The Competitive Enterprise Institute this week launched a new video campaign to persuade Al Gore to accept Lord Monckton’s challenge for a debate on climate change. CEI is offering Mr. Gore big bucks to debate!

The Cornwall Alliance and the Heritage Foundation are holding a joint event, “Leading Evangelical Scholars Warn That Global Warming Alarmism Will Hurt the Poor,” on Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 1:00 P.M., at The Heritage Foundation’s Lehrman Auditorium. RSVP online at http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/.

In the News

Is Old George Still Causing Trouble?
Myron Ebell, Wall Street Journal, 20 November 2009

The Decline of Climate Alarmism
Robert Bradley, MasterResource.org, 20 November 2009

Estimating the Cost of Cap-and-Trade
David Kreutzer, Heritage WebMemo, 19 November 2009

Climate Gasbags Want To Shame You
Greg Gutfeld, FoxNews, 19 November 2009

Revenge of the Climate Layman
Anne Jolis, Wall Street Journal, 18 November 2009

Pawlenty’s Flip-Flop
Paul Chesser, GlobalWarming.org, 17 November 2009

Kyoto II Climate Change Treaty; Implications for American Sovereignty
Steven Groves, Copenhagen Consequences, 17 November 2009

Obama’s Failure
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 17 November 2009

News You Can Use

NASA: Sun Drives Climate

An major article in this week’s Spiegel Online, “Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out,” cited a recent study by NASA scientists in the journal Geophysical Research Letters showing that reduced solar activity is the most important cause of stagnating global warming.

Cap-and-Trade Poll

The Pew Research Center polled Americans with the question, “What does a cap-and-trade deal with?” Twenty-seven percent of Republicans, but only 15% of Democrats, knew that cap-and-trade is an environmental policy.

Obama’s 70-car Motorcade

President Barack Obama went to China this week to discuss a climate change policies, among other things. According to the Politico, Obama traveled in China with a 70-car motorcade.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

World Leaders Concede Failure in Copenhagen

World leaders and the United Nations’ top global warming officials have given up signing a big new international treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol at the fifteenth Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen next month.  Instead, they are now talking about concluding such an agreement some time in 2010 and coming to a less ambitious agreement in Copenhagen.  The latter might be a list of national commitments from all the major developed economies and most of the major developing countries.

For example, the Obama Administration might commit the United States to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 14% or 17% below current levels by 2020.  The Obama Administration may indeed do that, but what’s going on in the Senate makes such a commitment look unconvincing.  Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has now put off any consideration of the Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bills until this spring.  He’s putting a polite gloss on the ugly (for the alarmists) reality: the Kerry-Boxer bill is dead in the Senate.  Whether some other version of cap-and-trade surfaces and gains traction next spring is now the question.

Across the States

California

The California Energy Commission on Wednesday established energy efficiency standards for large screen televisions. To understand why this policy unnecessarily limits consumer choice, read this commentary by CEI’s William Yeatman in the Orange County Register. The Washington Times reports today that Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has sent a letter to the Department of Energy demanding similar television standards for the rest of the country.

Alaska

The AP reported this week that Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) is suing the federal government to overturn the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species. The Governor noted that polar bear populations are at historical all-time highs, having increased to 25,000 from 10,000 in 1960.

Oregon

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski (D) has ordered an immediate review of the state’s tax incentives for renewable energy after the Oregonian reported that state officials had deliberately low-balled cost estimates of the program by a factor of forty.

Around the World

Myron Ebell

Australia

Australia’s Labor Government has again passed cap-and-trade legislation through the House and sent it to the Senate.  The Senate is closely divided, and seven votes from the opposition Liberal or National parties or from the small parties or independents are needed.  Liberal Party Leader Malcolm Turnbull, who represents a very wealthy part of Sydney and is a global warming true believer, is pulling out all the stops to force some of his party’s Senators to go along.  He is meeting strong public opposition from the Liberals’ Senate leader, Nick Minchin, and several other Liberal Senators including Cory Bernardi and Tony Abbott.  The Senate will probably vote before the end of the parliamentary session on November 30th.  While the outcome is still in doubt, it is clear that Turnbull is risking splitting his party in order to enact energy-rationing legislation.  News reports and personal communications agree that opposition to the bill is growing stronger and broader among the Liberal Party’s Representatives and Senators and supporters among the electorate.

The Global Warming Establishment Uncovered

Julie Walsh

The electronic files of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, UK have been hacked and 61 MB worth of emails, approximately a thousand documents, have been posted on the internet on a Russian server. CRU is one of the few institutions in the world that compile and maintain the records of the world’s temperature data. In an interview with “Investigate” magazine, the director of CRU Professor Phil Jones said, “It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails.” Anthony Watts has the evolving story at WattsUpWithThat.com.

Here are some of the most revealing and shocking email quotes unearthed so far (my emphases):

On Oct 14, 2009, at 5:57 PM, Tom Wigley wrote:

Mike (Mann),

The Figure you sent is very deceptive. As an example, historical runs with PCM look as though they match observations — but the match is a fluke. PCM has no indirect aerosol forcing and a low climate sensitivity — compensating errors. In my (perhaps too harsh) view, there have been a number of dishonest presentations of model results by individual authors and by IPCC. This is why I still use results from MAGICC to compare with observed temperatures. At least here I can assess how sensitive matches are to sensitivity and forcing assumptions/uncertainties.

From: Phil Jones <p.jones@xxx.xx>

To: “Michael E. Mann” <mann@xxx.xx>

Subject: HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

Date: Thu Jul  8 16:30:16 2004

The other paper by MM is just garbage - as you knew. De Freitas again. Pielke is also losing all credibility as well by replying to the mad Finn as well - frequently as I see it. I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow - even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is !

From: Kevin Trenberth

To: Michael Mann

Cc: Stephen H Schneider , Myles Allen , peter stott , “Philip D. Jones” , Benjamin Santer , Tom Wigley , Thomas R Karl , Gavin Schmidt , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer

Subject: Re: BBC U-turn on climate

Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:57:37 -0600

The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.

From: Phil Jones

To: “Michael E. Mann”

Subject: IPCC & FOI

Date: Thu May 29 11:04:11 2008

Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment - minor family crisis. Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address. We will be getting Caspar to do likewise. I see that CA claim they discovered the 1945 problem in the Nature paper!

From: Ben Santer

To: P.Jones

Subject: Re: CEI formal petition to derail EPA GHG endangerment finding with charge that destruction of CRU raw data undermines integrity of global temperature record

Date: Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:07:56 -0700

I’m really sorry that you have to go through all this stuff, Phil. Next time I see Pat Michaels at a scientific meeting, I’ll be tempted to beat the crap out of him. Very tempted.

