Police officers investigating the theft of thousands of private emails between climate scientists from a University of East Anglia server in 2009 have seized computer equipment belonging to a web content editor based at the University of Leeds.

The glacial investigation into the stolen emails has experienced rapid, unprecedented warming that very much appears to be caused by humans, in this case the Norfolk police.

The UK Guardian reports today:

On Wednesday, detectives from Norfolk Constabulary entered the home of Roger Tattersall, who writes a climate sceptic blog under the pseudonym TallBloke, and took away two laptops and a broadband router. A police spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday that Norfolk Constabulary had “executed a search warrant in West Yorkshire and seized computers”. She added: “No one was arrested. Investigations into the [UEA] data breach and publication [online of emails] continues. This is one line of enquiry in a Norfolk constabulary investigation which started in 2009″….

Both Tattersall and a US-based climate sceptic blogger known as Jeff Id said they had received a “formal request” via the blogging platform WordPress from the US Department of Justice’s criminal division, dated 9 December, to preserve “all stored communications, records, and other evidence in your possession” related to their own blogs as well as to Climate Audit, a climate sceptic blog run by a Canadian mining consultant called Steve McIntyre. All three blogs had received messages from “FOIA” last month pointing to the link hosting a second tranche of emails first taken from the UEA in 2009.

It’s funny to see the hyperventilating at the denier websites.  As you know, the deniers routinely assume any scientist being independently investigated is almost certainly guilty, that any scientist exonerated by an independent investigation is definitely guilty, and that thousands of actual evidence-based studies are part of a grand conspiracy to deceive humanity.

Unlike the deniers, however, we stay evidence-based, so the fact that the police have seized TallBloke’s computers and told a U.S. denier not to delete or destroy any evidence is not proof in the least bit of their involvement in any crime.

Here’s more of the story:

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During an appearance at New York University on Wednesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was asked to respond to a 200,000-person petition calling on the Internet giant to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Google, whose official motto is “Don’t Be Evil,” officially disagrees with the right-wing lobbying behemoth on climate change, Internet regulation, intellectual property rights, LGBT rights, privacy rights, net neutrality, and women’s rights, yet continues to fund the Chamber’s radical agenda. The new activist organization SumOfUs has launched the Google Quit The Chamber campaign to get Google to act consistent with its supposed values.

Admitting that he knew about the petition effort, Schmidt said that the “Chamber of Commerce has helped us in some areas.” As an example, the Chamber helped him in a dispute over meeting the Chinese prime minister. He said this work was “representing good American values.” With a chuckle, Schmidt said that Google will “see what happens” with the SumOfUs petition:

There are plenty of things we disagree with them on. But I’ll let the petition continue (chuckle), and see what happens.

Watch it:

“Where is Eric Schmidt’s moral compass?” SumOfUs President Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman responded in a statement to ThinkProgress. “The Chamber of Commerce represents the opposite of ‘good American values’ –- not to mention Google’s values. Hundreds of thousands of Google users have made it clear that the Chamber of Commerce’s wars on internet freedom, LGBT and women’s rights, the climate, financial reform, good jobs, and much more are morally incompatible with our own values and with the values of Google’s employees. We call on Eric Schmidt to clarify exactly which ‘good American values’ he believes the Chamber of Commerce represents — and to get Google out of the Chamber immediately. The Chamber’s policies are, frankly, evil. Google, abide by your own principles and don’t be evil.”

Climate Progress is a project Center For American Progress Action Fund.  So I’m delighted to report that Former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) will be taking over as President of CAPAF.

At the same time, my terrific CAPAF colleague, Tara McGuinness, will be both Senior Vice President of the Action Fund and Senior Vice President of Communications at CAP.  As HuffPost puts it:

The announcement caps off a major period of transition for the influential think-tank and advocacy organization. CAP’s founder, John Podesta, recently stepped down from the post of president and was replaced by Neera Tanden, a former top adviser to Presidents Clinton and Obama. Jennifer Palmieri, who headed CAP’s Action Fund, recently left to take on a communications position inside the Obama White House. Her former job, which included the title of Senior Vice President of Communications at CAP, will be split between Perriello and McGuinness.

