The Waxman Markey bill, for all its good intensions must NOT reverse the EPA's new power to regulate CO2 emissions from coal burning power plants!
One of the highest priorities in the progress of this bill must be to retain the hard-won authority of the EPA to regulate CO2 from coal-fired power plants under existing law.
This bill has come a long way, but it really cannot get us to where we need to be regarding America's energy future. Support for dirty energy production can be phased out faster and those put out of work by the transition can be supported and placed directly into the clean energy production work force. In order for the bill to be really effective and fully address the climate change challenge it must do the following:
America should have, at very minimum, 30% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. 50% would be a better target if we really want to protect ourselves from the worst effects of global climate change.
The transition to clean energy will be a powerful economic stimulus.
The time for change is NOW!
The way for the U.S. to secure a leadership role in the 21st century is by leading on all the issues that confront the world, to exhibit thoughtful strength and realistic ideas. It will require more than military strength, diplomacy, reversing the current economic chaos, and strong alliances. Our place in the world, our rights, and our freedom depend on leading based on principles we don't just preach, but practice.
In the case of our reckless, decades-long descent into a position where we are addicted to fossil fuels mostly coming from abroad, the time for new ideas is past due. Clean new energy sources aren't just good for our children and the environment, they're a key to our national security. Now more than ever our leaders must partner with innovative businesses and entrepreneurs to make the United States more self-reliant again. The President and the Congress must resist the insidious temptation to do nothing about energy while dealing with the various other domestic and global challenges.
Of course, no matter if the business is banking or big oil, well-funded special interests don't want to give up the loopholes they've lobbied for over the years. They work to preserve their special deals with Congress, while lobbying the media into misleading Americans with catch phrases such as "Cap & tax" to keep us from thinking about what's at stake.
While most Americans support a cap on carbon pollution there's now a flood of "talking points" and sound-bites circulating about the supposed short-comings and dangers of any new plan. The real threat of cap-and-trade is that it doesn't favor the mega-corporations, and the ultra-rich energy barons. Changing to new and cleaner energy sources changes where the money goes - more of it stays in the U.S., in smaller, newer companies; it creates jobs that we desperately need to recover from the fiasco of letting the financial giants "self-regulate."
"It looks like green jobs are real. Recently, two solar energy companies — Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. and Wacker Chemie AG — announced billion-dollar investment plans to build plants near Clarksville and Chattanooga." U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)
U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)
In fact, a cap and trade system simply uses pure capitalism to reward efficient, innovative businesses while it effectively penalizes out-moded industries. Used world-wide it plays to American strengths, conveying tremendous economic advantage to industries and countries ready to innovate, and results in domestic job growth. Only somebody making lots of money off the existing rules could possibly deny the benefits of a global cap and trade system.
Many members of Congress benefit from huge campaign donations from energy companies. They'd be happy if we'd all stop paying such close attention to how energy policy intertwines with national security. They smile and want you to "trust" them to get it right, and the longer they've been there the more they want you to just trust, and not verify, that they're working for you. Uh huh.
Putting Obama in office was just the beginning. We’ve won a major battle but not the whole war. Now we have the equally daunting and critical challenge of making sure that Obama is able to fulfill the promise that he represents. We need to keep working to take back our democracy and advance Obama’s progressive agenda.
That’s why I’m working with a network of progressive people throughout Maryland to get communities across the state organized and mobilized to in support of building a new clean green, inclusive energy economy and bold federal climate action – two major priorities for president Obama. We’ve teamed up with an amazing national grassroots climate campaign called 1Sky whose goal is to build volunteer climate action teams in every community that will push our congressional leaders to be champions of bold federal climate and clean energy policy. For more info go to http://local.1sky.org/en/.
As you may know, Maryland Congresspeople including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Chris Van Hollen, and John Sarbanes are extremely influential and will have a big impact on the type of climate policy that congress passes. By influencing them we can have a huge influence on the climate fight, but we need to act now because Congress is working on climate legislation as we speak.
2009 is going to be the pivotal year for climate action! If you care about the issue this is the year to act. You can make a difference in just a few hours a month. Help us make history. Please contact me today to let me know if your interested in joining our local 1Sky climate precinct team!
Keith Harrington
MD 1Sky Field Organizer
Chesapeake Climate Action Network
240-396-1985
keith@chesapeakeclimate.org
POWWOW aeaa Earth Kids Project 7Nature-UsagiThe North Face x Oak-to-all-relations What is Powwow-aeaa Earth Kids Movement
SPIRIT / NATURE / TECHNOLOGYEarth is one big family, made up of 6.8 billion human beings and 30 million kinds of living species. What can we do to save the beautiful earth for our kids in the future? Spirit, Nature and Technology, the three in harmony is what we need as we dive into the mid-21st century. To obtain this balance, we need to go beyond the differences in religion, race and ideaology, and get out of the materialistic way of living. Each of us needs to start relating directly to the world in our own way and remember to dream. Powwow is a Native American ceremony of dance and music. aeaa stands for Asia, Europe, Africa, and America. It is an important message that kids from around the world hand in hand, start to act together to save the earth for children yet to be born. The seven nature Usagi reck, hiki, ras, yang, divan, song, and haman are fighting for our earth, to shift our way of living to a more sustainable way. Powwow-aeaa Earth Kids Project is an art movement, children and grown-ups - by thinking and expressing ideas about the earth - get connected to the earth through art, creating a movement. 7 nature usagi collection is made with the idea of Reuse-Reduce-Recycleand five percent of its profit will be donated to the KIDS EARTH FUND.
