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BUILDING A WORLD THAT WORKS TM


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"First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight with you, then you win." -- Ghandi
"Mankind's future depends on America's energy choices. Let's clean house and abandon the phony solutions that result in war, environmental ruin, poverty, hunger, hatred and disease.
We must lead. We must set the example and Build A World That Works
!"TM  -- Richard D. Masters

 

"We'll just earmark this
hydrogen budget for
  our favorite programs!"

 The Strange Politics of Hydrogen
Page 1 2
    Selling out their country to
Big Oil worked out poorly for the Republicans, essentially destroying the "conservative" party, crippling the global economy and creating a single party system powerless to moderate government excess.

  

water_glass_drip_sm_wht.gif (4059 bytes)

 
  Got   water?
  


Click to download the Congressional report on 9/11 (5.6 MB)

HYDROGEN IS
THE BEST REVENGE


FINDING OF ENDANGERMENT

EPA: Greenhouse Gases Threaten Public Health and the Environment
Science overwhelmingly shows greenhouse gas concentrations
at unprecedented levels due to human activity
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency     December 7, 2009

WASHINGTON – After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat.
    GHGs are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.
    “These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Business leaders, security experts, government officials, concerned citizens and the United States Supreme Court have called for enduring, pragmatic solutions to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing climate change. This continues our work towards clean energy reform that will cut GHGs and reduce the dependence on foreign oil that threatens our national security and our economy.”
    EPA’s final findings respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that GHGs fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants. The findings do not in and of themselves impose any emission reduction requirements but rather allow EPA to finalize the GHG standards proposed earlier this year for new light-duty vehicles as part of the joint rulemaking with the Department of Transportation.
    On-road vehicles contribute more than 23 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions. EPA’s proposed GHG standards for light-duty vehicles, a subset of on-road vehicles, would reduce GHG emissions by nearly 950 million metric tons and conserve 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of model year 2012-2016 vehicles.
    EPA’s endangerment finding covers emissions of six key greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride – that have been the subject of scrutiny and intense analysis for decades by scientists in the United States and around the world.
    Scientific consensus shows that as a result of human activities, GHG concentrations in the atmosphere are at record high levels and data shows that the Earth has been warming over the past 100 years, with the steepest increase in warming in recent decades. The evidence of human-induced climate change goes beyond observed increases in average surface temperatures; it includes melting ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers around the world, increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans due to excess carbon dioxide, changing precipitation patterns, and changing patterns of ecosystems and wildlife.
    President Obama and Administrator Jackson have publicly stated that they support a legislative solution to the problem of climate change and Congress’ efforts to pass comprehensive climate legislation. However, climate change is threatening public health and welfare, and it is critical that EPA fulfill its obligation to respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants.
    EPA issued the proposed findings in April 2009 and held a 60-day public comment period. The agency received more than 380,000 comments, which were carefully reviewed and considered during the development of the final findings.

CHASING MEDIOCRITY - U.S. LOSES ALL LOGIC AND FOCUS


"Thanks for the big bucks, suckers!"

Congress to Raid Great Ethanol Fraud Giveaway Program for "Cash for Clunkers" Giveaway Program

  • 'Cash For Clunkers' Vote Takes Subsidies From Solar, Ethanol
    Siobhan Hughes     Dow Jones     August 1, 2009
       
    The House of Representatives voted to transfer $2 billion to a program that offers consumers vouchers to trade in gas-guzzling cars for more fuel-efficient vehicles. To fund the program, which was running out of money one week after it was launched, Congress took away money from a program that backs up loans to renewable energy companies. That effectively cut the punch of the renewable program by $20 billion, based on earlier estimates that about one-tenth of loans guaranteed by the U.S. would go bad.
  • If Cash for Clunkers Survives, Will Ethanol Funding Suffer?
    Jim Motavalli    The Daily Green     July 31, 2009
National Hydrogen Association    Policy Update    July 30, 2009
Greetings NHA Members and Friends,

The appropriations process in Congress continues, with the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill (S. 1436), which includes DOE's FY10 budget, passing on the floor of the Senate last night by a vote of 85-9.  The hydrogen and fuel cell technologies provisions of this bill remain unchanged from the original version passed by the Senate E&W Appropriations Subcommittee on July 8th -- $190 million for EERE's Hydrogen program at DOE, as well as $10 million above the budget request for hydrogen from coal research and $4 million above the budget request for fuel cells at DOE's Office of Fossil Energy (FE).

Note also that DOE's renaming of the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies program (HFCIT) in their Budget Request was disapproved by the Senate.  DOE had concentrated the requested funding ($68 million) in a new Fuel Cell Technologies program, which the Senate zeroed.  Instead, the Senate both restores and replaces funding within the HFCIT program.  Given this rejection by the Senate, it makes it highly questionable whether DOE should proceed with any reorganizational efforts without Congressional approval.

The House passed their E&W appropriations bill on July 17th, which contains a total of $153 million for hydrogen and fuel cell technologies for DOE's EERE program in FY10, as well as $25.5 million above the Administration's request "for fuels" in FE which can be used to fund hydrogen from coal research. 

These are significant accomplishments and the NHA thanks all the members who have supported our intensive efforts to restore critical funding.

The full text of both the Senate and House bills and report language is available through this link:  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:HR03183:

These two versions will now be sent to a Senate/House conference committee that will determine how to merge them into one bill.  This will likely happen shortly after Congress returns from their August recess, and the Senate conferees have already been selected.  We will continue to work with the Senate and House conferees until final passage into law.  Any news will be reported to the NHA Membership immediately, as usual.

Best regards,
Geoff

P.S. If your company is not an NHA member (for a list, click here) and you would like to join, please click here for more info:  http://www.hydrogenassociation.org/join  Dues for 2009 are currently discounted 50%--two times easier to become a member!


Summary of major actions since the Administration submitted their Budget Request to Congress (and after Secretary Chu's testimony in hearings):

House of Representatives

1.  Energy & Water Subcommittee Markup.  
Held June 25.  Result:  $40 million added, for "Hydrogen Transportation Systems," to the $68 million originally requested for the DOE hydrogen budget in a proposed Fuel Cell Technologies program.  More:  http://bit.ly/zJcF5

2.  Full Appropriations Committee Markup for Energy & Water and Financial Services.  
Held July 7.  Result:  Kept the Subcommittee's markup above unchanged. Total: $108 million.  More:  http://bit.ly/TxX1W

3.  Full House
Amendments to this bill and the bill itself (HR. 3183) were considered and a vote was held the week of July 13-17.  The bill passed with a vote of 320-97, which includes $153M for EERE's hydrogen and fuel cell program plus an unspecified portion of $40.5M for hydrogen from coal projects in FE.
http://bit.ly/tjuQm

Senate

1.  Energy & Water Development Subcommittee Markup
Held July 8.  Result:  The Subcommittee mark provides a total of $190 million for hydrogen and fuel cells at DOE, largely restoring funding to FY2009 levels [the $68M that was in DOE's FY10 request for fuel cells would be included in that $190M].  More:  http://bit.ly/TxX1W

2.  Full Appropriations Committee
Held July 9.  Result: Kept the Senate Subcommittee's markup above unchanged ($190M for EERE), but Committee report language showed that in the Subcommittee $10M was added for hydrogen from coal and $4 million above the request for fuel cells in FE. 

3.  Full Senate
Approval and passage occurred yesterday, July 29.  See results above.

RESOURCES:
Download Testimony

Videos and presentations from automakers and hydrogen producers:  http://www.hydrogenassociation.org/policy/briefing_12jun09.asp

Congress May Restore Hydrogen Funding
Jim Motavilli    New York Times    July 21, 2009

    Congress appears close to restoring the $100 million in funding for hydrogen research that Steven Chu, the energy secretary, had cut from his budget in May. The House of Representatives voted 320-97 last Friday to approve $26.9 billion for the Energy Department, including $153 million for hydrogen and fuel cells in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program, plus $40.45 million for hydrogen from coal.

Click to read Forbes "GM's Wild Gamble: Betting the Future on Hydrogen" by Jonathon FaheyOBAMA'S BLIND EYE
"Fuel cells hold out the best hope, however remote, of putting GM back in the position of world automotive leader that it once commanded."

Jonathon Fahey
Hydrogen Gas
Forbes   April 25, 2005

US DOE Pulls Funding for Hydrogen Fuel Cell and Combustion Research
Christopher Earle    Examiner.com    May 28, 2009

    This reversal on one of the most promising clean technologies is troubling. Funding of $2.4 billion for research into gasoline powered hybrids and plug-in hybrids was announced in March of 2009. Research in to hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen combustion technology was funded at a minuscule 1.5% of the level for “cleaner” fossil fuel based transportation. If the research dollars had been historically reversed, with 98.5% of research funds being spent on hydrogen fueled cars, we would already be pulling up to a filling station to buy hydrogen, not gasoline and diesel. When Secretary Chu stated that a hydrogen infrastructure was still 10, 15, or 20 years away, no one could argue. The lack of funding has put the common goal of a truly clean fuel technology just out of reach. By cutting research funds, the Chu and the Obama administration are putting one of the most promising potential source of clean energy even further out, to possibly 20, 30, or even 50 years.


Hydrogen Hopes:
Can They Restore Funding for Fuel Cells?

Jim Montavalli    Mother Earth Network    May 22, 2009

    ...Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said he was “stunned” by the flat funding for hydrogen, calling it a “significant mistake” that was “not a smart thing to do.” He said he will “do everything we can to restore the program.” ...More to the point, J. Byron McCormick, GM’s former fuel-cell chief, resigned from a DOE hydrogen advisory group when the funding cut was announced.
  • Hydrogen Shortchanged at the Department of Energy
    Congressman Joe Pitts    The Phoenix (PA)    May 23, 2009
    Secretary Chu has decided to choose electric cars over hydrogen fuel cell cars in an unnecessary and unwise zero sum game for federal research dollars.

UPDATE    MAY 21, 2009
MURKOWSKI, OTHER PRO-NUKE AMENDMENTS DEFEATED IN SENATE COMMITTEE
REVISED CLEAN ENERGY BANK
APPROVED IN HOUSE COMMITTEE


NUCLEAR SNEAK ATTACK!

The ICHC brings to your attention this important message from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service 

THIS IS IT FOLKS!

EITHER WE STOP THE "CLEAN ENERGY" BANK OR WE GET DOZENS OF NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS

WE CAN WIN THIS ONE: ACT NOW!

May 14, 2009

Dear friends,
    We've asked a lot of you this past several months. As the Obama administration has moved into power, the pace of activity has increased; we know that.
    So we don't waste your time asking you to take actions that aren't meaningful.

And right now, we're asking you to take the most important action of the year.

    Write your House member and Speaker Nancy Pelosi now. And then forward this message to everyone you can think of.

Write your House member here.

Write Speaker Nancy Pelosi here.

    We should have figured it out earlier, but we didn't. The section in the bill was so obscure we all missed it. But the "Clean Energy Bank" legislation sponsored by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) includes UNLIMITED taxpayer loan guarantees for construction of new nuclear reactors. Not $50 Billion, or $100 Billion. UNLIMITED!

    In other words, under the guise of a clean energy program, the nuclear power industry could get taxpayer money to build as many reactors as they wanted, regardless of their cost, regardless of their projected default rate.
    That's just unacceptable.
    We need to act on this as loudly and clearly as possible.
    Write your House member and Speaker Nancy Pelosi now. And then forward this message to everyone you can think of.

Write your House member here.

Write Speaker Nancy Pelosi here.

    PLEASE forward this Alert to everyone you can think of. In 24 hours, we generated more than 3,000 letters in opposition to the pro-nuclear Murkowski amendment to the Senate energy bill. That's pretty good for one day, and we thank everyone who wrote (the Murkowski amendment has not yet been considered, it will likely come up next week). But we need to generate at least 10,000 letters to Pelosi and House members to stop this fake "clean energy" bank. Please help everyone you can think of to send letters now by forwarding this Alert. Phone calls to House members would be very effective too: 202-224-3121.

A NIRS blog posting on the "clean energy" bank is available here. It provides a lot more background info on this issue. You have our permission to re-post this everywhere and anywhere you want. Please do so.
    This really is it folks.
The effectiveness of our actions now will determine our energy--and quite possibly our economic--future. There is just no reason for inaction; let's all do everything we can.
    Pass the word; send an e-mail to your friends, forward this Alert everywhere. Put in on Facebook and MySpace. Twitter it. Blog it. Print this and take it to meetings. Do whatever you can. We can't let this stand.
   
And please send a few dollars our way. Every tax-deductible contribution you make enables us to reach more people, to expand our efforts, to build on what you already are doing. We simply can't do this without your support, so please contribute here.
    We need thousands and thousands of people responding to this Alert; please act, please do everything you can to expand our reach.
   
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte, Executive Director
nirsnet@nirs.org
    Nuclear Information and Resource Service

WHY IS BIG ENERGY TERRIFIED OF RENEWABLES?

YEARS OF U.S. TAXPAYER INVESTMENT BEAR FRUIT

WIND INDUSTRY THREATENS TO FLEE U.S. AS BIG ENERGY'S CONGRESSIONAL PROXIES
HIJACK CLEAN ENERGY ACT

"The U.S. cannot expect manufacturers to continuously commit to new manufacturing facilities and take the risk of investing billion of dollars in wind facilities when the U.S. itself is not willing to commit to renewable energy. ...America is on the verge of losing the wind manufacturing industry to Asia and Europe."
Victor Abate, Vice President for Renewables, GE Energy
Jan Blittersdorf, President and CEO, NRG Systems
Denise Bode, CEO, American Wind Energy Association
Steve Dayney, CEO, REpower USA
J. Cameron Drecoll, CEO, Broadwind Energy
Victoria M. Holt, Senior VP, Glass and Fiber Glass, PPG Industries Steve Lockard, President and CEO, TPI Composites
Michael Peck, Media, Institutional & Labor Relations, Gamesa
Roby Roberts, Senior VP of External Relations, Vestas Americas
David Willett, Vice President, Manufacturing, Clipper Windpower

Congress is About to
Sell Out Clean Energy

It's so bad, they need to start over

The ICHC brings to your attention
this important message from Solar Nation


    The U.S. Congress' first response to President Obama's groundbreaking campaign promise to move the country toward a clean energy economy has garnered reactions ranging from lukewarm support to profound disappointment.
    At Solar Nation, we're in the latter group.  And we're looking for your help.
    HR2454, America's Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (the 'Waxman-Markey' bill), has come out of committee like a patient discharged from hospital two hours after major surgery -- enfeebled, impotent, and a shadow of his original self.  And this is before the full House and Senate get to run the poor fellow down in the parking lot.  (They're already gunning for him:  Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has up to 400 amendments ready to roll, and they won't be aimed at making him any healthier).  
    Even in committee, so many concessions to industry and compromises with state interests have been made that it's doubtful whether the legislation can scratch the surface of the problem it purportedly addresses.  For example:
  • It's widely felt that GHG emissions must be reduced by 25-40% of 1990 levels by the year 2020;  although the bill's boosters are aiming for "17% of 2005 levels", in reality this means a reduction of only 4% of 1990 levels -- a pitiful under-achievement.
  • Instead of auctioning off emissions permits to raise money to invest in a clean energy economy, the bill proposes to give away up to 85% of them to utilities, carbon-intensive industries, natural gas companies, and others.  Only 10% would go to states for renewable energy and energy efficiency investment, and 0.5% for green job training.
  • The proposed national renewable electricity standard for utilities has also been diluted from 20%-clean-energy-by-2025 down to 15%-by-2020;  worse, if utilities complain to their state governors about meeting this mandate, the figure could be knocked down to 12% for clean energy generation.
    We've included links to further reading and commentary on HR2454 below, but here's what we feel is the bottom line:
  • If we're to tackle the problems of GHG emissions, pollution and energy security in a meaningful way...
  • If we're to use the gift of a potentially huge clean energy industry to assuage our current economic troubles...
  • If we're to provide a lead in addressing planet-wide problems for the rest of the planet to follow...
Business-as-usual is not the way to do it. 
 
    For Congress to pass this sick bill and congratulate itself on a successful operation would actually set us back in the energy fight, since it could be years before a properly effective bill is presented again.
    So we're asking you to send a strong message. 
Urge your U.S. representative to fight hard to strengthen HR2454, but if its health can't be improved to vote it down.
    
It's a strong position to take.  But someone has to be strong, and right now it's not the U.S. Congress.

                   Further reading:

Full text of HR2454

Article by ClimateBiz (Reuters)

 
 
 


US Renewable Portfolio Standard Legislation
Weakened in Committee

Renewable Energy World    May 18, 2009

    The bill's RPS is less than one-half the level proposed by President Obama and Chairman Markey’s original proposal. In response to this weakening of the RPS measure, the American Wind Energy Association and a group of representatives from major wind industry companies released a letter to key members of Congress calling on them to strengthen the RPS.
    “We are concerned that the significantly lower renewable targets currently being discussed, as compared to proposals from President Obama, Chairman Bingaman and Chairman Markey, will severely blunt the signal for companies like ours that manufacture turbines and components to invest billions of dollars to expand production and our workforces in the U.S.,” the letter said.

THE GREAT ETHANOL FRAUD

WELFARE-FRANKENSTEIN ETHANOL STATES THREATEN CLIMATE BILL

"Thanks for the big bucks, suckers!"
Ethanol Rebellion Building in Congress

House Ag chair says he'll 'bring this climate bill down' over indirect land use
Dan Looker   Agriculture Online    May 16, 2009

    Next week, Peterson expects the House Energy and Commerce Committee, headed by Representative Henry Waxman of California, to pass a climate change bill. But he thinks he may have enough votes to defeat Waxman's bill when the full House votes on it. Peterson's bill that reins in the EPA has the backing of his committee's top Republican, Representative Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, all 29 Democrats on the committee, and by Monday, probably most of the Republicans. As of Friday his bill had support from a few other House Democrats, with 42 co-sponsors joining Peterson and Lucas in opposing the EPA. House Republicans are expected to vote as a block against the climate bill, anyway. So Peterson said he'll need 37 Democrats to defeat the climate bill.

