Responding pre-emptively to plans of a massive act of civil disobedience at the coal-fired U.S. Capitol Power Plant, the leaders of Congress today called for an end to its use of coal. In a letter to the Architect of the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) describe the plant as “a shadow that hangs over the success” of the architect’s efforts to green the Capitol:

The Capitol Power Plant (CPP) continues to be the number one source of air pollution and carbon emissions in the District of Columbia and the focal point for criticism from local community and national environmental and public health groups.

Reid and Pelosi note that “there are not projected to be any economical or feasible technologies to reduce coal-burning emissions soon.” (In other words, coal is dirty.) They ask the architect to switch the plant fully to natural gas “by the end of the year”:

Therefore it is our desire that your approach focus on retrofitting at least one of the coal boilers as early as this summer, and the remaining boiler by the end of the year.

The switch will allow the plant “to dramatically reduce carbon and criteria pollutant emissions, eliminating more than 95 percent of sulfur oxides and at least 50 percent of carbon monoxide,” as well as the costs of “cleaning up the fly ash and waste.”

Gristmill’s Kate Sheppard reports “that doesn’t mean the big protest on Monday is off, according to organizers,” because “there are still hundreds of other power plants burning coal around the country.”

One thing is clear from President Obama’s new budget. He is delivering on the promise of his first month and continues his unprecedented effort to reverse decades of unsustainable national policy forced down the throat of the American public by conservatives (see “31 days that made — and may remake — history“).

His $3.5 trillion budget blueprint has a big boost in clean energy, projects the bulk of cap-and-trade revenue will go to cut taxes on the middle class (duh), and eliminates $31.5 billion in “oil and gas company preferences” over a decade. Greenwire lays out the details in a series of articles (subs. req’d, excerpted below):

Specifically, Obama said his plan would invest $15 billion a year for the next decade to develop renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. “It’s an investment that will put people back to work, make our nation more secure, and help us meet our obligation as good stewards of the Earth we all inhabit,” Obama said.

Hand-in-hand with energy spending, Obama said he intends to push for implementation of a market-based cap on greenhouse gas emissions that the administration says will drive investment toward renewable energy and provide funding for the renewable energy initiatives.

Conservatives will not give up their self-destructively unsustainable ways easily, though (see “Anti-science conservatives must be stopped“). House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said: ” ‘Cap-and-trade’ is code for increasing taxes, killing American jobs, and raising energy costs for consumers.”

Here are the details on Obama’s budget-related cap-and-trade plans:

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No doubt spurred on by the impending civil disobedience, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) posted a statement and a letter on her blog (here):

Today, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent the following letter to the Acting Architect of the Capitol, Stephen T. Ayers, asking that the Capitol Power Plant (CPP) use 100 percent natural gas for its operations. They write, “the switch to natural gas will allow the CPP to dramatically reduce carbon and criteria pollutant emissions, eliminating more than 95 percent of sulfur oxides and at least 50 percent of carbon monoxide… We strongly encourage you to move forward aggressively with us on a comprehensive set of policies for the entire Capitol complex and the entire Legislative Branch to quickly reduce emissions and petroleum consumption through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean alternative fuels.”

UPDATE: Bill McKibben, who helped organize the impending civil disobedience at the CPP emails me “just to say, this civil disobedience stuff kind of works. How many coal plants are there?”

Here is the letter:

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The anti-clean-coal Reality Campaign is a coalition of some very serious groups and smart people. They have the same goal as all climate realists — stopping new dirty coal plants. But I just don’t think they have figured out an effective way to attack clean coal clap trap yet.

I criticized the first mocking ad of the Reality Campaign for many reasons, including a lack of obvious message (see here). I criticized their second mocking ad for many reasons, including a lack of obvious message and their continued use of mockery (see Does the “Reality Campaign” need new Mad Men?).

Now they have a third ad, which again relies on mockery (!), but at least they have gotten the best in the film business at irony to direct it (though not to write it) — the Coen brother (whom I love, see my interpretation of No Country for Old Men as a parable about global warming). Here is the ad:

I’ll share my view and then I’d love to hear yours.

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Given that climate legislation will touch every sector of the economy — and ultimately generate hundreds of billions of dollars from the sale of emissions allowances — it is no surprise that everyone is bringing on hired guns.

But Washington DC is turning into the Wild West, into Deadwood, as an important new Center for Public Integrity analysis (here) of Senate lobbying disclosure forms makes clear:

More than 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists to influence federal policy on climate change in the past year, as the issue gathered momentum and came to a vote on Capitol Hill. That’s an increase of more than 300 percent in the number of lobbyists on climate change in just five years, and means that Washington can now boast more than four climate lobbyists for every member of Congress. It also means that 15 percent of all Washington lobbyists spent at least some of their time on global warming in 2008.

Here is a breakdown by sector (click to enlarge):

And many of these 2340 lobbyists are quite senior and influential:

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Some evidence suggests e-readers (like the Amazon Kindle below) are better than both print and online reading when it comes to environmental impact. This article is reprinted from the Center for American Progress’s “It’s Easy Being Green” series.

With the proliferation of e-book readers and online news, it seems an appropriate time to ask: What’s greenest way to read?

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Inarguably, “Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet” as our top climate scientist, James Hansen, has explained.

Hansen will be joining more than 2,500 people who have registered to participate in “the largest act of peaceful civil disobedience on global warming in the country’s history” — this Monday, March 2 at the Capitol Power Plant. The Plant is owned by Congress and burns coal to heat and cool numerous buildings on Capitol Hill. Details can be found at the Capitol Climate Action Coalition website, where you’ll find this video from Hansen urging participation:

If you still need persuading, read the open letter from two of America’s leading men of letters, Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben (see McKibben and Berry call for civil disobedience at DC coal plant: “Bear witness to an evil”).

I will repeat my thoughts on civil disobedience against coal below — and I am quite interested in hearing your thoughts.

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