Wetlands are an essential ecosystem that promote biodiversity and flood control. They are also essential to maintaining a livable climate — since wetland destruction potentially accelerates global warming.
As reported in Science Daily, leading scientists are now meeting in Brazil at the 8th International Wetlands Conference, discussing actions to better understand, protect, and manage this key global resource.
How big a deal are the wetlands?
ConocoPhillips, the third largest American oil company, and Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal company, both announced tremendous second-quarter profits today:
– Oil giant ConocoPhillips said Wednesday that record crude prices helped its second-quarter profit dwarf year-ago results, when the company incurred a $4.5 billion charge related to its former assets in Venezuela. The Houston-based company said net income rose to $5.44 billion, or $3.50 a share, for the April-June period, from $301 million, or 18 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue increased to $71.4 billion from $47.4 billion a year ago. On average, Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected earnings per share of $3.40.
– Peabody Energy today reported that second quarter income from continuing operations rose 143 percent to a record $242.6 million versus the prior year, with related earnings per share of $0.89. Revenues for the quarter were also a record at $1.53 billion on 59.8 million tons sold. EBITDA grew 65 percent over last year to a new mark of $446.6 million.
These profits are coming at a terrible price to our future. Much of ConocoPhilips’ earnings came from their Canadian tar sands Syncrude project, which is an “ecological disaster.” In the words of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Peabody Energy’s vision for “America’s Energy Future,” with U.S. coal consumption doubling by 2025, “ignores the nightmarish damages that would be caused to our air, water and climate.”
“CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual,” said esteemed NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen this June, twenty years after first he testified before Congress on the threat of global warming. “In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature. Conviction of ExxonMobil and Peabody Coal CEOs will be no consolation, if we pass on a runaway climate to our children.”
How far we have come from the principled maverick of the 2000 campaign:
That’s right, the man who wants to be the next President of the United States believes that doing absolutely nothing — which is what Bush did when he reversed his father’s ban, since the congressional ban is still in place — dropped oil prices $10.
You know you have jumped the shark nuked the fridge (see below) as a candidate when even the White House paid shill press secretary won’t go that far:
Energy efficiency is the most important climate solution for several reasons:
This post focuses on #1 — the tremendous size of the resource. Part 2 explains why it is The limitless resource, Part 3 explains why efficiency is The only cheap power left, and Part 4 explains How California does it so consistently and cost-effectively. Part 5 explains why efficiency has the highest documented rate of return of any federal program.
Of the 14 or so wedges we need to deploy globally by 2050, I have argued that about two are electricity efficiency, one is recycled energy (cogeneration), and one is vehicle fuel efficiency (cars globally averaging 60 mpg) — see “450 ppm (or less) Part 2: The Solution.” The International Energy Agency also thinks about four wedges are efficiency, see “IEA report, Part 2: the 450-ppm solution.” And so does Price Waterhouse Coopers, see here.
Our guest blogger is Daniel J. Weiss, a Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Representatives John Boehner (R-OH), Roy Blunt (R-MO), and their gang of petro-conservatives have spent the last two months vigorously bellowing that oil and gasoline prices would be lower if congressional leaders would support their efforts to drill for oil in the protected Outer Continental Shelf. Today, they are holding a Capitol rally to support their drill-drill-drill bill, dubbed the “American Energy Act” (H.R. 6566) and being promoted as an “all of the above” approach to energy policy. Their memo, acquired by the Wonk Room, reveals their plans to push for a Big Oil agenda while paying lip service to the efficiency and renewable energy measures conservatives consistently voted against:
Memo Claim: “The legislation will … Open our deep water ocean resources, which will provide an additional 3 million barrels of oil per day.”
Truth: As T. Boone Pickens said in Senate testimony, OCS drilling advocates are “going to get a rude awakening.”
The Energy Information Administration determined that drilling for oil in the entire Outer Continental Shelf for “the lower 48 OCS, annual crude oil production in 2030 is projected to be 7 percent higher — 2.4 million barrels per day in the OCS access case compared with 2.2 million barrels per day in the reference case.” In other words, the total difference is only 200,000 barrels per day in 2030 — the minority leadership’s claim is 15 times too high. If Alaska is included, the total difference peaks at “3 percent higher,” or 270,000 additional barrels per day in 2030.
This same study determined that there are 41 billion barrels already “available for leasing and development.” There are only 18 billion barrels that are unavailable. Seventy percent of the offshore oil in the lower 48 OCS is already available.
Memo Claim: “The legislation will … Open the Arctic coastal plain, which will provide an additional 1 million barrels of oil per day.”
Truth: The Energy Information Administration determined in May 2008 that, “In the mean [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] oil resource case, additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR reaches 780,000 barrels per day in 2027.” The mean case reflects “a 1-in-2 chance of there being oil resources at least equal to the size of that estimate.”
The GOP assertion that there would be 1 million barrels of oil per day “is based on the USGS [U.S. Geological Survey] 5-percent probability estimate of technically recoverable oil resources in the 1002 Area” of the Arctic Refuge. In other words, there is a 1-in-20 probability that there is this amount of technically recoverable oil in the Arctic.
Today at 9:15 am is the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing, “Immediate Relief from High Oil Prices: Deploying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”
Live webcast at globalwarming.house.gov.
My 5-minute Oral Statement (~750 words):
Edited by Joe Romm, we cover climate science, solutions and politics. Columnist Tom Friedman calls us "the indispensable blog" and Time magazine named us one of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010." Newcomers, start here.
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga.
Joe Romm has pulled together the secrets of the greatest communicators in history to show how you can apply these tools to your writing, speaking, blogging — even your Tweeting.
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