Climate blogs exposed: 2009, the year for bold climate action--2/20

The hottest news this week in the blogosphere was the $787 billion economic stimulus package that President Barack Obama just signed into law. The Obama administration has really hit the ground running this first month and from what we've seen thus far, 2009 is proving to be the year for climate.

The new stimulus is directing more than $80 billion to support the development of a national clean energy infrastructure and $500 million for green jobs! Although this is only the beginning to a clean, green economy, it's a step in the right direction. Check out Professor Gregory Bothun and Jesse Jenkins' post from It's Getting Hot in Here that actually grades the stimulus energy investments:

Many are hailing this clean energy investment as unprecedented, which in the context of the last thirty years of neglected energy priorities is undoubtedly true. But with all those billions thrown about, it’s hard to get a grasp on the scale of this investment. What does $80 billion really mean in the context of the 21st century United States energy system? Is this a significant investment or merely the first step on the long road to a green economy? In order to answer those questions, we’d better brush up on our energy literacy and get familiar with the scale of our energy system.

In a nation that burns up a billion dollars every day in gas tanks and continually produces one trillion watts of electrical power, its easy to see that the $80 billion, two-year investment in the stimulus package is only a first step. A critical first step, no doubt, but a relatively small step all the same. A significantly larger and sustained effort is required to transition the nation’s massive energy system to a new, clean energy economy - a fact President Obama and the American public cannot afford to forget.

Last Sunday, the Washington Post published a column by George Will that denied the consensus reached by the worlds leading climate scientists who have proven that our climate is warming at unprecedented rates and that this rapid change is human-induced, stating that in the 1970s we suffered a period of global cooling. Needless to say this information is false. Matt Yglesias from Think Progress writes:

Will also made a number of additional, subsidiary factual errors that have been documented elsewhere. Yesterday, the Post finally responded to complaints about the column, sending a reply to my colleague Brad Johnson that stands foresquare behind Will, citing the existence of a “multi-layered” process to check the facts in the article.

As for why it’s okay for Will to write stuff that isn’t true, the Post didn’t have much of substance to say. They picked one of debunked subsidiary claims, and said they think Will is right, though they acknowledge that the very organization Will was citing as an authority says Will is wrong. One could say that on this subsidiary point, Will perhaps made an honest mistake that the Arctic Climate Research Center has since corrected. But the Post instead says that Will is right and the Arctic Climate Research Center wrong about what the ACRC’s own research says. Meanwhile, they have nothing whatsoever to say about the other problems with the column.

On Thursday President Obama made his way north to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss the future of clean energy technologies. In order to properly reduce greenhouse gas emissions Obama and Harper have announced their agreement to share information on green energy solutions. Although this collaboration is the first step to solve our global climate crisis, many environmentalist are worried by Canada's deep roots in the development of dirty tar sands oil. Check out Susan Casey-Lefkowitz's post on Switchboard from NRDC:

Canada's lack of action on climate finds its root in the tar sands oil industry's expanding greenhouse gas emissions. Tar sands oil development remains a major challenge and in truth there are no technological fixes that would make, especially its expansion, environmentally acceptable. Dirty fuels such as tar sands oil are not compatible with fighting global warming and building a clean energy economy.

So it was hard to swallow when Canadian government officials presented Canadian intensity targets as being the same as absolute limits on greenhouse gas emissions and when they implied that Canada had been taking action to fight climate change. Just today, the Pembina Institute released analysis that shows that with the new stimulus package, the U.S. is to invest over six times more per capita in renewable energy and energy efficiency than Canada. Hopefully, this new U.S.-Canada dialogue indicates Canadian federal government intent to move forward with actions to tackle global warming. And one of these first actions should be to stop tar sands oil industry expansion and to clean up what is already underway.

There are a lot of moments I will never forget from the historic 2009 elections, but this week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made a bold move to erase Sarah Palin's infamous "drill baby drill" mantra by slowing the process to blind off-shore drilling. Greg Peters from EnviroWonk reports:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said last week he would slow the push to drill new oil and gas wells in America's oceans. In this latest effort to undo yet another one of the Bush Administration's last minute policies, Salazar said he would slow the process to allow drilling off of California, Alaska, and in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Seaboard.

Salazar has directed the Minerals Management Service and the U.S. Geological Society to research the potential for both conventional and alternative energy development along America’s coastlines. These reports, due in 45 days, will provide Interior Department with updated information on different energy resources. "In the biggest area that the Bush Administration’s draft OCS plan proposes for oil and gas drilling - the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine to Florida - our data on available resources is very thin, and what little we have is twenty to thirty years old."

Washington is gearing up for a massive climate protest and lobbying event as thousands of young people are descending upon Washington, D.C., from February 27 to March 2 for Power Shift '09-- if you haven't registered yet, get a move on it and choose 1Sky as your group affiliation! I just came across this powerful public service announcement by Dr. James Hansen calling us all to action to join the Capital Climate Action (CCA) protest on coal-fired Capitol Power Plant in during the last day of Power Shift. I know the handful of Whitman College students that are going to Power Shift are excited to flex their muscles for bold climate solutions through mass civil disobedience!

Thanks for reading this week and if there is anything that we forgot, please let us know by commenting below.