Climate blogs exposed--Greenhouse Gases, High-Speed Rails, & Palin

This week, green news continues to come out of the halls of Congress. While the Markey-Waxman climate bill heads to hearings next week, this country is finally beginning to reverse the detrimental effects of George W. Bush's environmental legacy and is finally starting to take a bold stance on climate!

Breaking climate news this week was centered around the Environmental Protection Agency's determination that greenhouse gases pose a significant risk to the health and well-being of American citizens. I can't help but say, "FINALLY!" This finally begins to reverse Bush's awful environmental legacy and marks another success for environmental groups as well as concerned citizens in 2009. While the EPA's regulation is not nearly enough to satisfy the need for a climate bill, it does allow for CO2 regulations to be enacted under the Clean Air Act. Think Progress' Wonk Room writes:

This decision comes more than 16 years after the United States ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. As Center for American Progress senior fellow Robert Sussman — now the EPA senior policy counsel — explained last year, the EPA will be able to move forward with regulations to limit greenhouse gas pollution to build a clean-energy economy:

The Clean Air Act, for example, imposes emission performance standards on new major sources of pollution and modifications of existing sources with emission increases over a set threshold. It should be possible to limit these standards to large power plants and other facilities that are significant emitters of CO2, and to exclude smaller sources, such as the hospitals, schools, stores, and apartment buildings of concern to the president. And it should be possible to implement a trading system for large sources that provides flexibility and reduces compliance costs. That is not to say, of course, that large sources would be off the hook from controlling their CO2 emissions — why should they be? — but it does mean that meaningless requirements with no climate change payoff can be avoided.

Full steam ahead! President Obama announced this week he'd like to create a high-speed rail network to connect major urban areas across the country to help reduce automobile traffic and time wasted on airplanes. This might deserve another "FINALLY" since Japan and many European countries have been using high-speed trains for years! But regardless, this investment in a new rail system will not only upgrade our antiquated rail systems (and create new jobs), but it also greatly enhances the efficiency of traveling. According to statistics pulled by It's Getting Hot in Here, "travel by train is approximately three times more efficient than travel by car and six times more efficient than travel by airplane." Watch President Obama talk about the importance of a new high-speed rail system!

Because every environmentalist can use a little Sarah Palin now and then, this week, in light of all the talk about global warming, Palin (and this deserves another FINALLY) seems to have admitted that global warming exists. In a meeting in Anchorage, the Governor announced that climate change is harming her state, but then went on to push for the increased use of natural gas claiming it is the best way to reduce the effects of global warming! Well...at least she's admitting that global warming exists--that's a big step! Grist writes:

“We Alaskans are living with the changes that you are observing in Washington,” the Republican governor said. “The dramatic decreases in the extent of summer sea ice, increased coastal erosion, melting of permafrost, decrease in alpine glaciers and overall ecosystem changes are very real to us.”

She promoted Alaska’s vast natural gas reserves as a cleaner alternative to oil and coal and a realistic “transition” energy source while the country shifts to a low-carbon energy system.

“There is no way to achieve these goals in the next few decades without a dramatic increase in domestic natural gas and a strong effort to modestly increase domestic oil production,” she said. “Keeping Alaska’s OCS [outer continental shelf] lease sales, exploration, and development programs on schedule, especially in the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea, is critically important to this effort.

She wasn’t so much abandoning the “drill, baby, drill” mantra that came to define the McCain-Palin energy strategy in last fall’s election as she was offering a new rationale for it— cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Palin stopped just short of explicitly saying she believes humans are causing changes to the climate.

Just to make sure we all realize the other side is not giving up quite yet, this week Steven Milloy, "a columnist for Fox News and paid advocate for Phillip Morris, ExxonMObil and other corporations," spoke at the Heritage Foundation trying to convince attendees of the hidden agendas of environmentalists and those pushing for energy efficiency. Check out Sarah Karlin's guest post on Climate Progress and watch her deconstruct the scientific and morally bankrupt arguments of Milloy!

Milloy’s tactics are nothing new, of course. Conservative politicians have relied upon emotionally charged rhetoric to advance their agenda for years. At the expense of facts and data, George Bush talked about the “axis of evil” and tenuous connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda to convince the American public that we should invade Iraq. Ann Coulter, the notorious right-wing pundit has made a career of lambasting liberals with witty, provocative comments only to later have her statements be proven false. While conservatives are often exposed for their false rhetoric, it is often too little to late. When it comes to environmental issues, Milloy appears to be following in the footsteps of Bush, Coulter, and other serial distorters.

Listening to Milloy speak, it becomes harder and harder to take his arguments seriously. Despite his numerous academic accomplishments—Milloy holds a B.A in Natural Sciences and a Master of Health Sciences in Biostatics from the Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Juris Doctorate from the University of Baltimore and a Master of Laws from the Georgetown University Law Center—Milloy rarely relied on scientific evidence to refute environmentalists’ claims. And when Milloy did attempt to rely on quantitative data, he provided no sources for his information. Milloy said that water is “the most abundant substance on earth. We can’t run out.” But what Milloy fails to mention is that, while much of the earth is covered with water, only about one percent of this water is available and safe for drinking and cooking.

Well that's all for this week! Let us know what we forgot in the comments below and have a Happy Earth Day!! For all of you in the DC area, come celebrate Earth Day with 1Sky on the National Mall from 12-6 PM for some live music, inspirational speeches, and some good ol' fun! Enjoy the spring weather!