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As mentioned in previous blog entries, several news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, mentioned that the President, in his State of the Union address, would be addressing climate change. Indeed, in his speech the President called upon Congress to act and create a McCain-Liebermanesque solution while promoting his own executive actions. “I urge this Congress to get together, pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago,” said President Barack Obama. “I will direct my cabinet to come up with executive actions...

In his recent inaugural address, President Obama promised that “we will respond to the threat of climate change, ..... But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet…” When pressed on the specifics of what the president means to do on climate, his spokesperson replied: “We...

UPDATE on November 19, 2011: The outside income estimate doubled. From Glenn Reynolds: “JAMES HANSEN FINANCIAL SCANDAL? Hey, there’s nothing wrong with professors making outside income. But when it’s for global warming activism, it does call your scientific neutrality into question. In Hansen’s defense, no serious person has believed that he possessed scientific neutrality for years. But anybody who owns an $8000 engraved Montres Rolex watch is clearly part of the 1%, no?” THE ORIGINAL POST Government bureaucrat James Hansen pulled down up to $750,000 last year in speeches and prize money. The American Tradition Institute reported: “As it waits...

"When you make comments that fly in the face of 98 out of 100 climate scientists, to call into question the science of evolution, all I am saying is that in order for the Republican Party to win, we can't run from science," Huntsman said. "By making comments that basically don't reflect the reality of the situation, we turn people off." Politico's John Harris, a debate moderator, pressed Texas Gov. Rick Perry to name the scientists that he refers to on the campaign trail as credibly refuting the international consensus that humans are contributing to global warming.

The World Bank will suggest a global levy on jet and shipping fuel in recommendations to G20 governments later this year on raising climate finance, a senior official said on Sunday. Developed countries have already written off chances of agreement on a new binding deal at a U.N. conference in Durban this year, placing a new focus on piecemeal efforts including fund-raising. Binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol cap the greenhouse gas emissions of nearly 40 industrialised countries but expire in 2012 and now look unlikely to be extended in time. The World Bank is focusing on a levy on...

In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, the incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) teamed up with Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, to write that the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases "represents an unconstitutional power grab that will kill millions of jobs -- unless Congress steps in." Upton and Phillips complain that EPA -- despite the regulatory power given to it in 2007 under a Supreme Court interpretation of the Clean Air Act -- should await the outcome of further litigation about the...

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a timetable on Thursday for issuing rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries, signaling a resolve to press ahead on such regulation even as it faces stiffening opposition in Congress. The agency said it would propose performance standards for new and refurbished power plants next July, with final rules to be issued in May 2012. Proposed emissions standards for new oil refineries will be published next December, it said, with the final rules due in November 2012; rules for existing plants would come later. But the E.P.A. was vague on how...

The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it will seize authority from Texas to regulate major emitters of greenhouse gases because Gov. Rick Perry and state regulators refused to implement the rules. The move caps a long dispute between Texas and the EPA, which have clashed over the Obama administration's push to regulate industrial sources of carbon dioxide emissions. State officials complain the rules will unfairly punish Texas and its energy-hungry industries when they take effect Jan. 2. While the EPA makes the rules, states implement most of the requirements of the Clean Air Act. The most likely practical effect...

GREEN MAKE BELIEVE: Van Jones Admits Left is “PRETENDING” Need for Regulations And Cap & Trade in Green Movement http://www.theblaze.com/stories/green-make-believe-van-jones-admits-left-is-pretending-need-for-regulations-and-cap-trade-in-green-movement/

Environmental groups and industry seem headed for another battle over regulation of greenhouse gases, as President Barack Obama said he will look for ways to control global warming pollution other than Congress placing a ceiling on it. "Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way," Obama said at a news conference Wednesday, a day after Democrats lost control of the House. "I'm going to be looking for other means to address this problem." Legislation putting a limit on heat-trapping greenhouse gases and then allowing companies to buy and sell pollution permits under that...