Ethanol Eyes Only
Minnesota's Collin Peterson is evidently willing to throw climate-change legislation under the bus to coddle an unsuccessful industry.
Craig Cox, Midwest VP for the Environmental Working Group
Minneapolis StarTribune (MN)  
 May 20, 2009

    The tirade that House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota recently delivered accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of sinking the corn-ethanol industry has many of us in the environmental community scratching our heads. Peterson accused federal officials of being "in bed with the oil companies" because their science-based analysis found that corn ethanol doesn't reduce greenhouse-gas emissions as much as the industry claims.
    On Friday, Peterson's anger turned to threats in comments to Agriculture.com that included: "... If they don't fix this, I'm going to bring this climate bill down," a reference to legislation he introduced the day before to strip the science-based analysis of biofuels from the Renewable Fuel Standard. Apparently, the chairman intends to hold critical climate-change legislation hostage unless corn ethanol receives yet another free pass.
    What has Peterson and the corn-ethanol lobby so upset is that the EPA took into consideration "indirect land use change" -- technical jargon for factoring in the climate-damaging gases that will be released when forests or grasslands are plowed under and planted with crops to make up for the corn used to make ethanol. When EPA scientists factor in indirect land use change, as they are required to do by law, it turns out corn ethanol likely increases rather than decreases greenhouse-gas emissions.
    Peterson has failed to mention, however, that Congress already made sure corn ethanol was protected from any scientific assessment of its impact on the environment when it passed the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. Buried in the law are provisions that exempt every gallon of corn ethanol from the requirement to reduce greenhouse gases that all other biofuels have to meet to qualify as a "renewable fuel." The EPA estimates that these provisions grandfather in 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol, 6 billion gallons more than was produced in 2008, whether putting that fuel in our gas tanks helps protect our climate or not.
    The upshot is that not a single U.S. corn-ethanol producer has to worry about what EPA is proposing to do after months of work and consulting with dozens of scientists. Why the hysteria around indirect land use change or any other scientific issues when they've already snuck in under the bar?
    The corn lobby and its patrons in Washington are desperate to distract attention from just how well they are being treated in the EPA proposal. The real problem for U.S. corn-ethanol producers is that there is no market for those 15 billion gallons of grandfathered corn ethanol.
    Hence the push by the industry for yet another favor: getting EPA to allow blending gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, and demanding that the agency skip the testing it is required to do under the Clean Air Act to make sure higher blends of ethanol don't pollute the air. Ethanol interests likewise want to ignore the protests of automakers and producers and owners of small engines -- from boats to snowmobiles to lawnmowers. Who will have to pay when billions of dollars of equipment is damaged by the enriched ethanol Washington may force consumers to buy?
    One wonders what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must be thinking of Peterson's reckless proposal to hold one of her and the president's most important priorities -- climate-change legislation -- hostage to the already well-served interests of the corn-ethanol industry. Particularly given the fact that Department of Energy data reveal that ethanol already pockets two-thirds of all federal support for renewable energy. As ever, the industry wants even more.
    The threat of climate change is real, and farmers are particularly vulnerable to the droughts, severe storms and other damaging effects of a warming climate. Climate change is threatening the soil and water resources on which agriculture and our environment depend.
    Congress must ignore the special pleadings of the corn-ethanol industry and its champions on the Agriculture Committee and quickly pass a strong climate-change bill.
    A recent plea from the National Farmer's Union for Peterson to reconsider his opposition to climate legislation underscores the fact that at least some members of the agriculture community can see both the potential financial opportunity in cap-and-trade policy and the damage global warming will do. It also highlights the danger of tunnel vision incurred by a single-minded catering to a corn-ethanol industry that seems incapable of making a profit despite lavish government subsidies and top-down mandates from inside the Beltway.


    Craig Cox is the Midwest vice president for the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and a former USDA undersecretary for natural resources. EWG describes itself as a nonprofit research organization that uses information to protect human health and the environment.

A message from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service
STOP THE MURKOWSKI AMENDMENT!
IT'S YET ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO ADD TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES FOR NEW REACTORS AND ENCOURAGE REPROCESSING

ACTING TOGETHER, QUICKLY, WE CAN DEFEAT IT!

May 12, 2009

Dear Friends,
    Like father, like daughter....Sen. Lisa Murkowski (daughter of former Sen. Energy Comm. Chairman and avowed nuclear supporter Frank Murkowski) intends to submit an amendment to the Senate Energy Bill tomorrow--Wednesday, May 13--before the Senate Energy Committee. This amendment is yet another nuclear industry attempt to increase taxpayer subsidies for new nuclear reactor construction and to institute reprocessing of radioactive waste before the Obama administration can conduct its re-evaluation of our nation's failed radioactive waste policies.
    This amendment is unnecessary and dangerous, and must be defeated.
    And we believe it can be defeated--with your help.

Please send a letter in opposition to the Murkowski Amendment to your Senators here.

    Then, quickly ask your friends and colleagues to send letters too and help spread the word across the country!
    And, if you get a second, call your Senators as well, at 202-224-3121.
    While not every Senator is on the Energy Committee of course, and thus won't be voting on the amendment at this time, we're targeting every Senator with our message as part of our broader and ongoing campaign to educate the Senate and stop taxpayer subsidies for the nuclear industry.
    Thank you for acting (yet again!--and it won't be the last time this year....).
    Brief update: Last week, the Senate Energy Committee voted 18-5 against Sen. Bernie Sanders' entirely sensible amendment to limit the Clean Energy Bank from using more than 20% of its money on any single energy technology. This is a clear indication that this "Clean Energy Bank" is intended to fund primarily expensive dirty energy projects like nuclear power and "clean" coal. We will keep you posted when this reaches the Senate floor and there is another opportunity to make your views known.
    Thanks for all you do,
    Michael Mariotte, Executive Director
    Nuclear Information and Resource Service 
    CONTACT:  nirsnet@nirs.org

WIND INDUSTRY NOW THREATENS TO FLEE U.S. AS BIG ENERGY'S CONGRESSIONAL PROXIES HIJACK CLEAN ENERGY ACT
"The U.S. cannot expect manufacturers to continuously commit to new manufacturing facilities and take the risk of investing billion of dollars in wind facilities when the U.S. itself is not willing to commit to renewable energy. ...America is on the verge of losing the wind manufacturing industry to Asia and Europe."
Victor Abate, Vice President for Renewables, GE Energy
Jan Blittersdorf, President and CEO, NRG Systems
Denise Bode, CEO, American Wind Energy Association
Steve Dayney, CEO, REpower USA
J. Cameron Drecoll, CEO, Broadwind Energy
Victoria M. Holt, Senior VP, Glass and Fiber Glass, PPG Industries Steve Lockard, President and CEO, TPI Composites
Michael Peck, Media, Institutional & Labor Relations, Gamesa
Roby Roberts, Senior VP of External Relations, Vestas Americas
David Willett, Vice President, Manufacturing, Clipper Windpower

Congress is About to
Sell Out Clean Energy

It's so bad, they need to start over

The ICHC brings to your attention
this important message from Solar Nation


    The U.S. Congress' first response to President Obama's groundbreaking campaign promise to move the country toward a clean energy economy has garnered reactions ranging from lukewarm support to profound disappointment.
    At Solar Nation, we're in the latter group.  And we're looking for your help.
    HR2454, America's Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (the 'Waxman-Markey' bill), has come out of committee like a patient discharged from hospital two hours after major surgery -- enfeebled, impotent, and a shadow of his original self.  And this is before the full House and Senate get to run the poor fellow down in the parking lot.  (They're already gunning for him:  Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has up to 400 amendments ready to roll, and they won't be aimed at making him any healthier).  
    Even in committee, so many concessions to industry and compromises with state interests have been made that it's doubtful whether the legislation can scratch the surface of the problem it purportedly addresses.  For example:
  • It's widely felt that GHG emissions must be reduced by 25-40% of 1990 levels by the year 2020;  although the bill's boosters are aiming for "17% of 2005 levels", in reality this means a reduction of only 4% of 1990 levels -- a pitiful under-achievement.
  • Instead of auctioning off emissions permits to raise money to invest in a clean energy economy, the bill proposes to give away up to 85% of them to utilities, carbon-intensive industries, natural gas companies, and others.  Only 10% would go to states for renewable energy and energy efficiency investment, and 0.5% for green job training.
  • The proposed national renewable electricity standard for utilities has also been diluted from 20%-clean-energy-by-2025 down to 15%-by-2020;  worse, if utilities complain to their state governors about meeting this mandate, the figure could be knocked down to 12% for clean energy generation.
    We've included links to further reading and commentary on HR2454 below, but here's what we feel is the bottom line:
  • If we're to tackle the problems of GHG emissions, pollution and energy security in a meaningful way...
  • If we're to use the gift of a potentially huge clean energy industry to assuage our current economic troubles...
  • If we're to provide a lead in addressing planet-wide problems for the rest of the planet to follow...
Business-as-usual is not the way to do it. 
 
    For Congress to pass this sick bill and congratulate itself on a successful operation would actually set us back in the energy fight, since it could be years before a properly effective bill is presented again.
    So we're asking you to send a strong message. 
Urge your U.S. representative to fight hard to strengthen HR2454, but if its health can't be improved to vote it down.
    
It's a strong position to take.  But someone has to be strong, and right now it's not the U.S. Congress.

                   Click here to TAKE ACTION

Further reading:

Full text of HR2454

Article by ClimateBiz (Reuters)

 
 
 


US Renewable Portfolio Standard Legislation
Weakened in Committee

Renewable Energy World    May 18, 2009

    The bill's RPS is less than one-half the level proposed by President Obama and Chairman Markey’s original proposal. In response to this weakening of the RPS measure, the American Wind Energy Association and a group of representatives from major wind industry companies released a letter to key members of Congress calling on them to strengthen the RPS.
    “We are concerned that the significantly lower renewable targets currently being discussed, as compared to proposals from President Obama, Chairman Bingaman and Chairman Markey, will severely blunt the signal for companies like ours that manufacture turbines and components to invest billions of dollars to expand production and our workforces in the U.S.,” the letter said.

Uranium Supply Decline
Clouds Nuclear Power's Future

Charles Q. Choi    LiveScience     April 22, 2009

    Now it seems that mining uranium, which nuclear power depends on, could be even less environmentally friendly and more costly than critics say, according to a new analysis led by Gavin Mudd, an environmental engineer at Monash University in Australia.
    On average, supplies of high-quality uranium ore have been steadily declining worldwide for the past 50 years, and will likely to continue to wane in the mid- to long-term, Mudd said. Any new uranium deposit is likely to be deeper and harder to extract, and getting uranium from lower-quality deposits involves digging up and refining more ore, according to their analysis of government and industry reports.
    This suggests that in the future, uranium mining could require more energy, water and industrial chemicals such as corrosives, and release more greenhouse gases.
    "Over time, as ore grades decline and more energy is required for uranium production, this will lead to a higher carbon intensity for nuclear power, eventually becoming similar to gas-fired electricity, though this may be a few decades away and difficult to quantify precisely," Mudd said.

  • Sustainability of Uranium Mining and Milling:
    Toward Quantifying Resources and Eco-Efficiency
    Gavin M. Mudd and Mark Diesendorf
    Environmental Science and Technology    March 8, 2009
  • Suit Challenges New Uranium Exploration That Threatens the Grand Canyon    Center for Biological Diversity     May 8, 2009
       
    The Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust, and Sierra Club today amended their lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of the Interior to challenge newly authorized uranium exploration near Grand Canyon National Park. The new uranium projects are located within a 1-million acre area that was required to be immediately withdrawn from new mining claims and exploration by a June 25, 2008 emergency resolution of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. Today’s amendment challenges new uranium projects authorized by the Bureau of Land Management on April 23 and April 27, 2009. While the Bureau initially denied that new uranium exploration activities had been authorized, it has since acknowledged that exploration on the lands in question could begin whenever the companies wish.
  • Uranium Supply and the Nuclear Option    Paul Mobbs    2005
    Could a shortage of uranium be the Achilles-heel of the nuclear industry?
 

UPDATE    MAY 21, 2009
MURKOWSKI, OTHER PRO-NUKE AMENDMENTS DEFEATED IN SENATE COMMITTEE
REVISED CLEAN ENERGY BANK
APPROVED IN HOUSE COMMITTEE


NUCLEAR SNEAK ATTACK!

The ICHC brings to your attention this important message from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service 

THIS IS IT FOLKS!

EITHER WE STOP THE "CLEAN ENERGY" BANK OR WE GET DOZENS OF NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS

WE CAN WIN THIS ONE: ACT NOW!

May 14, 2009

Dear friends,
    We've asked a lot of you this past several months. As the Obama administration has moved into power, the pace of activity has increased; we know that.
    So we don't waste your time asking you to take actions that aren't meaningful.

And right now, we're asking you to take the most important action of the year.

    Write your House member and Speaker Nancy Pelosi now. And then forward this message to everyone you can think of.

Write your House member here.

Write Speaker Nancy Pelosi here.

    We should have figured it out earlier, but we didn't. The section in the bill was so obscure we all missed it. But the "Clean Energy Bank" legislation sponsored by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) includes UNLIMITED taxpayer loan guarantees for construction of new nuclear reactors. Not $50 Billion, or $100 Billion. UNLIMITED!

    In other words, under the guise of a clean energy program, the nuclear power industry could get taxpayer money to build as many reactors as they wanted, regardless of their cost, regardless of their projected default rate.
    That's just unacceptable.
    We need to act on this as loudly and clearly as possible.
    Write your House member and Speaker Nancy Pelosi now. And then forward this message to everyone you can think of.

Write your House member here.

Write Speaker Nancy Pelosi here.

    PLEASE forward this Alert to everyone you can think of. In 24 hours, we generated more than 3,000 letters in opposition to the pro-nuclear Murkowski amendment to the Senate energy bill. That's pretty good for one day, and we thank everyone who wrote (the Murkowski amendment has not yet been considered, it will likely come up next week). But we need to generate at least 10,000 letters to Pelosi and House members to stop this fake "clean energy" bank. Please help everyone you can think of to send letters now by forwarding this Alert. Phone calls to House members would be very effective too: 202-224-3121.

A NIRS blog posting on the "clean energy" bank is available here. It provides a lot more background info on this issue. You have our permission to re-post this everywhere and anywhere you want. Please do so.
    This really is it folks.
The effectiveness of our actions now will determine our energy--and quite possibly our economic--future. There is just no reason for inaction; let's all do everything we can.
    Pass the word; send an e-mail to your friends, forward this Alert everywhere. Put in on Facebook and MySpace. Twitter it. Blog it. Print this and take it to meetings. Do whatever you can. We can't let this stand.
   
And please send a few dollars our way. Every tax-deductible contribution you make enables us to reach more people, to expand our efforts, to build on what you already are doing. We simply can't do this without your support, so please contribute here.
    We need thousands and thousands of people responding to this Alert; please act, please do everything you can to expand our reach.
   
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte, Executive Director
nirsnet@nirs.org
    Nuclear Information and Resource Service

House Dems Scale Back Plans to Curb Global Warming
Gina Cappiello     AP     May 12, 2009

    Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., announced Tuesday evening the outlines of a deal that they said would ensure the legislation will please both environmental and industry groups and have the support of moderate Democrats on the House Energy Committee. To do so, they have lowered targets for renewable energy, will require a smaller reduction by 2020 in the emissions blamed for global warming, and will give away valuable permits to release pollution to electricity distribution companies and auto manufacturers.
 
 
National Hydrogen Association Press Release
 

 

Hydrogen Vehicles Drive             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
from Mexico Border to Canada   

Washington DC--May 21, 2009--Today, the National Hydrogen Association announced the beginning of the 1,700 mile 2009 Hydrogen Road Tour.  For nine days starting May 26, Americans and Canadians in 28 cities between southern California and Vancouver, British Columbia will have a unique opportunity to see what the transportation future holds for with the launch of a nine-day caravan of clean, efficient hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.

 

The California Air Resources Board, California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), Powertech Labs (on behalf of British Columbia), National Hydrogen Association and the U.S. Fuel Cell Council are organizing the 2009 Hydrogen Road Tour. Vehicles from seven major automakers will turn heads as they make the trek from border to border. The Tour will stop in 28 communities along the route, with special focus on the communities where hydrogen technologies-passenger vehicles, transit buses and hydrogen stations-will likely enter the market first.

 

"The Hydrogen Road Tour is another example that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are not a science experiment. These are real vehicles with real marketability and real benefits," said Jeff Serfass, President of the National Hydrogen Association.  "So far, these facts have escaped the notice of the Secretary of Energy's attention, given the request to eliminate the federal hydrogen vehicle program. The Tour will show how capable today's hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles are by providing performance, environmental responsibility, a reduction of fuel imports and a pleasant driving experience for anyone who gets behind the wheel."

 

The NHA's recent Energy Evolution reports shows how scenarios that initially use a mix of vehicles with sales later dominated by hydrogen vehicles can address greenhouse gas pollution, oil imports and urban air pollution.  Specifically, the Energy Evolution shows that fuel cell electric vehicles powered by hydrogen can simultaneously cut greenhouse gas pollution by 80% below 1990 levels; help the U.S. reach petroleum quasi-independence by mid-century; and eliminate nearly all controllable air pollution by the end of the century." 

 

On the Hydrogen Road Tour, the public will be able to see the latest hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles from Daimler, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen-including several new models-as well as fuel cell transit buses at several stops. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. and Powertech Labs are providing hydrogen fuel and mobile refueling stations.

 

Currently, over 300 zero-emission fuel cell vehicles have been placed on U.S. roads along with 62 operational hydrogen fueling stations in anticipation of plans released by automakers, energy companies and government agencies to collectively roll out 4,300 passenger vehicles to customers in California by 2014.  In addition, transit agencies operate fuel cell buses, including BC Transit in Vancouver which will operate a fleet of 20 fuel cell buses for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Cities, businesses and military bases in California, Oregon, Washington and many other American states are implementing other projects that use fuel cells, including forklifts and stationary power for buildings and cell phone towers.

 

For more details, please visit:  http://www.hydrogenroadtour.com/

CONTACT:  Patrick Serfass, National Hydrogen Association
202.223.5547 x366
serfassp@hydrogenassociation.org

Europe & Japan Assured Global Dominance as U.S. Retreats
U.S. Drops Research Into Fuel Cells for Cars
Matthew L. Wald    New York Times    May 7, 2009

    The Energy Department will continue to pay for research into stationary fuel cells, which Dr. Chu said could be used like batteries on the power grid and do not require compact storage of hydrogen.
 

“This is a strange turn of events.
We are very close to the tipping point.
To stop that now is
a waster of taxpayer dollars.”
Shannon Baxter-Clemmons
Executive director of the S.C. Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Alliance

"We should go to Washington
and make the case that not funding
the long-term solution is short-sighted.”
Mayor Bob Coble, Columbia, S.C.
Obama’s Cuts Deal Blow to S.C. Hydrogen Economy
Jeff Wilkinson    The State (SC)    May 9, 2009

“The vehicles have been invented.
The issues are infrastructure
and how do we reduce cost.”
 