My colleague Chris Horner wrote a book published in 2008 on this exact subject, “Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed“

It’s Raining, You’re Snoring
Chris Horner, Washington Times, 16 October 2009

Can a Deal Be Reached at Copenhagen?
Myron Ebell, GlobalWarming.org, 16 October 2009

Big Chill on Global Warming
Washington Examiner, 16 October 2009

Climate Change Dominos Fall
Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post, 16 October 2009

Obama Administration: Seals Can Adapt to Climate Change
Patrick Reis, Green Wire, 16 October 2009

Challenging Al Gore’s “Truth”
Phelim McAleer, Investor’s Business Daily, 15 October 2009

Kerry & Graham Get It Wrong
Marlo Lewis, OpenMarket.org, 15 October 2009

CBO: Cap-and-Trade Kills Jobs
Iain Talley, Wall Street Journal, 15 October 2009

Carbon Offsets Fail in First Trial
Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, 15 October 2009

The Global Gas Shale Revolution
Donald Hertzmark, MasterResource.org, 14 October 2009

Soros Invests $1 Billion in Green Tech
Stanford Daily News, 12 October 2009

News You Can Use

Antarctic Ice Melt at Lowest Level in Satellite History

This week World Climate Report drew attention to a new study by Marco Tedesco and Andrew Monaghan in the journal Geophysical Research Letters showing that the ice melt across the Antarctic last summer (October-January) of 2008-2009 was the lowest recorded in the satellite history.

BBC Reporter Can Read a Thermometer

The most popular story on the BBC website this week is about the absence of global warming since 1998. According to the Daily Telegraph, “What Happened to Global Warming,” by BBC climate correspondent Paul Hudson, has an altogether different tone than the BBC’s previous climate reporting, which had been characterized by alarmism and advocacy.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

Senate Hearings Scheduled for Energy-Rationing Bill

The Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), announced this week that the committee will hold hearings on the Kerry-Boxer energy-rationing bill beginning on Tuesday, 27th October.  That day will be devoted to official witnesses from the Obama Administration.  Then on Wednesday and Thursday, the 28th and 29th, the committee will hear from a variety of supporters as well as a few witnesses opposed to the bill requested by Republicans.  Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) has officially introduced the bill as S. 1733.  However, there is already a “chairman’s mark” that is not available for public inspection.  The chairman’s mark is no doubt being re-drafted as deals are made to win votes.  It is that version rather than S. 1733 that will be marked up in committee in November.

Graham Joins Kerry in Bi-partisan Hooey

The other big news on the Kerry-Boxer bill this week was an incoherent op-ed published in Sunday’s New York Times by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) titled, “Yes We Can (Pass Climate Legislation).”  They announce that they have come together in the spirit of bi-partisanship to support an energy-rationing bill-a bill that has yet to be written and that bears only a family resemblance to the Kerry-Boxer bill.  Critical commentary on their op-ed can be found here, here, and here.  The op-ed was enthusiastically received by the mainstream media as evidence that the Senate logjam has broken and a bi-partisan coalition can now be created to reach the sixty votes necessary to pass energy-rationing legislation.

You Can Ask Gore, But He Doesn’t Have To Answer

Phelim McAleer, the producer of Not Evil Just Wrong, the documentary film premiering on Sunday, 18th October, mixed it up with former Vice President Al Gore at the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual meeting in Madison (where it snowed) last Friday.  After Gore’s speech, McAleer had a chance to ask him about the British High Court’s verdict that there were nine substantial scientific errors in “An Inconvenient Truth.”  Why, he asked, hadn’t Gore done anything to correct those errors but instead continued to repeat them?  Gore changed the subject, and when McAleer persisted, the SEJ cut off his microphone.  McAleer’s op-ed in Investor’s Business Daily explains what happened and draws some conclusions about environmental reporting.  I hope lots of people have a chance to watch Not Evil Just Wrong.  The DVD can be purchased here.

Socialist International Unveils Climate Strategy Eerily Similar to Obama’s…

…Not coincidentally, Carol Browner, Obama’s “climate czar,” is a card-carrying member of the Socialist International. To read more about SI’s climate plan, as well as Carol Browner’s history with the group, click here.

Kerry-Boxer puts EPA in charge of building codes

Julie Walsh

The House-passed Waxman-Markey energy-rationing bill, H.R. 2454, sets specific federal housing standards that would increase the cost of a home from $4,000 to $10,000 and price more than 1,000,000 people out of the market, according to Bill Killmer, a vice president of the National Association of Home Builders. In 2014 for new residential buildings and 2015 for new commercial buildings, a 50 percent increase in energy efficiency is required (relative to the baseline code), increasing each year thereafter. Waxman-Markey also adopts California’s portable lighting fixture standard as the national standard. And it mandates efficiency improvements for many new appliances, including spas, water dispensers, and dishwashers.

But the Senate’s Kerry-Boxer energy-rationing bill, S. 1733, goes much further; it gives an unelected federal official a regulatory blank check:

“The (EPA) Administrator, or such other agency head or heads as may be designated by the President, in consultation with the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shall promulgate regulations establishing building code energy efficiency targets for the national average percentage improvement of buildings energy performance.” And, “The Administrator, or such other agency head or heads as may be designated by the President, shall promulgate regulations establishing national energy efficiency building codes for residential and commercial buildings.” Pp. 173-174

Federal building codes would be in the hands of the EPA.

Across the States

California

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week signed into law S.B. 32, which establishes a feed-in tariff that forces utilities to pay for surplus electricity generated by solar roof-top panels. Previously, California ratepayers subsidized the purchase of solar panels; now, they must pay above-market prices for power generated by those panels. The upshot is that the preponderance of ratepayers will pay more for electricity in order to subsidize the green-lifestyle of Californians wealthy enough to afford solar panels.

Energy Secretary Chu Should Resign
Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 9 October 2009

Horsepower Sure Beats Horses!
Robert Bradley, MasterResource.org, 9 October 2009

California Scheming
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 9 October 2009

Capping and Trading for Profit
Jack Duckworth, Washington Times, 9 October 2009

Rationalizing Rationing
Marlo Lewis, Washington Times, 8 October 2009

European Green Schemes Push Industry East
Carl Mortished, The Times, 7 October 2009

Locals Try To Sink Plans To Store Carbon Underground
Guy Chazan, Wall Street Journal, 6 October 2009

UN’s Carbon Sequestration Program at Risk from Organized Crime
John Vidal, Guardian, 5 October 2009

Hot Air Hits the Schools
Paul Chesser, Boston Herald, 3 October 2009

Green Jobs Subsidies Destroy More Jobs than They Create
Ben Lieberman, The Monitor, 2 October 2009

News You Can Use

Cities Ignore Kyoto Commitments

Scott Smith, Mayor of Mesa, Arizona, last week became the 1,000^th mayor to agree to meet the goals of the Kyoto Protocol by reducing greenhouse gas emissions 7% below 1990 levels by 2012. However, evidence suggests that these are empty promises. A 2007 study by the Institute for Local Self Reliance reported that the 355 cities committed to the Kyoto target (at the time), “will miss their goals.”

