Pelosi and Representatives Release Draft Of Clean Energy Act

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

This afternoon Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), released a draft of comprehensive energy legislation, known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

Speaker Pelosi says the act will create jobs, help end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and combat global warming.

“We have an obligation to future generations to preserve this planet and a moral obligation to preserve it as God’s creation,” said Pelosi.

Speaker Pelosi said today that the climate crisis we are facing is not only an environmental health issue, but that it is a national security issue and a moral issue.

“Energy independence and fighting climate change are flagship issues for this Congress. It will also be the impetus for new jobs and a new economic revival for our country,” said Pelosi.

Rep. Markey said that we need to look at this legislation as a good opportunity and if it gets passed it can create 3 to 5 million jobs all across the country.

“The planet is running a fever but there are no emergency rooms or plans so we have to act in a preventative way.”

Rep. Waxman said that Congress has a unique historic opportunity to pass legislation that will make our country more energy independent so that we can protect our national security.

Waxman said “This legislation will try to avert the terrible consequences of global warming.... legislation that will renovate and transform our economy for many many new jobs to give our people the jobs they need to get out of this recession/depression.”

Roger Johnson, the National Farmers Union President said that the union wants to be sure to play a constructive role with this legislation and said that there are already 3600 members doing innovative, and advanced agricultural practices to reduce greenhouse gases.

“Earth Day is something farmers celebrate every day of the year as we work the Earth and we want to make sure that it continues to be protected,” said Johnson.

The bill is expected to pass in the Full Energy and Commerce Committee on Energy before the Memorial Day recess at the end of May.

“On this Earth Day we commit ourselves, not just ourselves, but our nation, to protecting our planet, creating jobs for our workers and by passing clean energy legislation,” concluded Pelosi.

G.R.E.E.N. Spells Jobs

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

When blue collar unions and green environmentalists discussed how alternative energy is a path to new, high quality jobs, the Blue Green Alliance was born, according to Dave Foster, the Executive Director.


Foster notes that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Sen. John Warner (R-VA) have sponsored separate Cap-and-Trade bills, and, along with Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (R-ME), still support some form of carbon tax.

Europe and Japan have far lower per capita energy usage, he said, which means “through efficiency, we can pay for an awful lot of of these global warming reductions.”


Still, "I find it a little odd that a certain section of the Republican party has chosen to wave the banner of anti-science,” Foster said.

America is already feeling the economic effects of climate change, Foster said, and gave the example of the loss of 4,000 jobs in the aluminum industry as decreased amounts of snow pack formed in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest over the past 20 years. Hydroelectric dams depend on snow melt for power. As that diminished, electricity became prohibitively expensive.


“The cost of doing nothing about global warming will far, far exceed the cost of doing something," Foster said, while praising the thousands of steel-working jobs gained in manufacturing clean-energy wind turbines.


Foster said that alternative energy jobs tend to put skilled people back to work in familiar jobs.


“We’re not engaging in massive re-training, we’re engaging in a massive recall to work... On exactly the kinds of projects that they’ve been trained to do before,” he said.

“The Blue Green Alliance is a strategic national partnership between labor unions (the “blue” in “blue-collar”) and environmental organizations (the “green”) “ (http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/site/c.enKIITNpEiG/b.3416603/k.DD10/About_BGA.htm)

A "Game Changer" For Global Warming

By Hadas deGroot

The Environmental Protection Agency is soon expected to declare global warming pollutants a threat to public health and to hold polluters accountable under the Clean Air Act.

In 2007 the Supreme Court upheld the EPA's authority to determine whether scientific evidence is strong enough to prove that global warming pollution is a threat to public health. The release of the EPA's decision is expected soon though the exact date is unknown.

Environmental experts are certain that the findings will show global warming to be a threat.

"There is no question that the EPA should make a positive endangerment finding," said Dr. Amanda Staudt, Climate Scientist for the National Wildlife Federation. "As far as I'm concerned, the science compels no other outcome."

The implications of such a decision will be significant. "This will be the largest step that the Federal Government will have taken to date," said Joe Mendelson, Global Warming Policy Director for the National Wildlife Federation. Mendelson expects the outcome to be mandatory reductions in US global warming pollution.

"We're anticipating this first action from EPA to be in the realm of motor vehicles," explained David Bookbinder, Chief Climate Counsel for Sierra Club. Federal guidelines for multiple sources of global warming pollutants are expected to follow.

If EPA declares global warming pollution to be in violation of the Clean Air Act, Emily Figdor, Federal Global Warming Program Director for Environment America, said that the next step lies in Congress. "The United States needs an overall plan to create a clean energy economy and that's the role for Congress," Figdor stated.

