GOP Study Chairman: We don’t care about anybody but Big Oil

Who is more out of touch?  Is it the Republican Study Committee, whose Chair says that the $20 billion escrow fund that Obama got BP to establish is nothing more than a “Chicago-Style Political Shakedown“?

Or is it BP Chair Carl-Henric Svanberg, who uttered these unforgettable words on tape after the White House meeting today:

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Science is in many ways the opposite of decision by consensus.

I have never liked the use of the word “consensus” as it is typically applied in the climate arena.  Scientists don’t really have a ‘consensus’ so much as they have an ‘understanding‘ of climate science.

I wrote an article on this subject in 2008, “The cold truth about climate change:  [Disinformers] continue to insist there’s no consensus on global warming. Well, there’s not. There’s well-tested science and real-world observations [that are much more worrisome].”

When James Hansen read the first draft of the piece, he wrote me back, “Very important for the public to understand this “” why has nobody articulated this already?” I don’t know.

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Now can someone do a mashup of Ke$ha’s “Blah, Blah, Blah” with BP’s Tony Hayward?

Here’s the backstory on the video:

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We need CEDA to help channel private capital flows toward deployment of clean energy in this country. CAP’s Jake Caldwell and Richard W. Caperton, explain why.

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Be sure to read:  Why even strong climate action has such a low total cost and An illustrated guide to the latest climate science.

If you ever want to know what the inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom is, look for the Politico’s screaming headline.  “Deadly silence on carbon caps,” is today’s tea-leaf reading article, which asserts that Obama “may have put the dagger into his long-sought plans for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions by opening the door for alternatives.”

Speeches, while important, aren’t daggers — and, in any case, conventional wisdom in the Politico and elsewhere around DC has been that a GHG cap has been dead for months.
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Europe’s wind power is booming

The European Union will continue its 2009 record-breaking pace this year for adding wind power, reports the European Wind Energy Association.

The industry group expects EU countries will install 10 gigawatts of new wind power capacity, the same as 2009′s record, bringing the total to 85 GW by year’s end.

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I asked back on May 2, “Is BP the Goldman Sachs of Big Oil?“  Since then, the petro-giant has done everything possible to show it is has the recklessness, Arrogance, and Hubris — and tone-deafness of the financial giant.

BP even hired former Bush-Cheney and Goldman-Sachs officials to ‘defend its interests’ and restore its reputation.

Now they have hired the much-vilified Wall Street firm itself, as TP reports:

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Americans need the Obama administration to establish a simple, clear, one-stop shop for information on all the related health, environmental, energy, and economic issues stemming from the BP oil disaster.  CAP’s Bracken Hendricks and Tina Ramos explain why.

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The federal government must have full responsibility, leadership, and oversight in monitoring and managing the public health consequences of the BP oil disaster.  Lesley Russell and Ellen-Marie Whelan of CAP’s Health Policy team explain why.

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Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) released analysis yesterday of their American Power Act, or APA, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s analysis definitively demonstrates that we can reduce our carbon pollution and jumpstart the clean energy economy at a very small net cost to American consumers. This analysis is also consistent with several other studies showing that the American Power Act would create jobs, reduce consumer energy prices, and help the United States lead the world toward stabilizing carbon emissions at safe levels by 2050.  CAP’s Richard Caperton and Andrew Light have the analysis in this repost.  If you are interested in the study on the costs of inaction, see “clean air, clean water, clean energy jobs bill creates $1.5 trillion in benefits.”

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