December 2014 Climate Change Summary Report

“White House Proposes Vetting Projects for Climate Change”

December 19, 2014: The Wall Street Journal reports: “The White House is calling on federal agencies to consider the climate-change impact of a wide range of energy projects that require government approval. The draft guidelines, released Thursday by the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, are likely to affect fossil-fuel projects the most, such as pipelines, terminals that export coal and liquefied natural gas, and production of oil, natural gas and coal on public lands. Business and energy interests complained when the White House signaled almost three years ago that it planned such a change that it could slow federal reviews. Some congressional Democrats support the move.”

“Five principles for the president’s new methane policy”

December 18, 2014: An op-ed in The Hill by Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, states: “The twin demands of energy security and climate security are creating a decisive moment for President Obama. As his administration prepares a policy to reduce methane emissions from the oil-and-gas sector, the president has an opportunity to cut both energy waste and climate pollution. It is time for the U.S. to end the era of unlimited industrial methane pollution.  Since natural gas is abundant and emits less carbon dioxide than coal when burned, political leaders, including the president, have used it to position themselves as pro-energy production and pro-climate action. Being for natural gas, however, carries serious responsibilities. One is making sure we protect ecosystems and public health. Another is seeing to it that the climate benefit of switching from coal to gas isn’t undermined by methane leakage from the natural gas supply chain.  We have a long way to go on both counts.”

“Washington governor unveils carbon cap-and-trade plan”

December 18, 2014: Reuters reports: “Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Wednesday laid out a plan for a carbon cap-and-trade program aimed at fighting global warming and raising $1 billion a year for state schools and public transportation initiatives, but he will first need the support of a divided state legislature. The program would place an overall limit, or cap, on the amount of carbon that large businesses and fuel distributors can emit. Those companies would then have the option to either reduce their carbon output, buy carbon permits at state-run auctions, or purchase permits from other businesses on the open market.”

“Study: Your all-electric car may not be so green”

December 16, 2014: Associated Press reports: “People who own all-electric cars where coal generates the power may think they are helping the environment. But a new study finds their vehicles actually make the air dirtier, worsening global warming. Ethanol isn’t so green, either. ‘It’s kind of hard to beat gasoline’ for public and environmental health, said study co-author Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. ‘A lot of the technologies that we think of as being clean … are not better than gasoline.’ The key is where the source of the electricity all-electric cars. If it comes from coal, the electric cars produce 3.6 times more soot and smog deaths than gas, because of the pollution made in generating the electricity, according to the study that is published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They also are significantly worse at heat-trapping carbon dioxide that worsens global warming, it found.”

“After 30 hours of overtime haggling, diplomats agree on a new approach to deal with climate change”

December 15, 2014: Greenwire reports: “A battle over how the world will tackle climate change dragged into more than 30 hours of overtime ending early today with a thin agreement that puts governments on a path to a new global warming accord in 2015 but does little to ensure it is ambitious enough to avoid the most dangerous impacts. As a rare rainfall enveloped the U.N. tent city built for the negotiations, Peruvian President of the 20th U.N. Conference of the Parties Manuel Pulgar Vidal declared the hard-fought decision approved just before 2 a.m., striking the gavel to whoops and extended applause. But while diplomats cheered the text’s approval as a key step in keeping countries on track for signing a new global deal in Paris next year, environmental activists said the so-called Lima Call for Climate Action actually does nothing to ensure countries put forward strong carbon-cutting targets.”

“‘War on coal’ goes global”

December 15, 2014: Politico Pro reports: “Congressional Republicans who vow to defeat President Barack Obama’s “War on Coal” can do little to defend the industry against a growing international threat — the drying up of its once-promising markets overseas. Just a few years ago, domestic producers had high hopes for selling coal to energy-hungry Asia, but prices in those markets are plummeting now amid slowing demand and oversupply, ceding much of the market space to cheaper coal from nations like Indonesia and Australia. Meanwhile, a lot of U.S. coal can’t even get out of the country, thanks to greens’ success in blocking proposed export terminals in Washington state and Oregon. And China, the world’s most voracious coal customer, just pledged to cap its use of the fuel and is promising to curb its greenhouse gas pollution.”

