Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Global Warming’

Public Citizen congratulates EDF and Tenaska on their deal to sequester CO2.

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on April 19, 2010 |

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has agreed to do what the state’s environmental agency should be doing by  assuring that  Tenaska’s commitment to sequester CO2 emissions can be enforced if this plant is built. While this deal may reduce some concerns about CO2, it doesn’t mean that this still isn’t a dirty old coal plant, and we will continue to work with the local opponents- the Multi- County Coalition-to oppose the permitting of the plant. 

The devil is in the details and the metaphor is especially appropriate given the hellish consequences. Substantial questions still remain unanswered due to the confidential nature of the agreement.   Is this deal dependent on cap and trade being passed? Does the deal really require that the coal plant will operate only if the carbon capture facility is also built and operated at least 85% of the time? Does the deal contemplate some other agreement for carbon capture without some federal cap and trade requirement for CO2? What happens if the off-takers don’t sequester the CO2? Can EDF take action against them if Tenaska is no longer a partner?  What happens if the tertiary oilfields become saturated? What are the penalties? Do they have to shut down?

It is still unknown whether carbon capture and sequestration from coal  is a viable part of the solution to climate change. Capturing and storing CO2 from one plant in Texas is one thing – capturing and storing the CO2 emissions from all the existing and proposed coal plants in the country is quite another.

The net output of this plant will significantly reduced by the energy consumed by carbon capture and dry cooling, making some  the emissions per MWh of output far higher than other similar pulverized coal plants. Another big question is why is Texas getting stuck with a pulverized coal plant by Tenaska when they are building an IGCC plant in Illinois  which far  cleaner?

This is not the first deal of its kind in Texas. Public Citizen and the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition (SEED)  reached an agreement with Nu Coastal Corp. to offset 100% of its CO2 from its Calhoun County plant. That plant has been sold to a new company which leads us to question if EDF can take action against the new permit holders if Tenaska is no longer a partner?

This deal doesn’t solve the questions about water availability, waste disposal and the damages done by coal mining.

In summary this still is a dirty old coal plant and we’ll oppose it.

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

The Other Coal Deaths

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 9, 2010 |

A guest column by Ted Nace of CoalSwarm:

Every day in the United States, on average, 65 people die due to particulates from coal plants. On average, each of these deaths represents 14 years of lost life.

These 65 deaths happen day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. They come in the form of heart attacks, asthma attacks, and respiratory problems.

The problem is that banal phrase: “on average.” There is never a dramatic explosion to point to, no television crew interviewing families. Just a grinding toll of anoymous suffering — 65 human beings, 65 families.

Anger begs for a villain. Our sense of justice needs an arrogant, crude, villain in a mustache. Yet the executives who operate the 600 coal plants that do the killing are smooth, personable, well spoken.

The old coal plants that do the killing could all be shut down using well-demonstrated efficiency programs and commercially available renewable alternatives. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Climatology vs Meteorology

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 7, 2010 |

The words sound similar, but are they? Here are the definitions from Webster:

Climatology: the science that deals with climates and their phenomena

Meteorology: a science that deals with the atmosphere and its phenomena and especially with weather and weather forecasting

So even their definitions seem similar, at least on the surface. But as Stephen Colbert points out in this great segment, though Astronomy and Astrology might seem similar as well, they are quite different. Likewise with climatology and meteorology there are important differences that must be clearly understood if man-made global warming is going to be addressed.

Both are defined as “science” and both have schools and degrees associated with them. In truth, however, most of the people we call meteorologists are not scientists. They are news anchors with no advanced degrees of any kind, merely an undergraduate degree in journalism. Take John Coleman for example – the founder of the Weather Channel and much-touted global warming denier. He has no advanced degree of any kind. He is a journalist. Yet, for some reason, his opinion is considered by the general public, and particularly certain information outlets such as Fox News, to be on par with climatologists who have multiple doctorate degrees.

