They Hate You, Mr. President

by FishOutofWater

Mr. President you are everything that frightens them, everything that threatens their order, and everything they hate. You cannot win them over. They will always hate you. They hate you because your father was black, your mother was a white intellectual woman, because you are educated and because you are successful. Your very existence threatens their world.

At a blood red precinct in a small North Carolina town, I handed out Democratic voter information sheets to all who would take them. Out of the hundreds of white voters who walked up to vote, I was hard pressed to hand out a dozen. Blacks and Hispanics gladly took them. I chatted with the Republican candidates for local office and listened to what they said to their supporters. They hate you Mr. President. Evangelical white voters came united by hatred for you on a mission against you and Democrats who supported you.

continued at Daily Kos....

Arnold calls out the Big Oil Front Groups in dramatic fashion

by jamess

I couldn't believe my ears.  Did Arnold just change from Red to Blue ?

Or maybe it was just a deeper shade of Green.

Schwarzenegger defends climate law, slams Texans
Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer, SFGate -- Sep 28, 2010

The governor's vehement defense of the climate legislation commonly referred to as AB32 comes amid a fierce campaign led by oil interests to win passage in November of Proposition 23, a ballot measure that calls for suspending the climate law until the jobless rate hits 5.5 percent for a year, a level achieved only three times in 40 years.

Schwarzenegger, speaking before several hundred people at the Commonwealth Club in Santa Clara, said the proponents of Prop. 23 are attempting to subvert the democratic process using scare tactics. He likened the campaign to a shell game hiding what he said was the real purpose: "self-serving greed."

"They are creating a shell argument that they are doing this to protect jobs," the governor said. "Does anybody really believe they are doing this out of the goodness of their black oil hearts - spending millions and millions of dollars to save jobs?"

continued at Daily Kos...

I just sent this email to Bill McKibben and Joe Romm

by texas dem

To Joe Romm and Bill McKibben:

Climate legislation has been pronounced dead.  Those who have worked hardest to pass it have given up.

And yet, this is the only time in the near future in which a bill can pass.  We must not miss the moment.

I write to suggest that a jolt from outside could still revive the patient.  The best efforts of senators, activists, environmental groups, and the climate community have all been put forward.  I salute them and all their work.  It was not enough.  And there is one resource that was not used, that even at this late date could be put in play, and possibly revive the bill.  I think we should use the base.

continued at Daily Kos....

Tax the Carbon Perps: Go Green on Their Dimes

by War on Error

Until carbon producers transit from producing profits from carbon, we won't have alternatives.  It's an insane round robin.  A not-so-merry-go-round.

There are $Trillions upon $Trillions of gross revenues left for oil/coal/gas companies to suck out of the earth both on and offshore.  This is why they will never change their ways until forced to do so.

Oil companies have made record profits, more than many countries' GDP.

Let's tax those profits with a

Carbon Conversion Tax (CCT)

The end users like power companies and consumers can't change their ways until other ways are created.  

And other ways can't be created without new sources.  

And new sources won't be up and running fast enough without money.  The oil/coal/gas producers are making huge profits.  As long as the oil/coal/gas companies are raking in their huge profits and keeping them, they won't change.

Therefore, we tax their profits and use this revenue to produce the alternative energies.

It's plain and simple.  It's brilliant.  It's straightforward.   It's easy.   It's at least an idea!

continued at Daily Kos...

Let's take over August with Climate Parties!

by texas dem

Senator Kerry and Majority Leader Reid announced this week that cap and trade legislation is dead.  

Technically, they announced that the legislation Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham have been crafting for a year now will not be introduced before the August recess.  Reid will introduce a very minor energy bill instead.  Theoretically, the meaningful bill could still be introduced in September, but if the leaders thought they were remotely able to pass the bill, they would be doing it now, before the fall election season kicks in.  The vote is more difficult to win in September, not less.  Nobody thinks they'll have the votes in September, and nobody thinks the bill will pass before the election.  After the election everything gets worse.  The legislative process has just missed its last best chance to deal with the most important challenge of our times.  It's over.  It's done.  Politics has failed.

It's time for us to fix it.

continued at Daily Kos...

