Renewable Energy/Climate Change

Environment GE’s Immelt Calls for U.S. Energy Policy to Counter `Green, Green’ China

The U.S. needs a national energy policy that puts a long-term price on carbon pollution as China and other nations surge ahead in green technology, General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said.

“China is green, green, green, green — four greens,” Immelt said today during a presentation with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at the Gridwise Global Forum in Washington. He cited demand, innovation funding, supply chain and public policy as advantages for China over the U.S.

Immelt helps lead the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of companies backing stalled legislation that would establish a cap-and-trade system based on carbon-emission credits. He has urged new laws in part so that manufacturers can build to uniform specifications. The failure to set new rules promoting “clean” technologies puts the U.S. at risk, he said.

“You actually have to have an energy policy,” Immelt said. “It’s stupid what we have today.”

China and industrialized counties such as Canada are pulling ahead of the U.S. in the race to lead in clean energy because policy makers in Washington have been caught up in debates on issues such as the effects of climate change, Immelt said.

“The rest of the world is moving 10 times faster than we are, and that’s going to mean someday fewer jobs, it’s going to mean less energy security, it’s going to mean lots of other things other than just climate change,” he said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-23/ge-s-immelt-calls-for-u-s-energy-policy-to-counter-green-green-china.html

“China is green, green, green, green — four greens,”

“It’s stupid what we have today.”

“The rest of the world is moving 10 times faster than we are, and that’s going to mean someday fewer jobs, it’s going to mean less energy security, it’s going to mean lots of other things other than just climate change,”

This is just not the jihadist debate that people are making it out to be,”

Jeff sounds pretty worked up!

must have investments in it eh?

Bin Laden: Climate Change To Blame For Pakistan Floods

Even a guy in a cave can tell that climate change is happening now and that it is having horrible effects. In this case, the guy in a cave is Osama Bin Laden, who in his latest sound recording has lamented the effects of climate change to the planet, including how a worsening climate is caused the floods in Pakistan, where Bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

The tape is authentic, according to the the watchdog group SITE. Bin Laden says:

"The number of victims caused by climate change is very big" -- "bigger than the victims of wars. The huge climate change is affecting our nation and is causing great catastrophes throughout the Islamic world." He goes on to that he "calls for generous souls and brave men to take serious and prompt action to provide relief for their Muslim brothers in Pakistan."
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/bin-laden-floods-climate.php


LOL

Climate experts meet in China

UN climate chief urges nations to find common ground on curbing greenhouse gases in a bid to pave way for a new treaty.

China is hosting its first UN climate conference, but there are doubts over whether the event will see the major breakthroughs that environmentalists are seeking.

Some 3,000 delegates converged in the northern port city of Tianjin on Monday for the latest round of protracted negotiations aimed at securing a post-2012 treaty to combat global warming.

The talks are aimed at building momentum and finding areas of agreement ahead of the annual summit of the 194-member UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Cancun, Mexico, starting on November 29.

The final objective is a treaty aimed at curbing the greenhouse gases that scientists say lead to global warming and cause climate change.

Christiana Figueres, the UN climate chief, urged countries at the summit to find common ground so that a "tangible outcome" could be made in December.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/10/2010104111111352618.html

nikki6278 wrote:Bin Laden: Climate Change To Blame For Pakistan Floods

Even a guy in a cave can tell that climate change is happening now and that it is having horrible effects. In this case, the guy in a cave is Osama Bin Laden, who in his latest sound recording has lamented the effects of climate change to the planet, including how a worsening climate is caused the floods in Pakistan, where Bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

The tape is authentic, according to the the watchdog group SITE. Bin Laden says:

"The number of victims caused by climate change is very big" -- "bigger than the victims of wars. The huge climate change is affecting our nation and is causing great catastrophes throughout the Islamic world." He goes on to that he "calls for generous souls and brave men to take serious and prompt action to provide relief for their Muslim brothers in Pakistan."
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/bin-laden-floods-climate.php


LOL

omg

World leaders look to carbon taxes to fund fight against climate change
International travel and ‘carbon intensive goods’ like petrol cars could all be taxed under new plans to raise £60 ($100) billion every year to help the poor world cope with global warming.


