12 October '09
6:30 AM EDT
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Policy

The Kerry-Graham Partnership: A Breakthrough?

Each day, we wade into heaps of information, scavenging for quotes, op-eds and press statements that will foretell the fate of climate change legislation in Congress.

Meanwhile, a doomsday clock counts inexorably toward Dec. 7 – the zero hour when nations at the Copenhagen climate summit will either jeer America’s ignominious failure to pass a law or cheer it for reclaiming the leadership in saving the world.

Each new development in Congress changes the predicted outcome of the summit.

For example, Climate Change Czar Carol Browner said on Oct. 1 that President Obama will not have a law on his desk by early December. The summit will be a disaster, some proclaimed.

Then on Sunday, there was a breakthrough of sorts when a New York Times op-ed penned by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, announced that they had “found a framework for climate legislation to pass Congress.”

This nascent bipartisanship thrilled progressives like Joe Romm, who thinks Copenhagen might yet be saved, but does it mean we’re going to see a bill pass anytime soon? Read More »

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9 October '09
1:03 PM EDT
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Policy

How Long Does it Take to Drive From Copenhagen to Oslo?

About 7 hours.

That’s how long it takes to drive from Copenhagen to Oslo.  

So President Obama will have plenty of time to make remarks at the U.N. climate change summit on Dec. 7 before he and Michelle hop in the Saab (to show solidarity with GM) and head up to the Nobel ceremony to receive the Peace Prize on Dec. 10. GER Google-Mapped it so you don’t have to bother.

Or hit Oslo first then catch the latter half of the conference. Either way. Read More »

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8 October '09
1:15 PM EDT
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Policy

Who Will Be Regulated Under Cap-and-Trade? (Hint: Not Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses)

Only 1.3 percent of facilities in manufacturing industries emit more than 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year and would be regulated under cap-and-trade bills being considered in the house and senate, a Duke University study concludes.

The report from the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions will likely get a lot of notice in the coming months (thanks to ClimateWire for bringing it to our attention) because it sets out to answer the question, who will be regulated?

The answer: fewer facilities and industries than you might expect, if the 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide standard is adopted. (Here’s the brief, and the full report.)

Electric power will be regulated, but farms and commercial buildings will be excluded. Fewer than 10 percent of facilities in any single industry and only 4,724 of the 350,075 manufacturing facilities in 2002 would be over the threshold. Read More »

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7 October '09
8:25 AM EDT
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Cleantech
Funding
Policy

Shocker: T. Boone Pickens Is Acting In His Own Interest

Pickens

Bloomberg has a 2,800-word profile on the irrepresible T. Boone Pickens this morning that includes the unsurprising analysis that the Texas-oilman turned green-energy guru is acting partially out of self interest.

He has a 33 percent interest in Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NAS:CLNE), which runs 184 natural gas filling stations and would clean up if legislation that he supports passes. He also has a stake in V Vehicle Co. with Al Gore’s shop Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and 5 percent of Exco Resources Inc. (NYSE:XCO).

The Pickens Plan, to increase investment in natural gas and wind power, might actually benefit these investments, a think-tanker has discovered.

“The Pickens Plan is nothing more than a call to rig the market toward the fuels that Pickens has invested in,” says Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at Washington-based research group Cato Institute.

To which we respond: yeah, so? Read More »

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5 October '09
8:46 AM EDT
No Comments
Policy

Do Carol Browner’s Comments Mean Copenhagen is Doomed?

There was a great deal of hand-wringing this weekend over climate czar Carol Browner’s comment at The Atlantic’s “First Draft of History” conference that President Obama signing climate change legislation before the Dec. 7 Copenhangen summit is “not likely to happen.”

The Atlantic itself didn’t think this detail was important enough to lead with, choosing instead to note the, frankly, not very newsy news that “the United States must act now to limit greenhouse-gas emission.”

The Guardian saw Browner’s pessimism about getting a bill passed as a signpost on the road to failure in Copenhagen. The New York Times thought Browner’s remarks were important, too, but left out the “Copenhagen is doomed” analysis. Read More »

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