Energy policy

Yesterday I had a bit of fun at the expense of the Republican noise machines and their efforts to paint themselves already as a loud and marginalized minority in Capitol Hill. I was so caught up on the moment that I didn't blog about it until this morning but Kenneth Quinnell described it as a "Twitter Bomb" and has happy to spread the word :

Twitter Bomb

This wasn't my idea (although I came up with the cool name), I think Liza Sabater was the one who started it, but it's too brilliant to pass up.

Those of you who are on Twitter, send as many tweets as you can over the next few days with #dontgo in them. The conservatives are using this hash mark (like a tag) to spread misinformation about offshore drilling and their latest publicity stunt. What Liza and a few others started doing was to flood that hash with counter-commentary or irrelevant posts. Sort of like a google bomb, this can either disrupt what they're doing or, at the very least, annoy the crap out of them. We can all do this.

Whatever you're posting on twitter, try to fit #dontgo into it. And make sure you include the # sign, which is key.

If you aren't on Twitter, this might be the type of thing to get you into it.

And before I even start to explain, let me break down the lingo for you.

In many ways NYC is a big mess. I thought that when I first moved here and I still think that. But both then and now I always recognized that NYC, in its own haphazard ways, sometimes gets it right.

Let's talk some greenhouse gas numbers. The United States is the single largest contributor to global warming. With only 5% of the earth's population we contribute 25% of the human-contributed greenhouse emissions. Per capita that pretty much sucks. Those conservatives who want to say population growth and China are the worst of the problem have to explain those numbers. Not that population growth and China aren't PART of the problem, but the USA is the biggest part of the problem.

According to Salon.com, NYC by itself contributes nearly 1% of America's emissions, making NYC an equivalent contributor to Ireland or Portugal.

Sounds bad, right? A single city contributing 1% of America's entire global emissions or .25% of the emissions of all humans on earth. But then you realize that NYC contains 2.7% of America's population. We in NYC produce only a little more than a third of the emissions as the average American.

So what are we doing right? Well, DUH! We have a mass transit system! Yes it's a chaotic, dirty mess, but it means we don't drive nearly as much as everyone else.

In the not too distant future I want to be working with our local Brooklyn New Democratic Majority group to host a series of talks on a "Green NYC." Among the topics I want to cover is how each individual residential building in NYC (or ANY city, for that matter) can reduce its carbon emissions and energy usage and save money in the process. This is an idea that is precolating among several minds in the city and may, within a few years, start to become mainstream. Let me use this as a chance to ask if anyone out there is interested in speaking in this series. Obviously you would have to be able to come to NYC to speak. We already have a couple of possible speakers and slots will be limited. Meetings are the second Thursday of every month, 7 PM at the Ozzie's on 5th Ave. and Garfield in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Not all meetings will cover "Green NYC," so again, slots will be limited. If we start intentionally greening NYC, we can save money for ourselves, reduce the pressure on the grid at peak times, thus reducing the risk of blackouts, and FURTHER reduce our per capita carbon emissions.

BUSY DAY! I don't like writing this many posts in one day, but the Democrats are keeping me busy!

This comes from the Union of Concerned Scientists:

The composition of the new Congress offers us the brightest prospects we have seen in years to pass strong federal renewable energy policy through a renewable electricity standard (also known as a Renewable Portfolio Standard or RPS).

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), head of the Senate Energy Committee, has said he will support a 15 percent national renewable electricity standard.

As of April 4, 2007, 48 Senators have signed a "dear colleague" letter supporting the renewable electricity standard.

The House renewable standard bill, introduced February 8, 2007 by Tom Udall (D-NM), Todd Platts (R-PA) and others, would require that utilities generate or buy 20 percent clean, renewable energy by 2020. Fifty-nine representatives have co-sponsored the bill.

Clean sources of renewable energy like wind, solar, geothermal, and energy crops reduce global warming pollution, create jobs, save consumers money, and increase America's energy independence and security. A bill expected in the Senate would require utilities to have 15 percent of their electricity come from these clean, renewable sources by 2020.

Please urge your senators to support this strong renewable electricity standard.

I was surprisingly inspired by John and Teresa Heinz Kerry’s new book, This Moment on Earth, coming out March 26th, 2007. This inspiration snuck up on me around the third chapter. Prior to that, I found the book good, well worth reading, but a little bit like just one more book outlining what humans are doing wrong. Starting around the third chapter I realized I was referring to the book in several conversations and several blog diaries and that several of the people and organizations featured in the book I mentally filed away as worth looking into for future political connections, diaries and general research.