John Hanson, Toyota

“Hydrogen is a key to solving the nation’s mid- to long- term issues of energy security, reduced petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions as well as being part of the reinvention of General Motors.”
Larry Burns, GM

Honda, GM Stick to Fuel-Cell Plans as Obama Guts Hydrogen Funds 
A. Ohnsman, T. Seeley
    Bloomberg    May 11, 2009
    The policy shift is “very disappointing,” said Dan Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis and a member of the state’s Air Resources Board. The agency has authority to set environmental rules for carmakers and other industries rivaling the federal government’s.
    “It’s unclear how we’re going to get big reductions in greenhouse gas emissions without hydrogen,” Sperling said. “Hydrogen is the most challenging in terms of implementation because of the need for new fueling infrastructure.”
    That could be created in 10 to 15 years at less cost than the “$6 billion to $10 billion” the U.S. provides annually in subsidies for corn ethanol, Sperling said.

Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Associations Criticize DOE Program Cuts
National Hydrogen Association
U.S. Fuel Cell Council
May 7, 2009

Washington DC----The National Hydrogen Association (NHA) and U.S. Fuel Cell Council (USFCC) issued the following joint statement regarding the Obama Administration's FY 2010 budget request for the U.S Department of Energy.
    "The cuts proposed in the DOE hydrogen and fuel cell program threaten to disrupt commercialization of a family of technologies that are showing exceptional promise and beginning to gain market traction.
    "Fuel cell vehicles are not a science experiment. These are real vehicles with real marketability and real benefits. Hundreds of fuel cell vehicles have collectively logged millions of miles.
    "Both the National Academy of Sciences and NHA's recent Energy Evolution report conclude that a portfolio of vehicle technologies is needed to achieve the nation's energy and environmental security goals and that hydrogen is essential to success. Hydrogen also advances the Obama Administration's goals of greener power generation and a smarter power grid.
    "The newest fuel cell vehicles get 72 miles per gallon equivalent with no compromise in creature comforts. Fuel cell buses operating in revenue service achieve twice the fuel economy of diesel buses. Hydrogen production costs are already competitive with gasoline. Projected vehicle costs have been reduced by 75%. These are accomplishments of the Department's own program in partnership with industry. It would truly be a government waste to squander them by walking away just as success is in sight.
    "The National Academy recommended a portfolio approach and we are frankly puzzled at the Energy Department's decision to ignore that recommendation even as the Department uses other material from the same report to justify its proposed cut.
    "We are also concerned that the Department appears to be walking away from its Market Transformation activities, which support fuel cell deployment in early commercial applications. This Congressionally-mandated program is demonstrating the ability of fuel cells to provide a competitive and green alternative to battery-based systems in vehicles and in power supply.
    "Finally, we are concerned that the Department has proposed to cut funds for the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA). SECA success could dramatically lower the cost of carbon sequestration, improve power plant efficiency, and enable a virtually pollution-free coal plant in the future. Additional funding will hasten SECA progress."
    The NHA and USFCC collectively represent more than 200 companies and organizations.

CONTACT:
NHA: Patrick Serfass, 202-223-5547, ext. 366 serfassp@HydrogenAssociation.org

USFCC: Bud DeFlaviis, 202 293 5500, ext. 35 bdeflaviis@usfcc.com
 

  • Energy Department Slashes Hydrogen Transportation Funding in Proposed Budget     Green Car Advisor    May 7, 2009
    Chu's belief that it is best to cut hydrogen spending and divert the funding elsewhere isn't necessarily shared by Congress, which must approve the budget, said Patrick Serfass, the National Hydrogen Association's vice president for technology. ...Serfass worries that if the Obama administration turns its back on hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, the automakers will take their research and development programs to Europe or Asia and the U.S. will lose the lead in technology that will be a critical part of an oil-independent future.
  • FY 2010 Congressional Budget Request    DOE    May 2009

RELEASED

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
Building a Sustainable Energy Future
National Science Board/National Science Foundation
April 10, 2009

Recommendations to the U.S. Government
    The future prosperity and economic progress of the United States depend largely on developing nationally coordinated long-term strategy to transform toward a stable and sustainable energy economy.
This transformation must be achieved in a sufficiently timely manner to reduce prospective greenhouse gas impacts and U.S. dependence on foreign sources of energy. The Board makes the following overarching priority recommendation:

Priority Recommendation
    The U.S. Government should develop, clearly define, and lead a nationally coordinated research, development, demonstration, deployment, and education (RD3E) strategy to transform the U.S. energy system to a sustainable energy economy that is far less carbon intensive.

    This strategy must include clearly defined science and engineering research and education objectives that prioritize national security, economic growth, and environmental stewardship.

REPUBLICAN OIL GOVERNMENT DEATH SPASM -- OR A RE-AWAKENING?
Congress on Climate: A Zig, A Zag,
and Then a Zig, Sort Of

Bill Chameides    Huffington Post    April 3, 2009

    As part of the Senate's budget negotiations, Senator John Thune (R-SD) inserted a measure that would prohibit climate change legislation from increasing electricity or gasoline prices. The non-binding amendment passed by a vote of 89-8. Huh? This does not prohibit certain kinds of climate legislation; it effectively blocks all legislation on climate change.


AMERICA CHASES MEDIOCRITY
Government Funding Swings
from Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology
to Electric Vehicles Under Obama

David Shepardson     Detroit News (MI)     March 25, 2009

    The National Hydrogen Association, whose members include GM, Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., Daimler AG and BMW AG, sent a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu Feb. 27 asking him to allocate up to $700 million from advanced energy research grant programs for hydrogen-related research. The government and automakers "have made significant technical progress over the last few years in proving that hydrogen and fuel cells offer a critical component of the domestic, oil-free high efficiency very low emissions industries we all seek," said the letter signed by Jerry Hinkle, the group's vice president for policy and government affairs. Hinkle said Tuesday the association had more work to do to convince the Obama administration. "Part of the rap is that hydrogen is a left-over Bush administration idea, and that's baloney," he said.
  • Study Finds Plug-In Hybrids With Lots of All-Electric Range Won't Be Cost-Effective
    John O'Dell     Green Car Advisor     February 26, 2009
     
       In a report sure to be a blow to GM's hopes for its upcoming plug-in hybrid, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found that the extra cost and weight of the batteries a vehicle such as the Chevrolet Volt must carry to achieve its targeted 40 miles of all-electric range make it too expensive to be cost-effective transportation for most people.
  • Impact of Battery Weight and Charging Patterns on the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles    C. Shiaua , C. Samarasb, R. Hauffea , J. Michaleka
    Carnegie Mellon University/Energy Policy     February 2009
        ...larger PHEV40 and PHEV60 are not cost effective in any scenario... The dominance of the small-capacity PHEV over larger-capacity PHEVs across the wide range of scenarios examined in this study suggests that government incentives designed to increase adoption of PHEVs may be best targeted toward adoption of small- capacity PHEVs by urban drivers who are able to charge frequently.
  • Swapping Peak Oil for Peak Lithium?  Hybrid Cars  Oct 31 2009
        Because of a limited number of sources for processed lithium, the potential for market disruption or manipulation is greater even than what is seen with oil and OPEC, according to some observers.

“Could we not be swapping dependence on one depleting natural resource, oil, for another? Analysis shows that a world dependent on lithium for its vehicles could soon face even tighter resource constraints than we face today with oil.”
William Tahil
research director, Meridian International Research

Obama Announces Additional $1.2B for Clean Energy
Clean Tech Brief     March 25, 2009
He also announced the availability of $1.2 billion in basic research at the Department of Energy's national laboratories. Grants will be offered for upgrading national lab facilities, research in renewable energy (including solar, biofuels and nuclear), underground carbon dioxide storage, and hydrogen.


Stimulus Sowing Seeds for Renewable Energy's Revival
Nathanial Gronewold    New York Times     March 20, 2009

    While the stimulus is helping to prime the marketplace, there is much hope and anticipation that the federal government will establish a national renewable portfolio standard, or RPS, a mandate that the country generate a specific proportion of its energy needs from wind, solar, geothermal and other such sources.
  • Lobbyists Sparring Over Details of Federal Renewable Porfolio Standards Bill    Anne C. Mulkern     E & E     March 16, 2009
        Also at stake is which power sources will be considered "renewable." The Bingaman draft limits those to wind, solar, ocean, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas and hydropower created after passage of the bill. Nuclear power and clean coal technologies are not included. "In our definition, it doesn't meet the definition of a renewable," committee spokesman Wicker said.

 LEADER OF THE CENTURY?
"We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. ...It is time for America to

lead again. ...As we stand at this crossroads of history, the eyes
of all people in all nations are once again upon us – watching to see what we do with this moment; waiting for us to lead."
President Barack Obama Feb 24 2009

DEMS FORGET 300 MILLION CARS!

No money for the biggest problem...

Retrofitting Nation’s Gas Guzzlers Fleet Unstimulated in Latest Bailout
Edwin Black     The Cutting Edge    February 16, 2009

    Now that the $787 billion stimulus package has become law, a key emphasis is “green jobs” and energy rescue. But the single most important program in becoming energy independent and regaining financial health is never mentioned in the massive Congressional text. ...That undiscovered program is vehicle “retrofitting” to create a Retrofitting Revolution. ...Compressed natural gas (CNG) and hydrogen are waiting to sweep into America’s garages. Neither CNG nor hydrogen needs a neighborhood gas station infrastructure. Auto makers who say that are continuing to mislead. Home or office refueling devices, such as those now under the control of Honda and largely kept off the market despite surging demand, convert ordinary household oven gas to fuel. Even T. Boone Pickens was unable to purchase the technology to bring these simple home and office refueling devices into common use. ...CNG and hydrogen possibilities dazzle the mind. GM’s hydrogen fuel cell Equinox uses simple electrolyzed water to create the hydrogen gas that powers the car. The Hydrogen Equinox, which has no engine or motor, drives like any other car. So does Honda’s exquisite Hydrogen Clarity....

Overview of Renewable Energy Provisions in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
American Council on Renewable Energy     February 2009
This massive $800 billion spending bill, being truly unprecedented in modern times, will drive new national strategies in renewable energy, smart grid, transmission, advanced vehicles, energy efficiency, and many other aspects of energy, environment, climate and sustainability that were at the heart of the 2008 Presidential election.

After 10 years, Hawaii's Mina Morita remains steadfast in her efforts
to "put Hawaii at the forefront of renewable energy in the Pacific."
   
CREATING A CLEAN & SECURE
RENEWABLE ENERGY FUTURE

   
TRANSFORMING HAWAII INTO A HYDROGEN-BASED ECONOMY
 
FLASHBACK:  MINA MORITA IN 2000
FLASHBACK:  HYDROGEN HAWAII

 


Another phony ExxonMobil "Think" tank or perhaps something less subtle?


   America's ill-advised choice to abandon democratic ideals for access to foreign reserves of petroleum comes at great cost. The hidden price of oil includes the tremendous expense of the vast military network that Petroleum Imperialism demands, accompanied by the terrible risks of global destabilization that result when populations see their national resource heritage stripped away by international corporations and their craven puppet regimes.
    But renewable energy does not bear this burden - nor does renewable hydrogen. This makes hydrogen fuel a bargain in real dollars. Dollars spent making and purchasing hydrogen fuel circulate within the producing country, enriching it. This makes hydrogen fuel a bargain for national security. Therefore a global hydrogen economy, where each nation is its own source of fuel, will promote world peace.
Why wait?
                                   
-- Richard D. Masters, ICHC

PATHWAYS TO A HYDROGEN ECONOMY
NATURAL GAS VS. COAL / HABERMAN VS. PICKENS
"It is nonsensical to build the foundations of a new energy system (hydrogen) on the wildly unpredictable future of an already stressed resource (natural gas). ...[Using off-peak coal power] is environmentally neutral since the coal plants are operating anyway."

Realistic Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure
- A Pragmatic Path Forward -

Action Plan for the American Council on Renewable Energy
David Haberman, President
Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council     February 2009

    The Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council (MSHBC) is a national non-profit based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The MSHBC Charter is to promote the success of its members in their efforts to build hydrogen energy based businesses. We have members from 22 states and have been active for five years. ACORE challenged us to put forward a near term (3years) plan to increase renewable fuel production and use. Obviously we interpret this in regards to H2. The following approach is offered in the context of managing the risks of technology, market penetration and financing.

    Refocus the nation’s approach toward hydrogen fueling infrastructure by supporting a coal to hydrogen pathway. Rather than subsidize the expansion of the oil refining & industrial gas business model of using natural gas to produce hydrogen it is essential that national policy switch to using coal power to transform water into hydrogen. Natural gas should be prioritized for use in peak power production because natural gas combined cycle plants are the only stationary power generation which can be built quickly in the U.S. with acceptable risks. Natural gas is subject to extraordinary instabilities due to market manipulations, cartel actions and current demands for industrial & home use. It is nonsensical to build the foundations of a new energy system (hydrogen) on the wildly unpredictable future of an already stressed resource (natural gas). Coal, an abundant and economical resource, keeps the lights on in America and dependable coal based electricity at off-peak hours is the basis of a viable value chain that transforms a water feedstock into a competitive H2 fuel source.
    Splitting water (electrolysis) is a proven technology that can be energized using undervalued (off-peak) electricity. Since this electricity comes primarily from the base loaded coal fired power plants this approach effectively creates value because the pure hydrogen is a flexible fuel that can be sold into existing and future markets. This approach is environmentally neutral since the coal plants are operating anyway.
    In order to increase the use of hydrogen fuel it must be priced competitively against gasoline and diesel. Since only $.02 worth of water is necessary to make a kilogram of H2 (equivalent to 1 gallon of gasoline) there is no uncertainty in positioning of H2 to compete. Electrolysis is a method that assures the H2 fuel purity demanded by the vehicle and fuel cell manufacturers to warranty their equipment’s performance and life. The use of electrolysis and grid electricity assures a freedom of placement for hydrogen generation that allows distribution of dispensing in proximity to users. In the near term, this pathway produces hydrogen fuel at the locations of opportunity without the burden of replicating the large capital expenditures of reformation based industry including pipelines and diesel truck fleets.
    The implementation of the coal to hydrogen pathway will involve many states whose economies rely on coal. By illuminating the economic opportunity of “H2 gives coal legs” there will be a broader public acceptance of the hydrogen vision. This expansion of the hydrogen stakeholder community to encompass the large amount of American’s vested in the coal economy will translate to a faster penetration of H2 fuel use since H2 fuel will be available in places other than in two urban areas in California. This advantage combines with a H2 supply stability based on a transparent value chain which is not susceptible to instantaneous changes in the natural gas economy.
    This is a national transition strategy to stimulate the production and use of hydrogen fuel in the near term. As other electrical generation technologies achieve a scale of economy (e.g. wind and solar) they will compete as the basis for electrolysis. The hydrogen economy will only succeed if there is a broader public experience of the benefits of hydrogen and this marketing necessity will not wait.
Hydrogen must compete against biofuels now. The placement of small, scalable production and dispensing facilities (infrastructure building blocks) in major cities will enable lead adopters to proceed with hydrogen energy verifications now because they have access to a dependable low cost pure H2 fuel supply.

On August 17-19, 2009 the MSHBC will hold its 5th Annual Hydrogen Implementation Conference in Charleston, West Virginia. This conference coincides with the opening of a new generation hydrogen production and dispensing facility at Yeager Airport. See www.mountianstateshydrogen.com

David Haberman is the President of the Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council. He is the co-Founder and Past President of the California Hydrogen Business Council. As the co-Founder and Chairman of DCH Technology (AMEX:DCHT) Mr. Haberman commercialized hydrogen energy systems, sensors and fuel cells. He has served as an expert witness on hydrogen in testimony to Congress and on the Secretary of Energy’s Hydrogen Technology Advisory Panel. Over the last twenty years Mr. Haberman has contributed to hydrogen energy activities in 22 states and in 13 countries.

Two weeks into the new Obama Administration
United States Department of Energy
Request for Information (RFI)

February 4, 2009
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Program seeks stakeholder and public input on potential early markets and deployment opportunities for hydrogen and fuel cells. The information collected will help guide the Program’s efforts to identify key early markets and related green domestic jobs, validate hydrogen and fuel cell system performance through data collection and communicate results, cultivate demand and accelerate market development, and reduce non-technical barriers that hinder market penetration.

...DOE seeks to facilitate the market penetration of hydrogen and fuel cell products through higher volume purchases (e.g., hundreds to thousands of units) and promote the Hydrogen Program mission by generating “market pull”—stimulating market demand— for the technologies. Higher volume purchases can lower market barriers and help grow the U.S. economy by (a) enabling developers to move down the learning curve, reduce cost, and develop manufacturing capability; (b) establishing a domestic supplier base; (c) creating green jobs both in the manufacturing sector but also in the fuel cell and hydrogen production industries; (d) increasing public awareness of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies; (e) enabling assessments of infrastructure needs (which will help to develop codes and standards and lay the groundwork for financing); (f) creating a demand for technology developers, which will, in turn, encourage expansion of relevant training and education opportunities; and (g) familiarizing the end-user communities with the technologies. The number of fuel cell deployments has begun to grow in the material handling equipment and backup power markets, in particular. Government agencies such as the Defense Logistics Agency (for material handling equipment) and the Federal Aviation Administration (for backup power), as well as private sector entities including grocers, distribution companies, and others, are starting to incorporate fuel cells into their operations. DOE seeks information on other and related potential early market applications, including but not limited to airport ground support equipment, personal mobility applications, and grounds-keeping equipment, that can contribute to the purchase volumes needed to help lower market barriers, achieve the benefits described above, and accelerate fuel cell market penetration.

...DOE seeks to (1) demonstrate the viability of hydrogen as a storage medium for variable renewable electricity and fuel generation technologies, and (2) address the challenges of using hydrogen from variable renewables to compensate both for short-term mismatches between electricity grid power demand and renewable supply and for providing vehicle fueling capability in a multi-purpose, co-production system.

...DOE seeks to (1) identify and evaluate technical and system engineering opportunities and challenges for deploying biogas/fuel cell applications, (2) evaluate the feasibility of and opportunities for using biogas together with natural gas at specified ratios, and (3) examine potential financing options for biogas/fuel cell deployment projects, including innovative approaches and use of investment tax credits that will lower the needed funding for an entire project.

...DOE is interested in distributed generation CHP projects that use fuel cells as a source of secure, reliable, clean power and heat as an alternative to steam turbines, gas turbines, internal combustion engines, or other traditional CHP prime source.

DEMS FORGET 300 MILLION CARS!

No money for the biggest problem...