Most meteorologists the general public knows about are simply newscasters, not scientists. They don’t have any greater understanding of climatology than say, me for example. And trying to equate meteorology to climatology is as inappropriate as attempting to equate weather to climate (as many global warming deniers tried to do this past winter with their Snowpocalypse propaganda). Though weather can be affected by climate they are certainly not the same, and certainly need to have any relating trends proven over a multi-year period. If we want information and science, lets stick with the actual scientists and not a bunch of yahoo pundits looking to glorify their position.

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

“Climategate” Scientists Slip Tea Bagger Noose

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on March 31, 2010 |

The first British investigation into the supposed “climategate” emails has largely vindicated the scientists involved, including Phil Jones – head scientist of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. This further proves, as I’ve said all along, that this “Climategate” is just more inane propaganda being forced down the throats of a bewildered and misinformed public. I don’t as much blame the individuals who go on these denier rants as I do the supposed “news” outlets and politicians that encourage and foster such behavior, reaction and mentality.

Anthropogenic Global Warming is real and happening right now. It is likely the largest crisis and challenge our civilization has ever faced. We need to get serious about solving this problem and we need to have started thirty years ago. But I’m sure all this will accomplish is a flurry of propaganda from Fox News, etc. about how the House of Commons is really the mastermind behind some great globe-wide conspiracy to dupe everyone into believing global warming… yadda, yadda, yadda.

Check out the AP article on CBS for more information. Here are some of the the “conclusions and recommendations” from the House of Commons report:

We therefore conclude that there is independent verification, through the use of other methodologies and other sources of data, of the results and conclusions of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.

Even if the data that CRU used were not publicly available—which they mostly are—or the methods not published—which they have been—its published results would still be credible: the results from CRU agree with those drawn from other international data sets; in other words, the analyses have been repeated and the conclusions have been verified.

Critics of CRU have suggested that Professor Jones’s use of the word “trick” is evidence that he was part of a conspiracy to hide evidence that did not fit his view that recent global warming is predominately caused by human activity. The balance of evidence patently fails to support this view. It appears to be a colloquialism for a “neat” method of handling data.

Critics of CRU have suggested that Professor Jones’s use of the words “hide the decline” is evidence that he was part of a conspiracy to hide evidence that did not fit his view that recent global warming is predominantly caused by human activity. That he has published papers—including a paper in Nature—dealing with this aspect of the science clearly refutes this allegation. In our view, it was shorthand for the practice of discarding data known to be erroneous. We expect that this is a matter the Scientific Appraisal Panel will address.

The evidence that we have seen does not suggest that Professor Jones was trying to subvert the peer review process. Academics should not be criticised for making informal comments on academic papers. The Independent Climate Change Email Review should look in detail at all of these claims.

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

Direct Action Against MTR at EPA

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2010 |

Activists are risking arrest by demonstrating outside EPA national headquarters in make-shift tripod stands. They say they won’t go away until EPA administrator Lisa Jackson promises to make a fly-over of the Appalachian Mountain Top Removal coal mines to see first hand the destruction it is causing.

Despite the Obama administration making claims they would crack down on MTR mining, the EPA has been slow to act and has actually granted some new MTR mining permits. It is only through continued pressure and media exposure that this horribly destructive practice can finally be stopped.

Civil disobedience and direct action are one of the most effective means of fighting injustice and tyranny. These activists are putting their freedom and their safety on the line to non-violently oppose one of the most irreversibly and violently destructive industries in history. Please help support their actions by posting at RAN and by contacting Lisa Jackson and asking her to go to Appalachia and take action against MTR.

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

Help Stop Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2010 |

Please join us in supporting ILoveMountains.org in their ongoing campaign to bring a halt to Mountaintop Removal (MTR) Coal Mining. There is a bill in front of the House of Representatives that would do a great deal to help stop this incredibly destructive operation.

As you probably know, MTR is one of the most ecologically destructive practices on the planet (and that’s saying a lot). It completely destroys huge sections of the Appalachian forests and mountains which are the second-most biological diverse region on the surface of planet Earth (second only to the tropical rain forests). (more…)

Read Full Post »

On global warming, the science is solid

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2010 |

Last weekend professors and scientists from four major Texas universities joined forces to write an editorial in the Houston Chronicle defending the science of global warming from skeptics and deniers.  Check it out!