Countries Ignore Kyoto Commitments

Karl Falkenberg, director-general for environment at the European Commission, this week told reporters that, “We look at the Kyoto Protocol, but since it came into force we have seen emissions increase. It has not decreased emissions.”

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

CEI Petitions EPA over Flawed Science

The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Sam Kazman this week petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to re-open its rulemaking to declare that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare and therefore must be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The petition is based on the fact that key scientific data underlying the endangerment finding doesn’t exist. CEI’s press release summarizes the reasons for seeking to re-open the public comment period on the proposed rule: “In mid-August the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) disclosed that it had destroyed the raw data for its global surface temperature data set because of an alleged lack of storage space. The CRU data have been the basis for several of the major international studies that claim we face a global warming crisis. CRU’s destruction of data, however, severely undercuts the credibility of those studies.” CRU’s incompetence is explained in an article by Dr. Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute, “The Dog Ate My Climate Homework.”

Energy Rationing Stagnant in Senate

The draft of the Kerry-Boxer energy-rationing bill was released last week, but the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) chairs, has not yet scheduled a hearing.  There have been reports of attempts to gain support by adding nuclear power and offshore drilling titles to the bill.  My guess is that the committee won’t hold a hearing until after the off-year elections on 3rd November and then will mark up and vote out the bill before the Thanksgiving recess.

In last week’s issue I quoted Senator John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) remarkable admission, “I don’t know what cap-and-trade means.”  That’s why he’s calling it “pollution reduction and investment.”  I know what pollution reduction and investment means.  It means rationing, which is an indirect tax.  Here’s another remarkable statement from Kerry: “The United States has already this year alone achieved a 6 percent reduction in emissions simply because of the downturn in the economy, so we are effectively saying we need to go another 14 percent.”  Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation points out that what Kerry is really saying is, “If you enjoyed this year’s recession, just wait for cap-and-trade.” Loris calculates that if emissions declined 6 percent while unemployment increased by 3.5%, we can reach the full twenty percent target by pushing unemployment to 18%.  Given the policies being pursued the Obama Administration and the Congress, that doesn’t sound out of reach.

Around the World

Climate Diplomacy Regresses

Diplomats met in Bangkok this week for the final round of major negotiations before the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change this December in Copenhagen, where environmentalists hope the world will agree to a climate change mitigation treaty to succeed the failed Kyoto Protocol.

The Guardian headline says it all: “Bangkok Climate Talks End in Recrimination.” The sub-headline also is illuminating: “Bitter delegates say no agreement on money or emissions cuts means a deal at Copenhagen will be weak at best.”

What follows is a quick breakdown of the disparate negotiating positions that resulted in “recrimination” among “bitter delegates.”

• Economically-developed countries won’t commit to a treaty that doesn’t include major emitters such as China and India.

• China, India and other rapidly developing countries won’t accept costly carbon controls unless they receive hundreds of billions of dollars each year to finance green energy technologies.

• Economically-developed countries refuse to pay for a global conversion to green energy (which would cost $45 trillion, according to the International Energy Agency).

The Cooler Heads Digest is the weekly e-mail publication of the Cooler Heads Coalition. For the latest news and commentary check out the Coalition’s website, www.globalwarming.org.

Rent-Seekers, Inc.
Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 2 October 2009

Nike’s Green Lobbying
Tim Carney, Washington Examiner, 2 October 2009

Don’t Ban the Lightbulb
David Henderson, Washington Post, 2 October 2009

Defects in Hockey Stick Exposed (again)
Ross McKitrick, National Post, 2 October 2009

Paul Krugman Can’t Multiply
Robert Murphy, MasterResource.org, 2 October 2009

Cooling Down the Cassandras
George Will, Washington Post, 1 October 2009

EPA Prepares Regulatory Nightmare
Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 1 October 2009

Cap-and-Trade: The Economic Suicide Act
John Trudel, Oregonian, 30 September 2009

Cap-and-Fade
Investor’s Business Daily, 30 September 2009

Aristocrats Can Afford Car-Free Days
Sam Kazman, Washington Examiner, 29 September 2009

Green Jobs Aren’t the Answer
John Berlau & William Yeatman, Washington Times, 27 September 2009

News You Can Use

Big Business Loves Cap-and-Trade

This week three major corporations-Exelon, PG&E, and Nike-made high profile exits from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, supposedly in protest over the Chamber’s skeptical take on global warming. Actually, they left in protest over the Chamber’s skeptical take on energy rationing. Here’s why these big businesses love cap-and-trade:

• Nike manufactures its shoes in Vietnam; many of its competitors’ shoes are American made. So a cap-and-trade energy tax would give Nike a competitive advantage.

• Exelon is a leader in nuclear power, which emits no carbon dioxide. According to an internal company memo, cap-and-trade energy rationing would increase Exelon’s revenue by $1.5 billion a year.

• In a 2006 report, PG&E boasts that the “emissions rate” of its electricity generation portfolio is 58% lower than the national average. If Congress enacts carbon caps on power plant emissions, California-based PG&E could expand into the massive Los Angeles market, which now receives almost half its power from out-of-state coal generators.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

Energy Rationing Draft Introduced in Senate

Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) released a draft of their version of the Waxman-Markey energy-rationing bill on Wednesday.  The 821-page bill hasn’t been introduced yet, so doesn’t have a number, but it does have a name: “The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.”  The text may be found here and summaries here and here.

The cap-and-trade section has been re-titled “Pollution Reduction and Investment.”  Environment and Energy Daily reported Kerry’s thinking: “I don’t know what ‘cap and trade’ means.  I don’t think the average American does,” Kerry told reporters.  ”This is not a cap-and-trade bill, it’s a pollution reduction bill.”

Kerry also stressed that the bill is about security.  I’m not sure from what we will be more secure.  A recent study concluded that Waxman-Markey would double our reliance on imported refined petroleum products.

It is notable that Kerry rather than Boxer is the lead sponsor.  Kerry is not a member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, which Boxer chairs and which has primary jurisdiction over the bill.  I assume it’s because Senate Democratic leaders don’t want to repeat the mess Boxer made of managing the Lieberman-Warner bill on the Senate floor in June 2008.  It’s not clear to me that Kerry will be a big improvement as floor manager, but then it’s not clear to me that this bill will ever make it to the Senate floor.