Climate Progress readers will remember that Perriello emerged is a true climate hawk during the  congressional debate over the climate bill.  He famously said, “The Republicans may win some seats because of this vote, but they can’t regain their souls for demagoguing the issue.”

Here’s more from Perriello in February 2010 telling the “spineless Senate” to get “its head out of its rear end” and confront climate crisis:

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Tonight, Iowa hosts the last GOP presidential debate before the first caucuses on Jan. 3. A question going into the debate is how Mitt Romney will treat green jobs while he is in the Hawkeye state, given his past statement that green jobs are “illusory.”

Although Iowa leads in wind energy, investors remain uncertain about wind’s future growth, as the federal tax credit for renewable energy is set to expire after Dec. 31. Yesterday, at a Senate Finance subcommittee hearing, senators and business leaders convened to discuss the future of these clean energy tax credits. Even Sen. John Thune (R-SD) recognized at the hearing that “American businesses need greater certainty.”

The Iowa wind industry supports more than 2,300 jobs and a payroll of $70 million in the state. During a recent visit to a wind facility in West Branch, Iowa run by Acciona Windpower North America, the CEO Joe Baker discussed the job creation benefits to the area with the Center for American Progress:

Before we came to this facility, it had been abandoned. And West Branch, Iowa is a relatively small town. It’s close to Iowa City, where the University of Iowa is, but we were able to bring over 100 good-paying technical and professional jobs to the area, improving the economy in West Branch, specifically — a number of our employees live in West Branch and a number of our employees live in the Iowa City area as well.

The clean energy sector has provided some relief in a rough economy, averaging a growth rate of 8.3 percent between 2003-10, nearly double the growth rate of the overall economy. Yet that hasn’t stopped Romney from attacking this growing industry. Earlier in the campaign season, Romney attacked green jobs in an Orange County Register op-ed, calling them “illusory” jobs created in Finland, not the U.S. In addition to Iowa, he also ignores the reality of 64,000 clean energy jobs in his home state Massachusetts.

House Republicans waged systematic war against the environment this year, attacking environmental protection through climate denial, oil drilling, weakening public lands and water protection, and obstructing responsible regulation — just to name a few. In summation, a House Committee on Energy and Commerce minority report reveals that the House voted 191 times to undermine the protection of the environment, thus “amassing the worst environmental record of any Congress in history.”

Out of the 770 legislative roll call votes taken in the House this year, “more than one out of every five” were votes against the environment. Ninety-four percent of Republicans chose the anti-environment position on each vote. While the Environmental Protection Agency bore the brunt of the GOP’s enmity with 114 votes against it, the GOP managed to find 191 ways to damage the environment, including:

– 27 votes to block action to address climate change, including votes to overturn EPA’s scientific findings that climate change endangers human health and welfare; to block EPA from regulating carbon pollution from power plants, oil refineries, and vehicles; to prevent the United States from participating in international climate negotiations; and even to cut funding for basic climate science..

– 77 votes to undermine Clean Air Act protections, including votes to repeal the health-based standards that are the heart of the Clean Air Act and to block EPA regulation of toxic mercury and other harmful emissions from power plants, incinerators, industrial boilers, cement plants, and mining operations.

– 28 votes to undermine Clean Water Act protections, including votes to strip EPA of authority to set water quality standards and enforce limits on industrial discharges; to repeal EPA’s authority to stop mountaintop removal mining disposal; and to block EPA from protecting headwaters and wetlands that flow into navigable waters.

– 47 votes to weaken protection of public lands and coastal waters, including votes to curtail environmental review of offshore drilling; to halt reviews of public lands for possible wilderness designations; and to remove protections for salmon, wolves, and other species.

As the report notes, the GOP “also voted to allow unsafe disposal of toxic coal ash; to short-circuit environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline; to erect barriers to promulgation of new regulations that protect health and the environment; and to cut funding for environmental protection.” In fact, Republicans voted to slash funding for the Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by more than 80 percent by 2020.

As 2011 comes to a close, it appears that Republicans are only gaining steam. The House GOP attached the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and Boiler MACT reversal as poison pills to the payroll tax cut package. If 2011 is any measure, Republicans are set to keep making anti-environment history in 2012.