On global warming, the science is solid

In recent months, e-mails stolen from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in the United Kingdom and errors in one of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s reports have caused a flurry of questions about the validity of climate change science.

These issues have led several states, including Texas, to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide (also known as greenhouse gases) are a threat to human health.

However, Texas’ challenge to the EPA’s endangerment finding on carbon dioxide contains very little science. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott admitted that the state did not consult any climate scientists, including the many here in the state, before putting together the challenge to the EPA. Instead, the footnotes in the document reveal that the state relied mainly on British newspaper articles to make its case.

Contrary to what one might read in newspapers, the science of climate change is strong. Our own work and the immense body of independent research conducted around the world leaves no doubt regarding the following key points: (more…)

Read Full Post »

Industry Experts Confirm Carbon Capture and Sequestration A Pipe Dream

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 8, 2010 |

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is the fossil fuel industry’s much-touted cure-all for our global warming woes. This theoretical solution to global warming is to pump all our industrial releases of CO2 underground, cross our fingers, and hope really, really hard that it will stay there – literally sweeping the problem under the proverbial rug.

It’s a nice dream, but how realistic is it? A new report has examined the feasibility of CCS, and found it “overwhelming in both physical needs and costs” and the entire strategy for geological sequestration “profoundly non-feasible.” Titled Sequestering Carbon Dioxide in a Closed Underground Volume, the report was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering and written by M.J. Economides of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Houston and C.A. Ehlig-Economides of the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: It has been pointed out to us that many of these claims made by Dr. Economides may be overinflated or just plain spurious- a retort posted by NRDC here.  Because we don’t believe in just throwing blog posts down the memory hole, we want to give this big caveat, and watch for a further discussion on CCS feasibility)

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Week in Review

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 5, 2010 |

Welcome to the debut of the Public Citizen Texas Week in Review. Every day our advocacy staff works to organize citizens and politicians in order to realize our progressive vision of a healthy environment, a sustainable economy, and a government of, by, and for the people.

This advocacy requires patience and discipline, resilience and fortitude, as our energy initiatives develop and progress across the weeks and months. You, our online readers, see this work culminate in blog posts, newspaper articles, press releases, protests, law suits, and policy proposals. What you don’t see is the day-to-day operations as our advocates set priorities, develop concrete goals, implement strategies, form coalitions, read, compile, and compose reports, and collaborate with other progressive energy activists. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Climate Change: What Do You Believe?

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2010 |

Or, rather, how do you believe?

Though I’ve always thought this was fairly obvious, a recent story from Christopher Joyce at NPR has addressed how a person’s stance on global warming and climate change (or any issue really) tends to rely far more on one’s “World View” rather than on science or facts. This is based on research done by the The Cultural Cognition Project – a group of scholars who study how cultural values shape public perceptions and policy beliefs.

Regardless of the information provided, a person is more likely to credit whatever information best supports their mindset, and simply reject that which doesn’t.

It doesn’t matter whether you show them negative or positive information, they reject the information that is contrary to what they would like to believe, and they glom onto the positive information, says Don Braman, a faculty member at George Washington University and part of the Cultural Cognition Project.

It seems the pre established perspective an individual has when confronting facts and information has a far greater effect on how the person will react than the information itself. Having had many fruitless “conversations” with anthropogenic global warming (AGW) deniers I don’t find this very shocking at all. And that’s not to say that AGW deniers are the only ones who do it – everyone does it to at least some extent. The question people should always ask themselves is “Am I at least attempting to be objective in my understanding and comprehension of this information?”

Basically the reason that people react in a close-minded way to information is that the implications of it threaten their values, says Dan Kahan, a law professor at Yale University and a member of The Cultural Cognition Project.

This is why it is not shocking to me at all that anti-evolutionists are not also frequently AGW deniers, but that they are now trying to further their anti-science crusades by linking the two, and allowing anti-evolution messaging to piggy back off of anti-global warming messaging.