Powwow aeaa Earth Kids Project 7 Nature-Usagi Official Site
http://www.goldwin.co.jp/tnf/powwow/
image movie
http://www.oak-to-all-relations.com/overview/40year_prom.html
Piloting by Oak-to-all-relations /Natalija Ribovic &Toru Fujita music by Live Bacon Support Unit-Iceland
more infohttp://www.oak-to-all-relations.com
The GObamaUSA Change is Coming group was founded by Obama volunteers, Rob Martin and Evette Wilson, who were directed to do so while attending a national Obama for America Legacy Conference on December 6th and 7th in Chicago. The purpose of the conference, which was attended by approximately 250 staff and 100 volunteers from around the U.S., was to plan and implement the "2.0" issue-organizing version of the Obama for America party organization. To date, four meetings of the Richmond, Va.-based GObamaUSA Change is Coming group have been held and are summarized in this posting as is other organizational information.
Rob Martin (rmartin@brandsync.com) and Lisa Quigley (mjquigley@comcast.net) are day-to-day contacts for the GObamaUSA Change is Coming group that is based at 6243 River Road, Suite 6, Richmond, Va. 23229.
GOBAMA!
Nine local residents met December 13 to plan how we can connect local change efforts with those at regional and national levels and the Obama administration.
We introduced ourselves and expressed our priorities for change:
This week the current Administration finally released loan money for GM and Chrysler. That is the good news. The bad news is that those same companies will continue layoffs and plant closings and new plants will be delayed here in North America.
We are in a downward spiral between jobs and profits. The more profits that companies want to make the more people they layoff the more the crackpot geniuses of Wall Street call for ever more profits at any cost. As Henry Ford is known to have said "I need to pay people a wage so that they can buy the cars I produce" (okay not the exact quote). Thus, we need a major re-industrialization program here in the US.
Pres-Elect Obama and his team are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and new jobs in green technology. The key here is that the goods need to be made here in this country and we need to export high value goods. I agree that we need to rebuild our infrastructure but borrowing hundreds of Billions of Dollars from China and the rest of the world for concrete and steel will not solve the problem. We need to export goods and import non-borrowed dollars which will drive down our balance of payments and allow us to payoff our collective 10 Trillion Dollar deficit.
To that end, I have my own ideas about how to re-industrialize this country. It is along the same lines as what has been said but with a slight twist. Here goes, what follows is a letter (that has been updated) I sent to the campaign in Sept.
I am thrilled to see this personal blog feature on this site and being able to be a part of a society making a historical change in the next four years.
Not only will our country experience a historical President, but we will also see a historical Clean Energy movement.
In the past two days, I have read three news articles about governments around the country already taking measures for better home energy alternatives. From the town of Islip, Long Island which approved a code to allow residential wind turbines to Dominion Virginia Power now offering their customers the option to use clean energy, our nation is now on the cusp of a major 'green' movement which willl hava long lasting impact on our society.
Each day, I look forward to receiving news on this new alternative energy front.
My blog site, Energy-Efficient-Home-Improvement.com will continue to monitor the latest changes in the home energy efficiency market.
Thank you President elect Barrack Obama for providing us the people to be a part of our government and we as a nation will come together as never before seen in US history.
God bless America!
Jim Nelson says savvy investors can make huge profits in the first 100 days of the Obama presidency. Three sectors facing a makeover under the new administration are biotechnology, renewable energy and defense. Jim says new legislation and funding could mean big gains for these three companies…
There's always been more than one way to skin a cat. My favorite is a 1/2 inch thick steel box with a hole in big enough for a finch to fit through and stick dynamite. At a temperature of 3,000 °C
Traditionally, when people consider the strength of the American economy, key indicators come to mind: the Dow Jones Industrial Average, per capita GDP, and the consumer price index. These days, the numbers at the pump tell it all. The skyrocketing price of gas has not only revealed how fragile our economy is, but it has also shown how our national energy policy has led us astray.
When Refusing to Kill Has a Higher Sentence Than Murder
9-20-08
by Ann Wright
Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserves colonel with 29 years of military service. She also was a US diplomat who served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. She was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in December 2001. She resigned from the US diplomatic corps in March 2003 in opposition to the Bush administration's decision to invade and occupy Iraq. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience," profiles of government insiders who have spoken and acted on their concerns of their governments' policies.
http://www.truthout.org/article/when-refusing-kill-has-a-higher-sentence-than-murder
Meanwhile:
Elections matter. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track. I'm personally focused on what I think is the greatest threat and greatest opportunity—averting the climate crisis and "repowering America" using clean, cheap energy sources. That's why I'm supporting Barack Obama. He's the sort of transformational leader who could move us through such deep, structural change.
