Archive - Apr 2010

Just one week after Earth Day, a "spaghetti western" of climate news played out in three interweaving stories through the blogosphere: the Obama administration approved the nation's first offshore wind farm (good), the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is huge and headed to shore (bad), and American Power Act bill framework announcement was halted after one of the chief bill proponents pulled out (ugly). But, let's get the ugly over with first:

By Gulf Restoration Network Campaign Director Aaron Viles and cross-posted from their blog. Stay tuned to Gulf Restoration Network's blog for continued updates and read our press statement from March 31 on President Obama’s remarks regarding domestic offshore oil drilling -- Garth

As the oil is pushed ashore by strong winds, booms are showing their limitations. We're glad to see federal military resources being brought to this slow-motion tragedy, but we're going to need more help, as this fragile ecosystem is hammered by the river of oil, still uncontrolled, coming ashore. Looking at the recent maps, it's clear Louisiana will take the initial brunt as weather brings the sheen and worse into marsh area to the East of the mouth of the Mississippi River, but we're receiving reports of sheen as far up as Lafitte on the West Bank of the river.

Co-authored by Dr. Stephen Smith, Toni Reale and Jennifer Rennicks of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), and cross-posted with their permission from their blog. -- Luis

Hollywood couldn’t have written a stranger, more ironic script depicting our nation’s ugly, polluting and dangerous energy addiction.  On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the world watched as the Deepwater Horizon, the “technologically advanced” $600 million exploratory drill rig, sank into the Gulf of Mexico following an unexplained explosion two days earlier that killed eleven workers.  The raging fire that followed the explosion burned for 36 hours before the entire rig broke apart and sank, exposing an open wellhead that officials now say may be leaking approximately 5,000 barrels a day from three different leaks.  The rig was located 50 miles offshore from Louisiana and operated by TransOcean Ltd under contract to oil giant, B.P.

A side by side comparison is often the best, most direct way to get a point across and the New York Times homepage aptly demonstrated that yesterday afternoon:

Along with the rest of the country, I am watching yet another environmental disaster caused by dirty energy. I have been extremely worried about the Gulf Coast over the last week ever since a British Petroleum off-shore oil rig exploded and sank. The site is now leaking 42,000 gallons of oil a day. My heart goes out to the families of the missing oil rig workers.

The roll-out of the climate bill originally planned for Monday was delayed once more this weekend after Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would not move forward with the process until Democratic leaders assured him that the Senate would take up climate legislation ahead of immigration reform. On Monday the Senate is expected to take up financial regulatory reform.

We're ramping up our spring/summer campaign and I thought it would be a good time to come back to the blog with an organizing tip.

Senators John Kerry (MA), Lindsey Graham (SC) and Joe Lieberman (CT) had committed to releasing the outline of their long-awaited climate bill yesterday. Instead, the release has been delayed due to ongoing partisan disputes in Congress.

This week’s roundup features many different Earth Day-related stories. President Obama gave a speech in the White House Rose Garden to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, in which he addressed many different climate-related issues. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of the co-authors of a soon-to-be-unveiled climate and energy bill, gave an in-depth interview to Politico. Finally, in more grave news, an oil platform off the Louisiana coast exploded and sank into the ocean, highlighting one of the many reasons we need to move away from dirty fossil fuels.

By Jamie Hogue, Oregon Field Representative for Climate Solutions. -- Luis

Last Friday we received some very bad news.

After all of our efforts to persuade Congressman Kurt Schrader (D-Salem) to support a healthy climate -- including our most recent “Storm” event where we delivered an amazing care package -- Congressman Schrader, signed onto the “Skelton Resolution.” For those who don’t know about the Skelton Resolution, it’s one of the “Dirty Air Acts,” a set of bills that would take away the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon.