Courtesy  Treehugger:

There’s been a lot of talk about carbon tariffs–taxing imported goods from polluting industries in nations or states that don’t regulate CO2–over the last year or so. Many rust belt and coal state Democrats have called for federal climate legislation to include a such a carbon tariff. This would impose a tax on goods imported to the US from nations with no carbon controls on manufacturing (say, China). So it might come as a surprise to some that the first carbon tariff actually enacted isn’t between nations at all–it’s between Minnesota and North Dakota.

….Of course, North Dakota is none too happy about any of this–the state promptly decided to sue Minnesota, saying the tariff unfairly gives renewable energy an advantage over coal powered energy. Perhaps North Dakota missed the memo–that’s precisely the point. The move will hopefully cause speculators in North Dakota to start seriously thinking about wind power projects–the state has been called ‘the Saudi Arabia of wind’ because of the vast potential it has there….

-Full Article @ Source. See Prior Article here.

Courtesy The Bismarck Tribune:

North Dakota’s attorney general said he expects the state to sue Minnesota over a plan there to tax carbon created by electrical generation.

After discussing the issue with the state Industrial Commission in a closed session this month, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said “It is very likely that we will be suing the state of Minnesota.”

At issue is a measure by Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission to add a fee of between $4 and $34 per ton of carbon dioxide to the cost of electrical generation starting in 2012. The majority of electricity in North Dakota is generated by coal-fired power plants, which emit a large amount of carbon relative to other fuels sources. North Dakota officials argue that the move would place an unfair tax on electricity from the state and discourage its use by Minnesota utilities.

Stenehjem said possible legal action would relate to constitutional protections against restrictions on commerce between states.

-Article Continues @ Source.

Think Progress

By Brad Johnson at 12:23 pm September 28, 2009

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the largest lobbying force in the nation, promoting a right-wing agenda as the “voice of business.” The Chamber claims that a cap-and-trade program to limit global warming pollution would “strangle the economy” and has even called for a “Scopes monkey trial” on the science of global warming.

Today, Exelon CEO John Rowe announced that his company — the largest electric utility company in the United States — would not renew its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of its opposition to global warming action. In his keynote address to the annual conference of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), the nation’s largest association of energy efficiency experts, Rowe said that the Chamber’s multi-million-dollar campaign against clean energy legislation is incompatible with Exelon’s commitment to climate change leadership. As Rowe said when he accepted a leadership award from the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce in 2008: Source

Think Progress

By Ben Armbruster on Sep 25th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

On C-Span’s Washington Journal this week, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the godfather of global warming deniers, said that he will travel to the climate change summit in Copenhagen this fall to present “another view.” “I think somebody has to be there — a one-man truth squad,” he said. Throughout the program, Inhofe went through his tattered global warming denier claims: that climate change is a “hoax,” that CO2 is not a pollutant, and — latching on to the latest false right-wing talking point — that clean energy legislation will cost American families $1,700 a year. At the end of the interview, Inhofe explained what guides his views:  Source

updated 12:22 p.m. EDT, Wed September 2, 2009

Courtesy:  Morguefile

(CNN) — Electronics such as phones and laptops may start shedding their power cords within a year.

That’s the prediction of Eric Giler, CEO of WiTricity, a company that’s able to power light bulbs using wireless electricity that travels several feet from a power socket.

WiTricity’s version of wireless electricity — which converts power into a magnetic field and sends it sailing through the air at a particular frequency — still needs to be refined a bit, he said, but should be commercially available soon.

Giler, whose company is a spinoff of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research group, says wireless electricity has the potential to cut the need for power cords and throw-away batteries.

“Five years from now, this will seem completely normal,” he said.  Source

This Evening Jon will look at similarities between the Climate Change Deniers and the Creationist Movement, a musical remembrance of senator Kennedy, and much, much, more.

Program note: Jon is in Phone hell, so he is skyping. Skype Jon @ foxdup

YouTube Link

Think Progress

By Brad Johnson at 10:33 am

The top coal lobbying coalition in Washington, D.C. hid its knowledge of “fraudulent grassroots lobbying” while Congress voted against clean energy legislation on June 26, 2009. A background document from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) reveals that it learned two days before the vote on Waxman-Markey that Bonner & Associates had sent a dozen forged letters opposing the American Clean Energy and Security Act to at least three members of the House of Representatives:  Source

TPM

Last week, we told you about Bonner and Associates, the D.C. lobby firm that was caught sending forged letters — purporting to come from local Hispanic and black groups — to a U.S. congressman, urging him to vote against the recent climate change bill.

Rep. Ed Markey, who was one of the lead sponsors of that bill and is probing the issue of the forgeries, has sent a letter to the firm’s founder, Jack Bonner, which asks for responses to fourteen detailed questions about the incident.

Among the questions Markey wants answered:  Source