Kerry-Boxer does not detail how the ration coupons will be divvied up among the big business special interests lining up at the trough, but the Washington Post reports what Boxer said in a taped interview with C-SPAN.  The interview is scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday, but C-SPAN has posted it on their web site. According to Juliet Eilperin’s story, Boxer says that “The vast majority of allowances will go to consumers to keep them whole.”

It will be interesting to hear Boxer explain how protecting consumers from energy cost increases will reduce emissions.  As Dr. Peter Orszag, now director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, explained in congressional testimony on 24th April 2008 when he was head of the Congressional Budget Office: “Under a cap-and-trade program, firms would not ultimately bear most of the costs of the allowances but instead would pass them along to their customers in the form of higher prices. Such price increases would stem from the restriction on emissions and would occur regardless of whether the government sold emission allowances or gave them away. Indeed, the price increases would be essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program because they would be the most important mechanism through which businesses and households would be encouraged to make investments and behavioral changes that reduced CO2 emissions.”

Boxer also acknowledges in the interview that they don’t yet have the 60 votes necessary for Senate passage.  Initial reactions from other Senators were not encouraging.  Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking Republican on the EPW Committee, blasted the bill, but several other Senators who are considered to be undecided swing votes were critical as well. For instance, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Chairman of the Commerce Committee, said that Kerry-Boxer was, “a disappointing step in the wrong direction.”

The pro-labor union Economic Policy Institute warned in a report that four million jobs could be lost to foreign competition if cap-and-trade legislation does not include carbon tariffs on imported goods produced in countries without carbon reduction regimes.  The report also noted that total global greenhouse gas emissions would likely increase as production shifted to countries that have less energy-efficient industries.

EPA Issues Illegal Climate Rule

The Environmental Protection Agency this week released a proposed rule to regulate major emitters of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.  The proposed rule will be open for public comment for sixty days.

The most interesting aspect is that EPA is not proposing to regulate stationary sources that emit more than 250 tons per year, but rather only sources that emit more than 25,000 tons per year.  The Clean Air Act is explicit.  Once a substance is listed as a criteria pollutant (which EPA is in the process of doing for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases), all sources over 250 tons must be regulated.  As my colleague Marlo Lewis points out, EPA recognizes that this would cause regulatory and economic havoc and so has decided simply to ignore the law.

Is Treasury Hiding True Cost of Energy-Rationing?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute on Tuesday notified the Treasury Department of their intent to file suit in federal court to compel release of all the documents related to Treasury’s cap-and-trade plan.  Treasury in September responded to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by CEI’s Chris Horner by releasing only redacted parts of five documents.  The notice of intent to sue was contained in a FOIA appeal to Treasury.

CEI had learned that Bush Administration Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had created a team of fifteen professional economists to devise a cap-and-trade program.  The documents released by Treasury revealed cost estimates ranging from $100 to $200 billion per year to the U. S. economy.  After a week of negative publicity, Treasury released the redacted portions of the parts of the five documents, which contained cost estimates of $300 to $400 billion per year.

Around the World

Bangkok Blues

Diplomats met in Bangkok this week for the final round of major negotiations before the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change this December in Copenhagen, where environmentalists hope the world will agree to a climate change mitigation treaty.

Negotiators in Bangkok made no progress on the key issue of burden sharing. Economically developed countries still won’t commit to a treaty that doesn’t include China and India, and these rapidly developing countries still won’t accept costly carbon controls that hurt their economies. Developing counties will only agree to a treaty if they get hundreds of billions of dollars each year to finance a conversion to green energy, but developed countries won’t pay. It’s the same gridlock that has doomed climate treaty talks for years.

There are only three months until Copenhagen, and global warming alarmists are getting worried. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon bemoaned the “glacial pace” of the talks. And UNFCCC chair Yvo de Boer complained that “we’re not seeing any real advances.”

India: Senate Climate Bill Is “Measly”

India isn’t impressed with the new Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade legislation. According to ClimateWire. Indian environmental minister Jairem Ramesh yesterday told a Yale forum that the Senate bill only called for a “measly” 5% reduction of U.S. emissions below 1990 levels.

Have Increases in Population, Affluence and Technology Worsened Human Well-Being?
Indur Goklany, Journal of Sustainable Development, September 2009

Can Paul Krugman Read?
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 25 September 2009

The Military-Industrial-Environmental Complex
Iain Murray & Roger Abbott, Washington Examiner, 25 September 2009

Gore-Backed Car Company Gets Big U.S. Loan
Josh Mitchell & Stephen Power, Wall Street Journal, 25 September 2009

Behind the Furor over a Climate Skeptic
John Broder, New York Times, 24 September 2009

The Dog Ate My Global Warming Data
Patrick J. Michaels, National Review Online, 23 September 2009

Obama’s Climate Fantasies
Myron Ebell, National Post, 23 September 2009

Cap-and-Trade Depresses Home Prices
Ryan Young, Politico, 23 September

Peer Review or Old Boy Network?
Marlo Lewis, GlobalWarming.org, 23 September 2009

Obama’s Anti-Energy Policy
Dan Kish, Washington Examiner, 23 September 2009

Rep. Sensenbrenner Scoffs at China’s UN Climate Speech
Stephen Power, Wall Street Journal, 23 September 2009

Redact and Withhold
Washington Times, 21 September 2009

Green Groups Open War Room
Mike Allen & Jim Vandehei, Politico, 21 September 2009

The United States Is the World’s True Energy Superpower
Donald Hertzmark, MasterResource.org, 18 September, 2009

News You Can Use

Antarctic Ice Expanding

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research this week noted the South Pole had shown “significant cooling in recent decades,” according to the Australian. The results of ice-core drilling and sea ice monitoring indicate ice is expanding in much of Antarctica.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

Boxer & Kerry To Introduce Climate Bill Next Week

It was reported this week that Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) will release a draft of their energy-rationing/cap-and-trade bill on September 30th and that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing or hearings on the bill during the week of October 5th.  The starting point of their draft is the Waxman-Markey bill, which was passed by the House on June 25th by a vote of 219 to 212.  It will be interesting to see what changes Boxer and Kerry make.

EPW Chairman Boxer has the votes to pass any version of cap-and-trade in her committee, so I expect she will move quickly to mark up the bill and send it to the floor.  After that, my guess is that there will be no more action on the bill this year.  The public have reacted so strongly against passage of Waxman-Markey by the House that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is nowhere near having the sixty votes necessary to pass it on the Senate floor.  But the Obama Administration will be able to take the House vote and the Senate committee vote to Copenhagen as evidence that energy-rationing is moving forward in the Congress.

