Blackened Pork: Liquid Coal Subsidies Sneak into Senate Tax Bill

by Target Global Warming

Is regular coal not dirty enough for you? Meet liquid coal fuel! Destructive to mine, water-intensive to manufacture, devastating to our climate at every step of the way – liquid coal is one of the world’s dirtiest fuels. Liquid coal production emits twice as much global warming pollution as gasoline & requires at least four gallons of water per gallon of fuel produced.  

Today the National Wildlife Federation has learned the Senate version of tax legislation includes subsidies for liquid coal fuels.

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Shimkus Lies: CO2 is Bad News For Food (and the Earth)

by Steven D

Remember the GOP propaganda pushed by Rep. John "God is infallible and science is not" Shimkus that more CO2 is good for us because it is "plant food?"

It's a lie, a lie of omission, but a lie nonetheless.  Here's the reality:

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Energy policy will change under GOP House Dr. Daniel Fine

by finehelen10

With the Republican Party's newly won control of the House of Representatives, national energy policy could be rolled back to 2005, with all legislative advances under a Democratic Party majority at risk.

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A Lame Excuse for Lame-Duck Legislation

by A Siegel

The U.S. Senate looks on track to take one measure in the post-election, lame-duck Congressional session to address the most serious challenges of our oil addiction and our heavy carbon footprint. This will be, as I understand it, an effort to fast track a piece of legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid: S. 3815: Promoting Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Act of 2010.

Let us be clear, the idea that the Senate (and Congress) might actually fast-track something to deal with America's addiction to oil is -- on the face of it -- a good thing.  Even if we didn't face the looming prospects of future economic shocks and security risks due to Peak Oil colliding with increasing demand, that a significant portion of America's trade deficit is going to put oil in our McSUVs (that we drive to Wal-Mart to buy Chinese-made products) is something that should be on the top of Congress' agenda for addressing with serious and meaningful legislation.

However, the idea that that will be throwing more money into subsidizing fossil-foolish addictions is a sorry excuse for responsible legislating.

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On (Not) Making it in America

by Congressman John Garamendi

When I attended Netroots Nation last week, I didn’t need to drive the streets of Las Vegas to see the abandoned worksites, boarded up buildings, and closed factories. I can see that in my own district. Too many of us are not making it in America.

Congressional Democrats responded with a two-step approach. In the first half, we sought to stabilize the economy, rein in Wall Street, provide lifelines to families in freefall, and immediately put Americans back to work. We’re now nearing the second half, where our job creation strategies must be complemented by a long term commitment to bring back American manufacturing.

In California, Nevada, and across the nation, people out of work through no fault of their own outnumber new jobs available. Five people are out of work for every one job available. The Great Recession led to widespread job loss, and without a new approach to economic development, good manufacturing jobs will continue to be shipped overseas. If we don’t make it in America, we won’t make it America.

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Renewable Energy: The left hand giveth while the right hand taketh away.

by jpmassar

PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) is an acronym for a set of programs designed to allow homeowners to finance renewable energy systems in their homes.

It is conceptually quite simple: Instead of a homeowner having to borrow $20,000 for a solar energy system (or come up with it out-of-pocket), and then get partial rebates or tax credits, the city, county or state where the owner lives would front the money (using funds typically raised from bonds).  The homeowner would pay back the money so lent over a period of years through an additional property tax assessment, so much per year.  If the property is sold, the tax assessment remains -- the debt is transferred to the new owner.

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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.

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To BP: the meter's running - you spill it, you buy it

by Chellie Pingree

Seeing the picture spreading on the Internet of a sign at a BP gas station with the company policy "you are responsible for all spills" made me think of something.

Let’s say you are filling your car at a BP gas station, the numbers on the pump steadily ticking. But when you pull out the pump you give it an extra squeeze, spilling oil on the ground. The meter on the pump just keeps rolling. In other words, you spill it, you buy it.

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Weekly Mulch: Can Washington Stand Up to the Energy Industry?

by The Media Consortium

By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger

President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders spent this week trying to stand up to the oil industry. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama pushed BP to siphon $20 billion into a escrow fund that will cover liability claims, and Congress grilled BP CEO Tony Hayward and other oil bigwigs as to how they were protecting the country’s coastal waters.

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Waxman details How Oil Companies deal with Real Risks

by jamess


Most Companies face the common dilemma of how to best minimize their Risks, while somehow, managing to make a Profit. It's what makes 'Starting a Business' a Risky proposition for most folks -- there are few "sure fire" deals in the Business World.
This little "constraint" is apparently not much of a factor, in the High Tech world of deepwater drilling, however.  They have simply managed to 'paper-over' any Real Risks they incur for decades now.  Oil CEO's are accustom to seeing it, as an Easy Money Gig.

Their little "risk management" charade has been coming out lately, in the Congressional Inquiries been held by Henry Waxman.
"Rubber Stamp" may take on a whole new meaning, given the way these Exec's seem to like to 'copy each others Homework' ...


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An attempt to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases

by The Book Bear

A bipartisan group of senators is supporting a resolution to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases.   The resolution, sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and 40 other senators, would throw out the endangerment finding on greenhouse gases and halt new EPA regulations set to take effect next year. A motion to proceed to the resolution failed 47-53.

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What 'Legitimate Claims' look like -- It's time to Raise the 75M Cap

by jamess

BP Hard To Pin Down On Oil Spill Claims NPR, Morning Edition - May 24, 2010 Yuki Noguchi BP has repeatedly said it would pay all legitimate claims resulting from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but such promises raise a crucial question: What exactly does "legitimate claim" mean? [...] BP has declined to define the term or provide examples. BP American President Lamar McKay remained steadfastly vague during a Senate hearing this month. Despite prodding from Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell, McKay would not veer off of his message: We're going to pay all legitimate claims. A BP spokesman declined to discuss the company's definition of "legitimate." In an e-mail, the spokesman said BP hired a firm called ESIS to assess all oil spill claims. As of last week, it had received nearly 16,000 claims. The spokesman said BP has in some cases paid some claims within 48 hours of receiving supporting documentation. What exactly does "legitimate claim" mean?   Good Question. Perhaps this can give us a clue:

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Sylvia Earle Speaks for the Ocean and She Speaks for Me - Congressional Testimony

by Ellinorianne

I thought about writing something regarding the remarks Mr. Carville made regarding the Obama Administration's handling of this nightmare that's continuing to unfold.  I wake each morning, hoping that it was only a bad dream to find that it has just gotten deeper and more devastating in its enormity. But the issue is this, it's so huge, so unknown that I don't even feel qualified to delve into the quagmire.  The most damning circumstances to this Administration continues to be the previous administrations cozy relationship with Big Oil, shunning of the scientific community and total lack of oversight for many things that now affect the outcome of this nightmare. I am not here to defend the apparent lack of urgency by the Obama Administration, I am frustrated beyond words that more political pressure has not been put on BP, Transocean and all those involved to do the right thing, which seems to be inherently lacking in their vocabulary because oil, profit and covering their assets seems to be a larger priority.

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