A ‘worldwide climate change fund’ has been discussed for years as a way of helping vulnerable countries cope with floods and droughts caused by temperature rise.

Now the radical idea has moved a step closer with a high level report from the United Nations about how the money will be raised.

The High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance suggested the money should be raised through a combination of public and private sources.

The group, chaired by the Prime Ministers of Ethiopia and Norway, said money could be raised indirectly from taxing polluting transport and industry. For example a tax on international flights and carbon taxes on factories or fuel that are ultimately passed onto the consumer.

The group, that included the economist Lord Nicholas Stern and the financier George Soros, also suggested money could be raised from the private sector. For example by selling bonds that are paid back over time.

However it was made clear that a ‘Robin Hood Tax’ on financial transactions is unlikely because some rich countries are against it and not all the money would go to climate change.

All would result in the UK taxpayer forking out billions of pounds by 2020. Already £2.9 billion is committed to climate finance in the spending review.

The talks are a boost to hopes for achieving an international agreement on climate change that commits all countries to cutting their greenhouse gases. The last UN meeting in Copenhagen failed but it is hoped that poor countries will be more willing to sign up to a deal at the next meeting in Cancun because (they will be drunk on tequila) there is more hope of financial help for climate change in the future.

Chris Huhne, the UK Climate Change Secretary, who is on the advisory group, hoped the report will push the negotiations forward.

"Raising the 100 billion dollars of climate finance needed by 2020 will be crucial to help developing countries deal with the impacts of climate change and to put their economies on a low carbon footing," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8113401/World-leaders-look-to-carbon-taxes-to-fund-fight-against-climate-change.html

G20 vows to 'spare no effort' for Cancun climate meeting


The world's 20 largest rich and emerging economies including China vowed Friday to "spare no effort" at upcoming climate change talks in Mexico, a year after Beijing stymied a deal in Copenhagen.

"We will spare no effort to reach a balanced and successful outcome in Cancun," the Group of 20 said in a statement issued at the end of two days of talks in Seoul.

The vow came less than three weeks before 194 countries meet in the Mexican resort city of Cancun for a second go at hammering out an agreement to curb greenhouse gases after 2012, when the current arrangement expires.

The climate gathering will take place in the lingering shadow of last December's Copenhagen summit, which ended in near-fiasco, due in no large part, critics say, to Chinese reluctance to agree to binding commitments.

"Addressing the threat of global climate change is an urgent priority for all nations," the G20 statement said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h7j4ssUxihMgxe_TOrDKsQQ8nKEg?docId=CNG.11206d3b13df243850d38cc2b93d7813.d1

shills

California Adopts Cap And Trade

California regulators late Thursday adopted the first large-scale cap-and-trade program in the U.S., in a move officials say will protect the environment without hurting the state's still-struggling economy.

In a 9-1 vote, the state Air Resources Board voted to adopt rules, scheduled to start in 2012, that place a limit on greenhouse-gas emissions for the state that will decline over time.

Power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide and can't cut their emissions by the required amount will be able to obtain pollution allowances from the state or buy them from other emitters with excess allowances.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the cap-and-trade rules will help fight climate change and also boost California's clean-technology industry and overall economy.

snip
Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols said there was still work to be done, including ensuring safeguards against manipulation of the market-based program and establishing a "community benefits fund" that would use some auction funds to help low-income families manage potential increases in energy prices.

snip
Under the proposed cap-and-trade rules, the state would give away most allowances in the first few years of the cap-and-trade program, then sell many allowances in auctions in later years. Industries that could prove the regulations were putting them at a significant competitive advantage to companies in other states could be eligible for additional free allowances. The proposed rules would establish a floor on the price of allowances sold at auction of $10 per metric ton of carbon dioxide.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703395204576024650186378260.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

Total BS!

aint it..so they sell off allowances to let you legally be productive..total crapola

Study: Undersea bugs ate natural gas released in oil spill

Deep sea bacteria completely devoured much of the natural gas released in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a scientific team concluded Thursday.
The findings help build the case that ocean bottom bugs are a natural biofilter that regularly dine on natural seeps of methane, or natural gas, and related chemicals worldwide.