“Bill Nye the Science Guy Says James Inhofe Is Not a ‘Climate Skeptic’”

December 15, 2014: National Journal reports: “How should reporters write about lawmakers and others who dispute the scientific consensus that climate change is largely driven by humans? A group of 48 scientists, science writers, and other experts—including popular educator Bill Nye—have some strong views on the subject. The group issued a statement last week taking the media to task for using the phrase ‘climate skeptic,’ saying that the word ‘denier’ is more accurate. In the statement, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry disapprovingly cites a November New York Times piece that described GOP Sen. James Inhofe, who calls global warming a ‘hoax,’ as a ‘prominent skeptic of climate change.’ The science advocacy group says that the terms ‘skeptic’ and ‘denier’ have been wrongly conflated in the press. ‘Proper skepticism promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.”

“Kerry presses for action at climate talks”

December 12, 2014: Politico Pro reports: “Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday made an impassioned plea for action on climate change, urging negotiators gathered at international talks in Lima, Peru, to set aside long-held differences in order to clinch a global warming deal late next year. ‘Today, I call on all of you here in Lima, negotiators, diplomats, scientists, economists and concerned citizens in Peru and around the world to demand resolve from your leaders,’ he said. ‘Speak out. Make climate change an issue that no public official can ignore for even one more day, let alone one more election.’ Kerry jetted to the interim talks in Lima for just a few hours to send a message that the United States remains committed to the push for a major international climate change agreement. Countries hope to sign the agreement at a December 2015 meeting in Paris, but disputes between rich and poor nations over how to divide up the responsibility for slashing emissions threaten to undermine that effort.”

“EPA may miss deadline on climate rule”

December 11, 2014: Politico Pro reports: “The Obama administration is on the verge of missing its January deadline for finishing a landmark regulation in the president’s climate agenda — a delay that supporters insist doesn’t imperil the effort, but which comes just as a hostile GOP is about to take control of the Senate. The EPA has a Jan. 8 legal deadline to finish the regulation, aimed at throttling carbon pollution from future power plants, but people closely following the rule think the agency could miss that date by months. Among other omens, EPA hasn’t yet submitted the rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, a process that normally takes 30 to 90 days. This wouldn’t be the first time the delay-prone agency has missed a deadline for this regulation: It was originally supposed to finish an earlier version of the power plant rule by April 2013, but it pulled the rule back for retooling as part of the big climate action plan that President Barack Obama announced that June.”

“Fossil fuels are no catastrophe. They have made our lives better”

December 11, 2014: Fox News reports: “People argue about whether the ‘consensus’ of scientists is that we face disaster because of global warming. Instead of debating whether man’s greenhouse gasses will raise temperatures, we should argue about how we gauge disasters. If you take most environmentalists and climate scientists at their word, the Earth heated up about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, not much more than it heated up the century before that. Warming may increase, but no one can be certain of that. Let’s agree for the sake of argument that this recent warming was partly caused by humanity. Let’s also agree that there are some negative effects, including more frequent coastal flooding or longer droughts. If we agree that those are costs, shouldn’t we also look at the benefits? Much of modern civilization owes its existence to our use of the fossil fuels that produce the greenhouse gasses.”

“Oil’s Fall Puts a Chill on U.S. Drilling”

December 11, 2014: The Wall Street Journal reports: “U.S. energy companies are starting to cut drilling, lay off workers and slash spending in the face of an accelerating decline in oil prices, which fell to a fresh five-year low Wednesday. The number of rigs drilling for oil in North Dakota and parts of Texas has started to edge down, new drilling permits have dropped sharply since October, and many companies say they are going to focus on their most profitable wells.  EOG Resources  Inc. this week said it would shed many of its Canadian oil and gas fields, close its Calgary office and lay off employees there as it refocuses in the U.S. Matador Resources Co. of Dallas is contemplating temporarily leaving the prolific Eagle Ford Shale area in South Texas in favor of drilling elsewhere in Texas and New Mexico where it can make more money.”

“‘Peak Oil’ Debunked, Again”

December 5, 2014: An editorial in The Wall Street Journal states: “It has been 216 years since Thomas Malthus gave birth to the idea that mankind’s appetite for natural resources would outstrip nature’s capacity to supply them. There have since been regular warnings that the world is running out of soybeans, helium, chocolate, tunsgsten, you name it—and that population growth has become unsustainable. The warnings create a political or social panic for a while, only to be proved wrong. The latest reckoning with reality is the end of the obsession with “peak oil,” which for years had serious people proclaiming that we were entering an era of permanent fossil fuels scarcity. It didn’t work out that way.”

