her job. She called Rep.Jim Moran (D-Va.), chairman of the Interior Subcommittee, to tell himshe would not be appearing. Moran called Salazar, who then walked outof his sixth-floor hallway with Deputy Secretary David Hayes. They wentone floor down and four hallways over to Birnbaum’s office in 5400corridor of Main Interior and asked her to resign.

So What If Only About14 People Live in North Dakota? The Folks Who Regulate Energy Up ThereKnow What They’re Doing; Other States Should Take a Lesson. NorthCentralPa.composts (5/29) the latest dispatch from the Marcellus Shale Coalition:“Quick: What’s the first thing that comes to mind when the subject ofNorth Dakota comes up? Well, assuming it ever does, there’s that famousCoen brothers film of the mid-90s, its status as home and birthplace ofYankee-legend Roger Maris, and of course, the majesty and mystique ofthe American treasure known as Mt. Rushmore (oops, wrong state). Butthose notwithstanding, you know what else North Dakota is known forthese days? Energy. Lots and lots of energy. In fact, thanks to thestate’s prolific Bakken Shale formation, North Dakota surged pastOklahoma and Louisiana this year to become the nation’s fourth-biggestproducer of petroleum. So how did a state with a total populationroughly equivalent to Bucks County, PA pull this thing off? Well, forstarters, it helps to be situated above a shale formation thatgeologists believe holds more than four billion barrels of recoverableoil. But as folks in Pennsylvania have started to figure out, it takesmore than the right geology to convert American energy resources intojobs, revenue and opportunity for those who need them. It takes acommitment by policymakers 10,000-feet above the formation to put theright kind of legislative and regulatory framework in place.

Day in the Life of anIPCC Kleptocrat: Wake Up, Fly to Switzerland, Talk with OtherKleptocrats About All the Fun You’re Gonna Have in Cancun in December,Repeat. The Irish Times(6/1) reports, “A fresh round of UN climate change talks got under wayin Bonn yesterday in an effort to pick up the pieces after lastDecember’s summit in Copenhagen and pave the way for firmer action.“The Copenhagen meeting may have postponed an outcome for at least ayear, but it did not postpone the impacts of climate change,” said theUN’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, who is stepping down on July1st to become “global adviser” to KPMG consultants. “The deadline toagree an effective international response to climate change atCopenhagen was set because governments, when launching negotiations inBali in 2007, recognised the scientific warning on climate for what itwas: a siren call to act now, or face the worst.” The two-week round oftalks in Bonn, with 182 governments represented, is aimed at settingthe agenda for “cop 16” – the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UNFramework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Mexican resortof Cancún in December.