Climate Diplomacy Fizzles

It was a big week for global warming showmanship on the international stage.  On Tuesday, United Nations held a climate summit.  About 100 heads of state attended and a half dozen or so gave speeches.  I didn’t think much of President Barack Obama’s speech.  My initial reaction was posted here.  Then on Thursday the President addressed the UN General Assembly and again mentioned the urgent need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Thursday afternoon, Obama and the other G-20 leaders went to Pittsburgh for the G-20 summit meeting.  Again, energy-rationing and global warming are on the agenda.  It has been reported that a deal has been struck to end subsidies of fossil fuels.  That sounds promising.  Let’s hope that they will next agree to end subsidies of renewable fuels.

Court Rules that Affordable Energy Is a Public Nuisance

Two lawsuits in federal court against electric utilities for the damage done by their greenhouse gas emissions have been re-instated by a ruling of the Second U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  The plaintiffs include Connecticut, New York, California, Iowa, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York City, and three land trust organizations.

Their suit claims that greenhouse gas emissions constitute a public nuisance and can therefore be controlled under common law.  The utilities named as defendants are American Electric Power, Southern Company, Xcel Energy, Cinergy (now merged into Duke Energy), and the Tennessee valley Authority.  The appeals court ruling found that the plaintiffs had alleged credible claims of current and future injuries due to global warming and had tied the cause adequately to the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the utilities.

Across the States

A Platform We Can Support

Former E-bay CEO and Republican candidate for Governor of California Megan Whitman this week slammed the Global Warming Solutions Act, a 2006 California law that calls for 25% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.  Whitman called the legislation a “job killing regulation,” and she even promised to “immediately issue an executive order calling for a one-year moratorium on most of AB32’s rules,” if she becomes Governor.

Around the World

Cap-and-Trade Falters in Europe

The European Union’s marquee climate change policy-an international cap-and-trade energy-rationing scheme-suffered a major set back this week after the EU’s second highest court ruled that the European Commission “exceeded its powers” by establishing energy-rationing quotas far below what sovereign nations had requested.

Under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, individual nations submit emissions reductions targets for domestic industry to the European Commission for review. The Commission rejected proposals for 2008-2012 by Estonia and Poland, and issued lower targets in their stead. Estonia and Poland sued and the European Court of First Instance ruled that the Commission overstepped its jurisdiction.

The decision likely will affect pending cases brought against the ETS by other Central and Eastern European States, including Slovenia and the Czech Republic. These countries are largely dependent on coal, and they are more worried about the prospect of switching to natural gas from Russia (their former Soviet masters) than they are about rising temperatures.

The ruling threatens to destabilize the EU’s cap-and-trade. If the supply of energy ration coupons is constantly subject to litigation, then they will have little value, and the ETS will fail.

The Cooler Heads Digest is the weekly e-mail publication of the Cooler Heads Coalition. For the latest news and commentary check out the Coalition’s website, www.globalwarming.org.

The Truth About the Treasury Trove
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 17 September 2009

Climate Change and National Security Part 1, Part 2
Marlo Lewis, MasterResource.org, 16 September 2009

Fantasizing about a Low Carbon Future
Myron Ebell, GlobalWarming.org, 15 September 2009

Newsweek’s Begley Flunks Calculus, Science and Politics
Joseph D’Aleo, IceCap.us, 15 September 2009

Something’s Rotten
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 15 September 2009

Allies Abandon U.S. at Climate Confab
John Zaracostas, Washington Times, 15 September 2009

When It Comes to Pollution, Less (Kids) May Be More
David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post, 15 September 2009

Beware Cap-and-Trade
Senator James Inhofe, Clean Skies, 14 September 2009

Carbon Market Hit as UN Suspends Clean Energy Auditor
Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times, 13 September 2009

News You Can Use

The Obama administration concedes that the economic costs of a cap-and-trade “are equal in scale to all existing environmental regulations,” according to Treasury Department documents uncovered by the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Chris Horner with a Freedom of Information Act request.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

Can We All Agree Now? It’s Gonna Cost a Bundle

The big news this week is furnished by my colleague at CEI, Chris Horner, who released some interesting documents he obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Treasury Department.  Chris’s initial blog post was picked up first by Amanda Carpenter in the Washington Times and then by Declan McCullough at CBSNews.com.  There has been a flurry of stories since then, most of them trying to explain why it isn’t really a news story.  (I wish more reporters spent more time explaining why what they are writing can be safely skipped.  It would save a lot of time.)

It turns out that a busy team of economists hired by Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to devise a better cap-and-trade program were fully aware that it would be very costly for consumers.  Treasury’s upper end estimate works out to $1761 for the average household per year.

That’s in line with what President Obama said when he was running for President (”Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”), but a lot less than what EPA and the White House have been saying about the Waxman-Markey bill.

quick to point out that Treasury’s $1761 estimate couldn’t possibly apply to the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House in June on a 219-212 vote because, first, Waxman-Markey didn’t exist when Treasury was making its estimate and, second, Treasury assumed that all the ration coupons would be auctioned whereas Waxman-Markey gives most of the coupons away to big business special interests in the early years of the program.

That argument is specious.  As Peter Orszag, now director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, explained in congressional testimony last year when he was head of the Congressional Budget Office: “Under a cap-and-trade program, firms would not ultimately bear most of the costs of the allowances, but instead would pass them along to their customers in the form of higher prices. Such price increases would stem from the restriction on emissions and would occur regardless of whether the government sold emission allowances or gave them away. Indeed, the price increases would be essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program….”

The most interesting thing about the documents Chris obtained from Treasury are the bits that are redacted.  For example, a paragraph headed Overview says: “[I]t will raise energy prices and impose annual costs on the order of [rest of sentence is blacked out].”  Perhaps the folks in the FOIA Compliance Office at Treasury didn’t get the January 21st memo from President Obama on increasing transparency in his administration.  The memo says in part: “The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve.”

MPG Madness

The Obama Administration proposed new rules on Tuesday to increase vehicle fuel mileage by nearly 40% by 2016.  The anti-energy bill passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress and signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush in 2007 required automakers to reach an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, but the Obama Administration has moved that target up four years.

The 1227-page rule will be open for public comment for sixty days.  It is supposed to harmonize federal standards with the tougher ones first adopted by California in 2004 and then by a number of other States.  However, officials in California have already talked about adopting more stringent standards in order to force the federal government to follow.

The U. S. Chamber and the National Automobile Dealers Association have filed suit in the D. C. Circuit to overturn the California waiver on the grounds that legally waivers can only be granted to California to address local air pollution problems, whereas global warming is a global problem.

