Environmentalists Stumble in Climate Fight

Washington Post: Energy Lobby Intensifies Campaign Against Climate Change Bill in Senate

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by David A. Fahrenthold.

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The oil lobby was sponsoring rallies with free lunches, free concerts and speeches warning that a climate-change bill could ravage the U.S. economy.
Professional "campaigners" hired by the coal industry were giving away T-shirts praising coal-fired power.

But when environmentalists showed up in this college town - closer than ever to congressional passage of a climate-change bill, in the middle of the green movement's biggest political test in a generation - they provided . . . a sedate panel discussion.

And they gave away stickers.

Next month, the Senate is expected to take up legislation that would cap greenhouse-gas emissions. That fight began in blazing earnest last week, with a blitz of TV ads and public events in the Midwest and Mountain West.
It seems that environmentalists are struggling in a fight they have spent years setting up. They are making slow progress adapting a movement built for other goals - building alarm over climate change, encouraging people to "green" their lives - into a political hammer, pushing a complex proposal the last mile through a skeptical Senate.

Even now, these groups differ on whether to scare the public with predictions of heat waves or woo it with promises of green jobs. And they are facing an opposition with tycoon money and a gift for political stagecraft.

"Progressives and clean-energy types . . . made a mistake and slacked off" after the House of Representatives passed its version of a climate-change bill in June, said Joseph Romm, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who blogs on climate issues. "And the other side really kept making its case."

The bill the House passed would require U.S. emissions to drop 17 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. Its centerpiece is a "cap and trade" system, in which polluters would be required to amass, for every ton of their emissions, credits that could be bought or sold.

Environmentalists say it is crucial for the Senate to act now: In December, a conference in Copenhagen is supposed to create an international climate-change treaty. They fear that if the United States arrives without any plans to cut its emissions, other countries will feel emboldened to do less.
To get the Senate to do something similar, environmentalists are buying TV ads, running phone banks and holding public events. Much of the effort is coordinated from a "war room" shared with labor and veterans groups in Washington's Chinatown.

"People have been naysaying all year long," said Josh Dorner of the Sierra Club. But, he said, "We got a bill through the House, and you know . . . all signs point to yes" in the Senate.

In Elkhart, Ind., the Energy Citizens, funded in part by the American Petroleum Institute, were cheering.

"The whole question of man-made climate change is really, really iffy," said limited-government activist Kelly Havens, speaking to a cheering, sign-waving crowd of about 200 at the recreational vehicle hall of fame. "I mean, what was man doing when Indiana's glaciers were melting? We weren't even here!"

The event had all the trappings of a political campaign stop: ready-made signs, a video featuring country music star Trace Adkins. All expressed worry that a climate-change bill would make high-polluting energy cost more.
Oil and natural gas groups have always had deeper pockets. In the first six months of 2009, the Center for Responsive Politics found they spent $82.1 million lobbying Washington on various issues, including climate policy. In the same time, environmental and health groups concerned with climate change spent about $6.6 million on lobbying and clean-energy firms $12.1 million, according to two other analyst groups, the Center for Public Integrity and New Energy Finance.

But last week, the impact of industry money really started to show in this debate.

The National Association of Manufacturers said it was spending millions on TV ads in 13 states, calling climate-change legislation "anti-jobs, anti-energy."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce began its road show with an event in South Dakota. The chamber has demanded a new "Scopes Monkey Trial," saying the Environmental Protection Agency needs to show it is certain about climate change. The EPA has said no.

"Reality is now being transmitted into the political system," said Bill Kovacs, of the chamber of commerce.

Environmental groups dispute the "reality" part. They have called the Energy Citizens and other industry-sponsored organizations "astroturf" - fake grass roots, professional activists and paid employees masquerading as concerned citizens.

At the Elkhart rally, many attendees said they had come on their own, worried about what higher gas prices might do to a place that depends on recreational vehicle manufacturing and farm equipment. One man said he couldn't be astroturf: He was unemployed.

The event ended with a video in which person after person repeated, "I'm an energy citizen." Some of those filmed for the video were actors, a petroleum institute spokeswoman said.

