Now that the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy Security Act (H.R. 2454) has been approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, progressive and environmental activists are asking how to save this critical green economy legislation from corporate polluter influence.

The biggest challenge is the political one — how to convince lawmakers that standing up for a truly just and green future is both necessary and wise, when the rewards of defending corporate interests against change are so evident. Congress lags behind the American public in recognizing the urgency and scope of the climate threat, and lags behind the American public in recognizing the opportunity and reward of clean energy leadership.

Even as the greatest challenge in passing green economy legislation is energizing the American public and giving confidence to Congress to become champions of clean energy reform, efforts need to be made to improve the underlying text of Waxman-Markey. Here’s one policy recommendation:

Strengthen the Renewable Electricity Standard

Strengthening the renewable electricity standard (Title I) will create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs and save consumers and industry billions of dollars. The weakened standard in the energy committee compromise is not expected to exceed business-as-usual growth in renewable energy, acting only as a backstop to prevent regress.

BEST: Implement Vice President Al Gore’s “Repower America” recommended renewable electricity standard of 100 percent in ten years, putting American in the lead on global warming pollution reduction and advanced clean energy technology, from concentrated solar power to smart grids.

BETTER: Implement President Obama’s recommended renewable electricity standard of 25 percent by 2025. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimated a 25-by-25 standard would create 297,000 new jobs, generate $263.4 billion in new capital investment, and save $64.3 billion in lower electricity and natural gas bills by 2025.

GOOD: Restore the renewable energy standard in the Waxman-Markey discussion draft of 20 percent by 2025 plus five percent efficiency improvements.

Too many people in Washington, whether liberal or conservative, believe that the most significant effect of a cap on carbon pollution is an increase in electricity rates, especially in coal-using states. They don’t see that the status-quo energy policy has given us double-digit increases in electricity rates. They don’t see the record profits of oil and coal companies and the banks that support them even as manufacturing jobs disappear and the rest of the economy subsides. They don’t see the skyrocketing costs of storms, floods, droughts, and disease.

The dramatic change in Washington from last year has made sorely needed national clean energy legislation possible for the first time. But there needs to be even more political transformation inside the Beltway for that legislation to be truly progressive. This is why activists are working to strengthen the hand of the “Green Dog” Democrats and challenge the “Brown Dogs” to reform their act:

– VoteVets, the League of Conservation Voters, and unions are running television ads targeting John Barrow (D-GA), Mike Ross (D-AR) , and Roy Blunt (R-MO) for voting against Waxman-Markey in the energy committee.

– The National Wildlife Federation Action Fund is challenging Ross with print ads in Arkansas for taking the “energy companies’ side… hook… line… and sinker.”

– MoveOn.org is holding Clean Energy Jobs tours across the country, from Providence, RI to Tuscon, AZ, Albany, NY to Albuquerque, NM, and New London, CT to Pittsburgh, PA.

In Finland, around the globe, and in every state, the nuclear industry makes people sing the same old song:  “What do you get when you buy a nuke? You get a lot of delays and rate increases”¦.”

This year, authorities permitted Florida Power & Light to start charging millions of customers several dollars a month to finance four new reactors. Customers of Georgia Power, a subsidiary of the Southern Co., will pay on average $1.30 a month more in 2011, rising to $9.10 by 2017, to help pay for two reactors expected to go online in 2016 or later.

As an aside, if Public Utility Commissions allowed on-bill financing of energy efficiency, which is under half the cost of any new power generation — and 5 times cheaper than new nukes — we could stop electricity demand growth in this country for two decades while lowering consumer electric bills by tens of billions of dollars a year (see “Energy efficiency is THE core climate solution, Part 1: The biggest low-carbon resource by far” and “Part 3: The only cheap power left“).

Back to the delays and high cost of new nukes.  It isn’t just this country (see “Turkey’s only bidder for first nuclear plant offers a price of 21 cents per kilowatt-hour“), and, of course, Finland — see my February post, “Nuclear meltdown in Finland” and today’s remarkable New York Times story (excerpted above):

In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble

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Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year, says Kofi Annan thinktank

Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.

It projects that increasingly severe heat waves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.

Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year “” more than the all present world aid. The report comes from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan’s thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. By 2030, the report says, climate change could cost $600bn a year….

Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: “Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters … bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods. They pose a threat to social and political stability”.

If emissions are not brought under control, within 25 years, the report states:

“¢ 310m more people will suffer adverse health consequences related to temperature increases

“¢ 20m more people will fall into poverty

“¢ 75m extra people will be displaced by climate change.

Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies . “Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to become water stressed by climate change by the 2030. “.

The study says it is impossible to be certain who will be displaced by 2030, but that tens of millions of people “will be driven from their homelands by weather disasters or gradual environmental degradation. The problem is most severe in Africa, Bangladesh, Egypt, coastal zones and forest areas.”

See also “Memorial Day, 2029” and The Lancet‘s landmark Health Commission: “Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century”

Global warming must stay below 2C or world faces ruin, scientists declare

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In Part 1, Center for American Progress’s Dan Weiss and Alexandra Kougentakis pointed out that despite green marketing campaigns, oil companies are investing just four pennies on clean energy for every dollar of profit. This post, first published  gives five short case studies of how the major oil companies have consistently cut investments in clean energy and continued to violate basic environmental quality laws while lining the pockets of executives and shareholders (see also “Shell shocker: Once ‘green’ oil company guts renewables effort“).

BP

BP has an entire division devoted to “alternative energy.” Investments include biofuels, solar energy, wind energy, hydrogen power, and carbon capture-and-sequestration. The company’s most recent sustainability report pledges to invest $8 billion over a period of 10 years in alternative and renewable energy technologies. This $800 million annual investment is a paltry sum compared to the $125 billion made since 2001.

SOURCE: AP/Charles Dharapak

Recently, employees in BP’s renewable energy division in the United Kingdom were laid off with the cancellation of several clean energy projects, such as two power plants that would have captured and stored their carbon dioxide emissions. It is expected that global operations will be affected as well, and proposed wind farms in the United States may be delayed. Interestingly, the apparent investment caution has not prevented BP from pursuing a tar sands project in Canada, announced at the end of 2007.

Oil from Canada’s tar sands is the most expensive form of crude oil to produce. The extraction and conversion of tar sands to a usable energy source can cause as much as five times the greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional crude oil. Contamination of waterways by pollution from tar sands development is suspected of causing bizarre mutations of marine organisms. The pollution from these developments is also suspected of causing the high cancer rates and other health problems in the surrounding areas.

BP recently agreed to pay $180 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the federal government for “putting air quality and public health at risk.” BP’s refinery in Texas City, TX, violated federal health safeguards for benzene, asbestos, and ozone-depleting chemicals. The settlement includes the installation of pollution controls to the refinery as well as a civil penalty and for a pollution reduction project.

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