There is a lesson here for all of us however, while this further illuminates the true reasons behind AGW denialism, those who are fighting the propaganda and misinformation must relentlessly ensure that our information is factual, correct, and not tarnished by our own personal feelings or motives. This is probably impossible to do completely, but mindfulness alone should help a great deal.

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

PUC Chairman Ignores Impending Impact of Coal Emissions

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2010 |

Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUC), made this statement regarding the “progress” Texas has been making in regards to green energy and “responsible” leadership:

Texas is the nation’s reddest state on the political map. But it produces more green energy than any blue state. The state’s top political leaders are fiercely fighting federal cap-and-trade legislation, but the state is No. 2 behind only New York when it comes to reducing the production of carbon dioxide emissions. (From the Texas Energy Report)

This is true, IF you completely ignore the plethora of new coal plants being proposed and built in Texas. Texas already has 17 coal plants (more than any other state), and there are 12 or 13 more being proposed or built (also more than any other state – by far). Current reductions in greenhouse gases include improved building codes, energy efficiency programs, replacement of pilot lights, air conditioning retrofitting, and wind farms. The reduction of greenhouse gases from all these amounts to about 16 million tons a year. If you add in the wind farms that still need transmission lines built to access their power you get around 43 million tons a year. This sounds great until you realize that the recent coal plant proposals would add 77 million tons of CO2 to our atmosphere every year – far more than offsetting these reductions.

While reductions in greenhouse gasses should, of course, be applauded, it is misleading for Chairman Smitherman to take credit for Texas reducing greenhouse gas emissions when he knows there are so many coal plants looming on the horizon that will completely overwhelm these significant reductions. If Texas were really serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions we would not allow anymore unnecessary coal plants to be built, and start replacing the old ones we have with renewable forms of power generation. This would do far more than anything to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and the public health and environmental health benefits from getting off a fossil-fuel based electric system would far outweigh the cost.

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

SNOWPOCALYPSE Strikes Austin, Texas

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 23, 2010 |

Holy *%$&! its snowing in Austin, Texas! What do I do? Can I still drive? Do I have to go to work? Should I put on big boots and go buy as much bottled water and creamed corn as I can fit into a stolen borrowed shopping cart? Or just jump on the global warming denier train ASAP?

Terrified victims of SNOWMAGGEDON tremble in fear outside the Public Citizen office

That’s right folks, those fluffy flaky beauties may be lovely to our amazed southern eyes, but to climate deniers they are cold hard proof that global warming is fake. Because its cold outside, so how can the globe possibly be warming?!?! Hah! “Fact” your way out of that truthiness!

***Sigh*** Some folks have a lot of fun busting up climate deniers, but I just don’t have the stomach for it. Far from laughing in glee at those fools who can’t tell the difference between “weather” and “climate”, it just makes me sad. So I’ll let the president do my dirty work for me.  Check out this video of Obama addressing the crowd at a town hall meeting in Nevada.  He actually does  a really good job of explaining the science of “global boiling”, as Brad Johnson at the Wonk Room notes:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPwHnU5ObPY]

…we just got five feet of snow in Washington and so everybody’s like-a lot of the people who are opponents of climate change, they say, “See, look at that. There’s all this snow on the ground, you know, this doesn’t mean anything.” I want to just be clear that the science of climate change doesn’t mean that every place is getting warmer. It means the planet as a whole is getting warmer. But what it may mean is, for example, Vancouver which supposed to be getting snow during the Olympics, suddenly is at 55 degrees and Dallas suddenly is getting seven inches of snow. The idea is that as the planet as a whole gets warmer, you start seeing changing weather patterns and that creates more violent storm systems, more unpredictable weather. So any single place might end up being warmer. Another place might end up being a little bit cooler. There might end up being more precipitation in the air…

So there you have it, folks. Global warming doesn’t mean it is simply getting hotter. It doesn’t mean there will never be snow again. It means that global temperatures overall are going up, and that’s going to make weather all over the place get a little wonky.  Like stronger hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, extreme drought in south Texas, or even snow right here in Austin.

