2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit News 12/11/09: 1st Draft Issued & Wingnuts on Parade

The first official draft on a climate deal has been written and issued.  The expectation is the details won’t be worked out for another 6 months or so, which was what a lot of people were thinking going into this Summit.  Keep in mind that George Bush’s crew did everything they could for 8 years to make sure the climate crisis was worse when they left than when they took power.  President Obama’s administration has had only 10 months so far to undo those 8 years of damage.  That little fact will be very handy when the Cons start screaming that the Summit and the U.S. President are failures.  Gotta love those patriots!  Back to the draft:

A key working group under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came up with a six-page text Friday. The draft may form the core of a new global agreement to combat climate change beyond 2012, when the present framework, the Kyoto Protocol, expires. However, most figures in the text are shown in brackets – meaning that there is not yet agreement on these specifics. Most importantly, the draft states that emissions should be halved worldwide by 2050 compared to 1990 levels, but it also suggests 80 percent and 95 percent reductions by that year as possible alternative options.

Those two emphasized statements are at the root of a lot of disagreement between parties, as I cover below.

Astroturfing the Climate and Energy Bill In Colorado

I expect by now SquareStaters are well aware of the astroturfing efforts that multi-million dollar lobbying firms have sponsored, organized and staffed in response to health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations’ wishes. Recent posts about them can be found here, here and here.

I also expect that most of us have heard or read somewhere that a similar approach to fostering debate fear and hatred is being put together by dirty fuel corporations. They want to set the tone and control the debate over the Senate’s consideration of climate and energy legislation:

An oil-lobby funded rally will come to Greeley on Tuesday to sway residents against upcoming climate change legislation.

That’s correct: the same clowns that profited the most from $4.00 gas last year are trying to scare people into believing that this year’s Climate and Energy legislation (ACES) will bring back $4.00 gas and cost thousands of more jobs. These same folks were involved with forging letters that were sent to Representatives prior to their vote. Let me count the ways to smack this nonsense down…

Actually, I want to point out only two ways in which these actions are immoral. The first is the subversion of small-d democracy that is going to be continued by corporate interests. If constituents in Greeley, CO-04 or Colorado are really against ACES (H.R. 2454), that’s fine. They have that right. But as we’ve seen in the health care mess this month, corporations aren’t about to allow citizens to decide for themselves whether they like legislation. They’re going to spend what seems like a lot of money to most of us to stuff the legislation with things they want. The reason is easy to figure out: if they get their way, they’ll make a huge return on their lobbying investment.

In reality, the planned demonstration, again funded, organized and likely staffed by dirty energy corporations, isn’t about the climate or energy legislation at all. No, this demonstration will really be about profit: will dirty energy and fuel corporations continue to make record profits at our expense or not? It’s actually pathetic that otherwise good people will turn out for this little act of political theatre.

Secondly, the question that needs to be answered is what do the people of Greeley, CO-04 and Colorado have to gain or lose by the passage or failure of ACES? If ACES fails, and the U.S. doesn’t take any meaningful action on energy or the climate this year, gas prices will rise in the future (anybody who doesn’t think so isn’t based in reality) and dirty fuel corporations will continue to chalk up billions of dollars of profit every quarter. That’s bad enough.

But it will get much, much worse. On top of those two, average temperatures in Colorado will warm up by at least 11°F by the end of the century (which will work to desertify the state), wildfire burn areas in CO will increase by up to 175% by 2050, glaciers will continue to melt faster, and sea level will continue to rise faster.

That is literally what the corporations are fighting for. Is that what Greeley, CO-04 or Colorado residents really want? Do farmers really not want to be able to farm by the middle of this century when temperatures rise year after year and reliable precipitation decreases year after year? Do Coloradans really want water tables and water flow to disappear? Do we want to have to fight massive, uncontrollable fires for years on end?

Because here is how Coloradans are being manipulated [emphasis mine]:

API President Jack Gerard reported in his memo to other API members that when people hear that the legislation could increase the cost of gasoline to $4 a gallon and lead to significant job losses, audiences changed their opinions of the bill.

Of course they did. But how likely are $4.00 gas or job losses if ACES passes? Not very. Gas won’t shoot up to $4.00 per gallon because of a weak carbon cap being implemented in a few years time. Jobs won’t be shed if we shift from dirty fuels to clean fuels – the result would be quite the opposite.

I have a question for Jack, his minions and his blind supporters: How have petroleum corporations kept the price from reaching $4.00? How many jobs have they created this year? No, Jack, your industry is undergoing a bust right now – and it has nothing at all to do with energy or climate legislation. It has to do with corporations sheltering their obscene profits: they made plenty of money and at the first sign the market was slowing down, thousands of good Coloradans were put out on their butts. Listening to your lies and propaganda isn’t going to get them their jobs back or prevent $4.00 gas.

(h/t rnoboa who sent me the article link)

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Methane Plumes Active In Arctic Ocean

[h/t FishOutOfWater]

Research continues to investigate the behavior of components of the climate system in the real world as well as the virtual.  With more and better data from the real world, the virtual climate system becomes more accurate.

Real-world Arctic methane plumes rising from the Arctic seafloor have been confirmed.  These are worrisome because of their large capacity to further force climate change.  Methane is 20 times as effective as carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the climate system.  Up until recently, methane has been stored quite effectively in the Arctic due to the cold temperatures.  Since the Arctic has warmed twice as much as the rest of the globe in the past 100 years, those methane stores are thawing and releasing their methane back to the ocean and atmosphere.

Oil and Gas Rules Close To Being Approved By CO Senate

The oil and gas drilling rules that were established by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission have passed through the state House and as of today were initially passed by the state Senate (a committee, perhaps? the article doesn’t say). Final approval is still required by the full Senate and of course requires Governor Ritter’s signature.

From the Post article:

The Republicans hoped to increase certain protections for drinking water and to raise fines for some rules violations in exchange for stripping out a number of regulations.

Democrats summarily rejected the change, and, afterward, Republicans conceded the fight in the legislature is basically over.

Sen. Penry continues to project how the Cons operate:

“There are a lot of Democrats with reservations about this,” Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, asserted. “But they’re moving with lockstep discipline. They didn’t give an inch today.”

I certainly wouldn’t say Democrats ever move with lockstep discipline. These rules are two years in the making, coming after numerous public comment sessions and being watered down from their original state. Instead, a more appropriate story-line would be that the Cons’ 2009 session strategy of delay and distract ended up not waylaying these rules, at least up to this point.

Indeed, as johne demonstrated yesterday at SquareState, their distracting talking points haven’t stood up to the reality of the marketplace (what else is new?): as oil prices came off their record highs last summer, oil drillers found it wasn’t as profitable to keep drilling at the break-neck pace they had up until late last year.

This Denver Post article at least recognizes this:

Republicans say the rules also impose new costs on drilling companies, which have significantly scaled back their operations across the West in response to the flagging economy. Those costs could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars extra per well, said Sen. Al White, R-Hayden.

Good – one article didn’t repeat the Cons’ lies. One small step at a time. As for the rest of that quote, what I wrote when the rules were about to clear the state House is still valid:

The truth is the fossil fuel drilling industry is scared of losing their stranglehold on uncontrolled drilling. They haven’t been faced with working with others before this and like other Cons are terrified of progress and inclusion.

The fossil fuel drilling industry has operated too long without reasonable restraint. If these rules are implemented and enforced (quite a different story altogether, unfortunately), Coloradans will be allowed to play on a field that’s a little more level. Hopefully news comes tomorrow that the full Senate voted for the rules.

Cross-posted at SquareState.