With the government mere hours away from shutdown, the budget debate has centered around policy riders that GOP lawmakers insist must be included in any funding bill, most controversially involving Planned Parenthood funding. In an interview with CNN this morning, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) said Tea Party Republicans are also willing to shut down the government on behalf of mountaintop removal coal mining in the “down-to-the-wire federal spending-bill talks”:

Mountaintop mining was put on the table late in the game. Who knew that was going to lead to the shutdown of the federal government? You know, it would unconscionable at this stage not to avert a shutdown and the economic damage it would cause to this fragile recovery.

Watch it:

In February, the coal-powered House approved a number of amendments to the budget bill (H.R. 1) that would prevent the EPA from updating rules on mountaintop removal permitting, coal ash storage, emissions of coarse particulate matter, and a variety of other clean air and clean water safeguards. Three of these riders were aimed specifically at reversing the actions of the Obama Administration to strengthen permitting requirements for mountaintop removal mines — and thus reinstate the polluter-friendly rules set up by the Bush Administration.

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Climate Central is a reliable producer of analysis and reporting on climate science.   As they explain, the idea for CC developed from some large meetings of “leading scientists, policymakers, journalists, and leaders from business, religion and civil society” who “identified a critical need for a central authoritative source for climate change information.”

Later, “a broad group of climate experts later confirmed this need.”  At the same time, other groups “began organizing with the mission to popularize good information about global warming solutions.”  Their tag line “sound science & vibrant media” gets to the heart of what their important niche has been — emphasis on “sound science.”

That’s why it is disappointing to see a new blog, “Frontier Earth,” that isn’t focused on science and isn’t authoritative in the least bit.  Two examples will suffice.

The first piece is headlined, “Momentum Shifts on Climate Adaptation.”  The piece has no discussion whatsoever of the scientific literature on adaptation or the climate impacts we’d have to adapt to. Nor does it examine adaptation policy or even what is happening in the political world.  If it did, it would’ve come to a completely different conclusion.

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Granholm: “The bottom line is that [energy] policy matters”

Michigan’s “green” economy is growing fast, data shows, with thousands of clean energy jobs on the horizon as a new manufacturing base is being built on the expertise of its battered auto industry.

The change raises the prospect that Michigan might one day be a global hub for electric vehicles and advanced battery development, along with biofuel technologies, wind power parts and solar panels.

That’s from a Reuters/SolveClimate article and interview with former Gov. Granholm.  Here’s more:

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Wind on even playing field with gas, industry declares

Though the U.S. wind industry installed half as much capacity last year as it did in 2009, production streamlining and efficiency improvements mean wind can compete evenly with cheap natural gas, wind industry executives said today.

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Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the policy issues were standing in the way of an agreement. “We are very close on the cuts and how we make them. The only things “” I repeat, the only things “” holding up an agreement are women’s health and clean air,” Reid said.

That was the The Hill reporting Thursday evening.  As of this morning, it remained unclear just how much of the impasse is due to the Tea Party’s insistence on anti-science, pro-polluter ‘riders’ in the final deal.

Brad Johnson explains that the shutdown itself is a backdoor way for the Tea Party to achieve its pro-polluter agenda, “During a budget shutdown, agencies are allowed to continue some emergency and essential activities, but tens of thousands of workers will be sent home, crippling environmental protection and economic services”:

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Republicans have long opposed stronger fuel economy standards that might have put the US auto industry in a better position to weather international competition.

Yesterday Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) gave a short but powerful speech during the debate on the Upton-Inhofe bill to block climate pollution rules explaining the consequence of Republican obstructionism:

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House Republicans are hoping to get their polluter-protection agenda through one way or another, either with a budget that cripples the Environmental Protection Agency, or through a shutdown of the entire federal government. Although Democrats have agreed to make radical cuts to the six-month budget continuation that must pass today for the federal government to avoid a shutdown, the GOP is insisting on its policy riders on health care and pollution.

House Republicans have added numerous riders to lift protections against global warming pollution, mountaintop removal, and other air and water pollution. “The only things — I repeat, the only things — holding up an agreement are women’s health and clean air,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said yesterday. “They want to roll back the Clean Air Act.”

During a budget shutdown, agencies are allowed to continue some emergency and essential activities, but tens of thousands of workers will be sent home, crippling environmental protection and economic services:

The Interior Department “would continue with offshore oil-and-gas permitting and several other government functions if a government shutdown occurs, but overall it would cripple the agency and prompt the furlough of more than 50,000 employees.” Continuing: “volcano and earthquake monitoring; U.S. Park Police and law enforcement for Interior’s various agencies; firefighting; wildlife caretakers and others.” Shut down: USGS work, “National Parks and wildlife refuges, Bureau of Indian Affairs economic development programs, federal oversight and regulation of surface coal mining.”

The Department of Energy has “appropriations set aside that would allow the department to operate at full capacity for ‘a limited time,’” but furloughs would begin if the shutdown extends for more than a few days.

The Environmental Protection Agency “would cease all ongoing permitting work, rulemaking activities and environmental impact statement efforts,” “scientific evaluations for chemicals and pesticides,” “testing of various technologies such as studies on fracking techniques,” and “most water programs — such as pollution monitoring at beaches.”

“It is deeply disappointing that our Republican colleagues are so willing, able, and apparently eager to shut down the government,” Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) said on Wednesday. “Shutting down the government is not a solution. Shutting down the EPA is not a solution. Shutting down American innovation is not a solution.”

“And like all good medicine, prevention is the key.”

The British Medical Journal has a must-read editorial reviewing and synthesizing recent reports on climate change, public health, and national security.  The lead author of “Climate change, ill health, and conflict,” is Lionel Jarvis, surgeon rear admiral of the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

I repost it below in full with links to the references:

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We’ve all seen it, at least in pictures: the tall smokestacks dotting producing oil fields, spewing fingers of flame into the air.  It’s known as associated gas flaring, and if it seems economically wasteful and environmentally nuts, well it is.  CAP’s Tom Kenworthy has the story.

A new report from GE Energy highlights the problem, and calls for renewed efforts across the globe to combat it.

How big is the problem? How much gas gets flared off? What’s the impact in terms of carbon pollution? The answers: Still plenty big, despite some progress in recent years; a lot; and pretty significant.

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