34 US Nobel Laureates urge inclusion of $150 billion in climate legislation

[bananas]

Source: Eurekalert

A group of 34 U.S. Nobel Laureates is calling on President Obama to urge Congress to include the president's proposed $150 billion Clean Energy Technology Fund in the climate legislation it is considering. The climate bill approved by the House in June falls far short of this goal, they told the president in a letter sent to the White House today.

"The stable support this Fund would provide is essential to pay for the research and development needed if the U.S., as well as the developing world, are to achieve their goals in reducing greenhouse gases at an affordable cost," they wrote.

"This stable R&D spending is not a luxury," they added. "t is in fact necessary because rapid scientific and technical progress is crucial to achieving" U.S. goals in energy and climate and making the cost affordable.

The letter notes that the House-passed climate bill, H.R. 2454, "provides less than one fifteenth of the amount" the president proposed "for federal energy research, development, and demonstration programs." The Senate is expected to consider its version of the climate legislation later this month.

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Read more: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/foas-3un071609.php

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Also at CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/16/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5166510.shtml
The letter pdf is at http://www.fas.org/press/_docs/Nobelist%20Letter%20to%20White%20House%20-%2007162009.pdf

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Boddingham]

2. I've been waiting for the federal government to take control of the sun and atmosphere.

And not a minute too late! :bounce: :bounce:

[FrenchieCat]

3. Couldn't do worst then what Corporations have done to our atmosphere.....

cause thus far, all I see is a big giant fuck up from the big greedy ass pigs called the Business community. You know, the ones that needed the bail outs or else America would have fallen down and not gotten up and we'd all be standing in a line for food right now and selling apples?

[bananas]

4. Some interesting numbers in the Nature magazine blog

There's more interesting stuff there, I'll just snip these numbers:

Nobelists call for energy R&D in climate bill - July 16, 2009

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The president kicked things off earlier this spring by assumed the existence of roughly $600 billion in cap-and-trade revenues in his first 10-year budget. Some $150 billion of that money was dedicated to a Clean Energy Technology Fund, but the Senate eventually stripped all of this out of its budget bill, illustrating precisely why advocates are pushing for a dedicated and untouchable stream of revenue in the climate legislation itself.

Those efforts fell apart when House Democrats began striking deals to secure votes, eventually paving the way for passage on June 26. The last Congressional Budget Office analysis forecasts that the bill would effectively raise $873 billion over 10 years, but most of that sum would be doled out to various causes in an effort hold consumer and business costs down.

Burt Richter, the Nobel-prize winning physicist and former director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, offered up a few numbers in a conference call with journalists: Energy makes up about 10 percent of the nation's gross national product, or about $1.5 trillion per year; $15 billion would represent just 1 percent of the nation's energy expenditures. Small potatoes in the grand scheme, but Richter says it would get the nation started on the kind of energy innovation that will be needed to meet the climate challenge - and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive world.

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