Lights out: America’s energy future

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

President Barack Obama’s massive energy overhaul may be cruising towards the edge of a cliff if the U.S. doesn’t start manufacturing more. Such was said today before Congress by Jeff Metts, President of Dowding Machining, a manufacturer of wind turbines.

Obama’s energy policy focuses on having 25 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources of energy by 2025. The Senate has introduced a bill, S.661, which sets a slightly different standard: 20 percent by 2025. Mett doesn’t believe that the U.S. can manufacture enough wind turbines quickly enough to meet either of these goals at its current pace. He said that in 2008 the United States produced approximately 4,000 wind turbines, but that it would have to produce over 10,000 turbines each year until 2025 to meet the energy goal. There are several large logistical concerns to this process, including the cost of transporting these massive components and the time taken to manufacture each one. The transportation costs make it difficult for foreign production of the necessary parts.

Mett presented a solution to the manufacturing problem, which would cut the production time of certain components down to an eighth of what it would otherwise be. His company is seeking investors for new manufacturing plants in the United States to build these turbines quickly and efficiently. Mett said that the improvements manifest in his manufacturing process would be “game changers” in making clean energy, and that they will be the new standard around the world overnight. This would place the U.S. in a competitive advantage in the energy market. David Roders, representative from the Department of Energy, said that tight capital markets have made it difficult for industries to invest in energy efficiency. On that topic, Mett said that the problem with innovations like this is finding the first investor – he is asking the Federal government to be that ice breaker.

This manufacturing investment would be included in the comprehensive energy legislation the Senate is putting together. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said that the Senate Bill will invest in America’s energy future. It will help industries be more productive while using less energy, create millions of new jobs, and keep America in its position as “a top innovator of clean energy technologies.” The intended byproduct of this would be lowered greenhouse gas emissions, which should slow climate change.

“Our World Would Be Unrecognizable”

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), Chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, opened the first of a planned series of hearings into practical responses to climate change with, “Dr. Killen, when does climate change become irreversible?”

Dr. Timothy Killen, National Science Foundation, replied that accommodation was becoming more important than prevention. Killen said that present models are imperfect, they show a range of possibilities for each question, but the possibilities are all about how much our world is changing, not whether it is. The overall pattern of warming and increasingly erratic and extreme weather is certain, with floods and droughts occurring back to back in the same places. One other thing the models have in common, is that the changes are already more severe and rapid than predicted, he said.

This is partly because methane gas wasn’t part of earlier models, Killen said. He confirmed that methane is 30-40 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Methane is sequestered in huge amounts in permafrost. So far, only superficial permafrost is melting and releasing the gas but, if it all melted, “Our world would be unrecognizable,” he said.

Rockefeller said this is the 11th plague on man. “The science is overwhelming… The time for arguing whether carbon emission is a factor which affects the health of the earth, or whether our sea level is rising from global warming, is and must be over.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Ranking Member, asked about research into weather control. Killen indicated that we could begin such studies, with better tools than in the past.

No one among the senators or the panel questioned the reality or significance of climate change, the discussion was about what could be done.

Killen recommended specific areas of further research in order to improve computer modeling of the effects of any changes. He thought science would then yield better answers in “ten or so years.” In the meantime, we should plan for regional climate change, the local details of which were not yet predictable, rising and more acidic oceans, water scarcity, extreme weather, reduced biodiversity, crumbling ecosystems, and substantial impacts on human health.

Sean Dilweg, National Association of Insurance Commissions, recommended both insurers and government create incentives for people to drive less and use clean energy. Insurers are presently looking into other recommendations.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) suggested “something like EnergyStar on steroids.” A symbol that consumers could look for as a sign that their purchases were part of the solution.,

The Colorado River might carry 20 percent less water by 2050, Katherine Jacobs, Arizona Water Institute, said. There is a great need, she said, for the public and policy makers to be more aware of the science around climate, and to make that science part of important decisions.

Her recommendations also included plans to adapt to now-unavoidable changes, as well as defining the problems around users’ concerns, matching the timing and scale of information to decisions, and establishing credibility of sources in the minds of the public. She submitted several more technical recommendations to the committee as well.

By far the most pro-active panelist was Frank Alix, Powerspan Corporation. His company makes carbon scrubbing and sequestering equipment for coal plants. Still at the prototype stage, their equipment can remove 90 percent of the carbon from coal plant exhaust, pressurize it into liquefied form, and pump it into vast natural underground spaces, where it is expected to remain. Alix estimated that, with full implementation, total carbon emission could be reduced to about 5 percent of what it is now, for about $40 a ton.

Alix said the fastest path to adoption of the scrubbers would be a carbon tax.