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IN TODAY’S AUDIO REPORT: Will Obama end fossil fuel subsidies?; Will the Senate block Clean Air & climate protection… PLUS: The World talks climate change … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’: California Unveils TV Efficiency Standards; Wind Power Could Supply All of China’s Electricity by 2030, Harvard Study Says; Organic Farming Yields Far Better Crop Resistance and Resilience; Oklahoma river heals as lawsuit against Big Poultry looms; Georgia sewage plants swamped by flooding; Fish and Paint Chips (yummy!)… PLUS: A new survey reveals just how far and how fast global warming is altering the Arctic …
Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today’s episode follow below…
- The World’s Nations Meet to Discuss Climate Change:
- China steals Climate Week spotlight, but U.S. still in the hot seat (Grist)
- The Globe’s 2 Largest Emitters Lay Out Hazy Plays to Curb CO2: In the end, the two most important world leaders at the first-ever U.N. Summit on Climate Change didn’t say enough to satisfy supporters or quell critics (Greenwire)
- On Global Warming, an Ambitious Agenda: Domestic Politics Could Thwart U.N. Push for Commitments From Leaders (Washington Post)
- Proposals Lag Behind Promises on Climate(NY Times)
- Q+A: A primer on climate change at the U.N. and G20 (Reuters)
- Greenpeace kicks off anti-G20 protests in ‘city of bridges’ (AFP)
- Greenpeace: The World is Ready for a Strong Climate Treaty (Greenpeace)
- SLIDESHOW: Greenpeace unfurls banner at G-20 Summit
- STUDY: U.S. subsidises fossil fuels 2.5 times more than renewables (Autoblog Green)
- Fossil fuel subsidies dwarf clean energy subsidies; Obama wants to eliminate them (Grist) [emphasis added]:
As you can see, fossil fuels received the vast bulk of federal subsidies during 2002-2008. This is true in terms of direct spending, but especially true in terms of tax breaks. Conservatives, of course, don’t want to acknowledge that tax breaks are subsidies. They want to call them “incentives” and accuse anyone who proposes repealing them of “raising taxes.”
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This report is actually quite conservative. It did not include any number of things that could be considered indirect or implicit subsidies. It didn’t include military spending to defend oil in the Middle East, spending on the electricity grid, or transportation spending. Those things don’t go exclusively to fossil fuels, but if there was a way of including the share that goes to fossil fuels, the fossil subsidy number would go way, way up. Infrastructure spending has more or less exclusively supported fossil fuels for decades now. - Study: “Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources: 2002-2008″: The largest U.S subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research released by ELI. The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, reveals that the lion’s share of energy subsidies supported energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels benefited from approximately $72 billion over the seven-year period, while subsidies for renewable fuels totaled only $29 billion. (Environmental Law Institute)
- U.S. says working on G20 pact to cut fossil fuel subsidies (Reuters)
- READ IT: Remarks by the President to the United Nations General Assembly, United Nations Headquarters, 9/23/09
- WATCH IT: “Real Change is Possible”: President Obama Speaks to the United Nations General Assembly:
- WATCH THIS, TOO: Teenager challenges leaders at UN (BBC): 13-year-old Indian school girl, Yugratna Srivastava from Lucknow, addresses world leaders during the inaugural session at the UN Climate Change Summit in New York, asking “is this what we are going to give to our future generations?”
- U.S. Senators Block Obama’s Climate Agenda:
- Murkowski CO2 Amendment Could Have Broad Reach (NY Times)
- Vitter amendments would limit EPA regulatory power (Greenwire)
- EPA Rule Will Reflect ‘Uncertainty’ on Indirect Biofuels Emissions, Fending Off Amendment (Greenwire)
- Awkward: Senators move to rein in EPA as Obama talks tough on climate (Wall St. Journal)
- Obama’s authority undercut at UN, G-20 (Politico) [emphasis added]:
[T]he European Union’s ambassador to the U.S., John Bruton, expressed dismay about reports that the Senate might delay climate action until next year.
“If this were to happen, it would open the United States to the charge that it does not take its international commitments seriously, and that these commitments will always take second place to domestic politics,” Bruton wrote. “I submit that asking an international Conference to sit around looking out the window for months, while one chamber of the legislature of one country deals with its other business, is simply not a realistic political position.”
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’: More green news not covered in today’s audio report…
- California Unveils TV Efficiency Standards (Green Inc.)
- Wind Power Could Supply All of China’s Electricity by 2030, Harvard Study Says (Treehugger)
- Organic Farming Yields Far Better Crop Resistance and Resilience (Solve Climate)
- River heals as lawsuit against Big Poultry looms (AP)
- Georgia Sewage plants swamped in Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
- “Fish and Paint Chips Part I: The Science of Trash”
- The Climate’s Warm Future Is Now in the Arctic:
A new survey reveals just how far and how fast global warming is altering the Arctic
Sorry to be off-topic Brad. Do you think there could be a connection between the vote fraud that took place in Clay County Kentucky via those electronic voting machines and the death of part-time census worker Bill Sparkman? I suppose it could just be that they have a lot of bad people in that county.
– Tom
And by vote fraud, I mean the fraud committed by election officials by intervening during the voting process of citizens and changing their votes before their electronic ballots were “cast.”
– Tom
TomR – I was likely working on the piece, now published, about that when you sent your comment originally.
Hey Brad,
Thanks for the heads up about the isolated population of Yellowstone Grizz (for over 75 years) suffering from genetic inbreeding being rightfully re-instated onto the Federal Endangered Species Protection list.
I spoke at the hearing in Bozeman against delisting prior to their removal but it fell on deaf ears along with all the other outstanding evidence and testomonies from other concerned citizens and world people as to why it shouldn’t happen. The Bush administration and the US fish and game removed them anyway ignoring current studies and expert opinion about the numerous threats facing the bears such as diminished food sources, evidence of inaccurate total population #’s released by the Feds, and the fact the brown bears are not connected to other remaining populations. Creating a protected wild land reserve known as the Y2Y corridor (Yellowstone to Yukon) would connect them up through Canada.
The Canadian government is also doing their best to destroy the few remaining brown bear in their country with land developments, clear cutting forests, and stripping the land for energy uses.
Luckly, the US Federal court judge looked at the evidence and did the right thing by ensuring the bear’s protection until their population can safely recover. States did not have plans or proper funding for such things as monitoring bears in place. Only plans to hunt them down.
When bears are healthy in an ecosystem, all the other animals are healthy too.
Glad you caught it, GBD. Thought of you as we were doing it. Though thanks goes to Des for picking up the story for us!