Republicans kill global warming committee

[Harry Hope]

Source: The Guardian


Republicans kill global warming committee

Thursday 6 January 2011

Kate Sheppard for Mother Jones


The kick-off of the 112th Congress on Wednesday also marked the end of an era in the House – the demise of a committee devoted solely to climate change and energy issues. The Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, created by Nancy Pelosi in 2006, has been shuttered under the new Republican leadership. In the final days of the committee, staffers released a report on what the committee accomplished in its brief tenure – an epitaph of sorts.

Tackling issues from the politicisation of climate science to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, the committee held 80 hearings and briefings. It played a role in shaping policy for the 2007 energy bill, the 2009 stimulus package (which included $90bn <$58bn> in energy, efficiency, and other green elements), and, of course, the 2009 climate bill (the one that never became law, of course, because the Senate didn't act on it).

The final report concludes with the question of whether the United States will respond to all the information that the committee has compiled during its lifespan on the climate and energy challenge:


Someday, our children and grandchildren will look back on the record of the Select Committee. That record will reflect a respectful and rigorous debate and an unprecedented understanding of the challenges before us. Whether or not they will see that this generation has taken the bold action required by these challenges remains to be seen.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/06/republicans-kill-global-warming-committee

---

Forgive them, father, for they know not what they do

Harry

[Kingofalldems]

1. They represent the monied elite and Big Business

Anything else they say or do is window dressing, designed to trick people into voting for them.

[Jansen]

2. oh I disagree

you bet your ass they know what they are doing!

[Delphinus]

64. Yep.

They absolutely know what they are doing - fuckers.

[The Wielding Truth]

3. WOW!!! How can we stop this insanity?

[Teaser]

4. we can't.

speaking as a scientist...we're fucking doomed.

[The Wielding Truth]

6. If it would cost them money some how,you think that might move them.

[niceypoo]

7. All we can do is hope they overreach

Eventually the rest of the world is going to say, 'fuck you,' to their madness and stop doing business with us.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Yep. And hope that our governors and mayors can do what they can on their own.

[onehandle]

9. Ask the Obama voters who didn't come out to save Congress. nt

[MineralMan]

10. Ooooh....they're gonna get you for that.

Even though you're right.

[onehandle]

19. And where the Hell was Oprah?

She ceased being 'political' as soon as the President was sworn in.

The tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks she just received would create a Hell of a PAC.

[immoderate]

45. Oprah's been busy fucking with education.

And she has so much to tell us she needs her own network!

--imm

[Stinky The Clown]

20. Name three such voters who failed to vote this cycle

Name three. I bet you can't.

[AlbertCat]

43. Name three. I bet you can't.

I can think of 5 people right off the top of my head who didn't vote because of excuses from bad weather, to the car was in the shop, to they were too busy that day (after 2 or more weeks of early voting.)

[niceypoo]

24. That would be the YOUTH vote

60% of young people who voted for Obama in 08 didn't bother with the midterms.

[savalez]

We can vote them the hell out of there in 2 years.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

23. But think about all the damage they will/can do in two years.

[glinda]

38. Catastrophic damage. They must go asap. I don't know how but they must.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

41. They're already at it here in PA.

Corbett has stocked his staff with gas exploration (blank)ers.

This is what PA and too many other states are looking at in the next two years.


Airborne... All the way!
Glycol dehydrators burn off noxious gases, such as toluene, benzene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX)


http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Dunkard_Creek.htm




If this same water killed thousands of fish,
would you want your cattle in there?

http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Dunkard_Creek.htm

[Imagevision]

62. Hey! big biz founded this country in case you haven't noticed their running it...got it?

[niceypoo]

5. They are a suicide cult

They are a suicide cult where love of money has replace God as the object of adulation. The 'God' part only serves to excuse the greed.

[prolesunited]

8. What global warming?

If it was a serious problem we would have a committee to investigate it.

[Roy Rolling]

11. Good point

The fact there is no committee proves there is no problem. :sarcasm:

[dazzlerazzle]

13. global warming committee, next the entire EPA?

The tea party has been very vocal in opposition to EPA regulations. They may move to kill individual regulations or to even abolish the entire department. It wouldn't clear the Senate or the veto, but the possibility of starving the funding of the department would be devastating.

[apnu]

22. I'd love to see them try.

If they try to shutter the EPA (founded by Nixon no less) they'll get tossed in 2012.

[midnight armadillo]

58. No need to close the EPA just CUT FUNDING

What will a 50% reduction in EPA funding do? It's BIG GUMMINT afterall.

[sofa king]

59. The EPA hasn't needed funding in 10 years.

For virtually the entirety of the Bush Administration, the EPA was completely bypassed in several ways. For example, I personally saw how all decisions affecting the chemical industry were being written by four chemists on a single floor of the American Chemistry Council offices in Rosslyn, VA. They didn't have a lab, and the marketing department of that "non-profit" industry lobby front outnumbered the chemical staff by at least four to one.