In Athens, the environmentalists were as raucous as a zoning commission.
"We're sitting in a room right now that is overly air-conditioned," one woman said when the panel took questions. "My concern is that we have . . . thousands of inefficient buildings."

This was the Athens stop of the "Made in America Jobs Tour," a series of events put on by environmental and labor groups. It was, in some ways, the green side's answer to events like the "Energy Citizen" rallies - but the two hardly seemed to belong to the same debate.

In a classroom at Ohio University, nobody shouted, nobody sang, nobody waved a sign. They talked about solar energy, home energy audits, utility regulation. Somebody else talked about the air conditioning. The House climate-change bill was barely mentioned.

The group behind this event said its rallies will be much bigger this week, including one in Detroit on Monday and another in Gary, Ind., on Tuesday attended by EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

It's hard to know now if anybody is winning. In a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 52 percent of Americans supported the cap-and-trade approach used in the House climate bill.

In the Midwestern heart of the current ad blitz, the office of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has been getting calls from people inspired by environmental groups' TV ads. But in the office of Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), a staff member said letters were running 100 for and 7,000 against climate legislation.

Even the optimists in the environmental movement talk about the next few months as a cliffhanger, rather than a sure thing.

"I often refer to it as 'The Moment.' It's the moment we've all been waiting and working for, for a very long time," said Maggie L. Fox, CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection, an activist group founded by former vice president Al Gore. "Yes, it's a test for the environmental movement. But it's a test for our civilization."

Staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

[agrihouse]

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Press Release available on http://www.prlog.org/cat-science/

Full Press Release
http://www.prlog.org/10350201-agrihouse-receives-epa-approval-for-its-biopesticide-to-prearm-trees-against-pine-beetles.html

If you like the links for NPR audio file and in the Northern Colorado Business Report article (Sept 11th, 2009)
Please visit www.agrihouse.com ? scroll down to the News Update section.

[mitdgreenb]

Climate change is a scientific issue. Choose to believe or not. I choose to believe the data that has accumulated over decades that humans are, indeed, affecting the climate. Also, as a student of system dynamics, I understand how positive feedback can lead to some very unpleasant ends.

Cap and trade is a political issue. Choose to believe it will fix the above. I choose to believe that the data that has accumulated over the past decade... in places like Germany... that cap and trade will NOT accomplish the stated goals. The offsets do not reduce emissions because they can be "produced" by random countries outside the capped coutry using no more than accounting tricks. Instead, cap and trade appears to be this decade's version of "forgive Third World debt" with a massive transfer of capital from the Developed World to the Third World. (Even some of the players, like Bono, are the same.)

I vote no on the current legislation, not because I don't believe there's a problem and not because I am tied to an oil/coal company, but because I do not believe it will work.

[johnrusselll]

Hydrogen hydroxide is the number one greenhouse gas. It can be as much as 4% of our atmosphere, far more then the less then 0.04% of carbon dioxide aka greenhouse gas #2. In addition, hydrogen hydroxide has a much wider absorption spectra then carbon dioxide.

Hydrogen hydroxide is the first compound formed whenever a hydrocarbon is burned. Cabon dioxide is then formed from the remaining oxygen. But most (over 99.9%) of the hydrogen hydroxide comes from natural sources.

During the last global warming perioud (that ended in 2004), more carbon dioxide was released from the oceans then emitted by all the power plants and vehicles combined. Oceans are a natural source and sink of carbon dioxide. It has been estimated that the amount of CO2 from power plants and vehicles is less then 6% of the total CO2 generation in the World.

Global warming tracks the increase in the temperature of our Sun. Since 2004 the temperature of our Sun has been decreasing, as has the global temperature of all eight planets. [So far, Pluto is the fifth largest asteroid in our Solar System.] This is confirmed from satellite data on global temperature and by the 11% of U. S. temperature sensors uncontaminated by manmade heat sources. These still rural sensors do not show any 'knee' in a global temperature vs time plot. Yes, 89% of sensors have been over run with urban and suburbon manmade heat sources and have been shown to read as much as six degrees above actual rural temperature.