The new mileage standards apply to cars and light trucks, which category includes SUVs and pickups.  The Administration estimates that it will raise new car prices by an average of $1,100, but save an average of $3,000 in gasoline over the life of the vehicle.  These average estimates may be accurate, but conceal the fact that prices for bigger vehicles are going to have to go up a lot because manufacturers won’t be able to make the 35 mpg standard if they sell very many of them.

Carbon Dioxide, A “Pollutant”

There are more major rules on the way.  It is rumored that the endangerment finding will be finalized by the end of October.  On April 16, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare and therefore must be regulated under the Clean Air Act.  More than twenty-thousand public comments were filed, so EPA has been working overtime if they are going to be able to finalize the rule so quickly.

Another rule covering non-highway mobile sources of emissions is reportedly going to follow soon after the car and light truck rule.  That should make construction companies, off-road vehicle users, and snowmobilers happy.

Robin Bravender and Noelle Straub reported in Friday’s Energy and Environment Daily that Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is considering offering an amendment that would block EPA from using the Clean Air Act to regulate stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions.  If enacted as part of the Interior (and other agencies) appropriations bill currently being debated on the Senate floor, EPA would be prevented from regulating stationary sources (such as coal and gas power plants) during the 2010 fiscal year, which begins October 1st.  EPA’s planned regulations of new vehicles would not be affected.

Across the States

New York Green Jobs Bill for ACORN

This week New York Governor David Patterson signed “Green Jobs, Green New York,” legislation that would leverage $100 million in revenue from a regional cap-and-trade energy rationing scheme into $5 billion worth of guaranteed loans for weatherization projects conducted by partisan activist groups, including the disgraced ACORN, which was exposed recently for having facilitated the establishment of underage brothels with public money. Sounds like a risky loan.

California Adopts Yet Another Anti-Energy Mandate

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week vetoed SB 14, legislation that would have mandated that California utilities use renewable energy for 33% of electricity sold by 2020. While Schwarzenegger supports the 2020 renewable energy standard, he objected to language in the bill that restricts energy imports. Schwarzenegger instead issued an executive order to reach the same target with fewer restrictions on interstate trade. A recent study by the California Public Utilities Commission estimates that achieving the 33% renewable energy mandate would raise utility bills more than 20%. California already has the some of the highest rates for electricity in the country, due to 30 years of anti-energy policies.

Around the World

Copenhagen

Last week the Cooler Heads Digest reported that all signs point to failure at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change this December in Copenhagen, where international policymakers hope to agree on a global warming treaty to succeed the failed Kyoto Protocol.

The dismal outlook for success in Copenhagen actually worsened this week. President Barack Obama had hoped that the U.S. Senate-which would have to ratify any treaty-would pass legislation before Copenhagen. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this week told reporters that the U.S. Senate isn’t likely to address climate legislation until 2010. The Senate’s inaction makes it difficult for the Obama administration to commit to binding emissions targets at COP 15.

And Yvo de Boer, the chairman of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, all but conceded failure in Copenhagen by ruling out a “comprehensive” treaty.

India Leads the Way

Jairam Ramesh, the Indian Environment Minister, announced this week that India will adopt greenhouse gas emissions targets.  The government plans to introduce legislation in parliament to set numerical goals for future emissions that will allow future economic growth of 8 to 9% annually.  The new targets will be voluntary.  It also appears that meeting the targets will still depend on transferring tens of billions of dollars a year from developed economies.   Although it has been suggested that this puts pressure on the United States, the European Union, and Japan to agree to a new treaty in Copenhagen at COP-15 in December, it could also be argued that India is leading the way for other nations to adopt voluntary targets and timetables.

Freedom Action is a new political advocacy organization that aims to create a gathering of grassroots free market activists that will make their voices heard above special interests and big government advocates. Freedom Action’s first project is to Stop Al Gore’s Electricity Tax, and can be found here.

Americans For Prosperity is hosting grassroots demonstrations against cap-and-trade energy rationing in cities across the country. Learn more about the Hot Air Tour by clicking here.

The American Energy Alliance has launched a four week American energy bus tour to build public awareness of what cap-and-trade is, how it works, and the extent to which it’s capable of inflicting serious damage to the American economy. Click here to learn more.

In the News

How Much Does Waxman-Markey Increase Gas Prices in Your State?
Nicolas Loris & Ben Lieberman, Heritage WebMemo, 11 September 2009

Global Warming Takes a Break
Lorne Gunter, National Post, 11 September 2009

Cap-and-Trade Cost Would Devastate Economy
David A. Ridenour, Sacramento Bee, 10 September 2009

Administration Shocker: Green Jobs Harmful
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 10 September 2009

New Paper Shows Staggering Cost of Waxman-Markey
Iain Murray, GlobalWarming.org, 9 September 2009

Coal Miners Blast Cap-and-Trade at Kentucky Rally
Tim Hubert, AP, 8 September 2009

Why Natural Gas Should Not Play the Cap-and-Trade Game
Robert Bradley, MasterResource.org, 8 September 2009

I Pledge To Promote Global Warming Propaganda
Paul Chesser, American Spectator, 8 September 2009

Solar Economics
The Coyote Blog, 8 September 2009

News You Can Use

Energy Tax = Job Losses

Higher energy prices caused by the American Clean Energy and Security Act, H.R. 2454, would force businesses to shed 2.4 million jobs by 2030, according to a new economic analysis by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

Senate Action on Cap-and-Trade Fades into Next Year

The Congress is back, and Washington is humming again. That doesn’t mean that the Senate is moving toward a deal on energy-rationing legislation.  Cap-and-trade looks to be stuck for the moment as Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) tries to put together a health care rationing bill. That may well be wrapped up quickly, but news reports suggest that the Obama Administration wants the Congress to turn to new financial regulation legislation after health care. So it appears that energy rationing is slipping down the list. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Majority Whip, said that he thought it would now have to be put off until next year.

Is the EPA’s Economic Analysis Trustworthy?

Representative Joe Barton (R-Tex.), the ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Representative Greg Walden (R-Oreg.) sent a letter this week to the Environmental Protection Agency asking the agency to explain several apparent problems and discrepancies in its economic analysis of the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Read the full letter here.

California Waiver Challenged in Court

The U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Automobile Dealers Associations filed suit in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn the EPA’s waiver that allows California to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new automobiles. The suit argues that global warming is a global rather than a local problem and that waivers under the Clean Air Act can only be granted in order to address local problems.