Retrofitting Nation’s Gas Guzzlers Fleet Unstimulated in Latest Bailout
Edwin Black     The Cutting Edge    February 16, 2009

    Now that the $787 billion stimulus package has become law, a key emphasis is “green jobs” and energy rescue. But the single most important program in becoming energy independent and regaining financial health is never mentioned in the massive Congressional text. ...That undiscovered program is vehicle “retrofitting” to create a Retrofitting Revolution. ...Compressed natural gas (CNG) and hydrogen are waiting to sweep into America’s garages. Neither CNG nor hydrogen needs a neighborhood gas station infrastructure. Auto makers who say that are continuing to mislead. Home or office refueling devices, such as those now under the control of Honda and largely kept off the market despite surging demand, convert ordinary household oven gas to fuel. Even T. Boone Pickens was unable to purchase the technology to bring these simple home and office refueling devices into common use. ...CNG and hydrogen possibilities dazzle the mind. GM’s hydrogen fuel cell Equinox uses simple electrolyzed water to create the hydrogen gas that powers the car. The Hydrogen Equinox, which has no engine or motor, drives like any other car. So does Honda’s exquisite Hydrogen Clarity....

Overview of Renewable Energy Provisions in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
American Council on Renewable Energy     February 2009
This massive $800 billion spending bill, being truly unprecedented in modern times, will drive new national strategies in renewable energy, smart grid, transmission, advanced vehicles, energy efficiency, and many other aspects of energy, environment, climate and sustainability that were at the heart of the 2008 Presidential election.

WILL HISTORY REPEAT?

"Most of us who recall a bit of history think that constant barbarian invasions caused the western empire to disintegrate, but actually these invasions were only the most immediate cause. In the background were more powerful long-term forces, especially the rising complexity of all parts of Roman society— including its bureaucracy, military forces, cities, economy, and laws—as the empire tried to maintain itself. To support this greater complexity, the empire needed more and more
energy, and eventually it couldn’t find enough. Indeed, its increasingly desperate efforts to get energy only made its bureaucracies and laws more elaborate and sclerotic and its taxes more onerous. In time, the burden on the empire’s peasants became too great, while rising complexity strangled the empire’s ability to renew itself. The collapse that followed was dramatic: populations of cities and towns fell sharply, interregional trade dwindled, banditry and piracy soared, construction of monumental buildings and large-scale infrastructure stopped, and virtually all institutions—from governments to armies—became vastly simpler in their operation and organization."

Thomas Homer-Dixon, author, The Upside of Down

“The governor repeatedly proves he is clueless
as far as how to develop a 21st-century economy.”
Texas State Representative Lon Burnam
Throwback TX Governor Cringes from Impending Carbon Caps
San Antonio Express (TX)     January 2, 2009

How will the new U.S. President deal
with the Great Ethanol Fraud?

The U.S. Government's War on Renewable Energy

Ethanol’s Federal Subsidy Grab Leaves
Little For Solar, Wind And Geothermal

Environmental Working Group     January 2009

    As Congress and the incoming Obama administration plan the nation’s next major investments in green energy, they need to take a hard, clear-eyed look at Department of Energy data documenting corn-based ethanol’s stranglehold on federal renewable energy tax credits and subsidies.
    Solar, wind and other renewable energy sources have struggled to gain significant market share with modest federal support. Meanwhile, corn-based ethanol has accounted for fully three-quarters of the tax benefits and two-thirds of all federal subsidies allotted for renewable energy sources in 2007.
    A little noticed analysis buried in an April 2008 report from the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA)1 shows that the corn-based ethanol industry received $3 billion in tax credits in 2007, more than four times the $690 million in credits available to companies trying to expand all other forms of renewable energy, including solar, wind and geothermal power.
    Ethanol made from corn has extremely limited potential to reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil, and current production systems likely worsen greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover,
despite billions in federal subsidies on top of a government mandate that forces motorists to buy ethanol, the industry’s financial outlook remains highly unstable.

ANOTHER GOVERNMENT GIVEAWAY TO ETHANOL
EPA Raises US Renewable Fuel Standard to 10.21 Percent

Biofuels Digest    November 18, 2008
In Washington, the US Environmental Protection Agency officially raised the 2009 Renewable Fuel Standard to 10.21 percent, or 11.1 billion gallons of ethanol, compared to 7.76 percent or 9 billion gallons in 2008.

ETHANOL INDUSTRY IN COLLAPSE
DESPITE 52-CENT PER GAL SUBSIDY

MGP Ingredients to End Ethanol Production
David Twiddy     AP     February 3, 2009
Renew Energy, Ethanol Producer, Files for Bankruptcy
Bloomberg     February 3, 2009
In Ethanol Bankruptcies, Disputes with Contractors Abound
The Deal     January 30, 2009
Jefferson Ethanol Plant Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Wisconsin Ag Connection     January 30, 2009
Panda Ethanol Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection
Ethanol Producer Magazine     January 29, 2009
VeraSun Energy De-Listed
Zacks     January 26, 2009
Northeast Biofuels' Woes Point to an Industrywide Problem
Post-Standard (NY)     January 25, 2009
Northeast Biofuels Files For Bankruptcy
MSNBC     January 15, 2009
More Ethanol Companies Face Financial Troubles
Feedstuffs (MN)     January 14, 2009
VeraSun Energy Corporation Idles Three Distilleries
HotStocked.com     January 12, 2009
Pacific Ethanol Suspends Production at its Madera Plant
Dale Kasler    Sacramento Bee (California)    January 10, 2009
Pine Lake Corn Processors Ethanol Plant Files Bankruptcy
Dan Piller     Des Moines Register (IA)     December 13, 2008
40 Corn Ethanol Plants Could File For Bankruptcy by Early 2009
Matthew McDermott     Treehugger     November 19, 2008
Pacific Ethanol 3Q Loss Widens to $69 Millon

Biofuels Digest    November 18, 2008
 Indiana Producers Say the Industry Is No Longer a Sure Bet
John Russell    Indianapolis Star (IN)    November 16, 2008
VeraSun Says Q3 Operating Loss as High as $637 Million!!
Biofuels Digest     November 14, 2008
Construction On Huge Aventine Ethanol Plant Grinds to Halt
Indianapolis Business Journal     November 14, 2008
Pacific Ethanol Reports $54 Million Loss: Liquidity Questioned
Biofuels Digest    November 11, 2008
VeraSun Energy Bankruptcy Poses Perils for Farmers, Elevators
Roger McEowen    Iowa State U Center for Agricultural Law    November 6, 2008
Judge Approves Auction for Pratt Ethanol Plant
Wichita Eagle (KN)    October 30, 2008
Greater Ohio Ethanol Files Chapter 11
Biofuels Digest    October 17, 2008
Gateway Ethanol Files for Chapter 11

Biofuels Digest    October 9, 2008
Agri Energy, Parent of Beatrice Biodiesel, Files Chapter 7

Biofuels Digest    September 16, 2008
Biofuel Energy Faces Bankruptcy
Biofuels Digest    August 15, 2008
German Farmers Face Wipeout in Campa Bankruptcy
Biofuels Digest    August 4, 2008
Renova Energy, Parent of Wyoming Ethanol, Files Chapter 11
Scottsbluff Star-Herald (NE)    June 25, 2008
Ethanex Energy Files for Bankruptcy
Biofuels Digest    March 25, 2008
Bioenergy of America Chapter 11 Restructuring Collapses
Biofuels Digest    February 27, 2008
Bioenergy of America Files for Bankruptcy

Biofuels Digest    January 9, 2008
E3 Biofuels Files for Bankruptcy

Biofuels Digest    December 3, 2007
Mead Ethanol Plant Filing Bankruptcy

Omaha World-Herald    November 30, 2007

"If government funds become short,
subsidies for fuels will be looked at very carefully.  When they are, there's no way ethanol production can survive."

Tad Patzek,
University of California Berkeley
UC Scientist Says Ethanol UsesMore Energy Than It Makes
Elizabeth Svoboda    San Francisco Chronicle    June 27, 2005

U.S. Ethanol Fad Dries Up
K. Allison and S. Kirchgaessner     Financial Times (UK)    Oct 21, 2008

    Investors, such as Microsoft’s Bill Gates, are sitting on billions of dollars in losses after buying into the corn-based ethanol industry that George W. Bush embraced as the answer to US energy woes.
....Investors who bought and held shares in hotly anticipated market listings of Aventine Renewable Energy, VeraSun Energy and other ethanol producers that have gone public since 2005, have seen the value of their holdings plummet as much as 90 per cent from their flotation price, in spite of billions of dollars of government support for the industry.

Ethanol Group's PBS Protest May Reveal Industry Panic

David Greising     Chicago Tribune (IL)    October 24, 2008
    The Renewable Fuels Association has put a twist on the old Holmes deduction. In attacking "Heat," an examination of climate change issues by the Public Broadcasting System's "Frontline" program, the RFA has made a ruckus over something it should have left alone...
This is the program the Ethanol Industry were protesting:
Outstanding PBS Frontline Special
HEAT: Can We Roll Back Global Warming?
WATCH IT ONLINE!

Oct 21, 2008
  For years, big business -- from oil and coal companies to electric utilities to car manufacturers -- have resisted change to environmental policy and stifled the debate over climate change in America and around the globe. Now, facing rising pressure from governments, green groups and investors alike, big business is reshaping its approach to the environment. With the election looming, FRONTLINE producer Martin Smith investigates what some businesses are doing to fend off new regulations and how others are repositioning themselves to prosper in a radically changed world.
From the transcript:
Prof. DANIEL KAMMEN, U.C. Berkeley Inst. of the Environment:
Corn ethanol is simply a bad biofuel. And it's a bad biofuel several times over. We, in this country, have optimized corn, ironically, to be as greenhouse-gas-intensive as possible. We reward farmers for using more fertilizer, more irrigation because those things have been cheap historically. So we have lots of greenhouse gasses and carbon embedded in what it takes to grow an ear of corn. And the analysis that my lab and many others have done says very clearly that corn is simply not a good feed stock for biofuels.
MARTIN SMITH:
Regardless, the corn lobby continues to throw its weight around Washington and has helped the auto companies win a fuel efficiency credit for every E85 car they sell, even though very few drivers have access to ethanol filling stations.
[on camera] You say you have 2.5 million E85-ready vehicles on the road.

BETH LOWERY:
Yes.
MARTIN SMITH:
How many of those are actually using ethanol?
BETH LOWERY:
Well, there's a few pumps there, and also-
MARTIN SMITH:
A few. But there's not much.
BETH LOWERY:
Right. It's not widespread.
MARTIN SMITH:
Negligible amounts.
BETH LOWERY:
It's not widespread.
MARTIN SMITH:
[voice-over] In fact, out of a total of 120,000 gas stations nationwide, only 1,600 offer ethanol, most in the Midwest. California has just 10, New Jersey none.
[on camera] We've invested a lot of money in ethanol. Is that getting us anything?

AMY MYERS JAFFE, Baker Institute, Rice Univ.:
The corn-based ethanol program is going to be considered one of the biggest follies ever implemented in energy policy anywhere in the world in the history of energy policy.


"Look, Ma. No food!"

  • Peak Oil: Hydrogen critic Richard Heinberg takes a sobering look at global agriculture running short of fossil fuel in
    The Food and Farming Transition

    Global Public Media     November 2008

  • Another Inconvenient Truth
    How biofuel policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change   58 pages   Oxfam International    June 25, 2008

Reading the Tea Leaves of an Economic Meltdown
Scott Sklar     Renewable Energy World     December 3, 2008
Leveraged government procurement programs along with changes in utilization of federal tax credits (so as to have refundability and transferability) seem to be the critically appropriate measures.

 

BREAKING NEWS
DEMS CLEAN HOUSE!
DEMOCRATS REMOVE BIG OIL/COAL/AUTO PROXY DINGELL FROM HOUSE ENERGY LEADERSHIP

Henry Waxman
Henry Waxman defeats John Dingell
for Chairmanship of House Energy and Commerce Committee

    John Dingell was the top recipient of coal money in this most recent election. Since 2000, John Dingell has received an amazing 33 times more from the oil and coal industries than Henry Waxman has.  89 percent of Congress is cleaner than John Dingell is. On average, Dingell and his allies have received nearly six times as much money from Big Oil as those Democrats that support Waxman, and nine times as much money from King Coal. - Oil Change International
    For more than half a century, Dingell has fought virtually every regulation the automakers have opposed, from seatbelts and airbags to tailpipe emissions and fuel-efficiency standards. His position as chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has given him enormous influence over such matters. -
Edmonds.com

Who The Hell Do We Thank?
 As we witness the financial system of the free world in collapse, there are striking similarities between the rapacious behavior of the energy companies and the rapacious behavior of the financial institutions.
Commentary by Richard D. Masters, ICHC
November 14, 2008

   Here at the International Clearinghouse for Hydrogen Commerce, we tend to look at things from the viewpoint that pretty much everything that happens in the world is a result of energy choices.
    Overwhelmingly bad energy choices.
    But we are not talking about energy choices that you make. We are talking about energy choices that are made for you by the powerful centralized energy corporations that have used their vast wealth to to usurp democratic principals to guide the strategic policy of formerly free countries, as well as to purchase the control of corrupt, tyrannical ones. This enables the highest profit from resource plundering with the bonus of non-accountability.
    This is nothing less than a war and a coup on what was the United States of America, the principles she was founded upon and her grossly unaware population. During the past eight years, it has changed the face of America in the eyes of the greater part of the world from friend to foe, creating a much more dangerous world where military and financial adventurism, corrupt media, national pride and terrorism can be manipulated in the shadows to establish inflated commodity prices and a vastly effective market instability designed to steal wealth away from virtually every assumed safe haven - from your mutual funds to your 401k to your life insurance to your savings account.
    The people doing this to you are of the same ilk as the oil corporations the government has allowed to despoil lands of people in Africa and South America to supply you with cheap gasoline for grossly oversized vehicles. They are of the same ilk as those in congress who concocted the Great Ethanol Fraud, a zero-sum game that, in concert with rising oil prices, drove food prices beyond reach of many of the world's poorest to reward political primary states, agricultural campaign donors and wealthy investors in a host of erupting companies now going bankrupt. Meanwhile, research and support for true renewable energy went begging. Companies with years of taxpayer funded investment, with promising technologies on the verge of fruition, went bankrupt or were acquired by foreign nations - or soon will be.
    This was our true flower.

    From the vantage of our current precipitous and accelerating decline into economic chaos, recession and likely depression, it is clear that a terrible and catastrophic seed was planted long ago, when corporations were first granted charter. A responsibility for the well-being of the earth, upon which we humans live, was not considered. A requirement for compassion and respect for human beings was left out. The only mandate was profit, preferably uncontrolled,  unregulated profit (Enron). And this profit was and is greatly enhanced by ignoring ethical concerns and disastrous environmental, therefore anti-human, impacts. These costs and consequences were and are brutally dumped on powerless non-consumer populations or absorbed by consumer populations who have been taught to accept them as a necessary part of economic life. For the corporations, the only concern, the only goal, is higher profit. Human beings have value as consumers of their goods. But if they cannot consume, or if they get in the way of profit, they are swept aside like spilled garbage.
      We have been led to justify the belief, through our educational institutions, government policies and financial markets, that global fossil energy resources are simply a commodity suitable for sale to the highest bidder. Yet in America we call these deposits a "precious national resource."
    There is an obvious contradiction in this. A dichotomy.
    It would be logical to expect every geographical segment of mankind to hoard whatever fossil reserves it was blessed with to enable emergence from poverty into technological prominence, creating high-tech industry and high-tech jobs, ending hunger and disease, and most importantly, laying the foundation for the next step: the necessary transition from anti-human, centralized, depletable, dirty fossil energy to pro-human, distributed, sustainable clean energy. What would follow then is surely of higher promise.
    No population would willingly give up this God-given opportunity for a better future. No, it would have to be taken from them, stolen from them by force. By surrendering democracy for corporate energy rampage in the name of democracy, the United States, by wielding its military might to seize oil states and pipeline routes to the West,  has lost its credibility with much of the world.
    And with this light extinguished comes a dire foreboding of more darkness to come.
    Many hold out hope that the election of Obama will turn around the dark and fearful momentum of Energy Imperialism. Others see the two party system as nothing but two sides of the same coin held in the grip of corporate/military/media overlords that are much too powerful to confront.

    Fossil energy exploitation made America a wealthy, modern and powerful nation. We utilized our own fossil deposits to achieve this, creating modern postwar America with little importation of oil. It was not until the middle 1960s, when our cheap oil peaked, that our dependence on Middle Eastern oil began in earnest.
    This was the time when our government first incentivized the move to domestic energy. Although this effort toward sustainability was encouraged by Nixon (nuclear) and made significant headway under Carter in the 1970s (synthetic fuels from coal), in the 1980s it was halted by Reagan (decontrol), who was too preoccupied with his brilliant economic assault on the Soviet Union to understand the dire  consequences of his failure to continue the struggle for energy self-reliance.
    The Reagan Era marked the beginning of the War on Renewable Energy by the centralized energy corporations. Big Oil and natural gas, now freed from the price controls they had struggled under since Nixon's extraordinary break with conservative economic theory, along with Big Oil's centralized energy cohorts from nuclear and coal, began to funnel their new-found profits toward the cravenly palm-up members in the U.S. Congress, gradually subverting the basic principals of democracy and, following the abject ethical failure of the Republicans to follow through with their Contract for America in the 1990s, ultimately buying up the influence of the entire Republican Party.
In less than 20 years, the Republicans were voting as a block in concert with the oil companies' wishes over 90% of the time.
    The U.S. government and the oil companies had, in effect, become one. While a great show between the political parties seemingly raged in Congress, the 911 atrocity by Arab nationalists seeking to drive existing U.S. military entrenchment out of the Middle East backfired, ultimately resulting in the seizure of the Iraqi oil fields and oil pipeline routes from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean. This could never have been achieved without complete control of the dominant political party and proxies at the top of the Executive Branch who handed Big Oil our armed forces on a silver platter.

    In much the same way that IBM viewed the nescient PC, the expansion of renewable energy was denigrated and regarded by centralized energy as a relatively insignificant but easily managed threat. For many years, low crude and coal prices presented an insurmountable barrier to wind power expansion. Then, as turbines became more robust, Production Tax Credits were allowed to pass to level the playing field between upstart wind and established energy, but never were they permitted to extend for the sufficiently long period that banks would find attractive for financing the capital expenditure that would make wind a potential competitor.
    The nuclear and coal industries ran decades-long disinformation campaigns against wind power, secretly recognizing the threat but publicly dismissing it. Big Oil spent millions on disinformation on the effects of pollution on climate change, possibly the greatest threat mankind will ever face, delaying the potential solution and loading the atmosphere with countless tons of carbon dioxide and pollutants.
    Awash in money, the U.S. educational system was allowed to deteriorate as the populace was bombarded with disinformation from every side.
    Why?
    Because stupid people are so easy to manipulate.
    So very easy.

   
Richard D. Masters is a former Ayn Rand Objectivist and Republican Central Committee member who once believed that corporations created opportunity.

