Energy and Global Warming News for July 13: EV backers launch new ads; Rising sea drives Panama islanders to mainland; J.R. Ewing: Solar warrior?

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Electric-car backers launch new ads as energy votes loom

A corporate coalition seeking Capitol Hill support for bills that expand the market for electric vehicles is ramping up an ad campaign that promotes the technology as a cure for reliance on oil imports.

The latest ad from the Electrification Coalition comes ahead of Senate debate on far-reaching energy legislation that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring to the floor before the August congressional recess.

The coalition formed last year includes Nissan Motor Co. “” which is rolling out a plug-in car called the Leaf “” as well as NRG Energy Inc., PG&E Corp., lithium ion battery company A123Systems Inc., FedEx Corp. and GridPoint Inc., which provides software to enable a “smart” power grid.

The ad launched Monday opens with images of gasoline lines from the 1970, officials from Middle Eastern nations, and shots of oil fires from the first Gulf War.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. “¦ Our economy or our values. Energy or security. Now, arrives a new path,” the narrator states as the images shrink to fit in the side-view mirror of a car being charged with an electric cord.

“The promise of electric vehicles: Job creation, reduced emissions. National Security. The past is behind us. Let’s move forward,” the ad continues, ending with the vehicle speeding away.

J.R. Ewing: Solar warrior?

Sometimes, the best person to preach the wonders of solar power is a man in a ten-gallon hat.

Specifically, that would be J.R. Ewing, the nefarious Texas oil tycoon from the hit television series “Dallas,” though these days, he prefers to go by Larry Hagman.

The actor, who also portrayed Major Anthony Nelson in the sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie,” is a major proponent of alternative energy. Solar panels blanket his Ojai estate, where he also grows vegetables and has 200 avocado trees. His 94-kilowatt installation cost $750,000 to install but helped cut his electricity bill from $37,000 to $13 a year, he said.

“It doesn’t make any noise and does a wonderful job,” he said. “I’ve realized that if the infrastructure is so delicate, then I better look after myself.”

That’s why on Tuesday, Hagman will be at the Intersolar industry conference – his first solar trade show – at San Francisco’s Moscone Center pontificating about the importance of solar power. The passionate thespian is a guest of Oregon photovoltaics company SolarWorld.

He will encourage consumers to go with domestically made solar panels, “made here by Americans, for Americans.”

“It’s keeping jobs here,” he said in an earlier interview. “This can turn things around.”

Not to mention, he said, that using clean power could be a powerful hedge against rising electricity rates and surging oil prices.

“Our security is going to be in producing all of our own energy,” he said.

He’s also introducing a new ad campaign with SolarWorld, in which he cheerily pushes consumers to “shine, baby, shine.”

A Case Of Classic SwiftBoating: How The Right-Wing Noise Machine Manufactured ‘Climategate’

In mid-November, thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit webmail server “” a top climate research center in the United Kingdom “” were hacked and dumped on a Russian web server. Polluter-funded climate skeptics, along with their allies in conservative media and the Republican Party, sifted through the e-mails, and quickly cherry picked quotes to falsely accuse climate scientists of concocting climate change science out of whole cloth. The skeptics also propelled the story, dubbed “Climategate,” to the cover of the New York Times and newspapers across the globe. According to a Nexis news search, the Climategate story has been reported at least 325 times in the American press alone.

While the hacked e-mails may reveal that scientists might not have nice things to say about climate change deniers at times, they do nothing to change the scientific consensus that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use are raising temperatures and making oceans more acidic. As the right attempts to use the Climategate story to derail the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference this week, arctic sea ice is still at historically low levels, Australia is still on fire, the northern United Kingdom is still underwater, the world’s glaciers are still disappearing and today NOAA confirmed that not only is it the hottest decade in history, but 2009 was one of the hottest years in history. But how did the right-wing noise machine hijack the debate?

A Watchdog’s Warning on Nuclear Waste

When President Obama said he wanted to discontinue work to develop a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, one of the entities that filed suit to protect the project was Washington State, where vast amounts of nuclear waste accumulated at the Hanford nuclear reservation, a weapons site. As I reported on Sunday, a new report suggests that Hanford has a lot more plutonium waste that the Energy Department had acknowledged.

This week, a blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste established to seek alternatives to Yucca will hold two days of hearings near Hanford. And one of the experts giving testimony will be Gerry Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest, which describes itself as a watchdog group focused on Hanford.

Mr. Pollet’s prepared testimony argues that Hanford has deeper problems than the possible demise of Yucca Mountain. Even if Yucca had opened as planned 10 years ago, it would not have enough space for all of Hanford’s wastes, he argues. The Energy Department is trying to build a factory at Yucca that will take liquid wastes and mix them with molten glass to produce a solid, as a factory at another bomb plant in South Carolina is already doing. But at the moment, there is no final resting place for these “vitrified” wastes.

Acid Rain, Smog Rules to Spur CO2 Law, Traders Say

The threat of power-plant closures under the Obama administration’s planned limits on acid rain and smog pollution should revive efforts to pass legislation this year establishing a U.S. carbon market, an emissions trading group said today.

The rules, issued last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “will increase the pressure on Congress to act” on legislation giving the owners of coal-fired plants pollution targets that are easier to meet in exchange for new limits on carbon dioxide, said David Hunter, U.S. policy director for the International Emissions Trading Association.

The Edison Electric Institute, a Washington-based trade association that represents power companies, has said the EPA’s new acid-rain and smog regulations would require “dramatic” cuts in pollution from power plants.

The U.S. Senate is set to debate an energy bill this month. The proposals under discussion include cap-and-trade programs for acid rain, smog and carbon dioxide in which companies buy and sell a declining number of pollution allowances.

