A junior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Andrew Swoboda, recently won a $10,000 scholarship for his research in reducing the amount of platinum needed to make hydrogen fuel cells, reducing the overall cost of production. He is making an effort to cut the cost of alternative energy that could help reduce the demand for mountaintop removal coal mining and other dirty sources. Meanwhile, his elected official, VA state Senator Richard Saslaw, has been an obstacle to investing in energy efficiency measures that would also reduce the demand for coal. Last year he was the decisive vote to block efficiency legislation in committee.
There’s no doubt that energy efficiency is the quickest, cheapest, cleanest way to meet Virginia’s energy needs and create jobs, which is why it’s one of our top priorities this year in Virginia. Do you think hydrogen fuel cells have a place in making the switch to a clean energy future?
One year ago, Barack Obama was inaugurated as President. Hopes were high among progressive-minded people, including climate activists. Finally, we had a President who got it on the need for action to address the deepening climate crisis.
But here we are a year later and things look very different. The United States, including Obama, played a generally problematic role up to and at the Copenhagen climate conference, dismissing the widespread call by a big majority of the world’s countries for emissions reductions consistent with the climate science. The Obama administration played this role despite the bad-weather impacts and sea level rise already being seen and felt in Africa, small island nations and elsewhere.
As far as the U.S. Congress, Obama has certainly not made it a priority so far to advance efforts to enact climate legislation in this session. It’s looking very possible, even likely, that no comprehensive climate legislation will be passed in 2010. Continue reading
Yesterday at the Virginia Conservation Network’s annual lobby day, 235 Virginians from all across the Commonwealth flooded the halls of Virginia’s General Assembly Building. There were many priority issues on the agenda but upon reading the meeting feedback forms at lunch it became clear that almost everyone was talking about two things: energy efficiency and mountaintop removal. The final tally isn’t back yet, but SB 564 and SB 71 were creating a buzz for sure.
I’d like to focus for just a brief minute on SB 564, the Virginia Stream Saver Bill. It was introduced by Senator Patsy Ticer from Northern Virginia but four women from Wise County traveled the distance to Richmond to thank both Senator Ticer and Senator Whipple (first co-patron), for taking a stand on issue so important to them. It was certainly a special moment when Kathy Selvage from Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards presented Senator Ticer with a book entitled “Plundering Appalachia” that illustrates the devastating impacts this practice is having across Appalachia. Kathy brought two jars of water from her neighborhood to show just how impacted her water quality is. With all of our combined efforts the Stream Saver Bill SB 564 now has five co-patrons, including Senators Whipple, Howell, Northam and Marsden. If you have a minute please call today at (800) 889-0229 and ask your Senator to co-patron this important bill!
The New York Times and Greenwire have picked up the first major grassroots action of the year to tell the Senate to pass strong climate change legislation in 2010!
A couple weeks ago Senator Jim Webb introduced a bill that would subsidize the nuclear industry and could divert money away from much needed solutions to the climate crisis. We flooded his office with hundreds of emails asking him what his plan was to solve global warming. Senator Webb has raised real concerns about cap and trade — handing money over to polluters for free, complicated offsets, and Wall Street gaming among them. Just last week, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a bill that represents a new approach to capping carbon that avoids these pitfalls. Over the past year, in meetings with CCAN members, Sen. Webb has indicated interest in this new approach.The Cantwell-Collins “Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal” (CLEAR) Act is simple, fair and built to last. With this bill all polluters pay and there are no complicating offsets. Instead of most permits given away for free and subsidies for corporations, every American would get a check each month through a monthly carbon “dividend.” Learn more>>Call Senator Webb and ask him to co-sponsor this new approach to reducing global warming pollutionSen. Webb: (202)-224-4024Call Script>>Under the Cantwell-Collins bill, the federal government would auction off carbon shares to the nation’s 2,000 or so fuel producers such as coal and oil companies. Every two years, the shares would expire and, over the years, the U.S. government would offer fewer and fewer shares for sale as a way to reduce carbon consumption. Seventy-five percent of the money raised would be rebated directly to U.S. citizens. Cantwell’s office estimated that an average family of four would receive a total of about $1,100 a year in the form of tax-free monthly checks.The other 25 percent of the money raised would be used exclusively for clean-energy research and development, energy efficiency programs and for assistance to communities and workers transitioning to a clean energy economy.Call Senator Webb now and ask him to co-sponsor the CLEAR ActSen. Webb: (202)-224-4024Call Script>>Thanks for all you do, and happy holidays!
CALL SCRIPT
Hello. My name is ____ and I live in ______.
I’m calling to let Senator Webb know about the Cantwell-Collins CLEAR Act, which was introduced last Friday.
The bill is a simple, fair and enduring way for the United States to address global warming.
Given the Senator’s desire to address climate change, and his concerns about the complexities of a cap-and-trade system, I strongly urge him co-sponsor this important bill.
Report your Call
After you’ve made your call, please email Lauren Glickman at lauren@chesapeakeclimate.org so we can keep track of how many calls are placed and to let us know how the call went!
As of Wednesday morning the international treaty talks have turned chaotic and discouraging. The summary: The United States is emerging more and more as the country blocking any meaningful progress. Despite efforts by activists worldwide to highlight the importance of 350 parts per million as the only safe level of carbon in the atmosphere, the US is doing its best to persuade all nations to abandon any talk of science-based reductions and simply wants to collect all the currently weak emissions reduction pledges and just crank out a watered-down treaty most convenient for America.