Reid puts Energy Bill on Ice: with a Chilling Effect on Solar and Wind?

by jamess

The Energy Bill has been shelved for now -- another Price exacted by the Do Nothing Party.

Senate Halts Effort to Cap CO2 Emissions
Democrats Forgo Centerpiece of President Obama's Energy Plan, as Cap-and-Trade Fails to Lure Broad Support in Congress
By Stephen Power, Wall Street Journal -- July 23, 2010

Mr. Reid refused to declare the idea dead. But Thursday's decision called into question when or whether any legislated cap on greenhouse-gas emissions would reach Mr. Obama's desk.

Now, businesses, such as wind-turbine makers, that had bet on a greenhouse-gas provision to make alternatives to coal and oil more cost-competitive must recalculate how long it might take for that to happen.

[...] the solar industry is growing at the rate of about 40% a year in terms of electrical power installed and is likely to continue to grow, said Ron Kenedi, vice president of Sharp Corp.'s Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group in Huntington Beach, Calif.

We need some new Senators (at least 60), who actually care about Energy Independence -- enough to act.

continued at Daily Kos...

Lessons from the "Enlightened Eight": Republicans Can Vote Pro-Environment and Not Get "Tea Partied"

by Heather TaylorMiesle NRDC Action Fund

On June 26, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 219-212 in favor of HR 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Only eight Republicans - we'll call them the "Enlightened Eight" - voted "aye." These Republicans were Mary Bono-Mack (CA-45), Mike Castle (DE-AL), John McHugh (NY-23), Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2), Leonard Lance (NJ-7), Mark Kirk (IL-10), Dave Reichert (WA-8), and Christopher Smith (NJ-4).

Republicans voting for cap and trade in the year of the Tea Party? You'd think that they'd be dumped in the harbor by now. Instead, they're all doing fine. In fact, to date, not a single one of these Republicans has been successfully primaried by the "tea party" (or otherwise). Instead, we have two - Castle and Kirk - running for U.S. Senate, one (McHugh) who was appointed Secretary of the Army by President Obama, and five others - Bono-Mack, LoBiondo, Lance, Reichert, Smith - running for reelection.

continued at Daily Kos....

Putting a Price on Carbon -- Polluting must No Longer be Free

by jamess

Imagine your local Widget Factory, employs dozens of workers,
to put together hundreds of the latest Must-have Widgets, each and every day.

Now imagine this Widget Factory, in the hopes of increasing profits,
took all its industrial by-product Gunk, gathered them up each day,
and quietly dumped them, each night around midnight, when no one was looking,
in the local River waterway.   Pollution be gone!

Instant Profit Gain, right?  No costly "Gunk Processing" equipment to buy or operate. No extra hidden costs, need be added to that Price of a Widget -- which could keep consumers from flocking to Widget Retail Outlets, right?

Wrong ... ONE Big Problem in this Free Market scheme ...

The Folks living downstream on that local River waterway!
The Folks making a living on the beauty and productivity of that River --

They all might notice that somethings up, in their once pristine Waterway?

They might eventually figure it out too, that "Widget One" has been "cutting corners", in its responsibility to be "good neighbors".

continued at Daily Kos....

New Aussie PM: limit carbon emissions. Poll.

by HeyMikey

This brief diary is intended to solicit comments from people more knowledgeable than I about Australian politics.

Australia has a new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and she's promising to pursue some kind of limits on carbon emissions. This is particularly significant since Australia is a big coal exporter and high per-capita carbon emitter.

More over the fold.

continued at Daily Kos....

A Clear difference: setting the Price of Carbon, so WE get a Share

by jamess

Clearly America needs to reach for, and achieve, a Clean Energy Future.

Not so Clear is the Road we will take, if any, to ultimately get there ...

Kerry says Obama intends to move votes on energy
Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan, Editing by Sandra Maler, Reuters -- June 22, 2010

WASHINGTON - [...]
Obama is slated to meet leading Republican and Democratic senators on Wednesday to discuss a way forward for the energy legislation.
[...]
Kerry said the bill must include ways to price carbon but was not "locked into any one single way of doing it."

"The fact is if we don't price carbon, we will create one tenth of the jobs and reduce only one tenth of the emissions," he said. "It would essentially be an energy-only bill."

continued at Daily Kos....