Energy Newstand: At Least Oratory Isn’t Dead
House passage of the energy bill is just lambs to the slaughter, says the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, with the promise of a Senate gutting and the threat of a White House veto looming over the legislation.
At least Congressional oratory isnt dead, the LA Times notes: “The static electricity created by my shoes rubbing across this carpet creates more energy than the Democrats’ energy bill,” said Rep. George P. Radanovich.
Whats interesting is why some crossed the aisle to support the House version, notes the Washington Post : Navy reservist and Illinois Rep. Mark Steven Kirk said I want instability in the Persian Gulf to no longer be a problem for the Pentagon. I really think this will help.
The security aspect of energy secrurity seems to be paramount on the Hill, the WaPo says in a profile of Virginia Sen. John Warner, co-sponsor with Joe Lieberman of the big cap-and-trade bill. A former opponent of emissions caps to curb global warming, He decided that the U.S. military might face new and dangerous threats if the world were disordered by the weather, the paper says.
That might explain the short title of S.2191: Americas Climate Security Act. To work, cap-and-trade schemes need a baseline of greenhouse gas emissions to compare against. Californias finally figured out how many emissions the state produced in 1990, the baseline year in the states emissions-cutting law, reports the LA Times.
The good news is that 13,000 calculations of everything from discarded lumber to cow flatulence produced the magic number — 427 million metric tons of GHG. The bad news: California will have to slash emissions by 30% over its projected level in 2020 in order to comply with the law. Or it might have to cut even more: developing nations at the U.N. climate confab in Bali just arent buying binding emissions cuts, which would leave much of the burden to the developed world, Reuters reports. As U.N. climate boss Yvo de Boer says: “Binding commitments for developing countries are not off the table but are crawling towards the edge.
In the meantime, China at least has found a way to make part of Kyoto work, Reuters says in another story . Rich countries can earn carbon-reduction credits by setting up green projects in the developing world. By taking a cut of the investment in those projects, China hopes to set up a $1.5 billion fund to fuel its own renewable energy projects and to retrofit some of its dirties power plants. Other countries, especially in Africa, are taking note, Reuters says.