“There will be a revolution in this country.
It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen.”
Gerald Celente, CEO
Trends Research Institute

Renowned Trend Forcaster Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions in U.S.
Paul Joseph Watson  Prison Planet/Bellaciao (EU)  November 14, 2008   

Oil Change International


    The fight for the direction of the Democratic Party, and thus Congress, has begun in earnest.  Will the historic election of Barack Obama herald real change?  Or will it just be business as usual for the oil and coal industries in sheep's clothing?
    We're about to find out - and you can help Congress decide. Next week Democrats in Congress will make decisions on committee leadership. No committee is more important for potential action on energy and climate than the House Energy and Commerce Committee. For years, that committee has been controlled by 82 year old Representative John Dingell of Michigan, the biggest Democratic friend of the oil, auto and coal industries.
    This is a problem.  You can help solve it.
    Representative Henry Waxman of California has announced his intention to challenge Dingell for the Chairmanship of this vital committee.  Waxman, who is one of the most progressive members of Congress, would indeed represent real change.
    I'm asking you to contact your Democratic Representative and let them know that you support Henry Waxman as Chair of the Energy & Commerce Committee.  If you live in a district represented by a Republican, or if your district just became Democratic, please contact Speaker Nancy Pelosi at AmericanVoices [at] mail.house.gov.
    There are many reasons to prefer Henry Waxman over John Dingell.  Here are a few:
- John Dingell was the top recipient of coal money in this most recent election.
- Since 2000, John Dingell has received an amazing 33 times more from the oil and coal industries than Henry Waxman has.  89 percent of Congress is cleaner than John Dingell is.
- On average, Dingell and his allies have received nearly six times as much money from Big Oil as those Democrats that support Waxman, and nine times as much money from King Coal.
    It's really important that we act on this today The fossil fuel industry is already moving to support Dingell. We need to counter them right now. In short, this battle is between the future and the past of Congress, and the country. 
    We need to win it, and yes, we can.
    Yours for a Separation of Oil & State,

Steve Kretzmann, Executive Director

PS - We really need all the support we can get right now.  Every bit helps.  Thanks so much for anything you can do right now.

    "To date, we have had no leadership capable of moving the world in a new direction. President Obama can be this leader, he will be the catalyst for the dawn of the solar revolution and the beginning of the transition to a truly renewable economy."
  
 J. Peter Lynch, Financial Analyst
   
How Will Renewables Fare in the New Political Environment?
       Renewable Energy World     November 5, 2008

 
"We no longer have a country.
We don't have a republic any more.
...They managed to destroy the United States. Why? Because they're oil and gas people
and they're essentially criminals."
Author Gore Vidal
 Gore Vidal:  'The US is Not a Republic Anymore'
PressTV (IR)     June 30, 2008

"Democracy is not working
the way it's intended to work."

James Hanson, NASA Climate Scientist

"We must end the Age of Oil in our time."
Senator Barak Obama
Lansing, Michigan     August 4, 2008

BIG OIL'S MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

"[John McCain thinks] Americans are so stupid — so bloody stupid — that if you just show them wind turbines in your Olympics ad they’ll actually think you showed up and voted for such renewable power — when you didn’t."
Eight Strikes and You’re Out   
NY Times
 
Thomas Friedman
Author of
Hot, Flat & Crowded
Why we need a Green Revolution and how it can renew America

Senate Voting Record on Renewable Energy

"Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the 8th time. John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time."
Thomas Friedman
                                                                                The New York Times     August 12, 2008

McCain: Palin Most Knowledgeable Person on Energy in United States of America!
Sarah Palin - Her Record on Renewable Energy
Andrew Williams     Red, Green and Blue    September 11, 2008

    In 2007, she stalled the Fire Island Wind Farm Project by placing a veto on $20 million of state support. Even though she later rescinded this decision, enabling the project to move ahead, she has vetoed a further $268 million in budget items this year, including other renewables projects; This same budget contributed $2 million towards a bizarre conference to “highlight arguments that global warming isn’t threatening the survival of polar bears.” In opposition to the recommendations of state biologists, she has also argued against listing the polar bear as endangered; Due to lack of financial support, several renewable energy projects in the state have been stalled; The Alaskan policy of distributing the state’s ‘oil royalties fund’ to residents, instead of ploughing it back into clean energy development, has led some commentators to suggest that any sort of large scale renewables infrastructure is doomed from the start.

WILL PALIN NEXT APPLY HER NEW "OIL DEPENDENCE" FORMULA FOR
ALASKAN "ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY" TO THE U.S. ECONOMY?

Rather Than Invest in Renewable Energy, Palin Declares Alaskan Fuel Tax Holiday, Extends Credit for Village Fuel Purchases, and Gives Away State Oil Revenue as $1200 Cash Gift to Residents (to pay Big Oil for higher fuel costs and to secure voter loyalty)
-- RDM
Palin Signs Energy Package
Office of the Governor     State of Alaska     August 25, 2008

    Governor Sarah Palin today signed legislation that will help Alaskans combat the high cost of energy. ...SB 4002 uses revenues generated from the state’s natural resources to provide a one-time special payment of $1,200 to every Alaskan eligible for the 2008 Permanent Fund dividend. The bill also raises by 50 percent the maximum amount of loans that bulk fuel bridge and bulk fuel revolving loan funds can make to communities and cooperatives.

Palin Cuts Money for Energy Research
Stefan Milkowski     Fairbnaks Daily News-Miner (Alaska)     May 29, 2008

    Gwen Holdmann, the group’s director, said Tuesday the $500,000 in state funding was needed as a match for federal grant money. “It really cripples us in our ability to bring federal funding,” she said of the governor’s veto. Holdmann said she was hoping to use some of the funding to bring a top expert in geothermal energy to Alaska to help develop a research program in the field. She said she also applied for federal grants to study new technologies involving river current, tidal energy, and combined wind and diesel power systems.

Palin Kills Chugach Electric Wind Farm Funding
Rindi White     Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)     June 30, 2007

    Palin vetoed $71.5 million in requested fund projects, including
$20 million for a Chugach Electric Association wind farm.

TALK RADIO AND NEANDERTHAL CONGRESSMEN VS. CLIMATE SCIENCE

 The number of papers classified as predicting,  implying, or providing supporting evidence  for  future global cooling, warming, and neutral categories during the period  from 1965 through 1979, our  literature survey found 7 cooling, 20 neutral, and 44 warming papers. Chart: Thomas C. Peterson, William M. Connolley, and John Fleck

The Myth of the 1970s
Global Cooling Scientific Consensus

There was no scientific consensus in the 1970s that the Earth was headed into an imminent ice age. Indeed, the possibility of anthropogenic warming dominated the peer-reviewed literature even then.
Thomas C. Peterson, William M. Connolley, and John Fleck
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society   
September 2008

    When the myth of the 1970s global cooling scare arises in contemporary discussion over climate change, it is most often in the form of citations not to the scientific literature, but to news media coverage. That is where U.S. Senator James Inhofe turned for much of the evidence to support his argument in a U.S. Senate floor speech in 2003. Chief among his evidence was a frequently cited Newsweek story: “The cooling world” (Gwynne 1975). The story drew from the latest global temperature records, and suggested that cooling “may portend a drastic decline for food production.” Citing the Kuklas’work on increasing Northern Hemisphere snow and ice, and Reid Bryson’s concerns about a long-term cooling trend, the Newsweek story juxtaposes the possibility of cooling temperatures and decreasing food production with rising global populations. Other articles of the time featured similar themes.
    Even cursory review of the news media coverage of the issue reveals that, just as there was no consensus at the time among scientists, so was there also no consensus among journalists. For example, these are titles from two New York Times articles: “Scientists ask why world climate is changing; major cooling may be ahead” (Sullivan 1975) and “Warming trend seen in climate; two articles counter view that cold period is due” (Sullivan 1975). Equally juxtaposed were The Cooling (Ponte 1976), which was published the year after Hothouse Earth (Wilcox 1975).
    However, the news coverage of the time does reflect what New York Times science writer Andrew Revkin calls “the tyranny of the news peg,” based on the idea that reporters need a “peg” on which to hang a story. Developments that are dramatic or new tend to draw the news media’s attention, Revkin argues, rather than the complexity of a nuanced discussion within the scientific community (Revkin 2005). A handy peg for climate stories during the 1970s was the cold weather.

"While the northern edge of her state literally falls into the rising Arctic Ocean, Sarah Palin says, ‘The jury is still out on global warming.’"

And Then There Was One
Thomas Friedman     New York Times     September 2, 2008

    With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.
    Given the fact that Senator McCain deliberately avoided voting on all eight attempts to pass a bill extending the vital tax credits and production subsidies to expand our wind and solar industries, and given his support for lowering the gasoline tax in a reckless giveaway that would only promote more gasoline consumption and intensify our addiction to oil, and given his desire to make more oil-drilling, not innovation around renewable energy, the centerpiece of his energy policy — in an effort to mislead voters that support for drilling today would translate into lower prices at the pump today — McCain has forfeited any claim to be a green candidate.
    ...Palin’s nomination for vice president and her desire to allow drilling in the Alaskan wilderness “reminded me of a lunch I had three and half years ago with one of the Russian trade attachés,” global trade consultant Edward Goldberg said to me. “After much wine, this gentleman told me that his country was very pleased that the Bush administration wanted to drill in the Alaskan wilderness. In his opinion, the amount of product one could actually derive from there was negligible in terms of needs. However, it signified that the Bush administration was not planning to do anything to create alternative energy, which of course would threaten the economic growth of Russia.”

State Will Sue Over Polar Bear Listing, Palin Says
Dan Joling     Anchorage Daily News/AP     May 22, 2008
    Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, during summers are unreliable, Palin said.
    The announcement drew a strong response from the primary author of the listing petition.
    "She's either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading, and both are unbecoming," said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Alaska deserves better."
    Siegel said it was unconscionable for Palin to ignore overwhelming evidence of global warming's threat to sea ice, the polar bear's habitat.
    The WWF said observations on ice coverage and thickness pointed toward a record low for the second year in a row, continuing a "catastrophic" trend that could threaten polar wildlife and accelerate global warming.
    "If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably less ice overall in the Arctic this year than in any other year since monitoring began," said Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate adviser of the WWF's Arctic program.

Melting Arctic Shows Need for Climate Pact
CNN/AP     September 15, 2008

'America's Outrageous War Economy!'
Pentagon can't find $2.3 trillion, wasting trillions on 'national defense'
Paul E. Farrell     MarketWatch     August 18, 2008

"At a time when unemployment is at a four-year high and the economy needs every stimulus it can get, a rapid extension of the credit should be on any economic priority list for Congress."
Randall Swisher, Executive Director
American Wind Energy Asociation
Policy Uncertainty Weighs on Wind Industry
Christine Real de Azua     AWEA     August 14, 2008

NY ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO
FILES LAWSUIT TO FORCE BUSH EPA
TO CONTROL GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION FROM BIG OIL REFINERIES

Office of the NY Attorney General Andrew M Cuomo     August 25, 2008

Cuomo's Coalition of Twelve States, the District of Columbia, and the City of New York Sues EPA for Refusing to Adopt Pollution Controls, Violating Clean Air Act ~ Today's Action is the Latest Front in New York's Effort to Fight Global Warming

NEW YORK, NY (August 25, 2008) - Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced he is suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to adopt regulations that control emissions of global warming pollution from oil refineries. Cuomo is leading a group of twelve states, the District of Columbia, and the City of New York in a suit that challenges the EPA's refusal to require new or renovated oil refineries to install technologies that control global warming pollution, in violation of the Clean Air Act.
    The EPA's refusal to control pollution from oil refineries is the latest example of the Bush Administrations do-nothing policy on global warming, said Cuomo. Oil refineries contribute substantially to global warming, posing grave threats to New York's environment, health, and economy. As long as the Bush EPA continues its blatant violation of the Clean Air Act and its shameful refusal to control global warming pollution, I will continue to fight them aggressively on all fronts.
    Cuomo's suit announced today charges that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act when it refused to issue standards - known as New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) - for controlling global warming pollution emissions from oil refineries. These standards ensure that new or renovated sources of air pollution install state-of-the-art emissions control technologies. The Clean Air Act specifically requires the EPA to adopt NSPS for oil refineries, as well as power plants and other major stationary sources, if the EPA determines they emit air pollution that poses a danger public health and welfare. Nonetheless, on June 24, 2008, the EPA finalized new air pollution control regulations for oil refineries without setting a NSPS for global warming pollution.
    Oil refineries account for over 3% of the total energy consumption in the United States. Due to their large energy consumption, oil refineries are major sources of carbon dioxide, accounting for almost 15% of the carbon dioxide emitted from industrial processes nationally. These refineries also emit large amounts of methane, an especially potent global warming pollutant.
    The suit announced today by Cuomo is the latest front in the battle that New York and other states are waging to force the EPA to use its authority under the Clean Air Act to control sources of global warming pollution. For example, Cuomo is leading coalitions of states in lawsuits to require the EPA to set NSPS for global warming pollution emissions from power plants and to uphold the right of states to regulate pollution emissions from automobiles.
    I am committed to using the power of my Office to step in when the federal government has failed to take action on critical issues affecting New York, said Cuomo. The EPA's repeated failure to control global warming pollution will not go unchallenged by New York State.
    Today's challenge was filed in the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Joining Cuomo in the action are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia and the City of New York. The suit seeks to vacate the EPA's decision not to control oil refinery emissions of global warming pollution and to order the EPA to adopt proper NSPS. Although no petroleum refineries operate within New York State, major contributors to global warming are an acute concern to the State as they pose severe threats to its environment, public health, and economy.
    The case is being handled by Assistant Attorneys General Morgan Costello and Michael Myers of the Environmental Protection Bureau, under the supervision of Special Deputy Attorney General for Environmental Protection Katherine Kennedy.

  WIND, SOLAR, WAVE, GEOTHERMAL, AND OTHER NEW CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES THREATEN THE FOSSIL AND NUCLEAR MONOPOLY THAT OWNS MOST SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN.
  THE U
.S. GOVERNMENT SHUNS RENEWABLE ENERGY AT ALL COSTS, AS DEMONSTRATED BY THE SENATE'S CYNICAL PASSAGE OF AN UNFUNDED, 1-YEAR EXTENSION OF THE PRODUCTION TAX CREDIT FOR WIND.  BANKS ARE SUPPOSED TO PROVIDE 30-YEAR FINANCING BASED ON THIS? NO WONDER THE HOUSE KILLED IT.
  WHILE OTHER COUNTRIES HIKE GAS TAXES TO FINANCE RENEWABLE INFRASTRUCTURE, A U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CALLS FOR A GAS TAX HOLIDAY.
  AND THE CYNICAL PURPOSE OF THE
GREAT ETHANOL FRAUD IS TO DRAW OFF FUNDING FROM TRUE RENEWABLE SOLUTIONS.
  YEARS OF TAXPAYER INVESTMENT IN NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES IS SQUANDERED AS COMPANIES SEEK FOREIGN MARKETS OR ARE ACQUIRED BY FOREIGN INTERESTS.
  THE LACK OF EFFECTIVE ENERGY ALTERNATIVES KEEPS THE PRICES OF OIL PRODUCTS HIGH, WHILE OUR MILITARY HAS BEEN HIJACKED TO SERVE THE NEEDS OF INTERNATIONAL OIL CORPORATIONS AND DRACONIAN FOREIGN DESPOTS -- ALL THIS HAS BEEN PAID FOR BY LYING TO TAXPAYERS ABOUT INFLATION AND TRUE COSTS, THEN ROBBING THEM OF THEIR SAVINGS VIA DISHONEST FINANCIAL MANIPULATIONS, RESULTING IN A DEVALUED CURRENCY.
  THERE IS NO PLAN FOR THE FUTURE.
  THERE IS NO VISION.
  INERTIA RULES RAMPAGE.
  THIS COUNTRY IS BROKEN AND WE ARE IN BIG, BIG TROUBLE.
--  RDM

"[John MaCain thinks] Americans are so stupid — so bloody stupid — that if you just show them wind turbines in your Olympics ad they’ll actually think you showed up and voted for such renewable power — when you didn’t."
Thomas Friedman, author and New York Times columnist
Eight Strikes and You’re Out
Thomas Friedman     The New York Times     August 12, 2008
 

“Because Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency continues to wantonly ignore its duty to regulate pollution, California is forced to seek judicial action.”
Edmund G. Brown Jr.
                         California Attorney General

Ca. Atty. Gen. Brown To Sue EPA For Failing
To Regulate Ship, Aircraft And Industrial Emissions

California Office of the Attorney General     July 31, 2008

 

ANOTHER BLACK DAY FOR AMERICA

Republican Senators vote as a bloc to protect oil profits
from the threat of limitless renewable energy
-- RDM
Renewable Energy Tax Credit Legislation Voted Down
in U.S. Senate

Renewable Energy World     July 31, 2008
“Time is running out to extend the solar tax credits and without passage in the immediate future, tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars will be lost in new solar investment. Already companies are putting projects on hold and preparing to send thousands of jobs overseas — real jobs that would otherwise be filled by American workers. Failure to extend the solar tax credits is a severe blow to an industry that has proven to be an economic engine for the U.S. at a time when we need it most."
Rhone Resch, President, Solar Energy Industries Association

“With today’s technology, we can produce hydrogen for less than the cost of gasoline.… The technology to create hydrogen cheaply has been around for quite some time. The challenge is to get it to the fueling stations.”
Patrick Serfass, National Hydrogen Association
Clean-burning, Cheap-hydrogen Cars
Start High-profile Road Trip

Meggan Clark      KeepMECurrent      July 31, 2008

    What these tax credits are designed to do is to stimulate investments by many players in solar and wind so these technologies can quickly move down the learning curve and become competitive with coal and oil — which is why some people are trying to block them. As Richard K. Lester, an energy-innovation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, notes, “The best chance we have — perhaps the only chance” of addressing the combined challenges of energy supply and demand, climate change and energy security “is to accelerate the introduction of new technologies for energy supply and use and deploy them on a very large scale.”
Eight Strikes and You’re Out
Thomas Friedman     The New York Times     August 12, 2008

REPUBLICANS NOW TARGET THE LAST VESTIGES OF AMERICA'S WILDERNESS, PARKS AND COASTLINES FOR OIL EXPLOITATION BY THEIR INTERNATIONAL MASTERS WHILE THEY STEADFASTLY REFUSE TO ALLOW A TRANSITION TO RENEWABLE FUELS, EVEN AS U.S. CITIZENS AND BUSINESS SLOWLY STRANGLE ON RISING GASOLINE AND DIESEL COSTS.
MANY SHORT-SIGHTED AMERICANS SUPPORT THIS PILLAGE AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR CHILDREN'S HERITAGE. THEY MUST ASK THEMSELVES, "IF WE DRAIN THE LAST OF NORTH AMERICA'S OIL WITHOUT DEVELOPING A RENEWABLE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE NOW, WHILE WE CAN STILL AFFORD TO DO IT, WHAT WILL OUR CHILDREN HAVE LEFT? WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THEM IF WE FAIL TO REPLACE OUR EXHAUSTED OIL RESERVES WITH SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVES? WHO WILL RULE THEM IF WE LEAVE THEM HELPLESS?"   
-- RDM

GM Posts $15.5 Billion Loss
Ford and Toyota Sales Plunge
BMW's Profit Slides 33%
 

"Oil!
Nukes!!