Methane was the most abundant component of the summer oil spill. About 220,000 tons was released from April to July. The finding adds to evidence that deepwater microbes also consumed other "light" crude oil constituents, such as propane and ethanol, released in the spill.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2011-01-06-gulf-oil-spill-methane-natural-gas-bacteria_N.htm

file this with global warming...total BS

lol

U-MO system pres pans climate change bills; enviros irked

In the climate change battle in Washington pitting region against region, the often skeptical Midwest has acquired a new ally: University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee.

In a letter written to Missourians in Congress, Forsee declared that the University of Missouri opposes cap-and-trade legislation that has passed the House and a Senate committee because of projections of higher electricity costs.

"As currently written, we have grave concerns and oppose this legislation for the detrimental impact it will have on the University of Missouri system," Forsee wrote.

snip
Forsee is entering the fray just as the debate heats up: The White House announced on Wednesday afternoon that President Barack Obama would be traveling to the international climate talks in Copenhagen and committing the United States to carbon emission reductions.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are saying now that they intend to investigate publication of hacked emails from British scientists that skeptics of climate change contend suggest collusive and underhanded tactics in making the case for dramatic remedies.

snip
Forsee's declarations are not sitting well with environmental advocates.

The Clean Energy Works Coalition put out a statement this evening saying that Forsee's letter was "a great surprise" considering that he had signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment.

"It is regrettable that the highest-ranking official at one of Missouri's most important academic institutions would renege on such a forward-thinking promise in favor of reliance on out-dated, dirty technology," the statement read.

The coalition represents some of the nation's major environmental organizations, among them the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the League of Conservation Voters and the Pew Environmental Group.

"It is our hope that President Forsee returns to his previously stated position of concern for the impact of the University of Missouri on the health of our climate and that he begins to take steps toward responsible action as he had previously pledged to do," the statement added.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/article_7a9bbdb9-e462-5d8c-8423-90cd0d98b464.html

YES! But the odd thing here is that the article is from November 2009 is rerun just as this info is released:
University of Missouri president resigns
The Board of Curators for the University of Missouri announced today that President Gary Forsee is leaving.

In December, Forsee told the board that he was taking a leave of absence to be with his wife, who is battling cancer. But now Forsee, who has been at the helm of the system for three years, has decided to make the move permanent.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_34e959a4-1a88-11e0-94aa-00127992bc8b.html

Forced out? I am an alum of the Univ or Mo and currently pay lots and lots of tuition to them If the University does not support Climate change than I have made a fantastic investment in my kids education!!! Well done Gary and I will be writing a letter in support of your stand. Best of luck to you and your wife.

3 cheers for them!

Obama adviser Carol Browner leaving

Carol Browner, the former Clinton official whom President Obama tapped to help enact a cap-and-trade approach to global warming, will soon step down from her post as coordinator for energy and climate change policy, according to media reports.

The departure of Ms. Browner, who led the Environmental Protection Agency under former President Bill Clinton, comes a few months after Mr. Obama publicly acknowledged that comprehensive climate-change legislation is all but dead on arrival in the newly divided Congress.

News of her plans to step down was first reported by Politico, which said it’s not clear that she will be replaced.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/25/obama-adviser-carol-browner-leaving/

seeker chalk up another win. I heard this morning that she WILL NOT be replaced.