Subscribe to ThinkProgress Green.

by Jill Fitzsimmons, cross-posted from Media Matters

The December 12 print edition of The Weekly Standard features a cover story by Steven Hayward titled “Climategate (Part II): A sequel as ugly as the original,” which discusses the recent release of more hacked emails from the climate research center at the University of East Anglia in the UK.

Hayward acknowledges from the outset that he did not do “an extended review” of the emails — and this is evident in his analysis — but he still asserts that “longtime critics of the climate cabal are going to be vindicated.” Hayward claims the emails constitute more than “a ‘smoking gun’ of scientific bias” and reveal “the rank politicization of climate science.”

Throughout the 3,500-word story, Hayward quotes from 10 of the email exchanges, but not one of them actually supports his thesis that mainstream climate science is driven by politics. Let’s take them one at a time:

1. Hayward Cites Email About Page Limits To Claim That “Politics Drives The Process.” A 2004 email from Jonathan Overpeck advises a colleague to “decide on the main message and use that to guid[e] what’s included and what is left out.” Hayward claims that this email “reinforce[s] the impression that politics drives the process”. But a closer look at the full email reveals that Overpeck is simply asking Villalba to condense a document into “0.5 pages of HIGHLY focused and relevant stuff” in order to meet page limits.

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“Police officers investigating the theft of thousands of private emails between climate scientists from a University of East Anglia server in 2009″ — the source of the Climategate smear campaign timed to disrupt the Copenhagen climate summit — “have seized computer equipment” belonging to Roger Tattersall, who writes a climate denier blog under the pseudonym TallBloke.

In the United States, the Department of Justice sent a “formal request for preservation” to Tattersall and climate denier Patrick Condon, who runs the No Consensus blog under the pseudonym Jeff Id. The DOJ letter tells the conspiracy theorists to preserve “all stored communications, records, and other evidence in your possession” for their blogs and for Climate Audit, a denier blog run by Steve McIntyre, a Canadian mining consultant.

All three bloggers promoted the file dump from the “FOIA” hacker that contained the climate scientists’ emails, as well as one released this November. The hacking is part of a broader campaign of illegal intimidation against climate scientists.

Top Republicans, including presidential candidates Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman, continue to cite the smears against climate scientists as justification for their opposition to climate action.

(HT Climate Crocks)

Re-energize Regional Economies with New Electric Transmission Lines

High-voltage electric transmission lines are silhouetted against the late day sky near Spearville, Kansas. SOURCE: AP/Charlie Riedel

By Richard W. Caperton, Matthew Kasper in a CAP repost

With unemployment at 8.6 percent and our economy still struggling to gain momentum after the Great Recession, it’s clear that we need to do everything we can to provide more opportunities for Americans to find work. Immediate job creation is critical, but we also need to focus on creating an environment that’s conducive to long-term, sustainable economic growth. Central to this is building the power infrastructure that will enable growth, ultimately making our economy healthier.

A key piece of this economic development infrastructure has to be a robust electricity transmission grid. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize the economic benefits of building out a 21st century transmission grid, instead picturing wires and towers that carry electricity from one place to another without much economic activity associated with them. But this view misses why we need a more effective and efficient transmission grid—far from just delivering electricity, a robust transmission grid makes our country’s economy stronger.

This issue brief describes four ways that new transmission lines lead to economic growth:

• Delivering new energy sources to our homes and businesses
• Reducing costly power outages
• Lowering power prices
• Putting tens of thousands to work directly, and hundreds of thousands of to work across our economy

Certainly this is not an exhaustive list, but it does demonstrate the job-creation power of investing in new transmissions lines alongside the billions of dollars that consumers and businesses will save as a result. So let’s examine in turn each of these ways to build a better and more competitive 21st century economy.

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Republicans launched an unprecedented frontal assault against environmental protections and regulations this year, prompting Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) to call his chamber “the most anti-environment House in history.” Here are the 10 most powerful and outspoken opponents of clean air, clean water, conservation and climate action.

That’s the Los Angeles Times editorial board opening its “Year in Review: Congress’ 10 biggest enemies of the Earth,” what they call “Observations and provocations from The Times’ Opinion staff.”

