Senate beats around the bush...again

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Cross-post from 1sky.org

The Senate has once again stalled on climate this summer by officially dropping a comprehensive climate bill from July legislation. In other words, a climate bill will not be passed this summer as we hoped. Big Oil, Dirty Coal and their friends in Congress have again blocked any progress towards a solution to our dependence on dirty energy and our worsening climate. This only goes to show the huge and disturbing influence Big Oil and Dirty Coal has on Congress. This is unacceptable, even more so now that we are in the middle of the worst oil spill in our history and our ever rising temperatures proving global warming is a clear and present danger. However, Congress is either blind to the fact or simply looks the other way.

Since the dropping of the bill, there has been an abundance of finger pointing. The Democrats blame the Republicans for not voting for their bill, the Republicans blame the Democrats for being such a fractured caucus, and the White House blames climate and environmental groups like ours for not lobbying Congress effectively. Come again?

'They didn't deliver a single Republican,' the official told POLITICO. 'They spent like $100 million and they weren't able to get a single Republican convert on the bill.'”

Is this official forgetting that dirty energy lobbyists routinely outspend green groups by several hundred millions dollars? In response to the Senate's newest failure, our very own campaign director, Gillian Caldwell, said it best:

Recent reports that the Senate will not consider comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation before August are a testament to the outrageous influence of Big Oil and Dirty Coal and their allies in Congress.

Senate inaction couldn't come at a worst time. According to the National Research Council, the choices that we make now about the climate will not only effect the next few decades but in coming centuries and millenniums also. The global temperature is only getting hotter while nine country broke all-time temperature records "making 2010 the year with the most national extreme heat records". The NOAA recently reported that June is the fourth month in a row with record global temperatures. We cannot afford to constantly delay a solution any longer. It is past time for Senate and the Obama Administration to break our dependence on dirty energy. We cannot get this done if the fossil fuels industry continues to have a stronghold on our political system. We must keep the pressure on the Senate!

While America, a country said to be the "leader of the free world", continues to have a hand in world pollution and stalls on halting the problem, China, once again, takes the cake. While half of our Congress see's a cap-and-trade system as taboo to our economy, China actually takes the initiative and pursues it. During 2011-2015, China will be working steadily to meet its 2020 carbon intensity target.

"The consensus that a domestic carbon-trading scheme is essential was reached, but a debate is still ongoing among experts and industries regarding what approach should be adopted," the source said.

In other words, they're not debating on "if" they should pursue it but "how" they should pursue it. And check this out; because China is a "developing country", they do not even have "legally binding responsibilities", set by the United Nations, to reduce their carbon emissions. Even more, China's top 1,000 energy consuming companies have signed contracts to improve their energy efficiency. However, it's only right for China to make large steps in combating carbon being that, according to the International Energy Agency, they are the world's top energy consumer.

How ironic is it that underdeveloped countries are taking the initiative by reducing their emissions: Six developing countries have pledged to cut emissions by as much as 40% while some have committed to full carbon neutrality. Underdeveloped countries could fairly claim that they have done little to nothing to contribute to the cause of climate change. And they obviously don't plan to start.

On a brighter note, more than half of the new electricity capacity from the U.S. last year was from renewable power. Last year was a record year for the abundance of renewable energy being added. Hopefully, at this rate, renewable energy could possibly put dirty energy out of business?

BP Oil Spill Update

Last week, I expressed my joy over the temporarily "successful" cap on the oil rig which stopped the oil from spewing for a while. However, I assumed that there was a possible leak since the pressure of the oil from the cap was significantly low, which indicated a leakage elsewhere. My assumptions were right. Small leaks have been found coming from four areas near the oil well even though the new cap is in place. BP is once again claiming innocence from the seepage saying that the leak is a "natural" leak and is not linked to their well. BP's next steps are said to be shooting drilling mud into the blowout preventer in an attempt to "kill the well" according to BP senior executive Kent Wells. Hey, where is our buddy Tony Hayward? On another yacht race perhaps.

Obama finally exercised his presidential power and signed the Inter-agency Ocean Task Force into an executive order on Monday. This calls for a new national policy to protect and restore our oceans, coasts and lakes.

[T]his order establishes a national policy to ensure the protection, maintenance, and restoration of the health of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems and resources, enhance the sustainability of ocean and coastal economies, preserve our maritime heritage, support sustainable uses and access, provide for adaptive management to enhance our understanding of and capacity to respond to climate change and ocean acidification, and coordinate with our national security and foreign policy interests.

During an experiment, water taken from the Gulf literally exploded inside of a test tube. Obviously the use of dispersant mixed with the mess of an oil spill BP has made is literally explosive. Not to mention deadly.

Naman thinks the reaction was caused by the presence of methane gas or Corexit, the dispersant that BP has been using in the Gulf.

Stay tuned for more actions from 1Sky next week around the Senate's climate bill punt. Stay cool!