[Void_Master]

Ok, so the choices are:

1. Spend the money to clean up the planet;
2. Spend the money to leave the planet;
3. Go extinct.

Personally, I would opt for # 2. Even if we clean up the planet, there is still that pesky Chicxulub syndrome that could render it all a moot point.

[AK-47_Justice]

by ClimateTF:
"Congress needs to turn its attention to the solution economists and scientists have advocated from the beginning: a straightforward and transparent revenue-neutral carbon tax. A carbon tax would not only avoid the evasion and market manipulation inherent to cap and trade, it would also incentivize green R&D and recycle the revenue back to the people. It's a win for the environment, a win for the economy and a win for the American family."
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Absolutely!

I've never been a fan of the manipulative "cap and trade," but certainly support a carbon tax on the worst culprits like BIG COAL. They would then have the choice to pay a helfty tax on their huge carbon footprint, or institute some sort of CO2 capture like algae farms grown on the emissions, and then used to produce biofuels. We must move forward for a change, instead of living in the past and allowing BIG OIL, COAL, and GAS to dictate what happens around the world at our expense and their record profits!

[ClimateTF]

I think a far more dramatic reason for the lack of unity in the environmental community is that there is a legitimate split within that community on how best to address global climate change. While many believe that cap and trade is the only politically expedient choice, others (myself included) believe that we can and must do better than a wholly ineffective Waxman-Markey. Congress needs to turn its attention to the solution economists and scientists have advocated from the beginning: a straightforward and transparent revenue-neutral carbon tax. A carbon tax would not only avoid the evasion and market manipulation inherent to cap and trade, it would also incentivize green R&D and recycle the revenue back to the people. It's a win for the environment, a win for the economy and a win for the American family.

[AK-47_Justice]

The oil lobby was sponsoring rallies with free lunches, free concerts and speeches warning that a climate-change bill could ravage the U.S. economy.
Professional "campaigners" hired by the coal industry were giving away T-shirts praising coal-fired power.
*********************************



Yep....we certainly see that the American Petroleum Institute is spending MILLIONS of DOLLARS in their "astroturf" campaign so they can pollute more and make higher and higher profits!

It's all politics, and those that cannot 'think' for themselves keep swallowing the foxnewsus propagandus along with their GOP Kool-aid!

[AK-47_Justice]

Why are conservitards so resistant to CHANGE and have NO VISION for America's FUTURE?
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Because moronic republican'ts have an obligation to BIG BIZ and especially BIG OIL, GAS and COAL, to perpetuate their massive mis-information and dis-information campaign against global warming in order to keep their record profits high and continue spewing more and more greenhouse gases from burning those massive quantities of fossil fuels!

They simply don;t care about anything except the almighty American dollar and excessive profits by BIG OIL, BIG PHARMA and BIG INSURANCE!

[AK-47_Justice]

"In a classroom at Ohio University, nobody shouted, nobody sang, nobody waved a sign. They talked about solar energy, home energy audits, utility regulation. Somebody else talked about the air conditioning. The House climate-change bill was barely mentioned."
*****************************************



Appears to be quite a bit different of a scenario with students wanting to learn and be a part of the process of moving forward with a VISION of the FUTURE -- not stuck in the past like the constipated conservitards using their republican't FEARmongering tactics as well as the usual LIES and DECEPTIONS that the "astroturfers" needed along with their free concerts, T-shirts and moronic propaganda!

Why are conservitards so resistant to CHANGE and have NO VISION for America's FUTURE?

[AK-47_Justice]

by endurorob
"What do you expect from a bunch of whack jobs that would sign a petition to ban " Dihydrogen Monoxide"."
***********************************



Your HOAX and "petition" was by a 14-year old student, proving how utterly stupid and gullible Americans can be with limited knowledge, hardly anything to do with REAL scientists or environmentalists!

Try again, robbie......



The dihydrogen monoxide hoax involves the use of an unfamiliar name for water, then listing some negative effects of water, then asking individuals to help control the seemingly dangerous substance. The hoax is designed to illustrate how the lack of scientific knowledge and an exaggerated analysis can lead to misplaced fears. "Dihydrogen monoxide", shortened to "DHMO", is a name for water that is consistent with chemical nomenclature, but that is almost never used.