Here are the opponents 10 to 8:

10. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Thought to be the biggest lifetime recipient of oil-industry contributions in the Senate, Cornyn has rewarded Exxon-Mobil’s largesse by supporting the industry’s position on pretty much every energy or environmental issue that has ever appeared before him. That’s why he, like everyone on this list, has a “0″ on the League of Conservation Voters’ scorecard for pro-environment votes.

9. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska. A tireless advocate for opening Alaska’s pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, Young was involved in one of the more entertaining name-calling spats in Congress this year when he got into a tiff over the refuge with author and professor Doug Brinkley. You can be the judge of who won by watching the video replay.

8. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista [CA]. There may have been a time when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee lived up to its name, investigating and bringing to light incidents of government waste, fraud and abuse. But I can’t remember back that far. In recent decades it has served as a tool for the majority party in the House to bash and embarrass the presidential administration, at least during times such as now when the House isn’t controlled by the president’s party. Issa, the committee’s current chairman, has turned such political gamesmanship into an art form, and has been particularly keen to attack environmental regulators and policymakers. In so doing he has turned up precious little waste or fraud, but provided plenty of political theater for those who want to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency or end subsidies for clean energy.

Here are the worst 7:

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Yesterday, Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-MN) held an hour-long colloquy on the hard reality of climate change and the polluter-driven inaction in the U.S. Senate. They discussed not only future threats, but also the changes in severe weather and climate that are already causing havoc to our nation. Whitehouse and Franken agreed that the nation is following a dangerous path by ignoring scientists because of the pollution industry.

Watch it:

Here are a few quotes from the full transcript:

“Despite the efforts to mislead and create doubt, the jury is not out on whether climate change is happening and being caused by manmade carbon pollution; the verdict is, in fact, in.”

“The 25th doctor says: It is a good thing you came to me, because all this diet and exercise would have been a complete waste. You are doing fine. Those other doctors are in the pockets of the fresh fruit and vegetable people. He says: Enjoy life, eat whatever you want, keep smoking, and watch a lot of TV. That is my advice. Then you learn the doctor was paid a salary by the makers of Twinkies, which, don’t get me wrong, are a delicious snack food and should be eaten in moderation.”

“Climategate should properly be known as climategate-gate because it was the scandal that was phony.”

“We are playing with very dangerous effects when we ignore climate change at the behest of a tiny minority of scientists and their polluter industry funders behind them.”

“If we can pull away from the lies and the phony science and the polluter-paid nonsense that has so far distracted us from doing our duty as a nation, we can get into the race that is going on in this world for the energy future.”

“Fifty years ago we were in a global space race. Today we are in a global clean energy race.”

“Climate change is real, and failure to address it is bad for our standing in the global economy, bad for the Federal budget, and bad for our national security. We can do better than that for our children and our grandchildren and posterity.”

(HT WWF’s Nick Sundt)

“After 20 months of mobilizing, agitating and negotiating to green Facebook, the Internet giant has today announced its goal to run on clean, renewable energy. The clear message to energy producers from Facebook is: invest now in renewable energy, and move away from coal power. That’s a status update we can all celebrate!”

Facebook today announced “it is committed to supporting the development of clean and renewable sources of energy, and our goal is to power all of our operations with clean and renewable energy.”  The social media company said “we are working in partnership with Greenpeace and others to create a world that is highly efficient and powered by clean and renewable energy.”

As Greenpeace explained: “The news comes two years after Greenpeace launched its global Unfriend Coal Campaign, enlisting 700,000 online activists to call on Facebook to power its data centers with clean energy instead of coal.”

In general, as I and others have been arguing for a while, it’s a myth the internet is an energy hog: Information technology is good for climate.  But data centers use a fair amount of electricity so making them more efficient and powering them with clean energy is very worthwhile.

As part of the new partnership, the mammoth social media company committed to:

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By Jessica Goad, Manager of Research and Outreach, and Michael Conathan, Director of Ocean Policy, Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Early this morning, House Republican appropriators unveiled their version of the 2012 spending bill for the Department of Interior (DOI), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and related agencies. Rather than focus on just spending provisions and monetary details, appropriators added a handful of nasty policy riders that would advance Republicans’ Big Oil agenda and reward corporate polluters at the expense of public health and our lands and waters.