Coal!
Oil!
Nukes!!
Coal!"

"Oil!
Nukes!!

Coal!
Oil!
Nukes!!
Coal!"

An urgent message from the League of Conservation Voters  7/17/08

We're so deep in a hole, you'd think we'd stop drilling...

Unfortunately not everyone agrees. Big Oil's allies in Congress are trying to scoop up more land for drilling—including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Later today, President Bush is expected to go so far as to repeal the long-standing executive ban on offshore drilling put in place by his own father.

This is not only an environmental disaster, it will give us zero relief from gas prices and will pad Big Oil's bottom line. That's a raw deal.

Every week, we can expect a new, outrageous drilling provision. And we urgently need your support to stop them! Please give today—there will be votes on drilling in the next TWO weeks.

Donate today to help LCV stop the legislative madness and environmental destruction.

Big Oil's cronies in Congress are using high gas prices as an excuse for this greedy land grab, and they plan to make this a major campaign issue. Even some of our pro-environment friends in Congress are feeling pressure to support drilling legislation. But renowned oil businessman T. Boone Pickens is publicly broadcasting a different message: "I've been an oilman all my life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."

We believe that the facts will triumph over the fear mongering, but we need your support to keep up the fight and deliver our message to Congress:

  • America simply can't drill its way out of this problem. Our supply (less than 3% of world oil reserves) can't possibly keep up with our demand (25% of world oil consumption). A few drops of oil, up to a decade away from making it to market, cannot alleviate our pain at the pump.
  • There are almost 70 million acres of proven reserves in Big Oil's possession where absolutely no drilling is taking place. As long as gas prices continue to rise, so does the value of the reserves they're sitting on.
  • We need consumer choices, such as plug-in hybrids and other fuel efficient cars—not a greater addiction to oil. Cutting subsidies for Big Oil and giving rebates to consumers would be true short-term relief.

The ban on offshore drilling, which has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades, is in real danger. Both President Bush and Senator John McCain have recently reversed their position and now support this land grab.

Your support today will allow us to conduct valuable polling in battleground states on this issue, lobby key Members of Congress, and place ads to educate consumers that drilling will not provide them with the relief they need.

Your gift to LCV will go a long way toward protecting our environment from irresponsible drilling—and truly rescuing us from our energy crisis.

Thank you, Norman, for your continued support of the League of Conservation Voters. We'll never match Big Oil's resources dollar-for-dollar. But backed by your commitment, I know we will be able to build a clean energy future.

Sincerely,


Gene Karpinski
League of Conservation Voters

---- JUNE 20, 2008 ----
BUSH INVOKES
EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE TO SAVE BIG OIL FROM CO2 RESPONSIBILITY


 
"I don't think we've had a situation like this since Richard Nixon was president; where the president of the United States may have been involved in acting contrary to law, and the evidence that would determine that question for Congress in exercising our oversight is being blocked by an assertion of executive privilege."
Henry Waxman, Chairman
U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
White House Asserts Executive Privilege in EPA Investigation
Erica Werner     AP     June 20, 2008
Waxman contends the White House intervened with EPA to produce more industry-friendly outcomes in setting new smog standards and denying California and more than a dozen other states permission to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.
 


Opening Statement of Rep. Henry A. Waxman
Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Business Meeting Regarding the Contempt Resolution June 20, 2008

    For months, the Committee has been investigating EPA's decision to prevent California and other states from reducing greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles and its decision to adopt new ozone air quality standards weaker than those recommended by the agency's scientific experts.
    These investigations have shown that the decisions in these important environmental matters were made not at EPA, but in the White House. In both cases, the scientists, the agency career staff, and EPA Administrator Johnson wanted to take stronger action to protect the environment. And in both cases, the White House rejected the agency's position.
    Today the President has asserted executive privilege to prevent the Committee from learning why he and his staff overruled EPA. There are thousands of internal White House documents that would show whether the President and his staff acted lawfully. But the President has said they must be kept from Congress and the public.
    In the case of the California motor vehicle standards, we learned that EPA's experts and career staff all supported granting the California petition. In a briefing prepared for Stephen Johnson, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA's own lawyers said: "we don't believe there are any good arguments against granting the waiver. All of the arguments ... are likely to lose in court if we are sued."
    Administrator Johnson listened and was prepared to support a partial approval to California's request. But then the White House intervened. In December, after secret communications with White House officials, Administrator Johnson ignored the law and the evidence and denied California's petition.
    In the case of the ozone standards, the same pattern happened. We learned that EPA's expert advisory panel unanimously recommended a new standard for protecting the environment. After considering all of the alternatives, Administrator Johnson agreed with the new approach.
    He was opposed, however, by industry and Susan Dudley, the Administrator of the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. And once again, the White House intervened. On the evening before the final rule was released, President Bush rejected the unanimous recommendation of both EPA's experts and Administrator Johnson and instructed EPA to abandon the new standard.
    The Clean Air Act is clear about what can be considered and what cannot be considered when EPA makes decisions under its authority. In both cases, the EPA's methodical and scientific process pointed to specific outcomes. In both cases, the outcome dramatically changed when the White House became involved.
    This Committee has a fundamental obligation to learn the truth about what actually happened on these critical health and environmental decisions. That is why we have been seeking documents in both cases that would provide important details about the President's role in directing Administrator Johnson's actions.
    This morning I have been informed that the White House is asserting executive privilege over thousands of documents the Committee is seeking. This is an extraordinary step. Administrator Johnson has repeatedly insisted he reached his decisions on California's petition and the new ozone standard on his own, relying on his best judgment.
    Today's assertion of executive privilege raises serious questions about Administrator Johnson's credibility and the involvement of the President. Without the remaining documents, it will be nearly impossible to fully understand the President's role in overruling the unanimous recommendations of EPA's own experts.
    We had scheduled a vote on a contempt resolution for this morning for Mr. Johnson and Ms. Dudley. We will not have that vote in light of the executive privilege claim. I want to talk with my colleagues on both sides about this new development and consider all our options before deciding how we should proceed.

  • RESOLUTION RECOMMENDING THAT THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FIND STEPHEN L. JOHNSON, ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, AND SUSAN DUDLEY, ADMINISTRATOR, OFFICE OF INFORMATION AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, WHITE HOUSE,
    IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS
    FOR REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH SUBPOENAS DULY ISSUED BY THE COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
    U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform   June 20, 2008

 

"SHAMEFUL, OUTRAGEOUS AND IRRESPONSIBLE!"
Governor O'Malley, Maryland
"A DERELICTION OF DUTY!"
Senator Frank Lautenberg
 
 STATE GOVERNORS EXPRESS EXTREME OUTRAGE AT EPA DENIAL OF CALIFORNIA EMISSIONS WAIVER
January 24, 2007
FED EPA DIRECTOR JOHNSON GRILLED
BY CALIFORNIA'S BOXER ON C-SPAN

"Your clothes - give them to me now"

"We are in this situation because of our dependence on traditional petroleum-based oil. The direction our nation needs to go in, and where California is already headed, is toward greater innovation in new technologies and new fuel choices for consumers."
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Schwarzenegger Opposes Offshore Oil Drilling
International Herald Tribune/AP     June 18, 2008

Photo: UC Davis
Schwarzenegger fuels hydrogen car at UC Davis

Shooting the Moon on Renewables
Steve Hargreaves     CNNMoney     June 19, 2008
While McCain wants to drill more oil to fight $4 gas, Obama calls for an 'Apollo project' aimed at alternative energy.  ...The presumed Democratic nominee wants to fund renewable energy to the tune of $15 billion a year for 10 years, paid for by auctioning off permits to companies that emit greenhouse gases.

BY ESTABLISHING THE GREAT ETHANOL FRAUD, THE IDIOTIC BURNING OF PRECIOUS FOOD FOR FUEL, IN PLACE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF REAL RENEWABLE ENERGY - UNTAPPED, ABUNDANT, FREE ENERGY THAT WOULD THREATEN CENTRALIZED FOSSIL AND NUCLEAR ENERGY'S STRANGLEHOLD ON THE WORLD -  THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, AT THE BEHEST OF ITS OIL MASTERS, HAS SET INTO MOTION AN ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EVIL SO SOULLESS AND UNCONTROLLABLE THAT IT THREATENS TO DRIVE STRUGGLING HUMANITY INTO A CHAOS THAT MAY RIVAL OR EXCEED THAT OF THE WORST OF THE  PREVIOUS CENTURY. - RDM
 
When Third World nations do not have food to export and First World nations are having their crops destroyed by inclement weather, where does the food come from?
If current trends intensify, the food riots that two dozen countries have already experienced will move to America.
Heavy Rains Drowning U.S. Crop Production Hopes
The Trumpet     Philadelphia Church of God     June 11, 2008

Abu Dhabi Aims to Build First Carbon-Neutral City
Joe Palca     National Public Radio     May 6, 2008
Fuel Cell Center Continues to Make Advancements
University of California Irvine     May 5, 2008

Siphoning Off Corn to Fuel Our Cars
Steve Mufson     Washington Post     April 30, 2008

THE GREAT ETHANOL FRAUD BEGINS TO CRUMBLE

CONNECTICUT GOVERNOR
JODIE RELL
POLITELY ATTEMPTS TO EDUCATE GEORGE BUSH ON THE SEEMINGLY UNFATHOMABLE CONNECTION BETWEEN OIL, CORN AND FOOD -- AND TELLS CONGRESS TO KILL THE BLOODSUCKING ETHANOL INDUSTRY IMMEDIATELY!
-- RDM

Governor Rell Urges President, Congress to Tackle
Twin Pressures of Energy & Food Price Spikes
Office of the Governor (CT)     May 1, 2008

    Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced she is urging President Bush and Congressional leaders to temporarily waive the federal Renewable Fuel Standard and lift a 54-cents-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. The Governor said these two steps could reduce the pressure that families in Connecticut and across the nation are facing from endless increases in energy prices and the costs of staple foods.
    Governor Rell also called on Congress and the President to pass a second, energy-related stimulus package to help families keep up with food and energy costs.
    “Connecticut residents and business owners, squeezed from one side by energy prices and on the other by food prices, are trapped in a vise,” Governor Rell said. “The pressure is relentless and mounting ever-higher. It is time for the federal government to take some strong, definitive action to address these issues.”
    The Governor noted in her letter that a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline currently costs an average of $3.787 in Connecticut. A month ago the average was $3.35; a year ago the average was $3.06. A dozen eggs costs around $3, while a gallon of milk runs about $4. A box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes costs $4.29 while a top round beef roast and chicken breasts are both priced at $4.99 a pound.
    “As unrelated as the cost of a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk might seem, these price increases actually have a common link: corn,” Governor Rell said. “The demand for ethanol – either as an additive to gasoline or as the primary component in fuels such as E85 – has increased sharply in recent years. Since most ethanol is made from corn, that demand has meant there is less of the crop for use as food for people and animals. Moreover, many farms are opting to switch from crops such as wheat to corn because of the higher price commanded by corn.
    “Every day the families of Connecticut – like their counterparts in every other state – face difficult decisions and diminishing choices,” the Governor said. “They are struggling to cope with the epic upward spiral of energy prices, struggling to avoid the worst effects of the current economic slump and struggling to make ends meet. Their struggles have been made all the more difficult because the prices of basic staples such as eggs, cereal, bread and milk have shot up by double digits even as more and more of our household budgets are consumed at the pump or burned to heat our homes.”
    Governor Rell recommended two specific actions to ease the demand pressure on corn prices:

  • Lift the current 54 cents-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. “The tariff is a major disincentive to imports of ethanol,” the Governor said. “Especially since refiners have turned to ethanol in lieu of additives such as MTBE, virtually all of the ethanol used in motor fuels has been domestically produced. Importing less-expensive ethanol from producers such as Brazil, Mexico and Jamaica could reduce gasoline prices and ease domestic demand, but because of the tariff those potential savings have not been achieved.”
  • Waive temporarily the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. “I recognize that ethanol is an increasingly important component of the nation’s efforts to decrease its dependence on foreign oil imports and improve air quality, and I value these efforts,” Governor Rell said. “However, given the current crisis, I believe a temporary waiver is in order and will not significantly hinder energy independence or environmental improvement programs.”

ASK A KID, THEN ASK AN ETHANOL ADVOCATE,
"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU BURN YOUR FOOD?"


"Look, Ma. No food!"
Food Rationing Strikes the U.S.

Josh Gerstein     New York Sun     April 21, 2008
Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply.

Oil and Rice Race to Record Levels

WALL STREET BIOFUEL PUSHES THE WORLD'S POOR TO THE BRINK
GLOBAL FOOD RIOTS SPREAD
Marc Lacey    International Herald Tribune      April 17, 2008

    In Haiti, where three-quarters of the population earns less than $2 a day and one in five children is chronically malnourished, the one business booming amid all the gloom is the selling of patties made of mud, oil and sugar, typically only consumed by the most destitute.    
    "It's salty and it has butter, and you don't know you're eating dirt," said Olwich Louis Jeune, 24, who has taken to eating them more often in recent months. "It makes your stomach quiet down."


Jean Ziegler UN Special Rapporteur
on the
Right to Food

    "This is silent mass murder.
We have a herd of market traders, speculators and financial bandits who have turned wild and constructed a world of inequality and horror.
We have to put a stop to this."
 

(reportedly to the Austrian newspaper, the Kurier am Sonntag)     SOURCE     April 2008

Gas Bills Ate Your Rebate!
Steve Hargreaves     CNN Money     March 19, 2008
Government Attempt to Impede Progress?
Greg Blencoe     March 10, 2008


AN UNENDING FUTURE
OF OIL WARS

U.S. SENATE BETRAYS ELECTORATE

"With 116,000 jobs and nearly $19 billion in investment at risk in the renewable energy industries, a minority of the Senate has again frustrated the desire of millions of Americans across the political spectrum who overwhelmingly support clean, home grown energy."
Randall Swisher, American Wind Energy Association
Senators Block Stimulus Package with PTC Extension
Jeff Siegel     North American Windpower     February 7, 2008

"If we are to end our dangerous reliance on foreign oil and create the green-collar jobs of tomorrow, we have an obligation to find renewable energy sources."
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel
US House Passes Latest Oil-Tax-for-Alternatives Bill
Nick Snow     Oil & Gas Journal (TX)     February 28, 2008

Moving Tax Breaks From Oil to Sun and Wind?
Andrew Revkin     New York Times     February 28, 2008
House Votes to Rescind Tax Breaks for Oil Industry
Siobhan Hughes     Wall Street Journal     February 28, 2008
House Vote Shows Oil Still Beats Wind in Texas
Keith Johnson     Wall Street Journal     February 28, 2008
Yesterday’s House vote on a bill to take away billions of dollars in tax breaks for Big Oil and channel the money into renewable energy passed handily; only eight Democrats voted against. But five of them were from Texas: Henry Cuellar, Gene Green, Nick Lampson, Solomon Ortiz, and Ciro Rodriguez. ...Mr. Lampson is chair of the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment. He says that he is “making a strong push for alternative fuels and sources of energy, including wind, solar, biofuels.” But he’s not voting that way.
GOP Should Stop Coddling Big Oil
and Make Way for Renewable Energy

Barry Cinnamon     Mercury News (California)     February 26, 2008
Senate and House Republicans need to wake up to the fact that their continued votes for Big Oil are embarrassing and politically suicidal.

SACRIFICING GREEN JOBS FOR OIL


from "Science and Policy for Deep Cuts in Carbon Emissions" by Daniel M. Kammen
Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory

"...the packages offered thus far do nothing to address the long-term needs for economic and jobs growth. There are investment incentives in the tax code that will expire at the end of 2008 - for research and development, alternative energy and energy conservation - and Congress should extend these important incentives in order to avoid choking off critical investments that can have tremendous long-term economic benefits."
Senator Maria Cantwell, WA
Seattle Post-Intelligencer     January 24, 2008

A CONGRESS OWNED BY THE FOSSIL AND NUCLEAR LOBBY IGNORES REAL ECONOMIC STIMULUS TO WAGE WAR ON RENEWABLE ENERGY -- RDM

    "While a stimulus bill is welcome, it is a major disappointment that, at least as proposed, this package does not extend the renewable energy incentives which expire at the end of this year. We estimate that the slowdown in the wind industry from a failure to extend the renewable tax incentives will place 75,000 jobs at risk and undercut a singular bright spot in the American economy--the booming renewable electricity sector that is creating tens of thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs annually. Last year we saw more than $20 billion in investment in renewable electricity in the U.S.-- today, investors are holding back on decisions regarding wind and solar power projects that will not come on line until next year. Immediate Congressional action is essential if wind and other renewable energy industries are to continue to grow, attract large-scale manufacturing investment and create jobs for Americans across the country."
American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Issues Statement on Tentative Agreement on Economic Stimulus Bill    January 24, 2008

IS THIS THE END OF AMERICA?
A TRAITOROUS CONGRESS, HARD AT WORK DESTROYING THE ECONOMY FOR THE SAKE OF OIL PROFITS, IS PUTTING AMERICA UP FOR SALE TO HER ENEMIES. THESE PEOPLE SHOULD BE JAILED, NOT RE-ELECTED. --
RDM


"Congress will be raising taxes on clean, domestic, renewable energy sources and will undercut one of the fastest growing segments
of the U.S. economy. With the nation facing a possible recession, it is difficult to imagine a worse time to destabilize America's rapidly growing renewable energy sector."
American Wind Energy Association
Solar Energy Industries Association
National Hydropower Association
Geothermal Energy Association

Renewable Energy Leaders Urge Congress, Bush to Extend Tax Credits Quickly
Jim Pieroban     RenewableEnergyAccess.com     January 22, 2008  

    ...Rhone Resch, President of the Solar Energy Industries Association, tried simplifying it for lawmakers: "Do you want to write them (consumers) a check, or do you want to give them a job?" Resch highlighted 80 utility-scale solar projects on the drawing boards collectively representing about 56,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity generating capacity, more than 20,000 permanent jobs and hundreds of thousands of construction jobs. "None of these projects will be built unless the investment tax credit is extended," he said. For workers in Michigan where the automobile industry continues to unravel, the risks are in sharp focus for solar companies such as Hemlock Semiconductor, which Resch said has invested one billion dollars to expand plant capacity in Midland; ditto for Unisolar, a thin-film manufacturer that is creating hundreds of new jobs for six plants planned in Greenfield. Randall Swisher, Executive Director of the American Wind Energy Association, said "major wind farm development companies are telling us that investment is drying up and they are being forced to put large projects in the pipeline for construction next year on hold." Swisher told reporters that AWEA estimates about 75,000 jobs are now at risk, including more than 32,000 in the direct manufacture, construction and operation of wind energy facilities.     more

Lawsuit Challenges EPA Failure
to Ensure Clean-Up of Nation's Filthiest Air
    
National Resources Defense Council      January 14, 2008

$100 a Barrel!!
Commentary by Richard D. Masters


"Oh, do it again!
I love it! I love it!"