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

Gov. Perry at it again with EPA lawsuit

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 19, 2010 |

If I had a nickel every time we put out a statement saying something along the lines of “Governor Perry is blowing hot air about climate change”…I could probably only really buy a candy bar. Or a coke — a Mexican coke in a bottle, preferably, to be drunk as I eat a fried avocado taco on a Friday afternoon (mmm, thanks Perry).

But this week our dear Gov was at it again. Tuesday morning he joined Attorney General Greg Abbott and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples to announce a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s(EPA) endangerment finding for carbon dioxide. We had plenty to say about it, which has already been posted this week, but I think that I like the way Forrest Wilder over at the Texas Observer put it best:

Perry is up to his neck in pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and he’s bringing Attorney General Abbott and Ag Commissioner Todd Staples along with him. The (“frivolous“) lawsuit today is neither a legal nor scientific document. It is a political one: poorly-reasoned, poorly-sourced and containing enough tin-foil hat conspiracies to block a Mexican border blaster.

Check out his blog post for the nitty gritty on the legal brief (“filled with footnotes, giving the appearance that it’s been carefully researched. But on closer inspection many of the references are to rightwing blogs, “studies” by armchair climate analysts, and obscure anti-climate groups like the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition.”)

Luckily we heard about Perry’s press announcement with just enough time to sweep in and have the last word. Officing 3 blocks from the capitol does have its perks. Along with Sierra Club, we were able to stake out a good spot outside the Governor’s Press Room and hold an impromptu reaction press conference by the West Trashcan. With members of the press gathered around, Smitty (our director, of course!) and Eva Hernandez from Sierra Club gave statements crying foul on the Governor’s tomfoolery, and even issued a symbolic “citizen’s citation” to Perry for endangering the health of Texans and the climate. Perry didn’t come out to accept it himself, but did send a policy aide in his honor. Good thing too; we were worried we’d have to slip it under his locked and barred door (not exactly the climactic press moment we were looking for). Check out the video though, editing courtesy of our newest media intern Patrick! Don’t worry, you’ll get to meet him soon enough.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY50xHfOFTE]

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

Texas State Climatologist Disagrees with Gov Perry, AG Abbott, and Ag Comm Staples on climate science

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 18, 2010 |

You may have seen the political bloviating earlier this week when Governor Perry announced he would sue the EPA over their endangerment finding on CO2.   Or that Attorney General Greg Abbott signed on, as did Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples, who all ended up calling the science behind climate change flawed, saying:

The state’s legal action indicates EPA’s Endangerment Finding is legally unsupported because the agency outsourced its scientific assessment to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has been discredited by evidence of key scientists’ lack of objectivity, coordinated efforts to hide flaws in their research, attempts to keep contravening evidence out of IPCC reports and violation of freedom of information laws.

You may have also seen our response.  If you’re a regular reader here, I hope so!

Perry, Abbott, and Staples claim that the science is flawed on climate change, citing recent controversy surrounding the IPCC (a-hem, that’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, gentlemen. Maybe the legal brief should be thrown out due to citation of a ficticious panel? We’ll call it INTERNATL-PANELGATE! We’ve really got ’em now!).  Too bad the controversy hasn’t affected the main thrust of the underlying science, only some of the claims. Too bad the conclusions of the IPCC have also been independently adopted and verified by the US National Academy of Sciences and the collected opinions of 13 US Gov’t agencies (like those liberals at the CIA and the USDA), collectively put together in the US Global Change Research Program. Despite its problems, the main conclusions of the IPCC’s report, that temperatures were increasing and climate was changing due to greenhouse gas emissions, remains intact.

Too bad Perry, Abbott, and Staples (or maybe more accurately Larry, Moe, and Shemp?) didn’t seek the advice of…oh, actual scientists, like maybe the Texas state climatologist?  Didn’t know we had a climatologist?  (Maybe Governor Perry didn’t either?) Well, we do, and before you dismiss him as some granola-chewing-Austin-based-hippie-liberal, he’s actually anything but.

