Something is (About to be) Rotten in the State of Denmark

With the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen only days away, observers around the world are talking less about seeing a firm emissions control treaty, with targets, come out of the meeting than a political agreement to aim for hefty reductions in the future.

This is, to say the least, disappointing. An international agreement on GHG emission reductions would, at long last, force governments to put a price on carbon, which would lead to more robust investment in clean energy solutions. These could include both utility-scale and distributed solar, as well as passive solar and energy efficiency measures. But to kick the problem down the road for another year or more would be to waste a rare opportunity, in which no fewer than 192 countries—more than 60 of which will be represented by their leaders—could have made tangible progress on international climate policy. Some twelve years after launching the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s leaders might have given us more.
(more…)

Taking Our Ball and Going Home

In the first week of November, it was not just bipartisanship but basic, honest debate that took a hit in the U.S. Senate.  We’re trying to restore some sanity — and adult behavior — on the Hill.

The minority members of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, seeing that the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Bill was likely to pass successfully out of committee, decided en masse to boycott the planned mark-up session.  As a reminder, this bill, S1733, is the Senate’s version of the energy/climate bill that passed the House in the Spring.  And despite its weaknesses, it represents the one chance the country has this year of passing legislation vital to the growth of clean energy and the control of climate change.

Notwithstanding this unprecedented show of petulance, Committee Chair Barbara Boxer passed the bill out of committee, but the action of the minority, led by Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma, will make it that much more difficult to get the votes needed when the bill reaches the floor of the Senate. (more…)