But trust me, Barack can only succeed if we also elect more champions in the Senate to stand up to the incredibly powerful oil lobby.
Those leaders are emerging—and three of them are in close Senate races. Kay Hagan in North Carolina, Mark Udall in Colorado, and Al Franken in Minnesota are all real, clean-energy heroes who need our help to win. And they're fighting against Republicans who have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from the oil industry.
Can you help elect three champions of clean energy to the Senate? You can donate by clicking here:
https://pol.moveon.org/give/energy.html?id=13906-3871490-Hk6Ukfx&t=3
At the convention, I said that the oil industry has a 50-year lease on the Republican Party. And they're drilling it for everything it's worth. Unfortunately, this is no joke. It's the sad truth. Look at what's going on in Congress right now. We're in an energy crisis, and the burgeoning solar and wind power business is on the edge of shutting down—because Republicans are blocking the tax incentives they count on. Yet they'll fight to the death for huge oil industry subsidies.
This election offers us our best chance ever to elect leaders who will switch our economy to home-grown, renewable, zero-carbon energy—and restore our economic health, our national security, and stabilize our climate.
Here's a little about these good folks:
Will you join me in supporting three champions of clean energy? They really need our help. Just click here:
https://pol.moveon.org/give/energy.html?id=13906-3871490-Hk6Ukfx&t=4
And thanks so much for all you do,
Al Gore
When will the people and the environment win out over big business? The answer is never, not if we continue to give into business as usual. Not, if we continue to support the billionaire oil companies by voting their figure heads into government. They funnel money into McCain’s campaign and what do you think they expect in return?
Answer: McCain will give $4 billion in tax breaks to big oil companies—including $1.2 billion for Exxon alone.
While McCain represents old school mentality: give to the rich, take from the poor, Obama will raise fuel efficiency standards and invest $150 billion over the next ten years in alternative sources of energy like wind power, and solar power, and advanced biofuels, creating up to five million new jobs for working glass people. This will create a new workforce called Green Collar workers.
As American people we are guilty of letting the wool be pulled over our eyes. Guilty of allowing Oil companies to control environmental issues, of allowing logging lobbyists to run the environmental protection agency, letting big banks write the bankruptcy laws, and letting Pharmaceuticals write the medical bills. We are guilty by way of ignorance and complacency. Well I’m getting wise.
Obama vs. McCain is a simple question? Let's ask ourselves, how are things working now? Are we ready for a change or do we like what we see? For me it is an easy answer: Change
The Future of U.S. Renewable Energy PolicyWe Are Surrounded by This Energy
by
Robbrian
Aug 16, 2008
Part I
The Future for American Energy Policy?IntroductionIf leadership truly grasps the enormous consequences of inadequate responses to global warming and national dependence on oil and fossil fuels, then it must shift into crises mode. Decisions on energy policy must be made to address three levels of urgency: Now, the short-run and the long-run. How ironic is it that elected officials, policy analysts, investors and others are of late, pressing for "comprehensive" policies and strategies that will wean Americans from imported oil to energy created by more drilling for oil and natural gas; diversifying biomass options; expanding nuclear power capabilities; mining and cleaning coal and coal emissions; and harnessing the sun and wind on land and sea; when each in turn is nothing more than a problem switching alternative.Governors of Maryland and Virginia recently announced that expanding nuclear energy capability would, in the long run, resolve much of the energy crunch in those states. Nothing was proposed for now or even the short run. T. Boone Pickens's proposal is very appealing it promises to harness more natural gas through sun and wind energy as the workhorses to gain access and deliver natural gas to the surface. The Pickens Plan however, still requires enormous public subsidies for a so called set of "mature technologies."
A problem switching alternative is for instance, reducing the amount of CO² emissions from coal fired plants by replacing them with nuclear plants. Nuclear waste not CO²; becomes the problem. Or, replacing a portion of petroleum with ethanol it takes more energy to produce ethanol for fewer miles per gallon compared to gasoline. Or, hydrogen fuel cells that release water vapor into clouds that then heat up exacerbating global warming. Moreover, sun and wind power are intermittent and require supplementation from traditional energy sources for 24/7 operations. How much CO² is released in the extraction of natural gas? What are the additional storage and refueling costs per mile when compared to electric motors for automobiles?
On the road with Barack for his double-header of Town Halls--in Youngstown and now in Berea--the enthusiasm is contagious.
The crowd at the Austintown Fitch High School in Youngstown was riled up and ready to go, ever since the doors opened at 7:15 am. A diverse crowd packed into the gymnasium, fanning themselves as they waited in anticipation.
Here in Berea, Barack has just taken the stage. More to come soon!