    SO IT GOES.  AMERICA FOLLOWS ITS
SO-CALLED "LEADERS" LIKE LEMMINGS LEAPING OFF A CLIFF, WILLING TO ACCEPT ANYTHING, IT SEEMS, TO AVOID RENEWABLE WIND, GEOTHERMAL, WAVE  AND SOLAR ENERGY -- THE CHEAP BUT GENUINE SOLUTIONS THAT THREATEN RAPACIOUS FOSSIL ENERGY PROFITS.  THIS WAS CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED BY THE WILLING FAILURE OF THE FAUX  SENATE, THE MAJORITY OF WHOM REPRESENT THE INTERESTS OF OIL COMPANIES, TO HELP LEVEL THE RIGGED PLAYING FIELD FOR ENTRY OF OUR STRUGGLING RENEWABLE ENERGY COMPANIES BY SIMPLY EXTENDING THE PRODUCTION TAX CREDIT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEN ENERGY.

       BECAUSE OF REDUCED EXTERNAL COSTS, IT WOULD HAVE COST THEM NOTHING TO TAKE THIS SIMPLE STEP TOWARD FREEING AMERICA FROM THE SHACKLES OF MIDDLE EAST OIL DEPENDENCE, FROM OPEC, FROM SPIRALING FOOD PRICES, FROM SACRIFICING OUR SONS AND OUR DAUGHTERS DYING BY THE THOUSANDS IN FOREIGN LANDS FOR WHAT WILL TURN OUT TO BE LESS THAN NOTHING, TO STOP THE ASTHMA EPIDEMIC IN OUR YOUNG CHILDREN, TO STOP THE MERCURY POISONING OF THE NORTHEAST, TO FORESTALL THE HORRIBLE BURDEN OF UNSECURED RADIOACTIVITY ON OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS. BUT EVEN THE "ARIZONA IS THE SOLAR STATE" HYPOCRITE JOHN MCCAIN, ONE OF MANY, WOULDN'T GET OUT OF BED, WOULDN'T LIFT A FINGER WHEN HE COULD HAVE CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY. NOW NEW HAMPSHIRE CROWNS HIM THE REPUBLICAN  FRONTRUNNER. NEVER HAS THERE BEEN A PEOPLE AS STUPID AS THIS. GOD HELP US ALL OR GOD DAMN YOU ALL. I DON'T KNOW WHICH. PROBABLY BOTH.
       IMPLEMENTING THESE NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO GATHER ABUNDANT FREE CLEAN NATURAL ENERGY WOULD HAVE BEEN A WORTHY CHALLENGE FOR THE LONG LOST AMERICA I GREW UP IN.  THE REASONS TO DO SO NOW ARE MYRIAD, RATIONAL AND URGENT. WE PUT MEN ON THE MOON TO MEET OUR DREAMS. WE DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. WE MADE A LEGEND THAT WILL LINGER ON THE LIPS OF HUMAN HISTORY UNTIL THE END OF TIME.
      BUT TODAY WE PUT MEN IN IRAQ TO MEET OIL PRODUCTION.
      WHY?
      ALL THE STUDIES SHOW TEN TIMES THE EMPLOYMENT WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY. NO MORE MONEY DRAINING FROM OUR COUNTRY TO THE MIDDLE EAST. THE END OF UNBEARABLE HEALTH COSTS FROM THE EFFECTS OF FOSSIL POLLUTION. A HUGE ECONOMIC BOOM FROM THE GROWTH OF NEW, CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES. MORE POWER THAN WE COULD EVER DREAM OF USING. INFINITE POWER. NO DEPLETION. FREEDOM FROM FEAR. FREEDOM FROM FOOLS.
      WHY HAVEN'T WE MOVED IN THIS DIRECTION?
      WE HAVE LOST SIGHT OF COMMON SENSE!
      WORSE, WE HAVE LOST SIGHT OF GOOD AND EVIL.  THE VERY WORST EXAMPLE, OUR REPRESENTATIVES CYNICALLY CHOOSING TO FOREGO TRUE RENEWABLES AND LINK THE PRICE OF OIL TO FOOD WITH CORN ALCOHOL AND BIOFUELS WHEN MILLIONS ARE HUNGRY, SEEMS TO HOLD NO MORAL COMPUNCTION TO THESE VICIOUS, STUPID, SOULLESS CREATURES FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE. SOON THEY WILL BLAME YOU FOR THIS DISASTER.
      AND NOW, AS THEY PREPARE TO SEND YET ANOTHER GENERATION OF OUR CHILDREN TO FIGHT FOREIGN OIL WARS FOR INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS, PEOPLE OFTEN ASK ME, WHAT CAN WE DO TO STOP IT? 
TO CHANGE IT?  TO TURN IT AROUND?
      THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE WHO DROWNED OUT THE VOICES OF REASON, WHO SHOUTED DOWN THOSE WHO CRIED, "IF YOU TURN FOOD INTO GASOLINE, WHAT WILL WE EAT?"
      WHAT CAN WE TELL THEM NOW?
      ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
      IF DEMOCRACY ACTUALLY WORKS AS ADVERTISED, THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE AND EASY.  STOP ELECTING PEOPLE TO OFFICE WHO ARE BEHOLDEN TO GIANT FOSSIL, NUCLEAR AND AGRICULTURAL CORPORATIONS.  DEMAND REAL CANDIDATES, REAL CHOICES.  REAL SOLUTIONS.
      DEMAND CHEAP, FREE, CLEAN, DOMESTIC RENEWABLE ENERGY TO END THE OIL WARS FOREVER.
      OTHERWISE, NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE.
      ON THE OTHER HAND, IF DEMOCRACY HAS BEEN LOST, IF OUR REPUBLIC IS A FRAUD AND HAS BECOME BUT A DIM SWORD TO ENFORCE  THE WILL OF INTERNATIONAL FOSSIL ENERGY CORPORATIONS AND THEIR MILITARY COHORTS, THE SOLUTION TO OUR SUDDEN DILEMMA, IF EVEN ACHIEVABLE, BECOMES DIFFICULT AND UGLY.
     IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT A PEOPLE DESERVE THE GOVERNMENT THEY CREATE. NOW AS THE DEMOCRATS WAIT IN THE WINGS, SALIVATING LIKE PAVLOV'S DOGS FOR THEIR CHANCE AT THE OIL MONEY THE REPUBLICANS HAVE FUMBLED, I HAVE COME TO THE SAD AND BITTER CONCLUSION THAT THIS IS TRUE.
      I WAS A REPUBLICAN. I WAS AN OBJECTIVIST. BUT NOW I AM ONLY ASHAMED.
      IF GOD IS JUST, PREPARE TO SUFFER. FOR THE POOR ARE MORE THAN THE FIRST WORLD'S CALLOUSLY ORPHANED CHILDREN, SO CRUELLY TORN FROM THE  LIVES THEY DESERVE -- THE LIVES THEY COULD SO EASILY HAVE HAD IF THOSE WITH WEALTH AND ABILITY AND KNOWLEDGE HAD CONSCIENCE. THE WORLD'S POOR ARE INSTEAD PITIFUL, HELPLESS, CAGED CANARIES, ABANDONED DEEP, DEEP DOWN IN THE DARKNESS OF PLANET EARTH'S FOUL COAL MINE WHILE THE OTHERS SEIZE THEIR FOOD TO CIRCLE THE MALLS IN GIANT STEEL MACHINES.
     FIRST THEM.
     THEN YOU.
  

THE WAR FOR OIL & THE WAR TO BURN THE POOR'S FOOD FOR FUEL

"Why have you stopped sending food?" THE GREAT ETHANOL FRAUD
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. -- Ghandi

Forget Oil, the New Global Crisis Is Food
Alia McMullen     Financial Post (Canada)     January 4, 2007

     A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club's 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday.
    ...Mr. Coxe warned U.S. corn exports were in danger of seizing up in about three years if the country continues to subsidize ethanol production. Biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America's grain harvest in 2007.  
more

“By bowing down to corporate interests, the Bush Administration is thwarting the will of the citizens of more than a dozen states and the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley

“EPA’s decision ignores the law, science, and commonsense.”
Representative Henry Waxman, California
The EPA Vs. Everyone Else: Get Ready To Rumble
Center for American Progress     December 21, 2007

"A horrendous decision."
New Jersey Governor John Corzine
Corzine Considers New Fight on EPA Car Emission Rules
John Reitmeyer     North Jersey     December 21, 2007       

"Incomprehensible!"
New York Governor Elliot Spitzer
States Line Up To Sue EPA Over Emissions Waiver Rejection
Environmental Leader     December 20, 2007


Has George pissed off Arnie yet?
EPA Denies California Waiver to Regulate Vehicle Global Warming Pollution
Statement by Michelle Robinson
Director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Clean Vehicles Program
UCS    
December 19, 2007

WASHINGTON (December 19, 2007) - The same day the president signed a ground-breaking fuel economy bill, his administration reversed course and denied California a waiver to regulate global warming pollution from vehicles, the first time in the history of the Clean Air Act that the federal government has denied the state a waiver.
    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied the waiver despite clear guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court that miles-per-gallon standards and the global warming pollution standards required under the Clean Air Act are “wholly independent.” A recent Fresno, California, federal district court ruling added that “it would be the very definition of folly” to prevent the implementation of vehicle global warming emissions standards.
    Likewise, the EPA denied the waiver despite the fact that the Bush administration has touted the California standards as evidence that the United States is meeting its international commitments on climate change. While California and the 12 other states that have adopted California's tailpipe standard will pursue legal avenues to overturn the denial, the announcement today could delay the implementation of the standards, undermining potential benefits.
    The goals of a fuel economy standard and a vehicle global warming emissions limit are different. The Department of Transportation (DOT) sets fuel economy standards to reduce oil use. The DOT is not an environmental agency. The EPA regulates motor vehicle global warming emissions limits according to Clean Air Act requirements to protect public health. Under the Clean Air Act, California has the right to set higher standards for pollution reduction from automobiles, and recent court cases clarify that states have the authority and obligation to regulate vehicle global warming pollution. The Bush administration is illegally preventing California from exercising its right, under the Clean Air Act, to set pollution standards for automobiles.
    The following is a statement by Clean Vehicles Program Director Michelle Robinson:
“In the eleventh hour of this presidency, the administration is still doing what it can to throw roadblocks in the way of progress in combating global warming. California has the legal right to set stringent pollution standards and has historically led the way for the rest of the country. But the EPA is blocking California and a dozen other states from protecting their residents. Administrator Johnson has sadly chosen politics over his responsibility to protect public health and the environment.”

Petropolis, D.C.        
Solar Nation     December 19, 2007                  

    ...Democrats could have refused to take the bill forward when they knew that revenue-raising from oil & gas was an insurmountable obstacle for Republicans. The total collapse of the bill would have made it clear that the GOP was joined at the hip to Big Oil, and that nearly half the U.S. Senate existed merely to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry. Going into an election year, this might have been a powerful tool in many Democratic candidates’ favor.  Had Democrats done this, of course, it would have meant abandoning CAFE standards for the sake of an electioneering ploy, which might well have rebounded on them in other ways. Instead, Congressional Democratic leadership put the country on notice that they would reintroduce those provisions that were stripped from the bill at an early stage next year. But we have yet to hear an unequivocal statement from Democratic leadership to the effect that their attempt at social justice—redirecting a sliver of Big Oil’s obscene profits to the renewable sector of the energy industry—was blocked by corrupt politicians on the other side of the aisle. Playing nice still seems to be a priority in the nation’s capital.  more

BIG OIL WINS!
BIG COAL WINS!
BIG NUKE WINS!
You lose.
NO RENEWABLE PRODUCTION TAX CREDITS
NO FEDERAL RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD
   AMERICA'S SLAVE MASTERS HAVE SPOKEN
- RDM
 

“The failure to pass critical policy provisions to reduce energy costs for business owners and homeowners, protect our energy infrastructure against acts of nature and terrorism, and fundamentally reduce emissions causing respiratory diseases and global climate change was an abdication of duty to the American people by a minority of legislators from both parties and The Administration."
Scott Sklar, President, Stella Group
Energy Bill Update: Senate Approves Compromise Legislation
RenewableEnergyAccess.com     December 14, 2007

GET LITTLE JOHNNY READY FOR THE OIL WARS
U.S. Senate Votes for the Past
Solar Nation     December 14, 2007

    Yesterday, the U.S. Senate dealt a losing hand to all those who believe in solar power as a vital component of our energy future.
    By a vote of 59-40, just one vote short of the number needed to cut off debate, the Senate failed to include a tax title in the 2007 energy bill that would have provided investment and production tax credits for renewable energies.
    Many people have worked long and hard this year to secure a government commitment of support for solar and other nascent renewable industries, including solar citizens like yourself, Congressional Democratic leadership, environmental and conservation groups, industry associations, and scientific bodies. And although representatives and senators were left in no doubt about the importance of the legislation to America's future, the peculiarities of the American way of politics trumped common sense and hope. Senators from states where the oil and gas industry lobby is strongest voted to continue support for the industry, even though the proposed tightening of tax breaks would have amounted to only 1%-2% of its net profits. To see which senators voted against the tax title measure, check the list at the end of this message. (Look closely and you'll find one Democrat who voted 'nay', and one presidential candidate who failed to vote at all).
    Late yesterday evening, the Senate finally voted on what was left of the bill. Absent investment tax credits, production tax credits and a national renewable electricity standard (RES), the bill sailed through by a vote of 85-12. It will now go back to the House, then on for signature by President Bush. And what the President signs will contain CAFE standards for automobile mileage standards, a renewable fuels mandate, and provisions for energy efficiency in federal government departments. For renewables, there is practically nothing.

    The timing of the vote may strike historians as curious in years to come; half a world away in Bali, attendees at the UN global warming conference were working toward final agreement on long-term measures to mitigate climate change while the U.S. Senate was rewarding the oil and gas industry for its long-term support. 
more

 

THE WAR ON RENEWABLE ENERGY
THE STUNNING LIST OF AMERICA'S SHAME
SENATORS BOUGHT BY OIL
WHO HAVE TURNED THEIR
BACKS ON AMERICA
WAVING THE FLAG AND REPRESENTING SAUDI ARABIA,
AND OBSTRUCTING DOMESTIC RENEWABLE ENERGY
WHILE THEY SEND OUR KIDS TO FIGHT WARS FOR OIL

WHO ARE THESE FOOLS THAT KEEP US
JOINED AT THE HIP TO OIL AND TERROR?

Senators Voting 'Nay' on Cloture Vote
for Energy Bill Tax Title on December 13, 2007

Compiled from  Oil Change International  and
 On The Issues
Big Oil money accepted from 1990 to 2006

 

ALASKA
Ted Stevens
$370,140
Owned by BP


Commerce, Science
& Transportation   

Appropriations

ALABAMA
Richard Shelby
$321,298
"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

 

Appropriations

 

ARIZONA
Jon Kyl

$260,882
Owned by

EXXONMOBIL
"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

ALABAMA
Jeff Sessions
$191,600
"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"


Armed Services

 

GEORGIA
Saxby Chambliss
$120,292
Owned by
EXXONMOBIL


 2002 Dirty Dozen
Armed Services

COLORADO
Wayne Allard
$421,335
"Support our
troops!"

 2002 Dirty Dozen
 1996 Dirty Dozen
Appropriations

GEORGIA
Johnny Isakson
$124,314
"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

Environment &
Public Works

FLORIDA
Mel Martinez
$135,347


2004 Dirty Dozen Energy & Natural Resources;
Foreign Relations

 

KANSAS
Sam Brownback
$328,424
Owned by
EXXONMOBIL
"Support our
troops!"

Appropriations

IDAHO
Michael Crapo
$220,949
Owned by

EXXONMOBIL
"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

 

KANSAS
Pat Roberts

$193,800
 

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

Armed Services

IDAHO
Larry Craig
$335,711

Palm up for
  BP
EXXONMOBIL

Energy & Natural Resources

 

LOUISIANA
David Vitter
$421,335

Commerce, Science
& Transportation;
Environment &
Public Works

KENTUCKY
Bunning

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

 

 

MISSOURI
Christopher Bond
$445,760
Owned by  BP
EXXONMOBIL
Appropriations: Environment & Public Works

KENTUCKY
Mitch McConnell
$432,808

 

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

Appropriations

 

NEBRASKA
Chuck Hagel
$174,531
Owned by
EXXONMOBIL

"Support our
troops!"

Foreign Relations

MISSISSIPPI
Trent Lott
$307,454
Owned by  BP
EXXONMOBIL

Commerce, Science
 & Transportation

NORTH CAROLINA
Richard Burr

$319,652
"Support our
troops!"

Energy & Natural Resources

MISSISSIPPI
Thad Cochran
$1
43,650
"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

  
Appropriations

 

NORTH CAROLINA
Elizabeth Dole

$172,429
"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

Armed Services

NEW HAMPSHIRE
John Sununu
$169,130
Owned by
EXXONMOBIL
2002 Dirty Dozen
Armed Services

 

NEW MEXICO
Pete Domenici
$590,537
Owned by
BP
EXXONMOBIL NUKE
Appropriations; Energy & Natural 
Resources

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Gregg

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

 

NEVADA
John Ensign
$374,174
Owned by
EXXON MOBIL
1998 Dirty Dozen

Armed Services;
Commerce, Science
& Transportation

0HIO
George Voinovich
$
309,532
Owned by
EXXON MOBIL  BP
Foreign Relations;
Environment & Public Works

PENNSYLVANIA
Arlen Specter
$380,378

 

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

Appropriations

OKLAHOMA
James Inhofe
$847,123
Owned by BP
EXXON MOBIL 

 

Environment & 
Public Works  

Armed Services

SOUTH CAROLINA
James DeMint
$108,450
 

Commerce, Science
& Transportation;
Environment & Public Works

OKLAHOMA
Thomas Coburn

$305,362

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

SOUTH CAROLINA
Graham

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

TENNESSEE
Lamar Alexander

$311,125
"Support our
troops!"

