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April 17 (Bloomberg) -- House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman said he won’t compromise on his proposed 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases over the next decade in the face of criticism from lawmakers who say the economy could suffer. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aaE9Lr1448tM&refer=home

The US government is to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, having decided that it and five other greenhouse gases may endanger human health and well-being. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the move following a review of the scientific evidence. The decision marks a major change from the Bush presidency, when the EPA argued it could not regulate CO2 because the gas was not a pollutant. Developing countries have asked for the US to show leadership on climate. Many are not prepared to curtail their own emissions without firm indications that the US is willing to make significant reductions. Carbon-cutting legislation...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday declared that greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide endanger human health and welfare, clearing the way for possible U.S. regulation. The EPA said it found that "greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations" and human activities spur global warming. "These high atmospheric levels are the unambiguous result of human emissions, and are very likely the cause of the observed increase in average temperatures and other climatic changes," the agency said in its finding, released online at epa.gov. Regulation is not automatically...

EPA agrees to study acidic seas; move adds to regulation momentum The Obama administration took another step toward regulating carbon dioxide, issuing a notice Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency will review whether those emissions should fall under the Clean Water Act. The EPA earlier this year determined that C02 should be regulated under the Clean Air Act due to its impact on temperatures. But Tuesday's notice — soliciting scientific data as to what extent seas are made more acidic by C02 — could extend regulation out to U.S. waters. The notice was in response to a petition filed by...

The EPA has officially declared that CO2 is endangering the public's health and welfare. This means that there will be new pressure on businesses to cut their emissions. It also sets the stage for cap and trade legislation: WSJ: A finding that CO2 is a threat to public health and welfare also would ratchet up pressure on Congress to enact a system that caps greenhouse gases and creates a market for businesses to buy and sell the right to emit them, as President Barack Obama has proposed.

WASHINGTON -- A top White House economic adviser told Senate staff a proposed cap and trade system could raise "two-to-three times" the administration's existing $646 billion revenue estimate, according to five people at the meeting. This could mean the cap and trade system could actually generate between roughly $1.3 trillion and $1.9 trillion between fiscal years 2012 and 2019. Jason Furman, deputy director of the National Economic Council, offered the estimate at a Feb. 26 meeting on Capitol Hill with a bipartisan group of staffers, most of whom are attached to the Senate Finance Committee, according to five Senate aides...

EPA proposes greenhouse gas registry – A first step for climate policy On March 10 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will propose a new rule to require greenhouse gas emissions reporting from thousands of businesses nationwide – a prerequisite for any effective climate change program. A greenhouse gas registry is a database for collecting, verifying, and tracking emissions from specific industrial sources. Late in 2007 Congress ordered the Bush EPA to create just such a greenhouse gas emissions reporting rule. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration missed its first deadline for publishing a draft of the rule and...

Climate Change: Washington is about to crack down on carbon dioxide emissions. It had better hurry because it won't have much time before the backlash strikes. The public is losing its faith in the global warming religion.The Environmental Protection Agency, under new management, wants to regulate emissions of CO2, as well as other greenhouse gases, as part of its campaign against global warming. The next step is to establish a reporting system, which was proposed Tuesday, so the government can monitor private activity and eventually tax carbon emissions. As many as 13,000 factories, power plants, refineries and other commercial enterprises...

Geologists have mapped 6,000 miles of large rock formations in the United States that could be used to store some of the excess carbon dioxide building up in Earth's atmosphere. The carbon dioxide released by fossil fuel burning has been continually accumulating in the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution. ... Scientists and engineers have proposed several ways to artificially trap and store some of this excess carbon dioxide in underground aquifers and other large rock formations. Now scientists at Columbia University's Earth Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey have surveyed the United States and found 6,000 square...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson opened Pandora’s box recently by agreeing to reconsider a Bush administration decision that excluded carbon dioxide from the list of pollutants the agency regulates under the Clean Air Act. Human beings and animals exhale the carbon dioxide that plants use in photosynthesis. A byproduct of photosynthesis is normally oxygen breathed by human beings and animals. So to even consider classifying carbon dioxide as a pollutant is, to put it mildly, quite a stretch.

