Cooler Heads Digest 10 July 2009

In the News

Congress Gives Your Money to T Boone Pickens
Tim Carney, Washington Examiner, 10 July 2009

Warming Debate Simmers While Obama Poses in Europe
The Oklahoman editorial, 10 July 2009

Global Warming Alarmism Enriches Al Gore, Bankrupts the Rest of Us
Ron Smith, Baltimore Sun, 10 July 2009

Democrats Walk a Fine Line on Tariffs
Zack Hale, National Journal, 9 July 2009

Greenpeace Defaces Abe Lincoln with Alarmist Banner
News Wire Services, 9 July 2009

Smart Grid or Strong Grid?
Robert Michaels, MasterResource.org, 8 July 2009

Climate Czarina Tells GM, “Put nothing in writing”
Mark Tapscott, Washington Examiner, 8 July 2009

G-8 on Climate Change: Non-change I Can Believe in
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 8 July 2009

Markey’s Moment
John Carlisle, American Spectator, 6 July 2009

Au Revoir to the American Car
Myron Ebell, Washington Times, 5 July 2009

Green Nonsense
Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5 July 2009

Solar Power Is Looking Dim
Iain Murray, Washington Examiner, 3 July 2009

News You Can Use

The Gore Effect

At ClimateDepot.com, Marc Morano reports on the latest incidence of the “Gore Effect,” the remarkably frequent occurrence of exceedingly cold weather whenever and wherever former Vice-President Al Gore travels to talk about global warming. Next week, Gore will be in Melbourne to launch a new alarmist organization, “Safe Climate Australia”; this week, temperatures in Melbourne hovered around zero degrees Centigrade. For a detailed history of the “Gore Effect,” click here.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

Senate Begins Work on Energy Rationing Bill

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on cap-and-trade legislation on Tuesday, 7th July. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar all testified on behalf of the Obama Administration in favor of cap-and-trade, but the Republicans’ only witness, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, stole the show. His written testimony and that of the other witnesses can be found here. In response to a question from Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the committee’s ranking Republican, Administrator Jackson said that the EPA’s analysis was that actions by the United States alone to reduce emissions will not affect global C02 levels. Secretary Chu disagreed with the EPA’s analysis.

EPW Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had announced that the committee would start marking up their bill on 22nd July and that she planned to be finished before the August recess, which is scheduled to begin on 7th August. But then Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that all committees needed to be finished with their pieces of comprehensive energy-rationing legislation by 18th September. That quickly slipped to 28th September. So now it looks like the EPW Committee won’t begin marking up its version of Waxman-Markey until September.

Green Jobs Nonsense

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s European Affairs Subcommittee held a hearing Wednesday on the European Union’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Ben Lieberman of the Heritage Foundation set the record straight in his testimony, which can be found here. Ben told me that Senator Barbara Boxer, who is a member of the full committee but not the subcommittee, came in towards the end of the hearing and remarked that despite all of California’s economic problems, the one bright spot is the state’s alternative energy jobs. “Where would we be without them?”  Good question.  What is the effect of raising the costs of production by raising energy prices? Higher prices, fewer sales, lower production, job losses, less investment in new production, less money in people’s pockets to spend on other things. Unemployment in California, which used to be below the national average, is now well above the national average at over 12%.

The EPA Cover-Up-the Saga Continues

Sam Kazman
On June 23d, the last day for public comment in EPA’s Endangerment Docket, CEI unveiled a series of amazing EPA emails which demonstrated that the agency had squelched an internal report critical of its position on global warming. We sent out our first news release on this the next morning. A day later, Rep. Joe Barton and other Republicans held a press conference on the issue, and Reps. Sensenbrenner and Issa issued statements decrying the cover-up. CEI also released a draft version of the concealed report.  The next day, as the House debated the Waxman-Markey bill, Rep. Barton brought the issue up during floor debate as well. At EPA, meanwhile, senior analyst Dr. Alan Carlin was given permission to post the final version of his report on his own website-EPA still refused to post it on the agency website.

CEI subsequently filed the final report with EPA, demanding that the agency reopen the comment period to allow the public to respond to both the report and to EPA’s atrocious behavior.  We have yet to hear back from the agency.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported our request, accusing the agency of running a “shell game” on the endangerment issue.

On the Senate side, Senators Inhofe, Barrasso and Thune weighed in with questions for EPA and requests for an IG investigation.  The issue was raised yet again during the Senate EPW July 7 hearing, at which Administrator Jackson lamely claimed that Dr. Carlin’s views had been circulated within the agency.  She did not explain why his report had been buried.

In terms of press coverage, there’ve been a growing number of articles, starting with a DowJones Newswire report and extending to other web and print media as well.  Two excellent pieces are a CBSNews Political Hotsheet article and a Wall St. Journal column by Kim Strassel.