End Polluter Welfare Act would eliminate more than $110 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Katherine O'Konski

S. 3080, the End Polluter Welfare Act (EPWA), sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) was introduced on May 10.  If enacted, the legislation would eliminate more than $110 billion in US taypayer subsidies to the fossil fuel industry over the next ten years.  “Our legislation is the most comprehensive ever introduced,” said Sanders at a rally and press conference at the Capitol.  “It ends all tax breaks, special financing arrangements, and federal research and development funding. We ensure that never again can a company like BP take a tax deduction for money spent cleaning up its own mess in the Gulf of Mexico, and we close the loophole that lets tar sands oil pipeline operators avoid paying the oil spill cleanup tax.” Continue reading →

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Rally at US Capitol to end fossil fuel subsidies

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Climate Science Watch

Supporters of the newly introduced End Polluter Welfare Act rallied at the U.S. Capitol May 10 to hear Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Keith Ellison, along with 350.org climate activist and author Bill McKibben, Brent Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth, and Ryan Alexander of Taxpayers for Common Sense call for an end to all taxpayer subsidies to the US fossil fuel industry,  The bill is estimated to eliminate more than $110 billion in subsidies during the next 10 years.

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The U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Global Change Research Plan 2012-2021

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Katherine O'Konski

The USGCRP released its long overdue new strategic plan without fanfare on April 27.  Most notably, the new strategy aims to enhance the federal research program’s science-for-society component by informing decision-makers with good scientific communication. Continue reading →

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Hansen: It’s time for the politics to follow the science on global warming

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Rick Piltz

James Hansen under arrest at mountaintop removal coal protest at White House, 2010. Photo: Rainforest Action Network.

“President Obama speaks of a ‘planet in peril,’ but he does not provide the leadership needed to change the world’s course. Our leaders must speak candidly to the public,” James Hansen writes in a powerful op-ed column in the New York Times today. “The science of the situation is clear — it’s time for the politics to follow.” Amen to that. Climate scientists are always called upon to communicate in a way that makes them more ‘relevant’ to policymakers and the public, but a greater problem is making policymakers and the public more relevant to climate science.  As for Hansen's suggestion that climate policy can unify liberals and conservatives, one can be skeptical. Continue reading →

Posted in Science Communication, Science-Policy Interaction | 1 Comment

A coordinated right-wing campaign to turn the US public against renewable energy?

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Rick Piltz

“A network of ultra-conservative groups is ramping up an offensive on multiple fronts to turn the American public against wind farms and Barack Obama's energy agenda,” the UK Guardian reports.  Having pushed global climatic disruption pretty much off the radar screen in the US election campaign, thanks in no small part to President Obama’s failure to speak out on it, the global warming denial machine can focus its energies on undermining ‘green energy’.  Green energy development: that’s the agenda that political opportunists both inside and outside the administration have promoted as a supposedly noncontroversial alternative to talking honestly about climate.

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Posted in Climate Change Mitigation, Global Warming Denial Machine | 1 Comment

Thanks to State Farm insurance for dropping the Heartland Institute

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Climate Science Watch

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Posted in Global Warming Denial Machine | 2 Comments

White House sat on BP Gulf disaster photos: Where’s the ‘scientific integrity’ policy to cover that?

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Rick Piltz

Previously unreleased government photos show “the White House and BP have been hiding the truth about the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf,” says John Hocevar, Ocean Campaign Director at GreenpeaceUSA.  Who was responsible for the government taking almost two years to comply with the law in releasing photos of lethal damage to critically endangered wildlife?  NOAA has adoped a formal ‘scientific integrity’ policy; the White House has not.  But where is the integrity in spinning communications to emphasize Gulf cleanup rather than documentation of damage – while the Obama administration promotes more drilling in the Gulf, and in the Arctic Ocean? Continue reading →

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Video of the Ninth Annual Ridenhour Prizes, 2012

Posted on May 6, 2012 by admin

The annual Ridenhour Prizes recognize those who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society. Video of the awards event at the National Press Club, Washington,DC, April 25, 2012 (continue reading for more information and additional videos):

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Internal report finds Pentagon gives whistleblowers a raw deal

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Climate Science Watch

Abuses of power by government officials don’t go away no matter who wins the election. Every administration needs independent watchdogs and whistleblowers to hold government accountable for wrongdoing and failures to uphold the law.  “The Defense Department has inadequately protected from reprisals whistleblowers who have reported wrongdoing, according to an internal Pentagon report,” the Washington Post reported May 6.  The Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General “has not respected the law’s mandate,” said Tom Devine, legal director at the Government Accountability Project. Continue reading →

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Even denialist Rep. Sensenbrenner recoiled at loathsome Heartland Institute Unabomber global warming billboard

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Rick Piltz

Heartland took down its billboard comparing those who support climate science to the Unabomber when it became clear that they had stooped too low even for Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), a hard-nosed denialist who has engaged in a McCarthyist jihad against the climate science community. Sensenbrenner, who threatened to withdraw as a speaker at an upcoming Heartland conference, has attacked climate scientists as ‘fascists’ engaged in ‘a massive international scientific fraud’.  Will Heartland escape further damage from this revealing episode, or will some of its conference participants and corporate sponsors take this opportunity to pull the plug on this destructive operation? Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming Denial Machine | 3 Comments