The CO2 wars have begun. Presumably following White House directions, the EPA is ready to issue an "Endangerment Finding" on carbon dioxide, paving the way for regulations to control CO2 emissions. But with over one million "major stationary sources," a full-blown application of the Clean Air Act would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the US economy — all without any scientific justification. Hence there is speculation that the White House strategy is to use the threat of EPA regulation to force Congress to take action.The CO2 wars have begun. Presumably following White House directions, the EPA...

NEW MEXICO is in a financial hole. The country is in economic turmoil. Yet, some state representatives have introduced environmental legislation that will drive up the cost of energy for citizens and tempt job-creating businesses to relocate to other states. A story in the Journal described new legislation introduced in the state House that would set up “state controls on greenhouse gas emissions.” Not mentioned in the article was ... the fact that greenhouse gas emissions have never been proven to change the temperature of the atmosphere. Aggressive “cap and trade” bills increase energy costs and do much more economic...

NASA readied the launch early Tuesday of a satellite that will produce the first complete map of the Earth's human and natural sources of carbon dioxide, CO2, the gas most closely linked to climate change. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, was scheduled to be launched at 0951 GMT (1:51 am) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on board the Taurus XL rocket built by Orbital Science Corp., NASA said in a statement posted Monday on its website. It would be the first time NASA has used a Taurus rocket. NASA said the observatory would map the geographic distribution...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's climate czar said the Environmental Protection Agency will soon determine that carbon-dioxide emissions represent a danger to the public and propose new rules to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gas from a range of industries. Carol Browner, special adviser to the president on climate change and energy, said in an interview Sunday that the EPA is looking at a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that requires the agency to determine whether carbon dioxide endangers public health or welfare. And the agency "will make an endangerment finding," she said. "The next step is a notice of proposed...

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials. The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States’ negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen. The...

James Hansen of NASA has written an op-ed for the Guardian that, more than any other piece of his that I’ve seen, expresses his political philosophy. In a phrase, that philosophy can be characterized as “scientific authoritarianism.” Scientific authoritarianism, as I am using it here, holds that political decisions should be compelled by the political preferences of scientists. It is a very strong form of the “linear model” of science and decision making that I discuss in The Honest Broker. Hansen believes that the advice of experts, and specifically his advice alone, should compel certain political outcomes. He opens his...

A year ago, I wrote to Gordon Brown asking him to place a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Britain. ... The reason is this - coal is the single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on our planet. The climate is nearing tipping points. Changes are beginning to appear and there is a potential for explosive changes, effects that would be irreversible, if we do not rapidly slow fossil-fuel emissions over the next few decades. ... ... How can people be expected to evaluate and filter out advice emanating from those pushing special interests? How can people...

As the atmosphere's CO2 content continues to rise, the pH of the world's oceans is expected to decline, driving a phenomenon described by climate alarmists as ocean acidification, to which they are already ascribing a host of imminent catastrophic consequences. Writing in the introduction to a special "theme section" of the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, however, Vézina and Hoegh-Guldberg (2008) state that "without an understanding of how such a slow and continuous decline in pH is likely to affect ocean ecosystems, we may miss important aspects of this global ocean pH change," and that "to compound this uncertainty, recent...

The world's marine ecosystems risk being severely damaged by ocean acidification unless there are dramatic cuts in CO2 emissions, warn scientists. More than 150 top marine researchers have voiced their concerns through the "Monaco Declaration", which warns that changes in acidity are accelerating. The declaration, supported by Prince Albert II of Monaco, builds on findings from an earlier international summit. It says pH levels are changing 100 times faster than natural variability. Based on the research priorities identified at The Ocean in a High CO2 World symposium, held in October 2008, the declaration states: "We scientists who met in Monaco...

Former Vice President Al Gore brought a stark message to the Senate on Wednesday: A new climate change treaty is critical to continuing human life on Earth. The Nobel Peace Prize winner urged the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to push for a U.S.-brokered treaty in December in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the United Nations will host a climate change conference. Only the United States can lead such an effort, he said. “This is the one challenge that could completely end human civilization, and it is rushing at us with such speed and force,” said Gore, who won an Oscar for the...

The key players are now all in place in Washington and in state governments across America to officially label carbon dioxide as a pollutant and enact laws that tax we citizens for our carbon footprints. Only two details stand in the way, the faltering economic times and a dramatic turn toward a colder climate. The last two bitter winters have lead to a rise in public awareness that CO2 is not a pollutant and is not a significant greenhouse gas that is triggering runaway global warming. How did we ever get to this point where bad science is driving big...

