‘Green News Report’ – May 21, 2009

IN TODAY’S AUDIO REPORT: Clean Energy & National Security; CAFE standards & coffee cups; PLUS: Sausage-making & Congress! …. All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail, retired military generals or used coffee cups? 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’ (links below): Everything you wanted to know about the American Climate Energy & Security Act but were afraid to ask; Google wants to help you monitor your home energy use; the U.K’s plan for smart meters in every British home; Swine flu outbreak caused by a lab accident?; When is it better to idle, vs. shutting off your car’s engine?; Sea level rise may only be half as bad as previously predicted…See below for more!

Info/links on stuff we talked about on today’s episode, plus MORE green news, all follows below…

• U.S. Reliance on Oil an ‘Urgent Threat’: Retired U.S. generals and admirals say the real cost of fossil fuel, including transport and security, is as much as hundreds of dollars a gallon [emphasis added]:
  “Our energy posture is not sustainable. It can be exploited by those who want to do us harm,” retired Air Force Lieutenant General Larry Farrell, a co-author of the report, said in an interview. Finding a suitable alternative fuel and scaling it up to the size of the U.S. economy “is a 30-year project,” Farrell said. “We’ve got to get started now.”
• Addressing the Military’s Energy Inefficiency
• READ THE REPORT — “Powering America’s Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security” [emphasis added]:
  This report follows the MAB’s groundbreaking 2007 report National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, which found that “climate change, national security, and energy dependence are a related set of global challenges.”

  This new volume builds on that finding by considering: the security risks inherent in our current energy posture; energy choices the nation can make to enhance our national security; the impact of climate change on our energy choices and our national security; and the role the Department of Defense can play in the nation’s approach to energy security and climate change.

• How to fuel a car on waste plastic:
  [T]he experiment – funded in part by the Department of Defense – was conducted to find a way to dispose of trash and generate power under battlefield conditions.

  “One can recycle any kind of plastic, but if you are camped in a remote area, recycling is not an option,” Kong says. “Turning plastic into fuel is a way to get rid of garbage and generate electricity.”

• Obama’s Roadmap for the Auto Industry
• TRANSCRIPT: President Obama Announces National Fuel Efficiency Policy [emphasis added]:
  As a result, we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years. Just to give you a sense of magnitude, that’s more oil than we imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya, and Nigeria combined. (Applause.) Here’s another way of looking at it: This is the projected equivalent of taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year.
• U.S. Carbon Emissions Fall by Most Since ’82: Recession, Oil Prices Cited in 2008 Decline
• Energy-related CO2 emissions declined by 2.8 percent in 2008
• Industries are Grappling With New Bill on Climate, with graphs!:
  The “American Clean Energy and Security Act” is one of the most ambitious efforts to re-engineer American social and economic behavior in decades, presenting risks and opportunities for a wide array of businesses from Silicon Valley to the coal fields of the Appalachians.

  The legislation, better known as the Waxman-Markey bill, isn’t yet law and has big hurdles to clear. A critical vote looms this week in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. But even with its chances of passage uncertain, the measure has become the basis for debate in Washington over how the U.S. should respond to pressure to slash its carbon emissions.

• Without The Grassroots, No Choice But To Deal
  The political reality Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey had to face is there has been no major grassroots mobilizing in the broader progressive movement. While poll numbers show strong support for strong legislation, there has been no grassroots intensity to back that up, to convince skittish politicians that the public is demanding action immediately, and will hold politicians accountable if they don’t follow through.
• Will mail to Congress influence the outcome of Waxman-Markey?
• One Hard Thing You Must Do to Save the Planet: Perhaps you know someone in the district of a swing Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
• Exclusive report: Preventing windfalls for polluters but preserving prices — Waxman-Markey gets it right with its allocations to regulated utilities
• Map-a-palooza: Carbon geography, a state-by-state breakdown of carbon emissions per capita [emphasis added]
  It’s about per-capita carbon emissions and how they vary among U.S. states, both overall and by economic sector. Unsurprisingly, states with high per-capita emissions roughly map to lawmakers hostile to carbon legislation. Also unsurprisingly, the disparities trace in large part back to coal.

  Coal has had areas of the South and Midwest in a devil’s bargain for decades now: cheap electricity in exchange for poverty, low-quality social services, and bought-off politicians.

• Follow the money: Global warming polluters pay to undermine Waxman-Markey clean energy bill
• GOP looks to expand renewables mix, stress economy during climate bill fight:
  Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the panel’s ranking member, said he only expects the GOP to focus on about 150 amendments as the markup stretches into the late night hours today, Wednesday and Thursday. “Bring a sleeping bag,” Barton said yesterday after a relatively brief, three-hour session for opening statements.
• Gore mobilizes his “army” to fight for climate action and take on gravest U.S. security threat
• Dems hire speed reader for climate change bill
• To fight bill, GOP turns on business

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’: More green news not covered in today’s audio report… See below!

• How I learned to stop worrying and love Waxman-Markey, Part 1: WRI calculates it will lead to a 31%* or higher cut in U.S. GHGs by 2020
• Dissecting Waxman’s Climate Compromises
• Gore vs. Hansen: Enviros take sides in debate over House climate bill
  The Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, now moving through the House, is polarizing the environmental community. Longtime climate crusader Al Gore says we should do all we can to get the legislation passed; top climate scientist James Hansen says we should demand a different, better bill. Activists and environmental groups are picking sides or staking out positions in the middle.
• Climate bill could be a $750 billion boon for consumers, study finds
• Republicans for Environmental Protection “call out those Republicans who continue to spread the false claim that capping greenhouse gas pollution will — supposedly — cost American families $3,100 every year.”
• Americans and Climate Change: The perfect problem
• From a Theory to a Consensus on Emissions
  Waxman-Markey: What the Big Green Guns Are Saying
• Google Rolls Out Home Energy Software
  Essentially, the secure software gadget will interact with the intelligent metering devices currently being installed by utilities for their customers. The software will “show consumers their home energy information almost in real time, right on their computer,” the company says.
• Smart Meters in Every UK Home by 2020
• Study Halves Prediction of Rising Seas
  A new analysis halves longstanding projections of how much sea levels could rise if Antarctica’s massive western ice sheets fully disintegrated as a result of global warming. The flow of ice into the sea would probably raise sea levels about 10 feet rather than 20 feet…
• Swine Flu Not an Accident From a Lab, W.H.O. Says
  The swine flu virus did not result from a laboratory accident, the World Health Organization said Thursday, working to debunk rumors started by an Australian virologist and circulated by news outlets all over the world….”the evidence suggests that this is a naturally occurring virus, not a laboratory-derived virus.”
• American Idle: Idling vs. shutting the engine down: how many seconds make a difference?
  A recent survey by the Vanderbilt University Climate Change Research Network found that, for the whole of the U.S., drivers who let their cars and light trucks idle (at places like drive-thrus, bank lines, driveways, etc.) “account for 17 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year.” In fact, idling makes up about 1.6 percent of America’s mobile and stationary pollution, says Green Car Advisor.