A popular version of the hoax was created by Eric Lechner, Lars Norpchen and Matthew Kaufman, housemates while attending UC Santa Cruz in 1990, revised by Craig Jackson in 1994, and brought to widespread public attention in 1997 when Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student, gathered petitions to ban "DHMO" as the basis of his science project, titled "How Gullible Are We?"

"Dihydrogen monoxide" may sound dangerous to those with a limited knowledge of chemistry or who hold to an ideal of a "chemical-free" life.

[AK-47_Justice]

by rocky-racoon:
"Come on you know it's not a "hoax" dihydrogen monoxide is REAL and it's MAN-MADE so it's a pollution more dangerous then CO2."
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"Dihydrogen monoxide" may sound dangerous to those with a limited knowledge of chemistry or those that just have a need to perpetuate republican't HOAXES for purely political reasons, since it is just an odd term for simple water, started back in the 1990's, just to show how gullible the moronic republican'ts tend to be!

[endurorob]

rocky-racoon August 31, 2009 12:53 PM EDT
by endurorob August 31, 2009 12:40 PM EDT
"Environmentalists Stumble in Climate Fight"


What do you expect from a bunch of whack jobs that would sign a petition to ban " Dihydrogen Monoxide".
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Well you do know it's the largest "green house gas" pollution that man makes every day! It's been found in brain tumors and I'm sure was found in Ted "the Lion" Kennedy's tumor!!!!




Here is the web site that speeks to the hazards of this abundent yet overlooked chemical.


http://www.dhmo.org/

[endurorob]

"Environmentalists Stumble in Climate Fight"


What do you expect from a bunch of whack jobs that would sign a petition to ban " Dihydrogen Monoxide".

[afmcalax]

What progressives forget is the greed of the forces of the status quo. Gay rights, health care, and energy policy all have too many companies making too much profit for producing so little to allow for changes. They can write off their propaganda campaigns as a business expense so tax payers get shafted twice with poor policy and then paying for it. Since the politicians are beholden to the corporations, they stick to what they are told to say by their masters and since journalism has now descended into the depths of sound bites instead of knowledge; the typical citizen does not stand a chance to make an informed decision.

[AK-47_Justice]

by rocky-racoon:
"You seem like a bitter man, haven't got your check yet?"
**************************************



First off, the correct spelling is: rocky raccoon.

Second off, you must be a YOUNG BOY playing hookie from school:
Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon
And one day his woman ran off with another guy Hit young Rocky in the eye Rocky didn't like that
He said I'm gonna get that boy


Thirdly, Daniel shot young rocky:
Rocky burst in and grinning a grin
He said Danny boy this is a showdown
But Daniel was hot, he drew first and shot
And Rocky collapsed in the corner


Fouthly, rocky died with his bible in his hands:
And now Rocky Raccoon he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt
To help with good Rocky's revival



Apparently it is YOU that is "bitter," being shot by Daniel and dying all alone in your room without your woman and only with your bible.

[AK-47_Justice]

by rocky-racoon:
"It's all about revival....."
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Nah....it's all about saving our planet from the harsh environment that will eventually kill most forms of life including mankind, before that REVIVAL in quite a few million years!

[AK-47_Justice]

by AK-47_Justice:
"This only proves that the redneck republican'ts have been bought and paid-for by BIG OIL's billions in record profits, and obviously cannot 'think' for themselves. We see this everyday on the foxnewsus propagandus network with morons like beck, hannity and o'liely!"
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by rocky-racoon:
"You seem like a bitter man, haven't got your check yet?"
****************************************






Bitter? About what besides ignorance from the usual foxnewsus propagandus network loonies that swallow the same BIG OIL, GAS, COAL propaganda along with their republican't Kool-aid?

$82.1 Million spent in just the first 6 months of 2009 on pushing the same, old, tired practices of burning more and more fossil fuels...

Actually, no check for me this year, but huge renewable energy tax breaks for both small wind and solar that was raised in the Feb. 2009 stimulus bill over the October 2008 bill that capped wind power at $4,000. Already adding to my solar/wind system to take full advantage of both tax credits and not pay any utility bill, while people like you just make false accusations and silly statements!