Earth and Environmental Scientist Peter Doran recently surveyed 3,146 scientists in an effort to clarify the “scientific consensus” on global warming. Professor Doran has previously complained that his study revealing cooling in the Antarctic had been misinterpreted, causing confusion in the global warming debate. Here we go again.

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Clean-energy proponents want a federal panel to block a proposed coal-burning power plant in eastern Nevada, while Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is urging Gov. Jim Gibbons to move ahead with the project. The groups fighting the proposed White Pine Energy Station near Ely have asked the U.S. Department of Interior's Board of Land Appeals to reject the Bureau of Land Management's recent approval of rights of way for the plant that LS Power Group wants to build. The project still needs air quality permits from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, and Heller on Wednesday urged...

Jim Hansen is the 'grandfather of climate change' and one of the world's leading climatologists. In this rare interview in New York, he explains why President Obama's administration is the last chance to avoid flooded cities, species extinction and climate catastropheRobin McKie, science editor The Observer, Sunday 18 January 2009 Article historyAlong one wall of Jim Hansen's wood-panelled office in upper Manhattan, the distinguished climatologist has pinned 10 A4-sized photographs of his three grandchildren: Sophie, Connor and Jake. They are the only personal items on display in an office otherwise dominated by stacks of manila folders, bundles of papers and...

The earth's climate has been significantly affected by the planet's magnetic field, according to a Danish study published Monday that could challenge the notion that human emissions are responsible for global warming. "Our results show a strong correlation between the strength of the earth's magnetic field and the amount of precipitation in the tropics," one of the two Danish geophysicists behind the study, Mads Faurschou Knudsen of the geology department at Aarhus University in western Denmark, told the Videnskab journal. He and his colleague Peter Riisager, of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), compared a reconstruction of the...

So here we have them: Obama’s three scientists—Steve Chu, John Holdren, and Jane Lubchenco. All with sterling credentials – a Nobel laureate in physics, a recent president of the AAAS, a recent head of the International Council of Scientific Unions – but with minimal knowledge of climate science, except what they may have gleaned from reading the IPCC summary. Yet all three seem supremely confident that they will drastically change US climate policy. Well, let me be the first with the bad (for them) news: Within a year or so, they are going to be an awfully frustrated bunch. My...

Nature is a self-regulating mechanism that dwarfs any mindless effort to "control" the amount of CO2 produced by coal-fired utilities, steel manufacturers, autos and trucks, and gasoline fueled lawn mowers. Okay, children, let's all sit up straight at our desks. We are going to begin 2009 with a lesson about carbon dioxide (CO2). Why do we need to know about CO2? Because the President-elect, several of his choices for environmental and energy agencies, the Supreme Court and much of the U.S. Congress have no idea what they are talking about and, worse, want to pass legislation and regulations that will...

For years, we've been treated to the now-serially debunked notion that carbon dioxide plays a major causative role in warming the global temperature. Scientist after scientist is coming along to sayno . . . there's not enough carbon dioxide to make a difference; even when concentrations are relatively high, it's still just a trace gas in our atmosphere, and/or carbon dioxide levels follow rather than precede warming, and/or other effects, such as sunspots and solar activity, are far more causative, the point where the effect of carbon dioxide can be considered minimal, at best, etc. So, what do we...

Proponents of human induced warming and climate change told us that an increase in CO2 precedes and causes temperature increases. They were wrong. They told us the late 20th century was the warmest on record. They were wrong. They told us, using the infamous “hockey stick” graph, the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) did not exist. They were wrong. They told us global temperatures would increase through 2008 as CO2 increased. They were wrong. They told us Arctic ice would continue to decrease in area through 2008. They were wrong. They told us October 2008 was the second warmest on record....

STRASBOURG (AFP) – The European Parliament on Wednesday approved the EU's climate change package, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, lifting the last hurdle to the ambitious plan. Six texts on the package, already agreed by the 27 European Union member states, were passed by a large majority of the MEPs present. "We have sealed the climate package," said European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering, after the vote. The so-called "20-20-20" climate package, which Europe hopes will serve as a model to other nations, will oblige EU nations to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent...