The scene here at the Bella Center in Copenhagen has been tense. Hundreds of activists and delegates walked out earlier this morning to protest the restriction of access. Many leaders of American climate NGOs are either already denied access to the center or will lose access soon. It’s a disgrace. Friends of the Earth activists and others have spent the morning sitting down in protest outside the center.
Security here and throughout the city is intense. Police dogs outside the center. Coming through the airport-like x-ray machines, I was asked to demonstrate that my water bottle was not poison by taking a swallow in front of security representatives.
I’ve talked to several leaders of the climate movement — including Gillian Caldwell of 1Sky and Jessy Tolkan of Energy Action — and everyone is sort of in a mixed state of anger, panic, and sadness. How can the US be so intransigent? Obama actually telephoned the presidents of Bangladesh and Ethiopia Tuesday to basically try to charm them away from science-based demands.
Danish diplomat Connie Hedegaard, official head of these treaty talks, told delegates yesterday you can leave on Friday in “fame or shame.” Tragically, the latter looks more likely at this point, although miracles can happen.
There appears to be some progress on rainforest protection today, according to the New York Times. But the two other main issues — financing clean energy development in poor nations and rich-nation commitments to serious emissions cuts — are totally unresolved.
I think Greenpeace International best described the current situation in the press release exerpt below. Also visit www.earthbeatradio.org for my complete radio broadcast from the conference, as well as video interviews soon with Jessy Tolkan and Gillian Caldwell.
Onward, Mike Tidwell Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Greenpeace International statement Wednesday morning from Copenhagen:
“This situation is ridiculous and unacceptable to the millions of people around the world demanding that heads of state agree a climate saving deal this week.
“The talks are still stalled – because the industrialised country Ministers appear to have left their political will at home. Lets hope their heads of state don’t forget to pack theirs” said Kaisa Kosonen, of Greenpeace International.
At the heart of the problem was the US’s insistence that governments abandon any idea of science-based, legally binding targets and instead try to simply add up any targets on the table and make that the overall outcome for the talks.
The US was also trying to toughen obligations on developing countries, whilst trying to get away with a weaker obligation on themselves.
“The US, the world’s richest country with the largest historical emissions is holding these talks hostage. If Obama doesn’t put new targets and long term finance on the table this week, he will be the leader remembered for causing a breakdown in Copenhagen and guaranteeing climate chaos,” said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace US.
First of all, imagine this: the people of Copenhagen, Denmark, generate one-sixth of the greenhouse gas pollution per capita as people living in Washington, D.C. One sixth! That’s the first thing you notice when you come to Copenhagen, as I have, for the international climate talks. I’m here to represent your voice as a dedicated CCAN supporter. I’m also here to see the future.
Denmark as a nation gets nearly 25 percent of its electricity from wind farms. The city of Copenhagen itself is full of bicycles. They’re everywhere. And the subway system is world class. I saw a guy on the subway Sunday in Copenhagen carrying a Christmas tree. On the train. People do everything here, go everywhere, without cars! And Danes, at the same time, are consistently ranked in surveys as some of the happiest people on Earth. Radically low-carbon and happy people.
So I’m seeing the clean-energy future in practice this week. Too bad the world’s top leaders Continue reading
Today, the Washington Post broke news of an announcement by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu that the United States was contributing $85 million to The Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative.
“The initiative — which includes $85 million from the United States and donations from industrialized nations such as Italy and Australia — aims to make energy-saving technology that already exists cheap enough to penetrate markets in India, parts of Africa and elsewhere. It is distinct from the major financing package the United States is expected to unveil this week as part of a broader climate deal.”
While it’s good to see initiatives such as these, the total amount and the contribution by the US fall of what international talks in Copenhagen need in order for a successful agreement. The broader deal the US is expected to unveil later this week will lay out around $1.2 billion in its 2010 budget for international climate aid and mitigation, and Senator John Kerry recently wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pushing for $3 billion to be included in the 2011. Both figures depend on the Senate passing climate legislation. At the same time, the EU is trying to scrape together $10 billion in funding from the 2010-2012 period, although there is concern right now over whether it’s new money, or international assistance dollars being redirected. Continue reading
There has been quite an assault on the climate science in the past few weeks. Far more so than ever before, which is saying something given the Climate Cover-Up that’s gone on for so long. First, e-mails were hacked from a British university, showing some cherry-picked conversations between climate scientists, which global warming deniers have stretched and chalked up to data misrepresentation, and a massive global scientific conspiracy to trick people into reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading
This is a cross-post from my friend Davey Rogner, a former member of the University of Maryland student activist group UMD for Clean Energy, who wrote this on his blog The Harvest Collective. I also posted it on my blog. I’m currently the Campaign Director of UMD for Clean Energy. We had the pleasure of meeting EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson last week. For more info on Edmonston’s green street, check this out.
Just hours ago I was brushing shoulders with some of the most influential environmental decision makers in the state of Maryland. Members of UMD for Clean Energy were invited to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the City of Edmonston’s new “green street.” The groundbreaking was ushered in with keynotes from environmental leaders such as US House Representatives Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen; Maryland Department of The Environment’s Deputy Secretary Bob Summers; The Executive Director of The Chesapeake Bay Trust and my former boss when I was his intern Allan Hance; and most notably the Administrator for The United States Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson. Continue reading
Yesterday at the 
Call Senator Webb TODAY!
CALL SCRIPT 
First of all, imagine this: the people of Copenhagen, Denmark, generate one-sixth of the greenhouse gas pollution per capita as people living in Washington, D.C. One sixth! That’s the first thing you notice when you come to Copenhagen, as I have, for the international climate talks. I’m here to represent your voice as a dedicated CCAN supporter. I’m also here to see the future. 