Around the World

Rough Road to Copenhagen

All signs point to failure at the 15^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change this December in Copenhagen, where international policymakers hope to agree on a global warming treaty to succeed the failed Kyoto Protocol. Earlier this month, the United States Senate-which would have to ratify any treaty-again delayed action on a climate bill, and now Democratic Party leadership is saying that the Senate might not address global warming until 2010. The Senate’s inaction makes it difficult if not impossible for the Obama administration to commit to binding emissions targets in Copenhagen.

Also, there is still no agreement among nations on how to share the huge costs of reducing global emissions. This week the European Union announced that it was prepared to give $22 billion a year to “green” the economies of developing countries. Developing countries, however, are asking for at least 1% of global Gross Domestic Product, or about $500 billion a year, to pay for emissions reductions. Unless they get it, they won’t act. And without the participation of mega-emitters like China and India, global emissions will increase regardless what the U.S. and the E.U do to fight climate change.

The outlook for a deal in Copenhagen has become so bleak that dignitaries are actively lowering expectations. United Kingdom Foreign Minister this week told AFP that, “It’s a real danger that the world will not come together in the way that is necessary to agree on an ambitious and comprehensive deal in December.”

It Could Happen Here

• French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week introduced a new carbon tax on energy use, despite polling suggesting that two-thirds of voters oppose it.

• Last week a United Kingdom tribunal ruled that belief in manmade global warming had the same status as a religious conviction.

The Science and Public Policy Institute invites Congressional staff to a briefing with the Viscount Monckton of Benchley on Wednesday, September 9^th, from Noon-1:30 PM, in Dirksen 215 Senate Office Building. Lord Monckton is one of the world’s most sought-after public speakers, and a formidable international expert on the science and economics of “global warming.” Lunch will be served. To RSVP, email Bob Ferguson at bferguson@sppinstitute.org.

Freedom Action is a new political advocacy organization that aims to create a gathering of grassroots free market activists that will make their voices heard above special interests and big government advocates. Freedom Action’s first project is to Stop Al Gore’s Electricity Tax, and can be found here.

Americans For Prosperity is hosting grassroots demonstrations against cap-and-trade energy rationing in cities across the country. Learn more about the Hot Air Tour by clicking here.

The American Energy Alliance has launched a four week American energy bus tour to build public awareness of what cap-and-trade is, how it works, and the extent to which it’s capable of inflicting serious damage to the American economy. Click here to learn more.

In the News

Terms of Endangerment
Wall Street Journal, 3 September 2009

Jobs for Bugs in Coal Country
William Yeatman & Jeremy Lott, Investor’s Business Daily, 3 September 2009

Can We Trust the Models?
Jonah Goldberg, Houston Chronicle, 2 September 2009

French President Hammered over Energy Tax
Emma Charlton, AFP, 2 September 2009

India’s Emissions To Triple by 2031
Hari Kumar, DotEarth, 2 September 2009

Smart Grid Is Dumb Policy
William Yeatman & Jeremy Lott, Forbes, 2 September 2009

Is a ‘Death Spiral’ for Climate Alarmism Ahead?
Kenneth Green, MasterResource.org, 1 September 2009

The Democrats’ Cap-and-Traitors
W. James Antle, American Spectator, 1 September 2009

Quite a Load of Toro
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 1 September 2009

EPA Considers Closing Whistle Blower’s Unit
Sam Kazman, GlobalWarming.org, 27 August 2009

News You Can Use

A new United Nations study says that meeting the UN’s greenhouse gas emissions targets would cost $20 trillion over the next two decades.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

Senate Delays Climate Bill

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced on Monday that it would not have a draft energy-rationing bill ready to release on 8th September, as promised earlier. Although the Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has the votes to get almost any cap-and-trade bill out of committee, this delay means that it is highly unlikely that Boxer will meet Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev) deadline of 28th September. That is when all committees of jurisdiction are supposed to have their pieces of comprehensive energy-rationing legislation ready to go to the Senate floor. Senate action on cap-and-trade this fall looks less likely now.

EPA Proposes an Illegal Rule

The Environmental Protection Agency has sent rules for regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act to the White House for review and approval. According to several news stories, EPA is proposing to regulate only those entities responsible for 25,000 or more tons of CO2-equivalent per year. The Clean Air Act says clearly that 250 tons is the threshold amount that triggers regulation of a listed pollutant. Read my colleague Marlo Lewis’s analysis of EPA’s obviously illegal proposed regulations here.

This week the American Energy Alliance launched a four week American energy bus tour to build public awareness of what cap-and-trade is, how it works, and the extent to which it’s capable of inflicting serious damage to the American economy. Click here to learn more.

Freedom Action is a new political advocacy organization that aims to create a gathering of grassroots free market activists that will make their voices heard above special interests and big government advocates. Freedom Action’s first project is to Stop Al Gore’s Electricity Tax, and can be found here.

Americans For Prosperity is hosting grassroots demonstrations against cap-and-trade energy rationing in cities across the country. Learn more about the Hot Air Tour by clicking here.

The Center for Data Analysis (CDA) at the Heritage Foundation last week published state-by-state analysis of what the American Clean Energy and Security Act would cost consumers. Click here to find out how much cap-and-trade would raise energy prices in your state.

In the News

Carbongate
Investor’s Business Daily, 28 August 2009

Greens Threaten Native American Prosperity
William Yeatman & Jeremy Lott, Washington Examiner, 28 August 2009

Why the Electric Industry Supports Energy Rationing
Robert Peltier, MasterResource.org, 27 August 2009

Biofuels Are Going Bust
Ann Davis & Russell Gold, Wall Street Journal, 27 August 2009

GE’s Climate Scam
Timothy Carney, Washington Examiner, 26 August 2009

Carbon Baron Gore
Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post, 26 August 2009

EPA Looking To Shut Down Whistleblower’s Office
Gary Howard, GlobalWarming.org, 26 August 2009

Spiking the Road to Copenhagen
Deepak Lal, Business Standard, 25 August 2009

Counting the Costs
Paul Chesser, American Spectator, 25 August 2009

The Cap-and-Trade Bait and Switch
David Schoenbrod & Richard Stewart, Wall Street Journal, 24 August 2009

12 Facts about Global Warming That You Won’t See in the Mainstream Media
Joseph D’Aleo, Energy Tribune, 18 August 2009

Energy Workers Rally against Climate Plan
Tom Fowler, Houston Chronicle, 18 August 2009

5 Things Congress and the President Are Doing to Keep Gas Prices High
Ben Lieberman, Heritage Webmemo, 13 August 2009

News You Can Use

UN Exaggerates Global Warming 6 Fold

The UN has exaggerated global warming 6-fold, according to a recent peer-reviewed paper by Professor Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Science and Public Policy Institute has reprinted this important new study, which is available here.

