Archive - Dec 2010

Many of you have already started the trek home to loved ones, but here at 1Sky we still wanted to wish you very happy holiday and a wonderful New Year! Here are a few of the highlights from this week to tide you over until 2011.

Last week, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) made an unsuccessful last-minute attempt to put the Clean Air Act before Congress adjourns. Procedural changes in the appropriations bill stopped the vote, but Rockefeller and his allies in the coal and oil industries are resolved to keep fighting the Clean Air Act when Congress reconvenes January 5th -- three days after the Clean Air Act kicks in for greenhouse gasses.

The other day I was watching a collection of old Schoolhouse Rock songs with my son. On came "Energy," which I probably hadn't seen in 30 years. This video (see embeded at the end of this post) was made in 1978, and I was surprised how timely it is today.

This week on the roundup we're looking at Fox News "reporting," some good news on emission cuts and some bad news for coal plants. But, first thing's first...

1Sky was a proud sponsor of New Organizing Institute’s (NOI) RootsCamp that took place last weekend at George Washington University in Washington, DC. This marked the fifth anniversary of NOI’s RootsCamp "unconference", where organizers set the meeting agenda, share lessons learned, schmooze (I dislike the term “network”, but yeah, network), and drive the conversation about best practices in organizing.

As the year kicked off, climate change and clean energy advocates were teased with the prospects of another jobs bill centered on clean energy provisions and the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman climate bill. The jobs bill was rumored to include the HomeStar program, which would fund a massive energy efficiency retrofit program (the best bang for the buck in reducing emissions), while the climate bill was rumored to include a full carbon cap.

After two weeks of deliberations, delegates from around the world have come to a consensus on a series of accords called the "Cancun Agreements" that will set the stage for the next phase of international climate talks next year in in Durban, South Africa. Despite obstruction from the U.S., nations attending the conference came to a series of agreements that help move the world closer to the global deal that eluded last year’s summit in Copenhagen.

Last Friday, the Clean Air Act triumphed in the District of Columbia court of appeals. An oil industry effort to block the EPA act that would regulate greenhouse gases was unanimously thrown out by a panel of three judges -- but will the decision last long enough to even take a victory lap?

After a long and drawn-out two weeks in Cancun, hope prevailed over obstructionism at the eleventh hour as 193 nations -- including the U.S. -- came together to accept a climate agreement, restoring faith in a UN process badly battered by last year’s climate talks in Copenhagen.  

1Sky Campaign Director Liz Butler just issued this statement in reaction to the Obama Administration's role in the climate change talks taking place in Cancun: