President-elect Obama’s remarks on his immediate climate goals

Here is what he said:

“Few challenges facing America – and the world – are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We’ve seen record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season.

“My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.

“Climate change and our dependence on foreign oil, if left unaddressed, will continue to weaken our economy and threaten our national security.”

President-elect Obama’s clear, unequivocal commitment to stepping up to the challenge of global warming was music to my ears.

I believe strongly that when we address the threat of unchecked global warming by investing in clean energy technologies and reducing our dependence on foreign oil, we also have a recipe for economic recovery. The time to start is now, and my colleagues and I are here to step up to President-elect Obama’s call to action to address global warming and create millions of green jobs in America.

In our Environment and Public Works Committee:

Instead of denial, we will have resolve.

Instead of procrastination, we will have action.

Instead of listening to the voices of the stagnant status quo, our committee hears our President-elect and hears voices like Thomas Friedman, who wrote in his most recent book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, that how we respond to the global warming challenge will be “the defining measure of a country’s economic standing, environmental health, energy security, and national security over the next 50 years.”

Today I am announcing the first steps that I will be taking in connection with President-elect Obama’s historic challenge to address global warming.

First, I will be introducing two pieces of legislation in January.

The first bill will establish a grant program to reduce global warming emissions under the Clean Air Act with up to $15 billion a year available to spur innovations in clean energy, including advanced biofuels. This will be an economic stimulus and follows President-elect Obama’s recommendation.

Clean energy means green jobs. A new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates that by 2038, another 4.2 million green jobs could be added to the economy – thanks to the alternative energy and renewable energy industries, and the benefits of energy efficiency. That could account for 10 percent of job growth over the next 30 years.

The second piece of legislation will direct the Environmental Protection Agency to set up a cap and trade system for greenhouse gases that meets the goals laid out by the President elect. This bill will reflect the strong partnership we will have with the new Administration, and will focus on achieving the emissions reductions needed while restoring the economy. It will be a streamlined bill, which will amend the Clean Air Act.

Next, I am announcing our first hearing in the 111th Congress. The hearing will take place as soon as possible after we convene in January, and will be entitled “How Fighting Global Warming is Good for the Economy and Will Create Jobs.”

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will be represented next month at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland. I am sending my top Committee staff, who will act as my representatives in meetings with international leaders as they prepare for a new global agreement to address greenhouse gas emissions, which will be completed in 2009 in Denmark. In addition, Senator Klobuchar will be attending and plans to report back to President-elect Obama and to our Committee. Other Senators from the Committee may join her.

President-elect Obama told the world on Tuesday that our country will be an ally in the fight against global warming. I am here to say that our Committee stands ready to be a tireless ally in that effort.

President-elect Barack Obama issued a call to action this week:

“Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious.”

We are here to say that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will reach out to both sides of the aisle as we answer President-elect Obama’s call.

-Sen. Barbara Boxer
Chair, Environment and Public Works Committee
Text reflects her remarks, as prepared for a press conference today.

Waxman beats Dingell to chair energy committee

 

By Tom Ferraro | Reuters

WASHINGTON – Rep. Henry Waxman unseated fellow veteran Democratic lawmaker John Dingell on Thursday to become chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.

 

The 255-House Democratic conference voted 137 to 122 to accept the recommendation of its steering committee and agreed to replace Dingell, 82, a long-time friend of the U.S. auto industry, with Waxman, a 69-year-old Californian anxious to ease global warming, a top concern of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.

 

“I am very gratified by the trust put into me,” Waxman told reporters after the vote.

 

Waxman said it had been a “contentious” and close race, and offered a salute to Dingell, the dean of the House who first joined the body from Michigan in 1955.

 

“We will always owe him a debt of gratitude for a life-time of public service,” Waxman said.

 

The vote puts Waxman, a well known champion of environmental causes, in charge of a committee that has broad jurisdiction over a host of matters from consumer protection and regulation of energy resources to global warming, conservation, health and auto emissions.

