*‘Tax and Trade’ is pseudonymously and sometimes disingenuously termed ‘Cap & Trade’Today,

February 25, 2009, James Hansen testified before the Committee on Ways and Means, United States House of Representatives. His suggestion to implement a carbon tax with 100% dividend is an ingenious way to speed up the changes away from fossil fuels that are so urgently needed. Currently, Europe is proceeding with the Cap and Trade System. But it might be useful to review its effectiveness critically and to ensure that the system we implement is indeed able to ensure the changes that are needed. Because if the system does fail, we might not have time to rectify our errors.

In the following is the reprint of Dr. Hansen’s testimony:

Our planet is in peril1. Climate disruption threatens everyone, but especially the young and the unborn, who will bear the full brunt through no fault of their own. Recent science makes it clear that if we continue to burn most of the fossil fuels we will leave our children a deteriorating situation out of their control. (more…)

Below is Al Gore’s speech that he gave January 29, 2009 at the Senate panel on climate change that was organized by Senator Kerry. Sentences are put into bold by MW.

We are here today to talk about how we as Americans and how the United States of America as part of the global community should address the dangerous and growing threat of the climate crisis.

We have arrived at a moment of decision. Our home – Earth – is in grave danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not the planet itself, of course, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings.

Moreover, we must face up to this urgent and unprecedented threat to the existence of our civilization at a time when our country must simultaneously solve two other worsening crises. Our economy is in its deepest recession since the 1930s. And our national security is endangered by a vicious terrorist network and the complex challenge of ending the war in Iraq honorably while winning the military and political struggle in Afghanistan.

As we search for solutions to all three of these challenges, it is becoming clearer that they are linked by a common thread – our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels. (more…)

A new research report was just published, “Saving Energy at Home and on the Road: A survey of Americans’ energy saving behaviors, intentions, motivations, and barriers.” The report is based on a nationally representative survey of more than 2,000 Americans conducted in October and November.

In short, the study found that many Americans are ready, willing and able to save energy at home and when they travel. (more…)

This letter from December 29, 2008, written by one of the world leading climate scientists, the US-American Dr. James Hansen, summarizes the major steps which he consideres as essential parts of Barack Obama’s policy if a climate catastrophe is to be avoided (I made some major points bold). For sure this letter will be controversial, in parts because Dr. Hansen supports 4′th generation nuclear power. However, I believe we do need to be open to consider new paths during a time of emergency, even if we principally strongly oppose them. MW

Dear Michelle and Barack,

We write to you as fellow parents concerned about the Earth that will be inherited by our children, grandchildren, and those yet to be born.

Barack has spoken of ‘a planet in peril’ and noted that actions needed to stem climate change have other merits. However, the nature of the chosen actions will be of crucial importance.

We apologize for the length of this letter. But your personal attention to these ‘details’ could make all the difference in what surely will be the most important matter of our times. Jim has advised governments previously through regular channels. But urgency now dictates a personal appeal. Scientists at the forefront of climate research have seen a stream of new data in the past few years with startling implications for humanity and all life on Earth. Yet the information that most needs to be communicated to you concerns the failure of policy approaches employed by nations most sincere and concerned about stabilizing climate. (more…)

Reprinted with permission from e360 Yale Environment

Environmentalists offer the president-elect their advice on the priorities he should set for his administration.

Yale Environment 360 asked a wide-ranging group of environmental activists, scientists, and thinkers to answer the following question: If you were advising Barack Obama, what would you tell him are the most important environmental and energy initiatives that he should launch during his first 100 days?

Although the respondents — including entrepreneur Paul Hawken, Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, activist Van Jones, and green investing leader Mindy Lubber — represent a broad range of interests, they were largely in agreement on how best to solve the current economic and environmental challenges. Basically, they agree that weaning the country off fossil fuels and onto renewable sources of energy is the single best way to rebuild the U.S. economy; that Obama must use all the tools at his disposal — from invoking the Clean Air Act for regulating greenhouse gas emissions to persuading the new Congress to put a price on carbon — to tackle climate change and spur the move to alternative energy; that under an Obama administration the United States must lead in forging a new global climate change treaty; and that, given the rapidity of global warming, Obama must be made fully aware of the “scary” scientific facts — as environmentalist Bill McKibben puts it — and move with a sense of urgency. (more…)

Finally! The EPA is showing leadership in environmental protection at a scale appropriate for this important federal US agency.

In a move that signals the start of the our clean energy future,  the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) ruled today EPA had no valid reason for refusing to limit carbon dioxide emissions from new coal-fired power plants.  The decision means that all new and proposed coal plants nationwide must go back and address their carbon dioxide emissions.

“Today’s decision opens the way for meaningful action to fight global warming and is a major step in bringing about a clean energy economy,” said Joanne Spalding, Sierra Club Senior Attorney who argued the case. “This is one more sign that we must begin repowering,  refueling and rebuilding America.” (more…)

A DISASTER BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE NATION’S LEADING ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Reprinted with permission by Peter Montague

On Friday the U.S. Senate — arguably the most powerful 100 people on the planet — opposed a bill to curb global warming.
The N.Y. Times wrote June 3, “The debate, which could last all week, will force senators to take a stand on some of the most difficult, expensive and potentially life-altering questions the world will face in coming decades.” (more…)

Traditional Crude Oil Seen Making Way for Dirtier Crude From Canadian Tar Sands; Proposed Tar Sands Production Increase Would Be the Equivalent of 16 New Refineries in the U.S.

Future oil refining in the U.S. may soon get much “dirtier” — including three times more greenhouse gas emissions in the extraction process — as refineries place their bets on a shift away from traditional crude oil to Canadian tar sands, according to a major new report issued today by the independent Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). (more…)

The coal industry and its allies are spending more than $60 million to promote the notion that coal is clean. But so far, “clean coal” is little more than an advertising slogan.

By Richard Conniff; reprinted with permission from Yale Environment 360 at http://e360.yale.edu

You have to hand it to the folks at R&R Partners. They’re the clever advertising agency that made its name luring legions of suckers to Las Vegas with an ad campaign built on the slogan “What happens here, stays here.” But R&R has now topped itself with its current ad campaign pairing two of the least compatible words in the English language: “Clean Coal.”

“Clean” is not a word that normally leaps to mind for a commodity some spoilsports associate with unsafe mines, mountaintop removal, acid rain, black lung, lung cancer, asthma, mercury contamination, and, of course, global warming. And yet the phrase “clean coal” now routinely turns up in political discourse, almost as if it were a reality. (more…)

Finally, scientists living in the U.S. have united to speak up about climate change and to urge the US to commit to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More than 1,700 scientists and economists followed the call from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and signed the declaration. As described by UCS,

“This unprecedented list of signatories includes six Nobel Prize winners in science or economics, 30 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 10 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 10 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, and more than 100 members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. ”

The declaration says: (more…)