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Climate change: Threat or opportunity?
Washington Post
11/06/2009
A curious debate has broken out among American environmental groups, as the Senate balkily starts to focus on the threat of climate change. Is this really the time to talk about shrinking glaciers?
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Democrats push climate bill without GOP
New York Times
11/05/2009
Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee pushed through a climate bill on Thursday without any debate or participation by Republicans. The move suggests that President Obama and bill supporters will have serious problems assembling the votes needed to enact it when it comes to the Senate floor, probably not before next year.
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Baucus votes against climate change bill
Missoulian
11/06/2009
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was the only Democrat on Thursday to vote against a climate change bill that Democrats rammed through a Senate committee - but said he still supports the effort to limit greenhouse gases and pass a bill.
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Views: Want to cut emissions in the US? Change the discussion
Christian Science Monitor
11/02/2009
In times of war, the US government has successfully appealed to citizens' patriotism. That can work now, too.
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GOP senators balk on votes on climate change
Seattle Times
11/02/2009
Republican senators on Monday demanded additional studies on the cost and job impact of a climate bill before it is voted on by a key committee, exposing the sharp partisan divide in Congress over legislation aimed at addressing global warming.
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GOP senators absent at start of climate debate
USA Today
11/03/2009
All Republicans except one are boycotting the start of committee debate on a bill to curb greenhouse gases in a protest that the bill's economic costs have not been fully examined.
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Senate hearing on climate bill heats up
NPR
10/29/2009
The Senate's Environment and Public Works committee has begun hearings on climate legislation, and the heat in the hearing room is spiraling upward. Predictions of what will happen with, or without, the legislation, range from dire to apocalyptic.
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Economics of climate change move to the fore
Washington Post
10/28/2009
For a decade or more, the political battle over climate change has been fought largely over the validity of the science of global warming. But Tuesday, as the Environment and Public Works Committee opened its first hearing on a Senate climate change bill, those concerns took a rear seat to a different issue: the potential economic impact of climate change.
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Arcata Forest signs on to new carbon program
Eureka Times-Standard
10/25/2009
Arcata has committed just more than 20 percent of its community forest to grow trees and store carbon, part of a contract with the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. meant to reduce greenhouse gases.
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US Senate begins hearings on Democrats' climate bill
Recharge
10/27/2009
The Senate will begin long-awaited hearings later today on a climate bill drawn up by majority Democrats, as opposition Republicans say they will offer an alternative to carbon cap-and-trade.
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Thousands rally for action on climate
Vancouver Sun
10/25/2009
About 5,000 people, including a shouting, sign-waving group of secondary school students, demonstrated on Vancouver's Cambie Bridge as part of the International Day of Climate Change. They were among millions of people around the world who took part in weekend demonstrations demanding government action on climate change.
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Senate climate bill cushy on industry?
New York Times
10/25/2009
The Senate bill aimed at reducing global warming pollution will initially grant billions of dollars of free emissions permits to utilities and industry but will require the bulk of the money be returned to consumers and taxpayers, according to newly released details.
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Betting the farm
Mother Jones Magazine
10/25/2009
When the Waxman-Markey climate bill was written, power plants were covered. Chemical factories were covered. Refineries were covered. But agriculture? Not covered. At all. Farms can emit greenhouse gases until sea levels have risen enough to give Iowans an ocean view and never pay a dime.
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Rallying for (climate) change
Oregonian
10/25/2009
Kayakers and canoeists formed a giant 350 in the Willamette River this weekend joining actions in 181 countries that urged world leaders to act quickly and aggressively to reduce carbon emissions that cause climate change. Many climate scientists say the Earth can remain healthy at a top limit of 350 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere.
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Views: A problem we can afford to solve
Oregonian
10/25/2009
Some have argued that the cost of preventing climate change is too high. In fact, estimates of the cost of acting to mitigate warming have remained relatively stable, while estimates of the likely cost of inaction are becoming unbearable. This is still a problem we can afford to solve.
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Focus on 350
Bend Bulletin
10/25/2009
By bike, on foot and by dog-pulled scooter, Central Oregon residents converged Saturday morning on downtown Bend as part of an international effort to prompt world leaders to act on climate change. The event was one of thousands of such gatherings Saturday in 181 countries, organized by 350.org.
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Views: Cutting carbon is economically viable
Washington Post
10/23/2009
Here is the good news on the climate front: The Europeans have ratcheted down their emissions targets, the Chinese are getting serious about solar power and energy efficiency, and Washington is lumbering toward a carbon cap.
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Views: Clean-energy brings brighter economic prospects
Seattle Times
10/21/2009
The US Senate is beginning a debate about comprehensive climate and energy policy. Those who argue reform costs will be too great are missing the opportunity of a clean-energy transition and the innovation and prosperity it brings.
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Views: Carbon-capture projects are costly
Toronto Globe and Mail
10/20/2009
On a cost-benefit basis, these carbon-capture and storage projects are madness, leaving aside the fact that taxpayers are picking up the bill. They are wildly expensive for the small amount of carbon they will (might?) prevent from entering the atmosphere. They are most definitely not a substitute for a serious climate-change policy that, however structured, must put a price on carbon emissions by those who produce them – either upstream emitters such as industrial concerns and/or downstream consumers.
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Views: The economic case for slashing carbon emissions
Yale environment 360
10/20/2009
Amid a growing call for reducing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to 350 parts per million, a group of economists maintains that striving to meet that target is a smart investment - and the best insurance policy humanity could buy.
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US hunters, anglers lobby for climate bill
Reuters
10/18/2009
An unlikely lobbying group is pressing the US Senate to curb greenhouse gas emissions: American hunting and fishing groups who fear climate change will disrupt their sport. Hunters and anglers are mainly a Republican Party constituency and could help swing crucial votes as the Senate tries to pass legislation to cut carbon output.
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Climate change laws to bring major job shifts
San Francisco Chronicle
10/15/2009
Although nationwide employment is likely to remain stable under congressional proposals to combat climate change, the initiatives would deal a heavy blow to those working for petroleum refiners and other industries tied to polluting fossil fuels.
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Climate scientists suggest revisiting the 1987 Montreal Protocol
Vancouver Sun
10/14/2009
International climate scientists have a new idea to shorten the agonizingly slow business of hammering out climate change laws: rewrite a hugely successful treaty written in Canada.
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US senator: global warming bill possible soon
Seattle Times
10/12/2009
The chairman of the U.S. Senate's environment committee said Monday that it's possible Congress will pass a bill aimed at slowing global warming before international talks on a deal to limit climate change in Copenhagen in December. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill, said she is pushing for approval of the legislation with specific targets to limit greenhouse gases, adding that the Obama administration "is very strong on this."
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Views: A warming Earth awaits leadership on climate
Oregonian
10/13/2009
The world is waiting impatiently for leadership from Obama and the United States on curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The Nobel committee's announcement included a brief reference to Obama's "more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges."
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