 

Dingell, fought for decades for breaks for the Big Three automakers, which are now seeking relief from Congress. But he eventually joined the mounting drive to pressure the industry to build a more efficient car.

 

Fossil-fueled vehicles, like those made in Dingell’s district, which includes Detroit, are key sources of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming.

 

Waxman, 69, has battled for clean air and water legislation and to curb climate change. After years of debates on Capitol Hill, Dingell and Waxman helped produce the 1990 Clean Air Act.

 

Democrats also unanimously re-elected three chairmen of major committees that oversee government spending, taxes and trade and the financial industry in the upcoming Congress that convenes on January 6.

 

Appropriations Chairman David Obey of Wisconsin, Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel of New York and Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts were returned for two-year terms.

Opinions clash in global warming debate

 

Jason Le Miere | The Spartan Daily

In the only country still debating whether global warming is man-made, according to SJSU professor Alex Gershenson, another contest to discuss it was held Tuesday night at San Jose’s Rotary Club.

The event, put on by The Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley, saw two speakers on each side of the issue go head-to-head for 90 minutes on the validity of global warming and its attribution to the activities of humans.

“No other civilized, developed country is having these kinds of debates, period,” said Gershenson, an environmental studies professor at SJSU. “It is very frustrating. The overall understanding of how science works is very low in this country.”

Four individuals presented a large array of graphs and data to the 500-plus attendees in an attempt to demonstrate the validity of their arguments.

The team representing the opinion that global warming is man-made, consisting of SJSU professors Eugene Cordero and Alex Gershenson, weighed their arguments on the consensus of opinion within the scientific community.

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, commissioned by the United Nations, included 2,500 scientific experts from around the globe.

“The IPCC report that just came out states that most of the warming is very likely due to human cause greenhouse gases,” Gershenson said.

Despite the scientific prowess of the panel’s reports, the team arguing that global warming is not man-made disregarded its validity.

“What I’d do with the IPCC report is to put it in the trash can because that’s all it’s worth,” said Dennis Hollars, who holds a doctorate in astrophysics from New Mexico State University.

His brazen pronouncement produced an eruption of laughter among the packed audience. Hollars produced a similar reaction from the crowd when, challenged by Gershenson about the inconsistencies of the data in the graphs he was presenting, he claimed to “not care” which one was accurate.

Read on here.

Global warming ideas disputed by PSU prof

By VICTORIA GUAY | The Citizen

While a large number of people, including some scientists, believe that we are in an unprecedented period of global warming caused primarily by humans, Dr. James Koermer, a meteorology professor at Plymouth State University, would beg to differ.

During a presentation at the university on Wednesday, Koermer explained why there are a growing number scientists, such as himself, who don’t subscribe to the popular theory on global warming.

Koermer said the Earth’s climate has always changed and has experienced alternate warming and cooling trends long before the dawn of man.

Koermer said most research suggests that at the beginning of the last millennium, there was a global warming period that ended around 1600, when a significant cooling trend — which he called a mini ice age — lasted for approximately 100 years.

The most recent global warming trend picked up during the 1700s, which coincides with the start of the Industrial Age, Koermer said.

Going back millions of years, some research suggests the Earth has had much more extreme climate changes than are occurring today.

“Over millions of years there have been periods when we have been hotter than we are today,” Koermer said.

He added that while humans do have an impact on the climate, it is minimal compared to natural phenomena. He also said that humans are not the biggest producers of carbon dioxide and that the gas is not the most abundant green house gas in the atmosphere. That title goes to water vapor, which is produced by the world’s oceans.

Koermer said that water vapor is responsible for 95 percent of the green house gas effect in a given year while another 4.72 percent is caused by a mix of other greenhouse gases, including methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, which are naturally produced.

Humans are only responsible for .28 percent of all greenhouse gases produced during a year, he said.

Read on here.