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CrashingBashley's Blog - July 2008
* Elana Schor
* guardian.co.uk,
* Friday July 25 2008
* Article history
The row over US inaction on carbon emissions reached new heights yesterday after the White House allowed Congress to look at last year's government proposal to officially deem climate change a threat to public health - a plan that aides to George Bush refused to acknowledge or read.
The climate plan was finished in December by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to a supreme court ruling that required the Bush administration to state whether carbon emissions should be regulated to protect public health.
The EPA concluded that regulation was needed, but whistleblowers have revealed that the White House ordered the agency to scrap its proposal. Democratic attempts to investigate the backroom dealings were stymied until this week, when senators were finally permitted a look at the plan.
The chairman of the Senate environment committee, California Democrat Barbara Boxer, released a summary of the proposal to reporters. Boxer was allowed to take notes on the plan but not given a copy.
"Based on the evidence before him, the [EPA] administrator believes it is reasonable to conclude current and future emissions of greenhouse gases will contribute to future climate change," the proposal stated.
"The US has a long and populous coastline," the EPA continued. "Sea level rise will continue and exacerbate storm surge flooding and coastline erosion … in areas where heat waves already occur, they are expected to be more intense, more frequent, and longer-lasting."
The EPA proposal also predicted that warming temperatures would lead to more wildfires in western US states and "additional strain" on already overtaxed water resources in the dry south-east and western regions.
Democrats asked the EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, to testify next week at a hearing exploring allegations of White House obstruction on climate change. But Johnson refused, citing executive privilege and forcing the cancellation of the hearing.
"The American people are poorly served by an administration whose head of environmental protection cannot appear before a Senate committee and honestly discuss what he did and why he did it," senior Democrat Patrick Leahy said.
The next step may be holding Johnson in contempt of Congress, which would effectively move the dispute into the judicial system. White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former Bush counsellor Karl Rove were found in contempt last year after refusing to cooperate with a different investigation, but their case has yet to move forward.
Boxer decried the White House's decision not to release the full EPA proposal to the public.
"It is clear. It is chilling. It is detailed," she said to colleagues yesterday. "That information belongs to the American people and we must get it to them. Then they will decide whether we should act to prevent this coming crisis or sit on our hands."
The EPA attempted to downplay the controversy in a statement to the Washington Post that called the proposal "a pre-decisional draft document" and "nothing new".
* guardian.co.uk,
* Friday July 25 2008
* Article history
The row over US inaction on carbon emissions reached new heights yesterday after the White House allowed Congress to look at last year's government proposal to officially deem climate change a threat to public health - a plan that aides to George Bush refused to acknowledge or read.
The climate plan was finished in December by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to a supreme court ruling that required the Bush administration to state whether carbon emissions should be regulated to protect public health.
The EPA concluded that regulation was needed, but whistleblowers have revealed that the White House ordered the agency to scrap its proposal. Democratic attempts to investigate the backroom dealings were stymied until this week, when senators were finally permitted a look at the plan.
The chairman of the Senate environment committee, California Democrat Barbara Boxer, released a summary of the proposal to reporters. Boxer was allowed to take notes on the plan but not given a copy.
"Based on the evidence before him, the [EPA] administrator believes it is reasonable to conclude current and future emissions of greenhouse gases will contribute to future climate change," the proposal stated.
"The US has a long and populous coastline," the EPA continued. "Sea level rise will continue and exacerbate storm surge flooding and coastline erosion … in areas where heat waves already occur, they are expected to be more intense, more frequent, and longer-lasting."
The EPA proposal also predicted that warming temperatures would lead to more wildfires in western US states and "additional strain" on already overtaxed water resources in the dry south-east and western regions.
Democrats asked the EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, to testify next week at a hearing exploring allegations of White House obstruction on climate change. But Johnson refused, citing executive privilege and forcing the cancellation of the hearing.
"The American people are poorly served by an administration whose head of environmental protection cannot appear before a Senate committee and honestly discuss what he did and why he did it," senior Democrat Patrick Leahy said.
The next step may be holding Johnson in contempt of Congress, which would effectively move the dispute into the judicial system. White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former Bush counsellor Karl Rove were found in contempt last year after refusing to cooperate with a different investigation, but their case has yet to move forward.
Boxer decried the White House's decision not to release the full EPA proposal to the public.
"It is clear. It is chilling. It is detailed," she said to colleagues yesterday. "That information belongs to the American people and we must get it to them. Then they will decide whether we should act to prevent this coming crisis or sit on our hands."
The EPA attempted to downplay the controversy in a statement to the Washington Post that called the proposal "a pre-decisional draft document" and "nothing new".
