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Climate Capsule: Week of July 14

(National Wildlife Federation)

Al Gore To Speak On National Challenge On Energy And Climate

Al Gore, chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, helped launch in March a multi-year, multi-faceted campaign designed to engage the American public and ignite a movement to address one of the most important issues facing civilization: solving the climate crisis.

The former Vice President will speak in Washington for his national challenge on energy and climate on Thursday, July 17 (see event details below, in "Happenings"). 

"We can solve the climate crisis, but it will require a major shift in public opinion and engagement," said Gore. "The technologies exist, but our elected leaders don't yet have the political will to take the bold actions required. When politicians hear the American people calling loud and clear for change, they’ll listen."

The Alliance for Climate Protection's three year, commercial-scale campaign will fund an aggressive and innovative online activation and mobilization program supported by nationwide television, print, radio and online advertising all geared toward engaging 10 million supporters to drive policy change.

"The problem is urgent, but the solutions exist. Together, We can solve the climate crisis," reads the organization's fact sheet.

Administration Rejects Regulation of Greenhouse Gases

The Bush administration on Friday rejected regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, saying it would cause too many job losses.

Rep. Edward Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Global Warming, called the administration's findings "the bureaucratic equivalent of saying that the dog ate your homework."

In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection Agency made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress.

Friday's action caps months of often tense negotiations between EPA scientists and the White House over how to address global warming under the major federal air pollution law.

The White House on Thursday rejected EPA's conclusion three weeks earlier that the 1970 Clean Air Act "can be both workable and effective for addressing global climate change." Instead, EPA said Friday that law is "ill-suited" for dealing with climate change.

In a major setback to the administration, the Supreme Court ruled last year that the government has authority under the Clean Act to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant. Bush has consistently opposed that option.

Quote: "Goodbye, from the world's biggest polluter."

-- President George W. Bush, in his closing remarks to fellow leaders at the final G8 summit. Bush reportedly punched the air and grinned widely after making the joke.

Renewable Energy Sector Helps Drive Job Markets At Home And Abroad

A recent study shows that that jobs in renewable energy are expanding worldwide, while jobs in coal and natural gas are disappearing.  

Currently about 2.3 million people around the world work either directly in renewables, or indirectly in supplier indus­tries, according to the Worldwatch Institute.

Renewables tend to be a labor-intensive energy source, more so than the fossil fuels industry, which relies heavily on expensive pieces of pro­duction equipment. A transition toward renewable energy hence shows promise of a more robust job market.

During the past two decades, coal output in the U.S. rose by almost one third, yet employment has been cut in half. Membership of the United Mine Workers of America has withered from 167,000 active members in 1980 to 16,000 today.

The coal industry has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs at home as well as abroad, in China, Germany, Britain, and South Africa over the past few decades, according to the National Mining Association.

According to the United Nations, global investors poured $148 billion into new wind, solar and other alternative energy assets in 2007, labeling this movement a "green energy gold rush". The spike in investment soars 60 percent above 2006 similar project levels.

"With world temperatures and fossil fuel prices climbing higher, it is increasingly obvious to the public and investors alike that the transition to a low-carbon society is both a global imperative and an inevitability," U.N. Undersecretary-General Achim Steiner said.

Ending Offshore Drilling Moratorium, Bush Chooses Politics Over Climate Action

President George W. Bush yesterday issued an executive order to lift the ban on domestic offshore oil drilling.

"By lifting the ban on drilling in our coastal waters, President Bush is using executive authority in a way that would make global warming worse and keep the U.S. addicted to oil for decades to come," said Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

"According to President Bush's own U.S. Department of Energy, the total additional oil that could be brought into production from drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the Rocky Mountain states combined is likely to be only about 1.2 million barrels of oil a day at peak production. Even in the most optimistic case, drilling in those areas combined would only mean 4-5 cents a gallon less by 2025," Schweiger said.

"America's future is not in fossil fuels. Our future has to be about breaking our addiction to fossil fuels and building a clean energy future…Federal legislation that promotes clean, alternative energy and reduces global warming pollution will reduce our oil imports four times more than drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the Rocky Mountain states, combined."

"Investing in a clean energy future is the only way to break our addiction to fossil fuels and protect us from the catastrophic consequences of global warming."