A report about why global warming due to carbon dioxide is flawed hypothesis based off of crappy math models. Some of these guys are from the UN's IPCC who left because they so strongly disagreed. Oh, also to give you an idea of how many scientists that is compared to those who think global warming is occurring thanks to carbon dioxide: "The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. " Here's the senate.gov link to where these quotes come from: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6 Here...

The U.N.'s own observations show no warming trend, but things may still get hot and bothered in Poznan. Ten thousand people from 86 countries have descended upon Poznan, Poland, for yet another United Nations meeting on climate change. It’s the annual confab of the nations that signed the original United Nations climate treaty in Rio in 1992. That instrument gave rise to the infamous 1996 Kyoto Protocol on global warming, easily the greatest failure in the history of environmental diplomacy. Al Gore himself descends on Wednesday to personally bless the conclave’s work product — which, based on past history, we...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of a distant planet, in a key step for finding extraterrestrial life, the space agency said Tuesday. Detecting organic compounds that can be a by-product of life processes on an Earth-like body could one day "provide the first evidence of life beyond our planet," NASA said in a statement. The discovery was made on a Jupiter-size planet 63 light years away from Earth that is too hot for life, and is all gas and liquid. "We're not closer to discovering life on...

Please tell the EPA NO WAY! The EPA has started the process of naming Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant. On second thought, I wonder if it will get rid of “garlic breath” on crowded elevators?

Water vapor is known to be Earth’s most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change. Andrew Dessler and colleagues from Texas A&M University in College Station confirmed that the heat-amplifying effect of water vapor is potent enough to double the climate warming caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With new observations, the scientists confirmed experimentally...

PARIS (AFP) – Scheduled shifts in Earth's orbit should plunge the planet into an enduring Ice Age thousands of years from now but the event will probably be averted because of man-made greenhouse gases, scientists said Wednesday. They cautioned, though, that this news is not an argument in favour of global warming, which is driving imminent and potentially far-reaching damage to the climate system. Earth has experienced long periods of extreme cold over the billions of years of its history. The big freezes are interspersed with "interglacial" periods of relative warmth, of the kind we have experienced since the end...

If you haven’t made up your mind who to vote for in tomorrow’s presidential election, I’m not sure that what I am about to tell you will help — but it just might. Both candidates told the web site sciencedebate2008 that they accept the scientific agreement that greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are changing the Earth’s climate. And both candidates have said they want to cap emissions produced by the burning of those fossil fuels.But only Barack Obama has said he would regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.President George W. Bush has declined to curb...

CNSNews.com Astronomical Influences Affect Climate More Than CO2, Say Experts Wednesday, September 17, 2008 By Kevin Mooney, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) – Warming and cooling cycles are more directly tied in with astronomical influences than they are with human-caused carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, some scientists now say. Recent observations point to a strong link between “solar variability” – or fluctuations in the sun’s radiation – and climate change on Earth, while other research sees the sun as just one of many heavenly bodies affecting global warming in the later half of the 20th century. Contrary to what has been stated in...

Sep 4, 2008 Cloud-seeding ships could combat climate change Cloud seeding on the high seasIt should be possible to counteract the global warming associated with a doubling of carbon dioxide levels by enhancing the reflectivity of low-lying clouds above the oceans, according to researchers in the US and UK. John Latham of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, US, and colleagues say that this can be done using a worldwide fleet of autonomous ships spraying salt water into the air. Clouds are a key component of the Earth’s climate system. They can both heat the planet by trapping...

We are a little late to the party, but it is worth adding a few words now that our favourite amateur contrarian is at it again. As many already know, the Forum on Physics and Society (an un-peer-reviewed newsletter published by the otherwise quite sensible American Physical Society), rather surprisingly published a new paper by Monckton that tries again to show using rigorous arithmetic that IPCC is all wrong and that climate sensitivity is negligible. His latest sally, like his previous attempt, is full of the usual obfuscating sleight of hand, but to save people the time in working it...

Opponents of massive new energy taxes and regulations breathed a small sigh of relief last month when the Lieberman-Warner climate-tax bill went down in flames on the Senate floor. Even 10 Democrats broke from the party line and voted against it, writing that they would have opposed the bill on final passage. Unfortunately, power-mad bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency remain undaunted. The EPA is expected today to release a document that blueprints a dizzying array of greenhouse-gas regulatory programs under dozens of different provisions of the 1970 Clean Air Act. The document, called an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,”...

