November 2009

Boxer’s Reckless Pace

by William Yeatman on November 3, 2009

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) has set a frantic pace for major energy-rationing legislation so she can meet a deadline imposed by the United Nations.

Boxer wants to have climate legislation out of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which she chairs, before the 15th Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change this December in Copenhagen, where the United Nations hopes to produce a successor climate treaty to the failed Kyoto Protocol.

To meet this December deadline, Senator Boxer has pushed an absurdly fast timetable for the usually-deliberative Senate. Ten days ago, she introduced a draft of S. 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. Last week she conducted three days of marathon hearings on the bill. Today, Boxer began a “mark-up” of the legislation-the first step towards moving the bill out of the EPW Committee.

Of course, most of the deal-making will be made behind the scenes. Boxer’s strategy is to cobble together support for her bill by using the proceeds of the cap-and-trade scheme to buy off Senators otherwise inclined to vote against a massive energy tax. That’s how Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives passed energy rationing legislation.

Republicans on the EPW Committee are so dissatisfied with Boxer’s recklessness that they’ve threatened to boycott the mark-up, and thereby deprive Senator Boxer of a quorum. The Republicans are asking for a full economic analysis of the bill by the EPA, which would take at least five weeks.

But Boxer used an unusual interpretation of Senate rules to press forward with the mark-up without participation from the minority party. The proceedings began this morning. No Republicans attended, although Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) introduced a statement decrying Boxer’s blitzkrieg strategy.

Last night, Boxer seemed to hand the Republicans an olive branch, by extending the deadline for offering amendments from 9 am to 5 pm. She also arranged for an EPA official to brief the Committee on their economic analysis.

This morning, however, Boxer was far from conciliatory. She indicated that she would hold mark-up hearings tomorrow, with or without a presence from the minority party. At one point, she told the room “There’s no room for bipartisanship on this issue…This isn’t us. This is them.”

While it’s still unclear whether or not Boxer has the political courage to throw Senate decorum out the window in order to meet a deadline imposed by the United Nations, her comments today indicate that she intent on ramming this bill through the EPW Committee, with or without input from the Republicans.

Video of Dr. Richard Lindzen’s “Deconstructing Global Warming”

by William Yeatman on November 3, 2009

On Monday, October 26th, the Cooler Heads Coalition hosted Dr. Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Video of Dr. Lindzen’s presentation, “Deconstructing Global Warming”

Power point Presentation

Lomborg Strikes Again

by Ryan Young on November 2, 2009

in Blog

Some people want to cure malaria by reducing carbon emissions. Others want to cure it with mosquito nets, better health care and sanitation. Which is a more effective use of our limited resources? The answer is important; malaria kills about one million people every year. Getting it wrong costs lives.

According to Bjørn Lomborg, “For the money it takes to save one life with carbon cuts, smarter policies could save 78,000 lives. ”

Let’s pursue those smarter policies, then.

Cap-and-Trade Global Warming Bill Is A Scam, Experts Reveal

by Hans Bader on November 1, 2009

in Blog

Two EPA lawyers criticized the cap-and-trade energy bill passed by the House as a scam, noting in The Washington Post that it will be manipulated to profit politically connected corporations and reward certain kinds of pollution, while not cutting greenhouse gas emissions.  A similar scheme enacted in Europe in the name of fighting global warming enriched polluters, while not reducing emissions, which actually rose faster in most of Europe than in the U.S.

The Washington Examiner explains how the bill will lead to deforestation, and thus increase greenhouse gas emissions in the long run.

The bill, which is loaded with pork for special interests, is backed by Obama, who once admitted that under his cap-and-trade scheme, electricity and utility bills would “skyrocket” and coal-fed power plants would go “bankrupt.”  Treasury Department analysts estimated it could increase taxes on the average American household by $1,761 per year.

The bill also contains environmentally harmful provisions, such as massive ethanol subsidies, which will result in “damage to water supplies, soil health and air quality.” Ethanol subsidies have resulted in forests being destroyed in the Third World, and caused famines that have killed countless people in the world’s poorest countries.

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