Exciting News on the Clear Act: Weekly Policy Update from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network
March 29-April 2 Overview: Despite the U.S. Congress being on recess this past week (and next), interest in and support for the cap and dividend/CLEAR Act approach to climate legislation continues to grow. Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter wrote positively about what he calls cap-and-rebate in his latest column. Mother Jones magazine carried a story on its website blog about The Other Climate Bill. Senator Susan Collins was interviewed by Clean Skies News; during the interview she suggested that the CLEAR Act could be paired with legislation, The American Clean Energy Leadership Act, passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year. On Tuesday, March 30th, in what is probably the first such action in the country, the Santa Rosa, Ca. City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of the CLEAR Act. And at the end of the week, on Good Friday, the Philadelphia Daily News came out with an editorial supporting the CLEAR Act.
The CLEAR Act: A Clean, Green and Clear Choice
It’s time for the climate movement to come together, right now, to defend the best option that we have to get decent, badly-needed legislation on climate passed this year, and to push back against the fossil fools. Passage of the CLEAR Act would be a definite step forward, a political tipping point, not the end game but a victory for sure.
Is Cap and Trade Really Dead? Part III
Different models of carbon cap legislation serve different interests. Videos of Parts 4 and 5 of The Real News Network’s coverage of Carbon Cap Legislation. Paul Jay interviews Professor James Boyce of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who is also associated with the PERI Institute
Is Cap and Trade Dead? Part II
Continuing with our coverage of pending Cap-and-Trade and Cap-and-Dividend legislation, here are three videos from the Real News Network on different models of Carbon Cap legislation and the corruption that could be caused by Carbon Offsets and Trading. Paul Jay interviews Professor James Boyce, who teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He’s associated with the PERI Institute, the Political Economics Research Institute. The Real News Network has yet to publish the final one, but we will post it as soon as we get it.
Let us hope a better understanding of this issue will precipitate a new effort on the part government in the Western World to enact honest, equitable, and effective measures to reduce and remove excess carbon from the atmosphere.
James Hansen Against Cap and Trade with Offsets
The proposed climate bills in Congress are loaded with goodies for special financial and corporate interests. These bills would cheat the American public – again. Cap-and-trade was designed in part by Wall Street, which is eager to exploit a trading market expected to grow to two trillion dollars. The revolving door between Washington and Wall Street helped bring the scheme about. Yet Washington appears intent on choosing a path defined by corporate greed. Unless the public gets engaged, the present Administration may jam down the public’s throat just such an approach, which, it can be shown, is not a solution at all.
A Holiday Gift from Climate Scientist James Hansen
For new inspiration and knowledge, we would most like to recognise James Hansen, who with the publication of his book Storms of My Grandchildren has made climate science accessible and interesting to anyone with a high school education.
James Hansen says whole approach at Copenhagen is “so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation”
In an interview with the Guardian, James Hansen, the world’s pre-eminent climate scientist, said any agreement likely to emerge from the negotiations would be so deeply flawed that it would be better to start again from scratch.
“I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it’s a disaster track,” said Hansen, who heads the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
A Message from James Hansen on Hope of Cutting Global Carbon Emissions
Is it feasible to phase out coal and avoid use of unconventional fossil fuels? Yes, but only if governments face up to the truth: as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, their use will continue and even increase on a global basis. Fossil fuels are cheapest because they are not made to pay for their effects on human health, the environment, and future climate.
Intergenerational inequity is a moral issue.
A Outspoken Interview and Strongly Worded Article by Naomi Klein on the Case for Climate Debt
As faith in government action dwindles, however, climate activists are treating Copenhagen as an opportunity of a different kind. On track to be the largest environmental gathering in history, the summit represents a chance to seize the political terrain back from business-friendly half-measures, such as carbon offsets and emissions trading, and introduce some effective, common-sense proposals — ideas that have less to do with creating complex new markets for pollution and more to do with keeping coal and oil in the ground.
Among the smartest and most promising — not to mention controversial — proposals is “climate debt,” the idea that rich countries should pay reparations to poor countries for the climate crisis.
A Conversation With Dr. James Hansen – The Earth Island Institute
The approach that Copenhagen is using to specify goals for emission reductions and then to allow offsets to accomplish much of that reduction is really a fake. For the general public, it actually makes sense to move more rapidly beyond fossil fuels. If world leaders won’t act, civil resistance may have to be an option.
