AB 32 News Updates
July 28, 2010
Utility Companies "Just Exhausted" After Defeat on Climate Bill
Lisa Lerer &Simon Lomax – Bloomberg – July 26, 2010
July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Every month over the past two years, Chief Executive Officer Ralph Izzo of the utility Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. traveled to Washington from Newark, New Jersey, to meet with more than 50 senators and advocate for climate-change legislation. His efforts may have been in vain.
Climate Change Plan Collapses in Senate
San Francisco Chronicle Editorial -- July 26, 2010
There is plenty of blame to share for the political demise of climate change legislation in Washington. Timid Democrats, obstinate Republicans, a risk-averse White House and a sour public outlook that green groups couldn't counter. Each played a role.
Reid to Roll Out Spill-Focused Energy Package on July 26, 2010 Minus Res
Josh Voorhees – E&E News – July 26, 2010
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on a small energy and oil spill response package he plans to unveil today and appears to be holding firm against a renewable electricity standard despite a late lobbying blitz.
The Nevada Democrat said Saturday that the inclusion of an RES would threaten the fate of the entire legislation. "I don't think I have 60 votes to get that done," Reid said at the progressive Netroots Nation conference in his home state.
Carbon Capture Still Pricey For China
Many environmentalists suggest that China will be the country that makes carbon capture and sequestration viable — but Chinese officials remain unconvinced.
Shai Oster – Wall Street Journal – July 26, 2010
With its vast manufacturing base and heavy reliance on coal for electricity, China, already the world’s top emitter of global warming gases, is beginning to dominate some clean-tech sectors, including solar and wind power. Environmentalists, and the U.S. government, think it can replicate that success with storing carbon.
Survival of the Fattest
What a deal: Ethanol reduces carbon for only $754 a ton.
Wall Street Journal – July 26, 2010
The best refutation of the theory of the survival of the fittest is probably the corn ethanol lobby, whose annual $6 billion in federal subsidies have managed to outlive both its record of failure and all evidence and argument. So while we doubt another devastating study will result in any natural selection, recent findings from the Congressional Budget Office deserve more attention all the same.
Four Ways to Kill a Climate Bill
Lee Wasserman – New York Times – July 26, 2010
If President Obama and Congress had announced that no financial reform legislation would pass unless Goldman Sachs agreed to the bill, we would conclude our leaders had been standing in the Washington sun too long. Yet when it came to addressing climate change, that is precisely the course the president and Congress took. Lacking support from those most responsible for the problem, they have given up on passing a major climate bill this year.
Study Estimates That States Together Could Cut Emissions By 27%
ebra Kahn – ClimateWire – July 26, 2010
With the demise of a federal emissions cap, states' programs are getting increased scrutiny. A study released last week found that if all states get on board with policies already under way in more than a dozen of them, emissions could reach 27 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 even without a cap in place.
U.N. Body Probes Cases of Paying Greenhouse Gas Emitters, Which Then Produce More
Nathanial Gronewold – ClimateWire – July 26, 2010
UNITED NATIONS -- Starting July 26, 2010, the members of the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) sat down to tackle arguably the most serious controversy since the beginning of the Kyoto Protocol system for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries.
Regional and State Interests May
Peter Behr & Christa Marshall – ClimateWire – July 26, 2010
The failure of climate legislation in the Senate last week is a blunt reminder of a basic truth, experts say: The nation's energy policies are historically driven by state and regional interests that will trump national agendas in all but the most compelling circumstances.
Without a national consensus on energy policy, the telling political forces come from states, based on how they relate to energy as producers or consumers, says historian and political analyst Bill Schneider.
The Right and The Climate
Ross Douthat – New York Times -- July 26, 2010
Climate change legislation has been dying in the Senate for months now, but Harry Reid’s decision to finally admit as much — in the midst of an endless East Coast heat wave, no less — has supporters of cap-and-trade casting about for somebody to blame. They’ve blamed the Obama administration, for prioritizing health care reform over an energy bill. They’ve blamed the American people, for being too concerned with economic issues to grapple with longer-term threats. And they’ve blamed figures like Lindsey Graham and John McCain, erstwhile supporters of cap-and-trade who have steadily backpedaled away from it.
Climate Law Adds Jobs To State Payroll
Rick Daysog – Sacramento Bee --- July 26, 2010
The state's landmark global warming law has yet to create the promised bonanza of green jobs, but it has boosted payrolls in another sector of the economy: state government.