The dangerous rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may be troubling scientists and world leaders but it could prove to be a boon for plants, German researchers said Tuesday. Increasing exposure to carbon dioxide appears to boost crop yields, Hans-Joachim Weigel of the Johann Heinrich von Thuenen Institute for rural areas, forestry and fisheries in the central city of Brunswick told AFP. "Output increased by about 10 percent for barley, beets and wheat" when the plants were subjected to higher levels of carbon dioxide, Weigel said. The Thuenen Institute, which has been monitoring the phenomenon in fields since 1999,...

A judge in Georgia has thrown out an air pollution permit for a new coal-fired power plant because the permit did not set limits on carbon dioxide emissions. Both opponents of coal use and the company that wants to build the plant said it was the first time a court decision had linked carbon dioxide to an air pollution permit. The decision’s broader legal impact was not clear, either for the plant, proposed to be built near Blakely, in Early County, Ga., or for others outside Georgia, but it signaled that builders of coal plants would face continued difficulties in...

Georgia court cites carbon in coal-plant ruling Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:18pm EDT HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Georgia state court on Monday invalidated a permit to build a 1,200-megawatt coal-fired power plant, citing the developers' failure to limit emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. An environmental group immediately praised the decision, predicting it would lead to reconsideration of many coal-fired power plants under development in the country. The order, from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore, reversed an air permit issued earlier this year....

ERDOS: With oil prices at historic highs, China is moving full steam ahead with a controversial process to turn its vast coal reserves into barrels of oil. Known as coal-to-liquid (CTL), the process is reviled by environmentalists who say it causes excessive greenhouse gases. Yet the possibility of obtaining oil from coal and being fuel self-sufficient is enticing to coal-rich countries seeking to secure their energy supply in an age of increased debate about how long the world’s oil reserves can continue to meet demand. The United States, Australia and India are among those countries looking at CTL technology but...

Researchers in Wyoming report development of a low-cost carbon filter that can remove 90 percent of carbon dioxide gas from the smokestacks of electric power plants that burn coal and other fossil fuels. Maciej Radosz and colleagues at Wyoming's Soft Materials Laboratory cite the pressing need for simple, inexpensive new technologies to remove carbon dioxide from smokestack gases. Coal-burning electric power plants are major sources of the greenhouse gas, and control measures may be required in the future. The study describes a new carbon dioxide-capture process, called a Carbon Filter Process, designed to meet the need. It uses a simple,...

Researchers in Wyoming report development of a low-cost carbon filter that can remove 90 percent of carbon dioxide gas from the smokestacks of electric power plants that burn coal and other fossil fuels. Maciej Radosz and colleagues at Wyoming's Soft Materials Laboratory cite the pressing need for simple, inexpensive new technologies to remove carbon dioxide from smokestack gases. Coal-burning electric power plants are major sources of the greenhouse gas, and control measures may be required in the future. The study describes a new carbon dioxide-capture process, called a Carbon Filter Process, designed to meet the need. It uses a simple,...

A FEDERAL judge in Cal ifornia last month or dered the Interior De partment to decide by this Friday whether to list polar bears as a threatened species because of global warming. It's a fine chance for the Bush administration to stand up for common-sense environmentalism and sound science. You see, polar bears are thriving - and will do so under all but the most speculative scenarios of global-warming apocalypse. Any "threatened" listing would be absurd. The case started with a lawsuit filed by Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council in 2005. To settle it, the Fish and Wildlife...

Pending American Crises by: Bethany Stotts, May 08, 2008 Electricity prices increase between 35% and 65%. 1.2 million to 2.3 million American jobs are lost. Household revenues decrease as much as $1,300. No, these are not the effects of an American recession—they are an act of Congress. The Lieberman-Warner bill, also known as America’s Climate Security Act of 2007, proposes an aggressive cap-and-trade scheme for American businesses and will cost the federal government an additional $3.17 billion by 2015. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill will also impose an annual mandate of $90 billion on carbon-emitting private...

Topeka — In the biggest legislative showdown this year, the Kansas House failed to override Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' veto of a bill that would authorize two 700-megawatt coal-fired plants. The House voted 80-45 for the bill, which was four votes short of the two-thirds majority needed in the 125-member chamber to override the veto. The vote took more than two hours as legislative leaders, who support the plant, kept the roll open hoping to get enough votes. House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, and a supporter of the project, said of the outcome, "It is a sad day for the state."But...