Energy & Natural Resources;
Foreign Relations

TEXAS
Kay Hutchison
$1,879,523
Owned by
SHELL
 BP  EXXON MOBIL

 

Commerce, Science
& Transportation;
Appropriations

TENNESSEE
Corker

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

 

TEXAS
John Cornyn

$780,225
"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

 

Armed Services

UTAH
Robert Bennett
$194,165
Owned by
EXXON MOBIL
 

Appropriations

VIRGINIA
John Warner
$221,398
Owned by

EXXON MOBIL
 

Armed Services;

Environment &
Public Works

WYOMING
Michael Enzi
$178,100

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

 

WYOMING
Barrasso

"Support our
troops in the
Middle East!"

Republican Senators Not Voting on Energy Bill Cloture Vote

ARIZONA
John McCain
$261,110
Owned by
EXXON MOBIL
Armed Services;
Commerce, Science
& Transportation

"There's no living American that's not in favor of [wind, solar and tide]. I'm in favor of it.  I come from the great state of Arizona where we have more days of sunshine than any other in the United States of America."

 Democratic Senators Voting 'Nay' on Cloture Vote
for Energy Bill Tax Title

LOUISIANA
Mary Landrieu

$407,044
 

Energy & Natural Resources;
Appropriations

 

Washington, D.C. – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today sent a complaint to the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District for Louisiana and the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, asking for an investigation into whether Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) violated federal bribery law by including a $2 million earmark for Voyager Expanded Learning in a bill a mere four days after receiving $30,000 in campaign contributions from company executives and their relatives. CREW also asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the matter.
     Randy Best, a top Republican donor and Bush pioneer, founded Voyager, an educational products company and rather than selling the company’s reading program to school districts, hired lobbyists to obtain earmarks for it. Although the House had appropriated $1 million for his program for the D.C. public schools, Best still needed a Senate sponsor. A lobbyist arranged a meeting with Sen. Landrieu, the chair of the Appropriations subcommittee responsible for the District of Columbia, to press for an earmark. Shortly after Sen. Landrieu met with Best, a member of Sen. Landrieu’s staff asked him to hold a fundraiser for her and he agreed. After the fundraiser, she received $30,000 in campaign contributions from individuals associated with the company -- donors who had never before contributed to her. Four days after she received the money, she inserted an earmark into a D.C. appropriations bill, giving D.C. schools $2 million to buy Best’s reading program, which was unproven and had not been requested by the school system.
     Federal law prohibits public officials from directly or indirectly demanding, seeking, receiving, accepting, or agreeing to receive or accept anything of value in return for being influenced in the performance of an official act. Accepting a contribution to a political campaign can constitute a bribe if a quid pro quo can be demonstrated.
     Given that Sen. Landrieu asked Best to hold a fundraiser for her, which he did, and then inserted the Voyager earmark only four days after receiving contributions from individuals connected with the company, it certainly appears she traded the earmark for the contributions in violation of federal criminal law. Sen. Landrieu also may have violated the Senate rule prohibiting “improper conduct which reflects upon the Senate.”
     Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said today, “Senator Landrieu appears to have traded a $2 million earmark for $30,000 in campaign contributions. It was a win-win situation for Best and Senator Landrieu, but a lose-lose for the taxpayers and D.C. school children.” Sloan continued, “the Department of Justice and the Senate Ethics Committee should look into this matter immediately. Members of Congress need to understand that trading earmarks for campaign funds is illegal -- no exceptions.”

UPDATE:  Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, responds to Senator Landrieu’s release today on CREW’s complaints: “Sen. Landrieu’s response to CREW’s Department of Justice and Ethics Committee complaints fails to address the key allegation: that she inserted an earmark in return for campaign contributions. According to a document just provided by Sen. Landrieu, the District of Columbia apparently asked the senator on April 25, 2001 to include an earmark for Voyager in the D.C. appropriations bill. Nevertheless, by September 24, 2001, when a House committee included a $1 million earmark for Voyager, the company still had not attracted a Senate sponsor. Sen. Landrieu has not explained why she didn’t follow through on the District’s request until November 6, 2001, four days after Mr. Best and his associates contributed $30,000 to the senator’s campaign.”
-----
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit http://www.citizensforethics.org

Wholesale Prices Spike As Ethanol Gobbles Up Crops
Ford Gunter     Houston Business Journal     December 30, 2007

    A number of local restaurant operators have been tracking hikes in wholesale food prices. Restaurants: Nino's, Vincent's, Grappino's, Pronto.  Owner: Vincent Mandola.
    Price increases over past 10 months:

  • Whole chickens + 10%
  • Chicken breasts + 20%
  • Frying oils + 50 %
  • Milk, cream + 100%
  • Pound of veal + $6

Europe's Biodiesel Drive Sputters
John Miller     The Wall Street Journal     December 27, 2007

    Since January, prices for the crops that make most biodiesel have doubled, driving the cost of a ton of biodiesel up 50%, to around $1,440 a ton, or about $4.80 a gallon. Prices for regular crude-oil-based diesel have risen sharply, too, but only to $840 a ton, or $2.80 a gallon. Biodiesel has become more expensive for oil companies to buy than fossil fuel, and they are cutting back.
    ....Europe's governments are finding it difficult to adjust policy to a new and volatile market. In 2006, when commodity prices were low and margins were fat, Germany decided to trim the tax breaks it offers to biodiesel producers. Earlier this year, France raised taxes on biodiesel. Now that producers are in trouble, governments aren't giving the tax breaks back.

THE SAD U.S. PRESIDENTIAL RACE:  NO VISION
FALLING PREY TO CENTRALIZED INDUSTRY'S MYTH THAT RENEWABLE ENERGY CAN'T DO THE JOB, HUCKABEE CONTEMPLATES AN AWFUL  NUCLEAR OPEC TO REPLACE THE OIL OPEC
- RDM
"I would make the United States energy independent within 10 years and tell the Saudis they can keep their oil just like they can keep their sand, that we won't need either one of them."

DUH!
- Huckabee: America Enslaved to Saudi Oil
AP     November 25, 2007

 ENERGY BILL BOOSTS ETHANOL
 
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
-- Ghandi

THE GREAT ETHANOL FRAUD DRIVES WORLD HUNGER
Biofuels Bonanza Facing 'Crash'
Roger Harrabin     BBC     November 15, 2007
Critics say biofuels will lead to food shortages and destroy rainforests. They point to the destruction of Indonesia's peat swamps as an example of biofuel folly. The swamps are one the richest stores of carbon on the planet and they are being burned to produce palm oil.
Pasta Panic Strikes Italy   
Peter Gumbel     Fortune     November 15, 2007
The story behind the price hike is a global saga involving agricultural policies, commodity-market speculation, the growing use of ethanol as an alternative fuel, and Australian drought.
Guatemala: Corn Prices Raise the Specter of Hunger
Louisa Reynolds     Latin America Press (Peru)    November 15, 2007
a growing appetite for corn-based biofuel in the US has pushed up the price of corn on the international market, raising the specter of
a serious food crisis in Guatemala.

A Shortage of Beer?
Justin Foss     KCRG-TV (IA)     November 14, 2007
After years of profit-killing surplus, farmers across the world starting growing other crops, like corn. The fix will take years because hops come on vines which take time to grow.
Sowing the Seeds of Farming's Future
Les Firbank     BBC (UK)     November 13, 2007
  Global food stocks are running low.  There are three main reasons: increasing use of crops for bio-energy, especially in the US...
Corn Ethanol: The New Snake Oil
Mother Jones     Nov/Dec 2007


"Our country does not have a long-term, national policy in place to promote
renewable energy development."

 
Randall Swisher, AWEA executive director
   
U.S. Wind Industry Blowing Past Previous Development Records

RenewableEnergyAccess.com     November 8, 2007

    The U.S. wind industry is on track to complete roughly 4,000 megawatts (MW) of wind projects in 2007, shattering the 2006 record of 2,454 MW and solidifying wind as a major source of new power in the country today, according to a new market report from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

Bush Threatens to Veto Energy Bill Over Oil Taxes
Tina Seeley     Bloomberg     October 16, 2007

Where the Candidates Currently Stand
The League of Conservation Voters     PDF     Color added by RDM

CANDIDATES

CARBON CAP AND TARGETS

FUEL EFFICIENCY

RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD

EFFICIENCY TARGETS

NEW COAL PLANTS AND LIQUID COAL

Joe
Biden

Supports 80% reductions by 2050

Supports 40 mpg fleetwide standard by 2017

Supports 20% standard by 2020

Supports 10% reduction in energy consumption by 2020

Opposes investment in liquid coal

Hillary Clinton

Supports 80% reductions by 2050

Supports 55 mpg
fleetwide standard
by 2030

Supports 25% standard by 2025

Supports 20% reduction in energy consumption by 2020

Utilities must show that demand cannot be met through efficiency before building new coal plants; supported investing in liquid coal if it reduces carbon pollution by 20%

Chris Dodd

Supports 80% reductions by 2050

Supports 50 mpg for cars by 2017

Supports 20% standard by 2020

Supports 15% decrease in electricity consumption by 2018

New coal plants must capture and store carbon emissions

John Edwards

Supports at least 80% reductions by 2050

Supports 40 mpg fleetwide standard by 2016

Supports 25% standard by 2025%

Supports 15% decrease in electricity consumption by 2018

Supports ban on new coal plants unless they are compatible with carbon capture and storage technology

Rudy Giuliani

No articulated position

No articulated position 

No articulated position 

No articulated position 

Supports liquid coal 

Mike Gravel

Supports cap tied to international compliance; no target specified

Supports 40 mpg

Supports 20% standard by 2020

Supports upgrading national utility grid 

New coal plants must capture and store carbon emissions 

Mike Huckabee

Supports a cap on carbon emissions; no target specified

Supports 35 mpg
fleetwide standard by 2020

Supports 15% standard by 2020, which includes nuclear power

No articulated position 

No articulated position 

Duncan Hunter

No articulated position

Opposed 33 mpg in 2005

No articulated position

No articulated position

No articulated position

Dennis Kucinich

Supports 80% reductions by 2050

Supported 33 mpg in 2005

Supports 20% standard by 2010

General support for efficiency; no target specified

No articulated position

John McCain

Lead author of bill to reduce emissions 65% by 2050

Supports fuel efficiency increase, no standard specified

Opposed 10% standard in 2005; opposed 20% standard in 2002

General support for efficiency; no target specified

No articulated position

Barack Obama

Supports 80% reductions by 2050

Supports 50 mpg fleetwide standard in 18 years

Supports 25% standard by 2025

Supports 50% reduction in energy intensity by 2030

Supports investing in liquid coal if it reduces carbon pollution by 10%; will consider standards that ban new conventional coal plants

Ron Paul

No articulated position

Opposed 33 mpg in 2005

No articulated position

No articulated position

No articulated position 

Bill Richardson

Supports 90% reductions by 2050

Supports 50 mpg fleetwide standard

Supports 30% standard by 2020 and 50% by 2050

Supports 20% increase in energy productivity by 2020

Opposes liquid coal. Supports ban on new coal plants unless they capture and store emissions

Mitt Romney

Willing to consider cap on emissions only if enacted globally 

Opposes increasing fuel efficiency standards as stand alone measure

No articulated position 

General support for efficiency; no target specified

Supports liquid coal

Tom Tancredo

No articulated position 

Opposed 33 mpg in 2005

No articulated position

No articulated position 

No articulated position 

Fred Thompson

No articulated position

Opposed 35 mpg in 2002

In 2002, opposed 10% and 20% standard

No articulated position

No articulated position

Click to download the report "The Chernobyl Catastrophe - Consequences on Human Health" by Greenpeace. 2006 THE NEW NUKE FRAUD
BY LABELING NUCLEAR POWER AS "CLEAN," A CROOKED U.S. CONGRESS ALLOWS THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY TO RAID TAX FUNDS WITHOUT LIMIT, MAKING THIS BILL A SMOKESCREEN FOR YET ANOTHER EXPENSIVE AND DANGEROUS ENERGY FRAUD FOISTED ON AMERICANS BY THE SWINDLERS THEY ELECTED.
- RDM

House Energy Bill: A Portfolio
of Benefits for Clean Energy

Scott Sklar     RenewableEnergyAccess.com    
August 5, 2007

    Passage of the energy bill and tax package rests in the hands of the informal group of about 25 Democrats from oil and gas-producing states, Republican leadership in the House and about 5 Democratic Senators and a part of the Republican leadership in the Senate who are reportedly opposed to the $17 billion of tax increases on the oil and gas industry that are used to offset the cost of H.R. 2776's tax incentives that are primarily for renewable energy and energy efficiency. ...The loan guarantee program however came under fire, since nuclear power was included as a “clean technology.” Section 9202 in the House energy bill did not give the nuclear industry $50 billion in loan guarantees that got play in the national media; however, it prevents Congressional appropriators from being able to exclude any eligible project from the guarantees. It does not prevent appropriators from being able to set a cap on the amount of guarantees that the Department of Energy (DOE) can give out.

Fluor Awarded Contract to Support Planned New Nuclear Plants at South Texas Project
Flour Corporation    
August 16, 2007

    Fluor Corporation announced today that its Power Group was awarded a contract by Toshiba International Corporation, a U.S. business unit of the Toshiba Corporation, for engineering, procurement and construction-related services for two new nuclear reactors planned for the South Texas Project Nuclear Generating Station in Bay City, Texas. Later this year, STP's 44-percent owner, NRG Energy, Inc. plans to apply to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a combined construction and operating license to build two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors, known as STP Units 3 & 4, which will be adjacent to the two existing reactors (STP Units 1 & 2). NRG announced on Aug. 9, 2007, that it had contracted with Toshiba to provide key reactor components as well as early engineering, procurement and construction-related services for these planned reactors. "These two new reactor units for the South Texas Project could very well be the first new nuclear power plants built in the United States in more than two decades," said Alan Boeckmann, Fluor Corporation's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

    A catastrophe at a nuclear fission power plant could make a city uninhabitable -- a total loss. The response to Hurricane Katrina reportedly hit $2 BILLION PER DAY. What would the cost be for a core meltdown such as we almost experienced with the "safe" reactors at Three Mile Island? Only fools would accept such risk, which is exactly what the U.S. Congress did in authorizing the Price Anderson Act.  -- Richard D. Masters

The Price-Anderson Act      November 2005

    The liability limit for DOE facilities is $10 billion subject to adjustments for inflation. In the event of a nuclear incident involving damages in excess of the limits established in the Act, Congress could take further actions, including the appropriation of funds.

Price-Anderson Act: Unnecessary & Irresponsible    Nuclear Information and Resource Service

"Disasters on the scale of the Chernobyl accident lead to harmful effects on the population, territorial losses without any military action, and to thousands of billions of roubles' worth of damage, and are, therefore, hard to justify by the need for electric power."
Chernobyl, Insight from the Inside
Vladimir M. Chernousenko, Scientific Director of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Institute of Physics in Kiev's Task Force for the Rectification of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident

OUR POLITICIANS HAVE BEEN BOUGHT
BY FOSSIL AND NUCLEAR ENERGY CORPORATIONS THAT WAGE WAR AGAINST RENEWABLE ENERGY
Lobbies Stymie Action on Energy
H. Josef Hebert     MyWay/AP    
June 18, 2007

     Three powerful lobbying forces - automakers, electric utilities and the coal industry - are confounding Democrats' efforts to forge a less-polluting energy policy. ...The companies, in letters to senators, argued that the requirement to produce 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources can't be met without huge electricity cost increases. ...The coal industry has weighed in as well, urging support of an alternative that would have included more efficient coal-burning power plants and nuclear reactors....

Big Energy Stooge Pete Dominici (R - NM) to Raid U.S. Renewable Funds
for Nuclear and Coal
- RDM

National Renewable Portfolio Standard
to Include Coal & Nuclear?

Sara Parker     Renewable Energy Access     June 13, 2007

    Energy policy is once again up for debate on Capitol Hill with Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) expected to introduce an amendment today that would require 15 percent of electricity generated in the U.S. to come from renewables by 2020. The legislation will be countered by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), who is planning to offer a "weaker" amendment that defines coal and nuclear as clean energy, and eligible for renewable credits. A National Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) that includes clean coal technologies and nuclear power will reduce the demand for "genuinely clean" renewables such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and tidal, said Jim Rubens of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "There's only 15 percent to go around," said Rubens, adding that nuclear requires huge subsidies and clean coal technologies are at least 10 years away from being commercial.

  • Sen. Pete Domenici: Nuclear Renaissance Man
    Mike Stuckey     MSNBC     Jan 24, 2007
        Since 1989, Domenici has received $1.2 million in campaign donations from individuals and political action committees in the energy and natural resources sector, well over a tenth of the total $10.8 million he has raised for his Senate campaigns in that time, according to federal election records. Electric utilities, with big stakes in the future of nuclear power and government subsidies for it, kicked in $384,923. The list of Domenici’s campaign donors includes at least three dozen firms on the membership roster of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s main lobbying arm.

RELEASED
BIOFUEL$ ARE NO SOLUTION!
Biofuels Threaten to Accelerate
Global Warming

Biofuelwatch (UK)    April 2007

    We are very concerned that biofuel expansion is accelerating climate change through deforestation, ecosystem destruction, peat drainage, soil organic carbon losses, and the wider effects of increased nitrate fertilization. We do not believe that life-cycle greenhouse gas assessments, which look at the micro-level only, can capture those wider impacts. Even at the micro-level, there is little scientific consensus, and there are large uncertainties.
   
We are concerned that biofuel strategies are being developed without any proper risk analysis having been done: The impacts from the ‘worst case scenarios’ such as the complete destruction of South-east Asia’s peatlands, or the irreversible die-back of the Amazon forest are of such magnitude that they clearly are not ‘risks worth taking’. We fear that policies are being developed based on micro-studies, whilst the wider impacts on the global climate and on ecosystem have been ignored and risks of potentially catastrophic impacts, however high or low the probabilities might be, have not been looked at.
   
In the absence of proven safeguards which would address not just immediate impacts of biofuel production, but the wider macros/displacement impacts, too, we believe that the risks of promoting large-scale biofuel expansion based on monocultures remain unacceptably high.

NOW IT'S OUR WAR?
RALPH, GET A CLUE!
YOUR WAR IS AGAINST RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR THE PROFIT OF FOSSIL STAKEHOLDERS.
- RDM
"There's a war going on against energy from fossil fuels. I can't understand the pure venom felt against the oil and gas industry." 
Rep.