*
*
o Ashok Sinha
o guardian.co.uk,
o Tuesday July 22, 2008
There's a little village in Kent called Kingsnorth, population 7,000. You probably haven't heard of it. It's got a doctor's surgery, a pub, two primary schools and a part-time post office. Not a place of global significance - until now that is.
Kingsnorth is the proposed site of Britain's first new coal-fired power station for decades. If it goes ahead it will open the door to a new generation of coal-fired power stations. If this happens, then the message will go out across the world that the UK, and probably other industrialised countries too, are going to set fire to their climate change targets and burn more of the stuff that has done most to cause global warming. And where the west leads, the rest will follow; why should the likes of China curb their dependence on coal when we are set to renew ours?
That's why a group of Kingsnorth residents who are opposed to this development invited the leaders of Oxfam, WWF, the Women's Institute, the RSPB, Christian Aid, Greenpeace, Tearfund, People & Planet and Friends of the Earth to visit them to see what's happening.
On their visit today, these representatives of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition (combined supporter base of millions) are calling on the government to halt to its plans to develop new coal-fired power stations like Kingsnorth that have no means of fully capturing their carbon emissions from the outset. The visit coincides with the publication of a report from parliament's influential environmental audit committee, which warns that a new coal programme would "lock Britain into a high level of emissions for many years to come".
Let's be clear what's at stake: without urgent action by Gordon Brown and other world leaders, climate change will have devastating consequences. Hundreds of millions of people, particularly the world's poorest and most vulnerable, will be put at severe risk of drought, floods, starvation and disease. By the middle of the century up to one-third of land-based species could face extinction. That's what we will face if we continue to burn coal as before.
There is an alternative. Instead of supporting the one global industry that does most to cause climate change, we should invest in a strong, homegrown renewable energy industry and send a powerful signal to the international community that the UK is prepared to help lead the transition to a low-carbon future for our world. In making this transition the UK will prove the case internationally that action to tackle the inseparable challenges of climate change and fossil fuel-addiction will protect the environment, create new jobs and increase energy security.
By investing in green energy, energy efficiency and smarter ways of living and working we can meet our climate change targets and keep the lights on. Sounds like a win-win to me. What's needed now is courage from Brown to go out and make that case with the electorate.
Ashok Sinha is director of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition
*
o Ashok Sinha
o guardian.co.uk,
o Tuesday July 22, 2008
There's a little village in Kent called Kingsnorth, population 7,000. You probably haven't heard of it. It's got a doctor's surgery, a pub, two primary schools and a part-time post office. Not a place of global significance - until now that is.
Kingsnorth is the proposed site of Britain's first new coal-fired power station for decades. If it goes ahead it will open the door to a new generation of coal-fired power stations. If this happens, then the message will go out across the world that the UK, and probably other industrialised countries too, are going to set fire to their climate change targets and burn more of the stuff that has done most to cause global warming. And where the west leads, the rest will follow; why should the likes of China curb their dependence on coal when we are set to renew ours?
That's why a group of Kingsnorth residents who are opposed to this development invited the leaders of Oxfam, WWF, the Women's Institute, the RSPB, Christian Aid, Greenpeace, Tearfund, People & Planet and Friends of the Earth to visit them to see what's happening.
On their visit today, these representatives of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition (combined supporter base of millions) are calling on the government to halt to its plans to develop new coal-fired power stations like Kingsnorth that have no means of fully capturing their carbon emissions from the outset. The visit coincides with the publication of a report from parliament's influential environmental audit committee, which warns that a new coal programme would "lock Britain into a high level of emissions for many years to come".
Let's be clear what's at stake: without urgent action by Gordon Brown and other world leaders, climate change will have devastating consequences. Hundreds of millions of people, particularly the world's poorest and most vulnerable, will be put at severe risk of drought, floods, starvation and disease. By the middle of the century up to one-third of land-based species could face extinction. That's what we will face if we continue to burn coal as before.
There is an alternative. Instead of supporting the one global industry that does most to cause climate change, we should invest in a strong, homegrown renewable energy industry and send a powerful signal to the international community that the UK is prepared to help lead the transition to a low-carbon future for our world. In making this transition the UK will prove the case internationally that action to tackle the inseparable challenges of climate change and fossil fuel-addiction will protect the environment, create new jobs and increase energy security.
By investing in green energy, energy efficiency and smarter ways of living and working we can meet our climate change targets and keep the lights on. Sounds like a win-win to me. What's needed now is courage from Brown to go out and make that case with the electorate.
Ashok Sinha is director of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition
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