[AK-47_Justice]

by rocky-racoon:
"The filthy rich are still buying ocean front property"
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Who said the filthy-rich were intelligent?

They're still building mansions on the hills on fire now too, on hillsides that slide, on faultlines that separate, and on oceans that are rising. So what? Only proves their ignorance!

[AK-47_Justice]

by AK-47_Justice:
Yep, the usual republican't trolls cannot see the huge amounts of lobbyist MONEY being spent by BIG OIL and BIG COAL, so they can continue the status quo of burning more and more finite fossil fuels that just keep their PROFITS high and create more greenhouse gas emissions!

Spending over $82 MILLION in just the first 6 months of 2009 on lobbying in Washington, the BIG OIL and NATURAL GAS groups prove that they have very deep pockets due to their record profits the past 8 years!
********************************




by rocky-racoon:
"How's that different from democrats filling their pockets with campaign money from those who will profit from this bill like Enron?"
*****************************************




Thanks for the usual republican't cognitive dissonance, trying to make a "connection" with an energy broker long since gone belly-up!

Go ahead.....give us some prime examples of ANY corporation like the old "Enron" that is mentioned in the House 'cap and trade' bill that stands to profit from lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

I keep hearing the same foxnewsus propagandus from the same usual talking heads and republican't trolls, but YOU boneheads keep leaving out the PROOF of your delusional assertions.

Please.....some PROOF for once that anybody is set to make money on cleaning-up up our nasty fossil fuel emissions.....we're waiting...


........still waiting.......

[AK-47_Justice]

by rocky-racoon
"republican't cognitive dissonance" did you say that in one breath?
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Yeah....I know those words over four letters are tough for you republican'ts.

Still waiting for PROOF that Al Gore made $300 million on "cap and trade," and PROOF that companies are already making millions here in the U.S. since the Senate has not passed any "cap and trade" bill.

I see you're still spewing the usual foxnewsus propagandus, but this can only be expected from the republican't cognitive dissonance.

[ffoulkes-2009]

GE

[AK-47_Justice]

This article proves that the Greedy OLD Party is owned by BIG BIZ, and that the BIG OIL "astroturfers" have been bought and paid for through "free lunches, free concerts" and free "T-shirts praising coal-fired power," for the redncek republican'ts that are much too ignorant to 'think' for themselves!
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by DaVicar5
"If somebody is buying you lunch, taking you to a concert, and giving you T-shirts...you DON'T have to think...it's a no-brainer who is right. That's why we vote for big coal."
**************************************




Exactly! Thanks for proving my point!

This only proves that the redneck republican'ts have been bought and paid-for by BIG OIL's billions in record profits, and obviously cannot 'think' for themselves. We see this everyday on the foxnewsus propagandus network with morons like beck, hannity and o'liely!

[AK-47_Justice]

"The bill the House passed would require U.S. emissions to drop 17 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. Its centerpiece is a "cap and trade" system, in which polluters would be required to amass, for every ton of their emissions, credits that could be bought or sold."
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by DaVicar5
"The big lobbyists are targeting Democrats"
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Typical delusional troll response, trying to defend BIG OIL.

There was not ONE Greedy OLD Party congresscritter that voted FOR the House bill that was already passed to save our environment, only the Dems voted for lowering emissions of the fossil fuel industry!

[AK-47_Justice]

by DaVicar5
"who is big oil in bed with?"
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This article proves that the Greedy OLD Party is owned by BIG BIZ, and that the BIG OIL "astroturfers" have been bought and paid for through "free lunches, free concerts" and free "T-shirts praising coal-fired power," for the redncek republican'ts that are much too ignorant to 'think' for themselves!

[AK-47_Justice]

"The oil lobby was sponsoring rallies with free lunches, free concerts and speeches warning that a climate-change bill could ravage the U.S. economy."

"Professional "campaigners" hired by the coal industry were giving away T-shirts praising coal-fired power."
*************************************




Yep.....the idiotic redneck republican'ts will always pick the free lunch and free T-shirt from the BIG OIL lobby, over REAL science proving that humans are destroying our planet quite quickly!