In 2005, the ACC fired its CEO and replaced him with a frat brother of Karl Rove, in a bid to fight the inordinate influence the petroleum and gas industry had on the Bush Administration. The petroleum and gas boys were ripping off the chemical boys by jacking up the price of natural gas. Since the Bush Administration was a criminal operation, the ACC had no choice but to replace their leadership with associates of those criminals (and it still didn't work). The EPA was neither consulted nor considered in anything the chemical and petroleum industries did inside the United States.

[xxqqqzme]

57. Well of course the tea party

opposes the EPA. The tea party owes its very existence to the kochs and big coal/oil/gas. The tea baggers will oppose whatever their corporate masters tell them to oppose.

[defendandprotect]

14. ... and further proving the dangers of this subject to capitalists/elites who caused it ...

Most of all, they don't want the public coming to any understanding of that

fact while the public can still bring them to any accountabilit for it!!

[we can do it]

15. Don't Forgive the Fuckers, Run Their Ignorant Asses Out

[fatbuckel]

16. It was at odds with the FlatWorlder Party.

[mazzarro]

17. Sticking their heads in the ground

And pretending that there is no climate problem is the height of profound stupidity.

[chowhound]

32. "the height of profound stupidity."

i think you just penned the gop tag line

[Uncle Joe]

18. They know alright, but they believe their wealth and power will save them when the

rest of the world goes down the toilet.

They believe humanity is like the Titanic and their privileged status will allow them first access to the lifeboats.

In effect they've written off humanity because it would be too strenuous, uncomfortable and disconcerting to save it.

Thanks for the thread, Harry Hope.

[mbperrin]

21. All part of the LALALALALALALALALALA I can't hear you

approach to governance.

De Nile is not just a river in Egypt.

Stupid fucking bastards.

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. It will be for another country to show leadership on this issue.

[glinda]

39. I agree. We need help.

[The Backlash Cometh]

50. Wow. Pretty sad when we have to look globally for the principles

we once grew to expect in America.

[FarCenter]

26. Doesn't matter -- oil and coal will run out before global warming becomes critical

Global oil production is at a plateau and will decline as all the major fields become exhausted in the next few decades.

Easily extracted coal reserves are similarly being exhausted. Although US and China have extensive remaining reserves, these are either geographically remote, in thin seams, or deep.

We have already produced half of the CO2 that will ever be produced from fossil fuels. The other half won't cause a significantly greater problem.

[Uncle Joe]

37. There is more than enough oil and coal in the ground to send global warming in to the critical stage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

Some do not agree with peak oil, at least as it has been presented by Matthew Simmons. The president of Royal Dutch Shell's U.S. operations John Hofmeister, while agreeing that conventional oil production will soon start to decline, has criticized Simmons's analysis for being "overly focused on a single country: Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter and OPEC swing producer." He also points to the large reserves at the U.S. outer continental shelf, which holds an estimated 100 billion barrels (16×10^9 m3) of oil and natural gas. As things stand, however, only 15% of those reserves are currently exploitable, a good part of that off the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. Hofmeister also contends that Simmons erred in excluding unconventional sources of oil such as the oil sands of Canada, where Shell is already active. The Canadian oil sands—a natural combination of sand, water, and oil found largely in Alberta and Saskatchewan—is believed to contain one trillion barrels of oil. Another trillion barrels are also said to be trapped in rocks in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming,<143> but are in the form of oil shale. These particular reserves present major environmental, social, and economic obstacles to recovery.<144><145> Hofmeister also claims that if oil companies were allowed to drill more in the United States enough to produce another 2 million barrels per day (320×10^3 m3/d), oil and gas prices would not be as high as they are in the later part of the 2000 to 2010 decade. He thinks that high energy prices are causing social unrest similar to levels surrounding the Rodney King riots.<146>

Dr. Christoph Rühl, Chief economist of BP, repeatedly uttered strong doubts about the peak oil hypothesis:<147>

Physical peak oil, which I have no reason to accept as a valid statement either on theoretical, scientific or ideological grounds, would be insensitive to prices. (...)In fact the whole hypothesis of peak oil – which is that there is a certain amount of oil in the ground, consumed at a certain rate, and then it's finished – does not react to anything.... (Global Warming) is likely to be more of a natural limit than all these peak oil theories combined. (...) Peak oil has been predicted for 150 years. It has never happened, and it will stay this way.

