Calif. OKs fee to pay for global warming program

Despite industry objections and threats of lawsuits, California air regulators on Friday approved the nation's first statewide carbon fee on utilities, oil refineries and other polluting industries.

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Calif. regulators target tech industry emissions

California air regulators on Thursday broadened their reach into Silicon Valley, implementing rules intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions from semiconductor plants.

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Obama's actions on goal of energy independence

President Barack Obama took two steps Monday to launch what he called a "steady, focused, pragmatic" pursuit of energy independence:

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Report: Some climate damage already irreversible

Many damaging effects of climate change are already basically irreversible, researchers declared Monday, warning that even if carbon emissions can somehow be halted temperatures around the globe will remain high until at least the year 3000.

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Obama orders push to cleaner, more efficient cars

President Barack Obama opened an ambitious, double-barreled assault on global warming and U.S. energy woes Monday, moving quickly toward rules requiring cleaner-running cars that guzzle less gas — a must, he said, for "our security, our economy and our planet."

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Schwarzenegger asks Obama for tailpipe rules

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't waiting to press the Obama administration on one of California's top priorities — regulating greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.

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Despite downturn, Calif. adopts tough climate plan

California on Thursday adopted the nation's most sweeping plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, issuing rules that could transform everything from the way factories operate to the appliances people buy and the fuel they put in their cars.

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2 greenhouse gases on the rise worry scientists

Carbon dioxide isn't the only greenhouse gas that worries climate scientists. Airborne levels of two other potent gases — one from ancient plants, the other from flat-panel screen technology — are on the rise, too. And that's got scientists concerned about accelerated global warming.

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15 EU countries on track to meet Kyoto targets

The European Union's 15 original member nations are on target to meet Kyoto treaty commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the bloc's environment agency said Thursday.

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Schwarzenegger signs greenhouse gas bill

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Tuesday that attempts to ease greenhouse gas emissions by giving priority to transportation projects that limit commutes and curb urban sprawl.

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Report: Emission rules to boost Calif. economy

Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 12 years ultimately will benefit California's economy and save its residents money, according to a report released Wednesday by state air regulators.

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White House asserts executive privilege in EPA dispute

President Bush asserted executive privilege Friday to withhold documents from a congressional investigation into whether he pressured the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken decisions on smog and greenhouse gases.

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Norway's greenhouse gas emissions rise

Officials say Norway's greenhouse gas emissions rose nearly 3 percent to record levels last year.

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States Suing EPA Over Global Warming

Officials of 18 states are taking the EPA back to court to try to force it to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that rebuked the Bush administration for inaction on global warming.

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House Chairman Subpoenas EPA on Waiver

A House committee chairman issued a subpoena Thursday to force the Environmental Protection Agency to turn over 196 internal documents about its decision to deny California permission to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

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EPA Head Won't Talk About WH Waiver Role

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency refused to say Wednesday whether the White House sought to influence his decision denying California a waiver needed to implement a tailpipe emissions-reduction law.

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Memo: EPA Chief Pressed Over Calif. Call

Some high-ranking career staffers concerned about the reputation of the Environmental Protection Agency believed that Administrator Stephen Johnson would have to consider resigning if he turned down California's request to reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions, newly released documents show.

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EPA Chief Defends Greenhouse Gas Call

The Bush administration's top environmental regulator faced off Thursday against Democratic senators who took turns denouncing him for blocking tailpipe emission cuts in California and more than a dozen other states.

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EPA Turns Over Limited Documents

Invoking executive privilege, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday refused to provide lawmakers with a full explanation of why it rejected California's greenhouse gas regulations.

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Calif Leaders Voice EPA Frustrations

A panel of outraged state and environmental leaders met Thursday to examine why the federal government won't let California and 16 other states regulate emissions from cars, trucks and SUVs.

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Calif. Sues EPA Over Tailpipe Rules

California sued the federal government Wednesday in its ongoing bid to set the country's first greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUVs, providing new data to show its program is superior to a federal plan.

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Pelosi Opposes EPA Clean Air Decision

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday that Congress would closely scrutinize its decision to reject California's request to tighten rules on greenhouse gas emissions.

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EPA Denies Calif. Greenhouse Gas Waiver

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday slapped down California's bid for first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUVs, refusing the state a waiver that would have allowed those restrictions to take effect.

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NOAA Blames Hot Year on Greenhouse Gases

"We have met the enemy, and he is us," the comic-strip character Pogo said decades ago. A new analysis of last year's near-record temperatures in the United States suggests he was right.

