May 16th, 2007 by Carbon Coalition
Because of Brownback’s talk about drilling in ANWR and Tancredo’s talk about there still being a scientific debate about global warming (reminiscent of a conversation I had with him in March), I think it’s only best that we leave last night’s Republican debate alone. But based on the content of the last three debates, TPC would like to alert readers of a great opportunity we have to make the NH debates in June a little bit more interesting–and a lot more informative. The Union Leader is currently accepting questions for the debates. For more information on how to submit a question go here.
Moving on…According to Greenwire, Tony Blair intends to use his last trip to the White House as Britain’s Prime Minister to try to convince President Bush to act on climate change. Blair hopes to get Bush to join in next month’s post-Kyoto G8 negotiations. Some say Blair’s doing it to help his legacy, some say he’s wasting his time. We say, good luck (it’s worked so well in the past).
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May 15th, 2007 by Carbon Coalition
Yesterday the Washington Post ran this editorial about Sen. Dodd’s “plan to tackle climate change.” It wrote: “one of the benefits of being in the second tier of presidential candidates is feeling freer to promote worthy ideas that might seem too risky to a front-runner.” Dodd’s corporate carbon tax proposal is the “too risky” idea that the editorial is referring to. Dodd has proposed a 50 mpg fuel standard by 2017, a $50 billion research initiative into renewable technologies, and a carbon tax that he said would “eliminate the last incentive there is to pollute–that it’s cheap.”
A FOTPC had the chance to see Dodd this weekend at a house party in Bow and came away impressed. As a part of his stump speech, but also in response to questions from the audience, Dodd explained his plan for a carbon tax and his plan to transition from fossil fuels to alternatives. “He’s already on board; he’s there” (and he even sported a “Stop Global Warming” sticker). Already this so-called “risky” approach seems to be working in the Granite State.
Another FOTPC had the chance to see Sen. Edwards at the Grover Cleveland dinner last Saturday. He wrote: “There were over 420 people at the Grover Cleveland Dinner with John Edwards. Edwards gave the standard stump speech which is very solid. When he touched on global warming he got responsive applause…His energy plan seems to be the best one out there.” TPC also heard there were a lot of “Stop Global Warming” lapel stickers at the event. Edwards didn’t get a hold of one. Maybe Dodd or Biden could loan him one of theirs.
The Exeter Newsletter reported that at a house party for Biden last Saturday many attendees “wore stickers that read “Stop Global Warming.” Biden obviously fit in with the crowd.
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May 14th, 2007 by Carbon Coalition
Senator Joe Biden said that if he could wave a magic wand he’d make global warming go away.
True, global warming was one of the top three unprompted issues Biden listed when a resident asked him to ID the three issues he’d address immediatley as president. Biden was in the WMUR studios Friday evening to record Conversations with the Candidate - the segment will be aired on May 18 and will be available at WMUR’s Politics 2008 page. Perhaps confusing Philips Exeter Academy with Hogwarts, Biden again used the magic wand imagery during a stop in Exeter; a stop where both he and NH state senator Maggie Hassan sported “Stop Global Warming” buttons.
The huge barrier, of course, is that in the world of muggles magic wand technology is not very far along. We need a research and development initiative to develop the real technology necessary to reduce our carbon output. As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden is possibly best positioned among the candidates to educate voters how reducing US greenhouse gas emissions is linked to a comprehensive foreign policy in the next administration.
Staying with Senators running for President, the Washington Post published a generally positive editorial today on Senator Dodd’s carbon tax proposal while, in the process, voicing reservations about “cumbersome” cap-and-trade proposals that have proven “innefective and susceptible to manipulation” in Europe. In NH, Senator McCain has made changes to his state staff.
By the way, if you go to the WMUR Politics 2008 site and dig around a little you’ll find a page that allows you to compare the candidates on a number of issues. Given that the citizens of 163 NH towns have made clear their concern about global warming, you’d think that the candidates would be compared on this issue. But if they were, I wouldn’t be writing this. Anyway, let the good folks at WMUR know that they need to add global warming (or climate change, or whatever they want to call it) to their issues list. “Energy” does not cut it any more than “defense” is adequate to address Iraq.
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May 10th, 2007 by Carbon Coalition
Mitt Romney has taken the lead in recent NH primary polls. According to the “Granite Status” this “uptick…indicates a trend emerged as Romney spent a large chunk of his campaign war chest on local ads.” The ads (and Romney in general) made no mention of the environment and global warming. 70% of NH republicans consider global warming a serious threat and 162 NH towns have passed a climate change resolution calling for national leadership on climate change, so TPC can’t help but wonder how long Romney can ride on the money momentum before he is forced to address these issues.
At least there was a lot of climate change talk yesterday on Capitol Hill. Three hearings were held about the consequences of and solutions to climate change. Ed Markey, the chairman of the new congressional committee dedicated to energy independence and climate change, said “our oil dependence has too many costs–to our national security, to entrepreneurs, to our environment, and to American families–for us to delay taking action on this important problem any longer.” Across the Capitol, Sen. John Warner cautioned “if we make a false start…and it just proves to have been wrong, I don’t know when we’ll get the opportunity like the one before us now.” Karlyn Bowman, a poll watcher at the pro-business American Enterprise Institute, said “it’s real, it’s serious…but in terms of what people are willing to do: they’re willing to do things that are easy…it just isn’t a top-tier issue.” In NH (to beat a dead horse) that doesn’t seem to be the case. (Read the entire article here.)
In other news, yesterday News Corps. (Fox News, 20th Century Fox, HarpersCollins, etc.) announced that it plans to be carbon neutral by 2010–meaning it will reduce it’s current 641,150 ton carbon footprint to zero in three years. Kudos. Some believe the company’s intentions might not be completely sincere as it “conveniently comes at a time when Murdoch is trying to get his hands on Dow Jones & Co.” But if becoming carbon neutral is the new strategy to sealing a multi-billion business deal, then we must be making progress. (Read the entire article here.)
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