One of the worst of these riders is Section 432, which would keep companies interested drilling off the coast of Alaska from needing to get Clean Air Act permits. Also, the bill would transfer air permitting authority from EPA to DOI, which “in essence eliminates the Environmental Appeals Board from being able to review permits (and prevents legal challenges),” according to Earthjustice. This rider is designed to fast-track oil drilling in Alaska’s frigid and fragile Chukchi Sea, which Shell Oil has been pursuing for years.

Alaska native communities have been most successful in protecting their homes from Shell’s drilling operations by challenging EPA’s issuance of Clean Air Act permits. This provision would remove that safety net for their survival.

Other bad policy riders snuck into the bill include “light bulb ban” language and denial of climate rules:
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After 20 months of mobilizing, agitating and negotiating by Greenpeace activists to green Facebook, the Internet behemoth announced today its goal to run on clean, renewable energy:

Facebook is committed to supporting the development of clean and renewable sources of energy, and our goal is to power all of our operations with clean and renewable energy. Building on our leadership in energy efficiency (through the Open Compute Project), we are working in partnership with Greenpeace and others to create a world that is highly efficient and powered by clean and renewable energy.

Facebook’s 2010 data center is primarily powered by coal, spurring the worldwide campaign.

Greenpeace mobilized Facebook users across the world, including Israel, Sweden, Italy, India, and Senegal. In one day, supporters posted over 80,000 comments in at least eleven languages on the Facebook Unfriend Coal page.

Greenpeace is looking to Apple, Microsoft, and Twitter as the next tech companies to commit to renewable energy.

Other key stories below:  U.S. Solar industry reports record third-quarter growth; For Haiti, climate change is more present fear than horrible imagining

China scales up solar power capacity plan 50%

* Solar power generation to hit 20 billion kWh in 2015

BEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuters) – China has further revised up its solar power development target for 2015 by 50 percent from its previous plan, state media reported on Thursday.

The government has set a target for installed solar power generating capacity to reach 15 gigawatts by 2015 and wind power capacity to hit 100 GW, China National Radio reported, citing an announcement from the National Energy Administration.

The ambitious move may have been encouraged by a rapid increase in solar power installation in recent months after the government unified grid feed-in tariffs for solar projects for the first time in July, and offered a higher price for projects that would be put into operation before the year end.

China had doubled its 2015 solar power goal to 10 GW after the Japanese nuclear power crisis.

Installed solar power capacity at the end of 2010 was less than 1 GW in China, the world’s largest exporter of photovoltaic products and home to some of the industry’s top players, such as Trina Solar, JA Solar, Suntech Power and LDK Solar.

For a detailed analysis of China’s renewables strategy, see the recent post by Melanie Hart, CAP’s Policy Analyst on China Energy and Climate Policy “China’s New Plan for Solar Power Supremacy.”  Here’s more from Reuters:

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Submit Comments to California on Low Carbon Fuel Standard

Size of oil industry production investments and subsidies (globally) over the past five years (2006 to 2010).

by Simon Mui, in an NRDC Switchboard cross-post

NRDC has long supported efforts by companies to invest in cleaner technologies. We have started tracking oil industry investments in renewable fuels such as advanced biofuels, down to the company level. In a new analysis, NRDC compares those investments to traditional investments in conventional oil production and even dirtier unconventional sources such as tar sands.

For years, the oil industry has promoted itself as getting cleaner and investing in alternatives to oil. But when it comes to transportation fuels – still their main business – are  oil companies truly going green and investing in cleaner alternatives to oil?

NRDC to Oil Companies: “Actually, We Don’t Agree”

Based on our research of the overall industry, our conclusions is a resounding “NO”.  The oil industry as a whole has spent at least fifty (50x) times in producing more dirtier fuels sources such as tar sands than their entire global investments in producing renewable fuels. I note that this does not include oil industry investments in other dirtier fuel sources such as oil shale, extra-heavy oil, and coal to liquids.

Breaking it down on a global basis: the oil industry’s investment over the past five years amounted to

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