Big Energy hypes offsets to avoid carbon cap, taxes

[wtmusic]

"Polluting energy companies and giant financial firms are once again allying to advance international offsets that have the potential to render a carbon cap entirely non-binding. The Coalition for Emissions Reductions Projects (CERP) wrote to Senator Maria Cantwell earlier this month criticizing the CLEAR Act she co-sponsored with Senator Susan Collins for not including an offsets program.

Membership of the CERP coalition includes: Alpha Natural Resources, American Electric Power, BlueSource, Global, C-Quest Capital, C-Trade Comercializadora de Carbono, Deutsche Bank, Dominion, DTE Energy, Duke Energy, EcoSecurities, Element Markets, El Paso Corporation, Environmental Credit Corp, Equator, John Deere, Leaf Clean Energy Company, Macquarie Bank, Natsource, Noble Carbon Credits, PG&E Corporation and Verdeo Group.

Public interest advocates, Public Citizen, are not intimidated and are fighting back against this industry consortium, writing in their own public letter to Senators John Kerry, Lindsay Graham, and Joe Lieberman:

It has been alleged by companies that develop and trade carbon offsets that offset trading is crucial to climate legislation. We strongly disagree. To the contrary, we believe that offset trading prolongs U.S. dependence on foreign fuels, delays our development of clean domestic energy sources, shifts investment and jobs overseas, and fails to adequately protect consumers.

<>

"While polluting industries and financial firms continue to peddle offsets, and compromising (or should we say compromised?) green groups such as EDF ("We partner with businesses, governments, and communities to find practical environmental solutions") and NRDC ("carbon offsets can help you green your home, office and travel") are still providing 'environmental cred,' numerous analyses reveal offsets as an extremely flawed route to environmental or global development goals."

http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/2010/03/energy_and_financial_interests.shtml

Astroturf® - just like real grass, but it's dead!

[abqmufc]

1. thnx - Rolling Stone did a nice article as well...

As the World Burns: How Big Oil and Big Coal mounted one of the most aggressive lobbying campaigns in history to block progress on global warming - ROLLING STONE

JEFF GOODELL Posted Jan 06, 2010 8:15 AM

Since the elections, Goodell reports over $80 billion has been allocated for clean energy and green jobs. A more interesting fact, Goodell states, is according to the Center for Public Integrity; the number of lobbyists devoted to GCS had increased “fivefold since 2003” to just under 3,000. That is 5 lobbyists per 1 Congressional member. Furthermore, the Center found only “138 of the lobbyists were pushing for alternative energy – the rest were heavily weighted toward fossil fuels” during the current legislative session.

Furthermore, it seems the millions spent on advertising, stating our energy bills would rise by “$1,500 a year” according to the Heritage Fund, did win out over the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s calculation “that the proposed bills would cost families no more than $175 a year” – the equivalent of “about a postage stamp a day.” The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) alone spent $18 million on an ad campaign of “clean coal,” another $10 million was spent on lobbying. The money didn’t stop there. But the victory did seem evident to one side by early 2010.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31633532/as_the_world_burns

Decisions are being made as we speak behind closed doors and new "clean power" will be online w/o public comment b/c this country "must secure its energy security"...(meaning stating energy is a matter of national security means laws of public comment and environmental codes don't have to be followed)...this Administration and the EPA and DOE will suspend the rules for pilot project and shovel ready technologies that have not yet been tested. This means new nuclear technology and "clean coal".

Last month the President sent out a Memo stating:

"To further this work and develop a comprehensive and coordinated Federal strategy to speed the commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies, I hereby establish an Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage (Task Force). You shall each designate a senior official from your respective agency to serve on the Task Force, which shall be Co Chaired by the designees from the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Task Force shall develop within 180 days of the date of this memorandum a proposed plan to overcome the barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment of CCS within 10 years, with a goal of bringing 5 to 10 commercial demonstration projects online by 2016. The plan should explore incentives for commercial CCS adoption and address any financial, economic, technological, legal, institutional, social, or other barriers to deployment. The Task Force should consider how best to coordinate existing administrative authorities and programs, including those that build international collaboration on CCS, as well as identify areas where additional administrative authority may be necessary. The Co Chairs shall report progress periodically to the President through the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-a-comprehensive-federal-strategy-carbon-capture-and-storage

Demonstration plants won't have to follow any laws or regulations, they will be exempt from the Clean Air Act, public comment, and discourse on permits.

[joshcryer]

2. A good a post as any to plug this free ebook (Upsetting the Offset):

http://mayflybooks.org/?page_id=194