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High Court Rebukes Bush on Car Pollution

The Supreme Court rebuked the Bush administration Monday for its inaction on global warming in a decision that could lead to more fuel-efficient cars as early as next year. The court, in a 5-4 ruling in its first case on climate change, declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

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UK PM Gordon Brown warns that Copenhagen negotiators have 50 days to save the world from global warming and break the "impasse", telling the Major Economies Forum in London there was "no plan B".

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"heroes ...who lead from the bottom up, corralling support for their cause by being passionate, committed and practically engaged. If the politicians can only delay and equivocate, we must take matters into our own hands."

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Sri Lanka Minister: "So in Copenhagen, developing countries will have a moral high ground... developed countries only have brute force and concepts like Climate Nazism, Climate Racism and Climate Terrorism. "

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Lovelock: "We have enjoyed 12,000 years of climate peace since the last shift from a glacial age to an interglacial one. Before long, we may face planet-wide devastation worse even than unrestricted nuclear war ..."

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World Bank Group environmentalists have re-examined greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution due to methanogenic livestock - total GHG pollution is 50% greater than thought previously and livestock contribute over 51% of total.

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Official Australian report based on conservative IPCC projections : with a sea-level rise of 1.1 meters about two million Australians would become refugees and have to leave their homes and the places they love.

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According to this report from top newspaper The Age (Melbourne): "The Government will permanently exclude agricultural emissions and give farmers access to credits for good farming practices such as tree planting."

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Home to three of Australia's four dirtiest power stations and none of the 12 biggest renewable energy plants... less than 2 per cent of electricity clean ... brown coal accounted for 94 per cent of electricity, with gas 4 per cent.

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The taxpayer-funded research organization CSIRO has reportedly stopped publication of a peer-reviewed research article by a top ecological economist critical of Obama-style carbon trading-based ETS approach

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Fire broke out yesterday on the oil rig, which has been leaking oil into the Timor Sea for 10 weeks (100x100 km) . Oil field operator PTTEP Australasia said the West Atlas rig and Montara well-head platform were on fire.

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Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) finalized a months-long process with their endorsement of direct carbon pricing, with revenue recycling as the preferred method for reducing carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere.

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The man behind one of the most influential reports on climate change, Lord Stern, has highlighted the impact meat production has on greenhouse gas emissions. Part of it comes through methane made by the animals as they digest food. So which farm animals expel the most methane?

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"It is important to defend the Maldives which is on the frontline of climate change. If it can happen today to our nation, tomorrow it can happen with you as well...climate change is happening and the world is going to end."

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Faced with Dr Fankhauser's 350 ppm CO2 proposal MP Barry Gardiner, asked the 120 legislators present whether they believed limiting CO2 concentration to 350 ppm by 2050 was practicable. Only two said yes.

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"[Re 350 ppm CO2] I think it's a very sensible long-term target…People have to be aware that is a truly long-term target... get them down to levels which will move concentrations of CO2 back down towards 350ppm."

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Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr Pachauri: "But as a human being I am fully supportive of that goal [below 350 ppm CO2]. What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me ... [of] moving toward a 350 target "

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Key quote: "scientists have insisted in recent years that 350 parts per million is the most carbon dioxide we can safely have in the atmosphere. The current CO2 concentration is 390 parts per million."

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Quote: "no longer "Homeland or Death"; it is truly and without exaggeration a matter of "Life or Death" for the human race...In Copenhagen, the ALBA and the Third World countries will be struggling for the survival of the species."

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We can only hope this entire carbon tax, climate change, global warming, cap and trade legislation dies on the vine. For those of you who still believe global warming is man-made, please consider the most recent scientific evidence from climatologist experts that prove the found …

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NYT summary of 24 October 2009 350 Day: "[for] an international climate accord:a synchronized burst of more than 4,300 demonstrations, from the Himalayas to the Great Barrier Reef, all centered on the number 350."

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Trapped in the greenhouse

How many votes does it take to be freed from the greenhouse? I want to flourish on the vine with all the other cool kids!!

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24 Oct 350 Day - scientists say return air CO2 to 300-350 ppm

24 October is UN Day but also 350 Day for activists around the world demanding a return of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration to no higher than 350 parts per million (ppm) - Scientists say 300-350 ppm CO2.

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Leading paleoclimate scientist Dr Andrew Glikson say that we have exceeded the CO2 concentration (300 ppm) for last 0.8 million years of man's final evolution and for human agriculture over the last 8,000 years.

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The IPCC says that by 2020 rich industrial countries must cut emissions 25 to 40 percent (compared with 1990) if the world is to have a fair chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change.

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Engineers have performed their magic once again. The world is not going to run short of energy as soon as feared The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions.

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