Blog & News Round-Up: Flash dance mob, Pres. pushes the Senate, & the blob

As part of the Power Shift Australia events this week, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition organized a huge flash dance mob to draw attention to their demand of a “power shift to renewable energy, green jobs, and safe climate future.” They’ve even got a polar bear - go Australia!

Thursday President Obama received a letter from the experts on the need for the $150 billion pledge he made for a fund providing support for research and development of clean energy technology.

The stable support this Fund would provide is essential to pay for the research and development needed if the U.S., as well as the developing world, are to achieve their goals in reducing greenhouse gases at an affordable cost.

This stable R&D spending is not a luxury. It is in fact necessary because rapid scientific and technical progress is crucial to achieving these goals, and to making the cost affordable.

The signers urge the President to push Congress to send him a strong climate bill that invests in energy R&D. A letter expressing the collective opinion of more than 30 Nobel Prize winning scientists is about as clear a signal we can get—we need strong climate legislation. Hopefully Congress is listening.

It looks like the President is getting the message. The administration is beginning a massive, targeted effort to push climate legislation in the Senate. Politico calls the effort climatedate.com.

The White House is working closely with Senate Democratic aides to match each skeptical senator with the Cabinet member or other key administration official most likely to be persuasive.

In the Senate, by contrast [to the House], key administration officials began meeting with lawmakers months ago, say aides, intensifying their efforts after the House passed its climate bill in late June.

That the administration is being so proactive is good news, because so are the conservative climate change skeptics, and so are the dirty-coal companies. The "climate destroyers" (to use the Climate Progress term) are already fighting hard against passing climate legislation in the Senate – we need to start early (i.e. now) to push the Senate in the right direction. Climate Progress reports:

I have heard from multiple sources that many U.S. Senators are now getting 100 to 200 calls a day opposing a climate and clean energy bill — and bupkes in favor.

The entire conservative messaging apparatus is full-throated in its opposition to this bill...Our side is half-throated, at best.

Suck it, up, people.  This is the meat and potatoes of politicking, and the other side is extremely good at it because they know those calls matter.  They mattered in the House.

A new campaign, No Blackstone Coal, has been created to halt the production of three planned coal-fired plants in NM, NV, and PA. Grist reports:

[It’s a] new campaign to persuade the Blackstone Group to invest in clean energy instead of dirty coal.  One of the 10 largest private equity firms, Blackstone now has more proposed coal-fired power plants than any other company in the U.S.

Communities where the company’s plants would be built are strongly opposed to the projects, and they also say the companies have ignored their concerns.

The campaign is successfully mobilizing these communities, and getting the message out that they do not want the plants near their homes. As for the PA project, Blackstone has had to ask for additional federal loans, on top of the $600 million in tax exempt bonds they received from the state, as investors deem the project risky and won’t finance it.

West Virginia legislators, on the other hand, don’t feel that dirty energy is risky, in fact, they believe it's a source of alternative energy. Grist says:

Gov. Joe Manchin(D) championed and state lawmakers approved an energy portfolio standard bill requiring 25% of generation to come from “alternative and renewable” sources by 2025. But the new standard, which goes into effect this month, has defined “alternative” to include natural gas, old tires, coal gas and even waste coal—energy sources that emit significant quantities of climate-warming greenhouse gases as well as toxic, health-damaging pollutants.

In addition to credits for actual alternative energy, the bill provides credits for electricity from many other sources, most of which include the use of coal. I wonder what their regular source of power is, if coal is an alternative.

WWF has released a report scoring the G8, and G5, on commitment to and implementation of climate protection. Countries are rated on several factors within three categories: their improvements since 1990, current status, and policies for the future. Germany ranked number one, can you guess where the US landed? Not on the bottom, that was last year – Canada beat us out for last place. The US ranked seventh out of eight. Motivation to call your Senator and urge for passage of strong climate legislation, yes?

Finally, here’s a fun find from HuffPost. It's a video from Alaska showing a blob in the ocean.

Nobody knows for sure what the gunk is, but Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says the Coast Guard is sure what it is not.

It's certainly biological," Hasenauer said. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.

It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism.

The video isn’t actually that great, but I've included it anyway. What’s worth checking out is the comment section. What with this occurring in Alaska, there are obviously going to be some Sarah Palin jokes, and a few of them are quite funny.

One last note: for a good explanation of what went down at the G8 meetings check out this World Resources Institute piece.

Did we miss anything? If so, let us know!