According to Rühl, the main limitations for oil availability are "above ground" and are to be found in the availability of staff, expertise, technology, investment security, money and last but not least in global warming. The oil question is about price and not the basic availability. His views are shared by Daniel Yergin of CERA, who added that the recent high price phase might add to a future demise of the oil industry - not of lack of resources or an apocalyptic shock but the timely and smooth setup of alternatives.<148>

Clive Mather, CEO of Shell Canada, said the Earth's supply of hydrocarbons is almost infinite, referring to hydrocarbons in oil sands.<149> Engineer Peter Huber believes the Canadian oil sands can fuel all of humanity's needs for over 100 years.<150>

Furthermore when certain tipping points are reached, the release of thawed methane deposits becomes the primary culprit eliminating the ability to avert the worst effects of global warming by curtailing the burning of fossil fuels.

[FarCenter]

48. The high cost of recovering oil from tar sand, shales, deep water, will curtail usage

Theoretically there are a few trillion barrels of oil that might be recovered. However, the rising cost of recovery will price oil out of many current uses and production will be reduced because of economic conditions. Once gas goes above $10 / gallon, you're going to see a lot less driving.

Methane has a relatively short lifetime in the atmosphere compared with carbon dioxide. So its effect is intense, but short-lived.

[Uncle Joe]

49. If you consider 20 years to be short term, but that length of time is forever

for multitudes of species; that will become extinct and we haven't even talked about the growing acidification of the ocean which threatens the food chain. This drastic reduction in global biodiversity will create a tremendous adversity against humanity's ability to survive.

However methane in the atmosphere has increased since 1750, it is continually released, should it happen suddenly in a relatively short period of time, believing that won't create global shock waves against life as we know it is the height of naivete.

As for the $10 gas curtailing driving, I imagine that it will be too late, gas has cracked $4.00 and driving increased, China and India are joining the industrialized world, wealth will be flowing toward their direction and even if our nation and Europe cut back on the use of fossil fuel due to economic costs, overall consumption will increase.

China has purposely kept their currency devalued against the dollar in spite of their booming economy, if their monetary policy changes and sooner or later it will, $10 to us will not be the equivalent of $10 to them.

[Zoeisright]

56. Global warming already IS critical.

And the effects will be multiplied by the release of methane from permafrost and the ocean's decreasing ability to absorb CO2 as they acidify.

We are rapidly reaching the tipping point, if it hasn't already been reached.

[ZombieHorde]

27. This is what happens when liberals don't vote as a protest. nt

[OnyxCollie]

36. No.

This is what happens when moderates/independents who don't know anything about politics, but know they're being shit on, vote out the party in charge in HOPE of CHANGE.

But, hey, if blaming the liberals for the party's failings allays your anxiety, go for it.

[ZombieHorde]

52. Perhaps you are right. nt

[FlyByNight]

28. It's cold here in North America...

...so how can there be global warming?

:eyes: :sarcasm:

[valerief]

29. when will another country invade us and throw out these despots? nt

[Frisbee]

30. I don't think it's hyperbole to say...

we're doomed. Maybe not in 5 years or even 10 or 20, but I think in less than 50 years this planet will be virtually unrecognizable by today's standards. There are so many things headed in the wrong direction, but climate change has the potential to dwarf all other problems, and I suspect will.

[Crop Circle]

51. Well said, and tragic beyond words n.t

[Turborama]

31. A sad K&R. I was surprised to read some of the comments underneath the article

Must be the paid operatives that have been sent out by the Kochs.

[Arugula Latte]

33. You know, you could pretty much just shorten that headline and use it for everything

"Republicans Kill"

[DBoon]

47. They have 2 deaths on their hands in AZ

they stopped medicaid funding for transplants for "budget reasons"

[BadgerKid]

34. Pretty much expected.

By the way, since OP's link is to UK media, I will make a mental note to check how often our MSM continues to underreport such stories.

[SoapBox]

35. Killing America...Killing the World...We are the Radicalized Republicans.

[lunatica]

40. It's the tried and true Head In The Sand approach to solving problems

[AlbertCat]

42. Forgive them, father, for they know not what they do

Fuck them Father, they know EXACTLY what they are doing.

[raouldukelives]

44. ,,,,

[Bragi]

46. Honestly, it's not like Obama was doing anything anyway

The Obama administration refused to support real action on climate change at the Copenhagen Conference, and refused to force a vote before the mid-terms on legislation dealing with climate change. So it's not like anything was happening in Congress for which you'd need a committee.

[TomCADem]

53. Amazing! Giving the GOP A Free Pass!

What do you think Obama can do without Republican support for energy bill.

[Bragi]

54. He let the window for action close

He could have rallied support around the Copenhagen conference, or failing that, he could have supported serious legislation to address climate change prior to the midterms. He CHOSE to do neither.

[PurityOfEssence]

55. Forgive 'em? Hell no; fuck 'em Daddy, they know exactly what they're doing

They just think they can get away with it.

[lonestarnot]

60. Destroy those who destroy the earth is more to my liking. Thanks though.

[Imagevision]

61. This shit is really getting old... is no one else tired of this only the rich survive party crap

[panzerfaust]

63. Ignoring problems, makes them disappear.

Along with most of America's arable land