In short, almost without my realizing it, John Kerry’s book was getting into my brain and inspiring me. The book starts a bit dull but by the end is excellent.

My earliest impression, from the press material that arrived with the book and from the introduction, was that this book promised something really new and welcome. The book was billed as the next step in the evolution of the environmental debate. I was ready for a book that took as given the problems and focused primarily on solutions. Having been through way too many “debates” online where I yet again outlined the very clear scientific evidence for global warming only to have yet the same false claims that global warming was some kind of scam or myth (these claims are never backed up by scientific evidence of any substance), I really was ready to have a book that moved beyond that.

This is the kind of thing I have been advocating: start rebuilding American manufacturing base by making alternative energy technology and combining it with more incentives for people to use alternative energy. Part of the equation is as a JOBS ISSUE. From Daily Kos:

[Daily Kos quoting Philadelphia Inquirer] In his first term, Rendell opened a new chapter in the state's long history of energy innovation. Pennsylvania coal powered the country in the 18th and 19th centuries. America struck oil in 1859 in Titusville.

Now, Pennsylvania is breaking ground on alternative energy: wind, solar, biomass, waste coal. Rendell's first term focused on electrical-power generation; the second term promises to revolutionize transportation fuels...

Rendell's passion blossomed under the tutelage of environmental secretary Kathleen McGinty, who worked for Gore in the Senate and the White House and on private-sector energy projects.

She knows that investments in renewable energy can reap good-paying jobs, as well as benefit the environment and reduce dependence on imported fuels.

Rendell set out to prove that by wooing companies such as Spanish wind giant Gamesa Corp., which was seeking a U.S. headquarters. Gamesa decided in 2004 to locate in Bucks County and build two Pennsylvania manufacturing plants, as well. The $84 million investment is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.

This one comes from the Union of Concerned Scientists:

On January 3, the Union of Concerned Scientists released Smoke, Mirrors, and Hot Air: How ExxonMobil uses Big Tobacco Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science. The report documents how ExxonMobil has underwritten one of the most successful disinformation campaigns since the tobacco industry’s 40-year effort to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking. In recent years, ExxonMobil provided close to $16 million in funding to 40 groups that question the urgency of global warming. This web of organizations disseminates the views of a dwindling group of climate change contrarians. Through this sophisticated effort, ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about even the most indisputable scientific evidence on global warming. Disturbingly, ExxonMobil has drawn on the same tactics, and even some of the same organizations and people as Big Tobacco.

The report also reveals how ExxonMobil’s extraordinary influence over key officials in the White House and Congress has fueled the disinformation campaign and helped to forestall federal action to reduce U.S. global warming emissions. As the new Congress convenes in 2007, it’s time to tell our senators and representatives to reject ExxonMobil’s misleading campaign.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has taken an important first step by calling for the immediate elimination of tax breaks for ExxonMobil and other major oil companies. The Senate should embrace this commitment as well, and the money saved should be redirected to support clean energy programs.

Recently I have written about energy policy at some length, including about how Democrats are the Party with ideas on energy policy, and how clean alternative energy has many benefits for America: reducing pollution and carbon dioxide, creation of local, American jobs, and energy independence. One of my articles was seen by people at the Union of Concerned Scientists and they wrote me to agree with me and send me their statement on the issue. Here is their statement with some links to useful resources:

More States Tackle Global Warming with New and Improved Renewable Standards; Odds of Federal Action Increase

Overshadowed in last week's election was news that the state of Washington became the 21st state plus the District of Columbia to adopt a renewable electricity standard, and the second state to do so via a ballot initiative. Under the provisions of I-937 (known as the "Clean Energy Initiative"), the state's largest utilities will be required to furnish 15 percent of their electricity generation from renewable sources by 2015. In addition, the initiative requires Washington utilities to pursue low-cost energy conservation opportunities with their customers.

Washington voters have created a long-term market for clean energy technologies in their state, a significant step forward in reducing power plant production of heat-trapping gases responsible for global warming. According to a study of the initiative by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), I-937 would result in cutting 4.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually by 2025 - equivalent to taking 750,000 cars off the road.