“We Are Never Going to Run Out of Oil”

December 4, 2014: An op-ed in Real Clear Politics by David Harsanyi, senior editor at The Federalist, states: “In a chilling 2010 column, Paul Krugman declared: ‘peak oil has arrived.’ So it’s really not surprising that the national average for a gallon of gas has fallen to $2.77 this week – in 10 states it was under $2.60 – and analysts predict we’re going to dip below the two-dollar mark soon. U.S. oil is down to $75 a barrel, a drop of more than $30 from the 52-week high. Meanwhile, the Institute for Energy Research estimates that we have enough natural gas in the U.S. to meet electricity needs for around 575 years at current fuel demand and to fuel homes heated by natural gas for 857 years or so – because we have more gas than Russia, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia combined. With prices returning to ordinary levels and a few centuries’ worth of fossil fuels on tap, this is a good time to remind ourselves that nearly every warning the left has peddled about an impending energy crisis over the past 30 to 40 years has turned out to be wrong. And none of them are more wrong than the Malthusian idea that says we’re running out of oil.”

“U.S. House backs tax break crucial to wind turbine makers”

December 4, 2014: Reuters reports: “The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to renew a package of temporary tax breaks, known as the ‘extenders’, including a wind production tax credit (PTC) crucial for turbine makers such as Denmark’s Vestas. The PTC will be extended for one year retroactively for 2014 if the Senate and President Barack Obama concur. ‘People were expecting a two-year extension, so this is less than expected,’ Nordea analyst Patrik Setterberg said in a note to clients. However, he said the Senate had previously argued it wanted a two-year tax package, leading him to conclude the final deal could still change.”

“Chemical Officials Float Strong Role For States As Part “A realistic approach to linking carbon markets”

December 1, 2014: A column in The Washington Post reports: “Three weeks ago, the U.S. and China announced a landmark bilateral agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.  Secretary of State John Kerry heralded the agreement as a key step toward reinvigorating international negotiations on climate change. His theory will be tested this week, when diplomats will converge on Lima, Peru to negotiate the next steps of the climate change regime.  Although there is some optimism, the prospects remains highly uncertain.  The Kyoto Protocol expired in 2012, and so far, only a handful of countries have renewed their commitments, comprising only 12 percent of global emissions.”

“The myth of clean energy”

December 1, 2014: A column in The Wall Street Journal by John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Co. and founder and head of Citizens for Affordable Energy, states: “There can be no such energy as “clean energy” because all energy is an outcome of the destruction of matter, which is in no way clean. In addition, all energy-producing materials and equipment involve dealing with waste and the byproducts of waste at some point, if not throughout, the life cycle of such materials. The use of an absolute term like “clean energy” denies the relative scale of dirty reality that is attributable to all persons, places and things on Earth. But that doesn’t dissuade the advocates of wind, solar, battery and nuclear energy from calling themselves “clean.””

“Wind power is intermittent, but subsidies are eternal”

December 1, 2014: A column in The Wall Street Journal  by Jessica F. Green is an assistant professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University states: “‘Tax credits have been essential to the economic viability of wind farms so far, but will not be needed within a few years.’ So said Christopher Flavin, now president emeritus of the Worldwatch Institute—in 1984. Thirty years and billions of dollars later, the wind industry is still saying it needs taxpayer support. Congress is currently hearing this argument as it debates whether to extend the 22-year-old ‘production tax credit’ in the lame-duck session. The PTC, which gives wind producers a 2.3-cent tax credit for each kilowatt-hour of electricity produced over 10 years, expired at the end of 2013. Now wind-industry lobbyists are roaming the halls of Congress, asking legislators to renew it as part of a tax-extenders package before adjourning on Dec. 15.”

“Billionaire Vinod Khosala’s dreams for biofuels fail to catch fire”

December 1, 2014: The Washington Post reports: “Just over a year ago, billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla was bubbling with optimism about one of his latest investments: KiOR, a biofuel outfit he said would turn wood chips into hydrocarbons that could be poured straight into a refinery, pipeline or vehicle. The KiOR refinery in Columbus, Miss., was ‘an amazing facility,’ Khosla gushed. ‘It is exactly the same as what nature does, but nature takes a million years and we take a few minutes,’ Khosla said in a November 2013 e-mail to The Washington Post. In a ‘60 Minutes’ interview broadcast in January, Khosla boasted of the company’s “magic catalyst.’ Now, however, the spell has been broken. On Nov. 10, KiOR filed for bankruptcy, leaving behind 2,067 creditors, including the state of Mississippi, which had given KiOR a $75 million, 20-year, no-interest loan after the company assured officials that it would invest $500 million in the plant and create 1,000 jobs by December 2015.”