Inside the Beltway

Climate Science on Trial

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week threatened the Environmental Protection Agency with a lawsuit unless the EPA publicly defends the science it used to conclude last April that carbon dioxide “endangers” health and human welfare.

An “endangerment” ruling might sound like harmless bureaucratese, but it’s actually a clear and present danger to all Americans, because it would tripwire provisions of the Clean Air Act that would send the U.S. economy back to the Stone Age (to learn more about the possibility of this regulatory nightmare, click here).

Despite the far-reaching economic consequences of an “endangerment” ruling, there was virtually no transparency in the EPA’s decision-making process. Earlier this summer, the Competitive Enterprise Institute uncovered evidence that the EPA actually suppressed a dissenting voice from a career official for political reasons. In light of these troubling procedures and tactics, the EPA should grant the Chamber’s request, and put alarmist climate science on trial.

A Crestfallen Greenpeace Activist

Julie Walsh

I recently spoke to a pro-climate bill kid on the street. He had all of Greenpeace’s talking points down-climate refugees, wind and solar’s future, the European heat wave, etc-which I easily refuted.  When he came to Exxon’s past support of climate realists, he looked truly heartbroken when I told him that Exxon now supports Nature Conservancy and Conservation Fund. Using the alarmists’ logic, if we were shills then, they’re the shills now.

And I went on to explain how that, according to the draft, the current energy-rationing bill was “modeled closely” on the recommendations of big corporations-GE, Shell, Duke Energy, etc. I think I may have ruined his day.

This is why Poland’s new proposition cuts to the true motives of the Big Money behind this scheme: Poland may ban utilities from selling European Union carbon emissions permits many of them will get for free from 2013. No more windfall profits.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Marlo Lewis’s new film, Policy Peril: Why Global Warming Policies Are More Dangerous Than Global Warming Itself, is now available at globalwarming.org. There will be a screening of Policy Peril on Monday, August 10^th, at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. To RSVP, click here.

The Heritage Foundation this week published “The PERI Report on Clean Energy: The Wrong Question and a Misleading Result,” a new study by Dr. Karen Campbell that debunks a misleading report on green jobs from the Political Economy Research Institute.

Last week the Science & Public Policy Institute introduced “Climate Money,” a new study by Joanne Nova that documents the billions of dollars in taxpayer money that the U.S. federal government has spent on alarmist global warming science.

In the News

The Cost of Waxman Markey
Ben Lieberman, testimony before Western Caucus, 31 July 2009

Top 10 Most Influential Climate Skeptics
Joe Wiesenthal, Business Insider, 30 July 2009

Obama’s Science Czar: Give Trees Standing in Court
Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online, 30 July 2009

Arctic Fact Sheet
Marc Morano, ClimateDepot.com, 30 July 2009

Those Little Green Jobs
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 30 July 2009

Climate Sanity from the Indian Subcontinent
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr, American Spectator, 30 July 2009

Unanswered Questions on Climate Bill
Drew Thornley, Investor’s Business Daily, 30 July 2009

Africa’s Real Climate Crisis
Fiona Kobusingye, Townhall, 29 July 2009

The Future of Coal
Bill Archer, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, 28 July 2009

Resisting Green Tariffs
Wall Street Journal editorial, 28 July 2009

Did Goldman Sachs Rig Cap-and-Trade?
PR-Newswire, 27 July 2009

News You Can Use

Cap-and-Trade Energy Tax: All Pain and No Gain

According to environmental scientist Chip Knappenberger at the Master Resource blog, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (the massive cap-and-trade energy tax that the U.S. House of Representatives passed in June) would avert .5 inches of sea level rise through 2100 based on the IPCC’s predictions.

Inside the Beltway
Political Blowback for Waxman Markey Supporters
The Huffington Post reported this week that yet another House Member is hearing from voters for voting for the Waxman-Markey energy-rationing bill. The article says Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ohio) is backing away from his vote and expressing doubts about voting for it again. It quotes an interview Kirk gave on the Big John and Cisco show on Chicago radio station WIND:  “If this comes back-and I don’t think it will, I think this bill has died in the Senate-I will be going through every detail and thinking about all of my constituents who got ahold of me on this issue. Because there has been an issue that I’ve heard nothing else about in the last couple of weeks.”

Also quoted in the Huffington Post article is an interview that Kirk gave on a television news show, Fox Chicago Sunday: “I’ve always backed energy independence policies, but I’ve heard from people on this issue like no other. The energy interests of Illinois are far broader and deeper than my North Shore district.” Kirk, a moderate Republican from the Chicago suburbs, is planning a run for the Senate in 2010 to replace Senator Roland Burris (D-Ohio), who was appointed by former Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill the remainder of the term of then-Senator Barack Obama. H. R. 2454 passed the House on June 26th on a 219 to 212 vote, but has stalled in the Senate.

Dueling Petitions

According to an article in Greenwire (subscription required), New York University Law School’s Institute for Policy Integrity filed a petition this week that asks the Environmental Protection Agency to begin writing the rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles now and not wait to finalize the endangerment finding.  The public comment period on Administrator Lisa Jackson’s April 16th finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare ended June 23rd, and EPA is currently going through the comments that were filed.  On the other side, it is worth mentioning again that the U. S. Chamber of Commerce filed a petition on June 23rd that asked the EPA to comply with President Obama’s requirements that the regulatory rulemaking process in his administration be transparent and based on the scientific evidence.

The Chamber’s petition also asks for a formal evidentiary hearing before a neutral panel to assess the scientific data upon which the EPA is basing its endangerment finding.  As William Kovacs, the Chamber’s senior vice president for environment, technology, and regulatory affairs, said, “In the endangerment proposal, EPA routinely ignores relevant, credible scientific information that contradicts its findings, including information generated by EPA’s own staff.  If they’re going to move forward with their regulatory cascade to regulate almost every aspect of the economy from lawn mowers to large churches and ranchers with over 25 cows, then they need to be open and transparent about the justification and impacts.”  That, after all, is what President Obama promised.

Across the States

California’s Climate Concern Cools

A poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found that support for climate legislation is falling under economic pressure.  The number of Californians who support their state’s global warming legislation has fallen seven percent from one year ago to 66%. Support for immediate implementation of AB 32 has slipped from 57% a year ago to 48% today, while 46% now say that the State should wait. Meanwhile, the state’s lower house killed the section of the budget deal that would have allowed expanded off-shore oil and gas production within state waters off Santa Barbara.

The Cooler Heads Digest is published weekly by the Cooler Heads Coalition.  The latest news and opinion may be found on the Cooler Heads Coalition’s web site, www.globalwarming.org.