E&E News (subs. req’d) has a good article on the prospects for climate legislation in an election year — note at the end that House Republicans are going to oppose any serious, mandatory action:

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) sees this year’s wide-open presidential election campaign as presenting a significant hurdle that could stymie passage of a global warming bill during this session of Congress.

“It’s going to verge on impossible,” the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said yesterday in an exclusive interview. “We haven’t calculated the number of days that exist here for the drafting of legislation, but it’s not very many. And so the writing of the legislation is going to be difficult. And the presidential election is going to be a tremendous distraction. As will be the elections of all the members.”

Dingell said he had his doubts about whether the Senate will be successful in adopting a bill this year from Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman and Virginia Republican John Warner. Senate Democratic leaders say they hope to bring the bill up before the summer, but Dingell was
skeptical.

“There’s a big difference between saying, ‘We want to try,’ and, ‘We’re going to,’” he said.

The Capitol Hill debate over mandatory limits on heat-trapping greenhouse gases has largely been focused on the Senate. There, Democrats need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster expected from Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe. An E&E Daily analysis published earlier this week found that Democrats are within sight of 60.

But Dingell predicted it won’t be so easy.

Read more

The deal to deforest the rainforests on 60,000 hectares of Woodlark Island for massive plantation of oil palm trees appears to be dead:

Vitro Plant, developer of a proposed oil palm project on Woodlark Island in Milne Bay, is said to have withdrawn the project…. It is believed Vitro’s withdrawal is due to pressure from environmentalists and non-governmental organisations to conserve the natural habitat of Woodlark Island.

Still, I’m looking forward to seeing someone do an analysis of deforestation generated by palm-oil for the whole country, since this article claims:

Mr. Hickey [Minister for Agriculture and Livestock] said oil palm was the largest income earner in the agriculture sector in Papua New Guinea. He said the value of export in 2006 was K660 million compared to coffee and cocoa at K337 million and K204 million respectively. [Note: $1 U.S. = 2.8 Kina.] Mr Hickey said the value of export of round logs in 2006 was K490 million. He said the world market demand for oil palm was very high and would remain high and with the increase in both production and price, the value of export would increase in the medium to long term.

Sarkozy attacks EU carbon targets – Financial Times. “The fact that France opted decades ago to stake its future energy needs on carbon-free nuclear power – which today provides almost 80 per cent of French electricity needs – should be taken into account when setting overall targets, he suggests.”

Tiny Car, Tough Questions – The Washington Post. “There must be a way to reconcile mass car ownership with global warming, but, at the moment, we haven’t found it.”

The Other Nano – New York Times op-ed. “We know now that gas-driven automobiles do terrible damage to the environment, and the notion of loosing millions upon millions of new carbon emitters on our planet is not something to celebrate. So while we admire Mr. Tata’s business and engineering acumen in creating the Nano, we ardently wish that he would focus his talents elsewhere: creating transportation that is both affordable and doesn’t emit ever more greenhouse gases.”

Global Advances Challenge U.S. Dominance in Science – New York Times. “The United States’ position is especially delicate, the agency said, given its reliance on foreign-born workers to fill technical jobs…. Many Americans remain ignorant about much of science, the board said. Many are unable to answer correctly when asked whether Earth moves around the Sun (it does).” [Thanks, NYT, but we had already googled the answer....]