Meet Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, of the Texas A&M Department of Atmospheric Sciences, appointed to the position of State Climatologist by noted liberal and hater of greenhouse gases George W. Bush. (hope you caught the irony there).

In a sweeping interview with Brad Johnson’s Wonk Room blog, he fired back against Perry’s allegations that the endangerment finding is flawed:  “Anthropogenic increases of greenhouse gas concentrations clearly present a danger to the public welfare, and I agree with the EPA’s findings in that sense.”

To be fair, Dr. N-G also specifically added a caveat to his comments, “Just to be clear, I do not “utterly dismiss” the Texas petition. I have contributed to pointing out errors in the IPCC reports in my own blog, and it is appropriate for the State of Texas to inquire how much of the IPCC findings will ultimately be called into question. Nor would my considered scientific opinion constitute adequate independent grounds for an EPA finding.”

Wow.  A reasonable climatologist, but one who supports the broad scientific consensus.  What scientific consensus is that, you ask?  Well, as a result of this interview, Dr. Andy Dessler (who we have long been a fan of here at TexasVox) and the entire A&M Dept of Atmo Sciences released the following statement:

Dr. Andrew Dessler, a climatologist at Texas A&M University and author of The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change, tells the Wonk Room in an email interview that the entire Department of Atmospheric Sciences agrees with the IPCC:

“I, along with all of the other faculty in the department, agree with the main conclusions of the IPCC.”In 2007, the Texas A&M Department of Atmospheric Sciences issued a statement that global warming from emissions of greenhouse gases risks “serious adverse impacts on our environment and society” — the key basis for the EPA’s endangerment finding:

1. It is virtually certain that the climate is warming, and that it has warmed by about 0.7 deg. C over the last 100 years.
2. It is very likely that humans are responsible for most of the recent warming.
3. If we do nothing to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, future warming will likely be at least two degrees Celsius over the next century.
4. Such a climate change brings with it a risk of serious adverse impacts on our environment and society.When asked if the latest attacks on the IPCC affect their stance, Dr. Dessler responded that “the Department stands by its statement. You can quote me on that.”

You can read the entire interview here.  But, when it comes to this one right here, it’s Science 1 – Perry, Abbott and Staples 0.

Or maybe no one is keeping score, and we just chalk this up as more election year posturing?

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

Public Citizen and Sierra Club Issue Citation to Governor Perry for “Endangering” Texans

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 16, 2010 |

Perry Flaunts State, Federal Law in EPA Lawsuit

Statement from Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office and Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club

This morning Governor Perry attempted to show Texas voters that he is bigger than both Texas and federal law by enacting a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s(EPA) endangerment finding for carbon dioxide, but instead just further highlighted his failure to protect Texans’ health and the safety and long term stability of our economy and climate.

Instead of suing the EPA, Perry should be taking proactive steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build up our clean energy economy.  Our governor likes to brag about all he’s done to promote wind and energy efficiency and the emissions Texas has avoided as a result, but at the same time he is hammering through a second Texas coal rush that will negate all that hard work and add 77 million tons of CO2 to Texas’ already overheated air.

Perry’s blustering behavior has actually caused Public Citizen to file a lawsuit against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for its failure to regulate global warming gasses. Texas law clearly requires that “air contaminants” be regulated, and defines contaminants as follows:

“‘Air contaminant’ means particulate matter, radioactive material, dust, fumes, gas, mist, smoke, vapor, or odor, including any combination of those items, produced by processes other than natural.” Tex. Health & Safety Code § 382.003(2).

Perry has proudly demonstrated willful ignorance of this portion of Texas law time and time again, and has ordered state agencies such as the TCEQ to ignore it as well. For this reason and his actions today we are issuing our Governor a Citizens’ Citation to cease and desist endangering the health of breathers, the economy and the climate in Texas by continuing to permit coal plants and other large sources of CO2.

###

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »