Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) published a curious op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times titled, “Yes We Can (Pass Climate Legislation).” The bill that they claim to support and that can pass the Senate is not the 821-page draft bill that Senators Kerry and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) released two weeks ago. It is a fantasy designed to get the support of Senator Graham and other fuzzy-minded Senators with visions of lots of new nuclear plants, billions for technology…

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The Congressional Budget Office released a report on June 5th detailing the costs and revenues of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, before the House. Noticeably absent, however, is analysis of the effects of Renewable Electricity Credits (RECs) and the domestic and international offset credits. These should force up costs for consumers and therefore reduce economic growth and federal revenues.

Highlights:

The bill gives away over three-quarters of the rationing coupons, auctioning off just 18 percent until 2020. CBO estimates…

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The House Energy and Commerce Committee just began (at 10:00 AM eastern) the second day of marathon markups for the 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act. In a “markup,” the Committee reads through the bill (or at least the titles and sections) and members have the opportunity to offer amendments.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act is an awful piece of legislation designed to tax energy. In order to win over Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, Chairman…

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Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced late Tuesday that the full committee would mark up the Waxman-Markey energy rationing bill next week and that he planned to vote the bill out of committee before the Memorial Day recess which begins on 22nd May.  Waxman also released some details of the compromise bill that he and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) have negotiated with Blue Dog and other moderate Democrats on the committee.

This bill…

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The DC Examiner yesterday reported on a “green” car sharing program in Montgomery County that is wasting taxpayer money hand over fist. Since January, the County has been paying Enterprise Rent-a-Car $1,100 a month per car for the use of 28 fuel efficient automobiles. As of April 24, the vehicles have been used a total of 83.5 hours, which means that Maryland taxpayers have paid more than $1,300 an hour to use the cars. For comparison, consider that a limo costs…

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Two years ago, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) refused to permit the construction of two coal-fired power plants in the southwestern part of the State because she is alarmed by global warming. Her constituents clearly disagreed with her decision-the State Legislature has passed four bills to overturn Sebelius and allow the coal plants. Each time, however, the Governor vetoed the will of the people, most recently this week. President Barack Obama chose Sebelius to become the Secretary of Human Health…

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Greenwire has a long lead story (subscription required) in today's edition by Daniel Cusick about the plans of the Navajo Nation to build three huge new coal-fired power plants totaling 5,300 megawatts in order to exploit their enormous coal resources.  These new plants could supply enough electricity for approximately four million homes in the rapidly growing cities of the Southwest.

In an interview accompanying the story, Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr., responded to a question about whether he was concerned about all…

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Andrew Revkin of the New York Times has just posted a piece on Dot Earth that discusses a recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press that finds that global warming has dropped to the bottom of people's concerns.  Asked to rate their top priorities from a list of twenty issues, only 31% listed global warming as one of their top priorities.  That's down five percent from last year.  The biggest drop was for protecting the environment,…

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Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch

Our friends at the Institute for Liberty and The Chilling Effect have cobbled together some “conservative” estimates of how much carbon will be emitted at next week’s swearin’ (in) of the green new president. They came up with a total of 575 million pounds of CO2 as the likely figure.

Will anyone of eco-conscience decide not to go now based on their principles?

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Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner was present at the Kyoto negotiations back in 1997, and predicted their failure because of the inability to get the developing nations like China to commit to emissions reductions.  He has recently returned from the Poznan Conference of the Parties aimed at drawing up Kyoto II, and is of the opinion that nothing has been learned from history.  He has set out his concerns in a letter to President-elect Obama (copy below).

Of course, in many ways the…

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