WASHINGTON - The Energy Department said Tuesday it was awarding $575 million for carbon capture research-and-development projects in 15 states. The experimental technique involves storing carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants and other sources underground, in an attempt to reduce pollution blamed for contributing to global warming. "This is a major step forward in the fight to reduce carbon emissions from industrial plants," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "These new technologies will not only help fight climate change, they will create jobs now and help position the United States to lead the world in clean coal technologies, which will only...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) conceded her primary race Tuesday night. And despite the crowing from the enviro left and the climate-skeptic right, this is bad news. Covering energy issues, I've often disagreed with Murkowski and her staff, particularly on whether the Environmental Protection Agency should have the authority to regulate carbon emissions. But she is one of the last few Republicans in Congress who favors addressing climate change robustly. She has even -- in her tortured, elected-from-a-deep-red-state way -- favored putting a price on carbon emissions, a rational policy that the rest of her party has demagogued to death with...

News Wednesday afternoon that an armed gunman had entered the cable TV headquarters of Discovery Communications in Silver Spring, Maryland and begun taking hostages alarmed people throughout the Washington, D.C. area and around the country. As law enforcement officials negotiated with the suspect, posts on social media outlets inevitably began arguing over the ideological motivations of the hostage-taker, James J. Lee. Conservatives were quick to point out the suspect's radical environmentalist manifesto, while left-leaning sources disclaimed any connection. News a few hours later that the suspect had been shot and killed by police spawned a round of smug black humor,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration called for "fundamental change" at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but a long, politically explosive debate lies ahead on the future of the bailed-out mortgage finance giants and U.S. housing policy. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday raised basic questions with housing industry leaders about the U.S. government's long-standing role in subsidizing and supporting the $10.7 trillion housing market. "It is not tenable to leave in place the system we have today," Geithner said at a conference hosted by the Treasury Department almost two years after the government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie...

On July 29, EPA denied 10 petitions challenging its 2009 determination that climate change is real, is occurring due to emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities, and threatens human health and the environment. The petitions to reconsider EPA’s Endangerment Finding claim that climate science cannot be trusted, and assert a conspiracy that invalidates the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. After months of serious consideration of the petitions and of the state of climate change science, EPA finds no evidence to support these...

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) suggested a novel use Saturday for a 100-square-mile ice sheet that has broken off Greenland. “An iceberg four times the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland, creating plenty of room for global warming deniers to start their own country," Markey said in a statement. “So far, 2010 has been the hottest year on record, and scientists agree arctic ice is a canary in a coal mine that provides clear warnings on climate." Some scientists have attributed the breaking off of the ice sheet to abnormally warm temperatures this year. Markey, who chairs the Select Committee...

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said yesterday he has “no regrets” about his role in helping a troubled Boston bank qualify for a $12 million federal bailout now at the center of ethics charges against California Rep. Maxine Waters. In fact, Frank - chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee - says he never helped OneUnited at the behest of Waters, whose husband had served on the bank’s board. Instead, the Bay State congressman said he worked to promote the bailout at the request of scandal-plagued then-state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson. “I was already working on behalf of OneUnited, I was...

If you thought it ended with ObamaCare, think again. By “it,” we mean the irresponsible act of Congress to ramrod massive legislation through its chambers with far more regard for incestuous political praise than public service, only to find out, after the fact, that assaults on our Constitution and our individual freedoms were buried in the thousands of pages that this same Congress didn’t have time to read. Bob Beauprez (R) is a former Congressman from Colorado, now political commentator, who can only sum up what he is witnessing in the past 18 months under an Obama, Reid and Pelosi...

Last week we learned the Senate would not proceed with comprehensive climate and energy legislation to solve the climate crisis before the August recess. As I said in my statement, “The need to solve the climate crisis and transition to clean energy has never been more clear. The oil is still washing up on the shores of the Gulf Coast and we’ve just experienced the hottest six months on record. Our troops are fighting and dying in the Middle East and our economy is still struggling to produce jobs. I continue to urge the President to provide leadership on this...

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank caused a scene when he demanded a $1 senior discount on his ferry fare to Fire Island's popular gay haunt, The Pines, last Friday. Frank was turned down by ticket clerks at the dock in Sayville because he didn't have the required Suffolk County Senior Citizens ID.