Rising sea drives Panama islanders to mainland

Rising seas from global warming, coming after years of coral reef destruction, are forcing thousands of indigenous Panamanians to leave their ancestral homes on low-lying Caribbean islands.

Seasonal winds, storms and high tides combine to submerge the tiny islands, crowded with huts of yellow cane and faded palm fronds, leaving them ankle-deep in emerald water for days on end.

Pablo Preciado, leader of the island of Carti Sugdub, remembers that in his childhood floods were rare, brief and barely wetted his toes. “Now it’s something else. It’s serious,” he said.

The increase of a few inches in flood depth is consistent with a global sea level rise over Preciado’s 64 years of life and has been made worse by coral mining by the islanders that reduced a buffer against the waves.

Carti Sugdub is one of a handful of islands in an archipelago off Panama’s northeastern coast, where the government says climate change threatens the livelihood of nearly half of the 32,000 semi-autonomous Kuna people.

The 2,000 inhabitants of Carti Sugdub plan to move to coastal areas within the Kuna’s autonomous territory on the Panama mainland. They are eyeing foothills a half-hour walk from the swampy beach areas.

“The water level is rising. The move is imminent,” said Preciado, who has been leading a group of villagers clearing tropical forest for the new settlement.

World leaders have failed so far to reach a global accord to curb the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change. A U.N. climate change conference later this year in Mexico aims to make progress toward a binding agreement.

Australia seen reshaping climate policy before poll

Australia’s government may unveil on Tuesday restrictions on coal-fired power stations and new energy efficiency targets, media reports said, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard seeks to recast climate policy ahead of elections.

A late August election may be called within days.

The cabinet will meet on Tuesday and is expected to discuss a new climate policy, but it is not clear whether Gillard will go as far as announcing a carbon tax as an interim measure before a full blown carbon trading scheme can be created.

She has said a carbon price is inevitable, probably via a market-based scheme, but that any decision on such a scheme would not be until 2012 and not without community consensus.

But voters want quick action on climate change, according to opinion polls.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Tuesday the cabinet would debate a proposal to cut energy consumption by up to 3 percent a year.

Italy Cuts Rates Paid for Solar Energy, Keeps Incentives Intact

The Italian government introduced legislation that would cut feed-in tariffs paid for power from solar photovoltaic plants beginning in 2011.

The proposal, which must be approved by parliament, maintained the terms in a draft bill circulated June 1 calling for the tariff to decline by 6 percent every four months next year and another 6 percent in the two years thereafter, the Ministry of Economic Development said in a statement.

The decision leaves the rates Italian utilities pay for solar power among the most attractive in Europe and may trigger a rush by developers to build solar plants in Italy just as in Spain and Germany in recent years, said Francesco D’Avack, a solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London.

“The Italian market risks entering a dangerous boom and bust cycle,” D’Avack said. “All this could lead to unsustainably fast growth and a belated reaction by the government to keep costs in check. There are a couple of fat years ahead for developers.”

The new law would also establish a 3-gigawatt cap in solar capacity by the end of 2013 in addition to 200 megawatts for PV projects integrated into buildings and 150 megawatts in concentrated PV projects, which use mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on solar panels.

IEA Expects Slow Growth in Oil Demand

The International Energy Agency said Tuesday it expects oil demand to slow next year in China and most other parts of the world, indicating that crude prices are likely to trade at subdued levels well into next year.

In its first assessment of 2011 global oil trends, the Paris-based agency forecast world oil demand to grow by 1.3 million barrels a day, or 1.6%. That increase rate is below the 2.1% rise in global crude consumption expected this year, although it is in line with 1.7% growth seen on average annually from 2000 to 2007.

Korea Groups to Invest $18.5 Billion in Clean Energy

South Korea’s 30 major industrial groups plan to invest 22.4 trillion won ($18.5 billion) by 2013 in clean energy, including batteries and solar power, to benefit from the government’s spending on environment-friendly projects.

The proposed investment from 2011 to 2013 is a 48 percent increase from 15.1 trillion won over the past three years, the presidential office said in a statement today.

Samsung Group, the nation’s largest group, on May 11 unveiled a 23.3 trillion-won spending plan to expand into five new areas by 2020, including solar cells and batteries for electric vehicles. LG Group said in April it will invest 20 trillion won by 2020 to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and develop energy-saving products.

The government plans to spend as much as 15 trillion won on rechargeable battery technology by 2020 to boost competitiveness, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said July 11.

Washington to take on several environmental and energy issues

It’s easy to get climate bill fatigue, especially when so few details are known about what will be proposed and when it will be proposed.

To fight that fatigue, it’s important to look at all of the other energy and natural resource issues being tackled on the Hill this week.

Renewable energy programs for farmers

On Wednesday, the House of Representative’s Agriculture Committee will amend parts of a 2002 law to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to make loans to rural farmers and landowners to retrofit their homes and farms with energy-efficient gear to reduce energy usage.

Invasive species

The senate’s Energy and Natural Resource Committee’s Subcommittee on Water and Power will listen to testimony about Asian carp in Lake Calmet, Ill., on Wednesday. This follows a federally commissioned invasive species report on the Asian carp situation.

Jobs on federal lands

On Thursday, the House Natural Resource Committee’s Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands will be taking comment on a new endeavor called “Locally Grown: Creating Rural Jobs with America’s Public Lands”

Moment of truth for energy bill

The next three weeks represent Democrats’ last, best shot at getting an energy and climate change bill passed this year.

In the White House and the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, it’s moment-of-truth time. People on every side of the energy debate say that Reid must unveil a concrete plan backed by a full-court press from the president this week, or the entire effort will fall apart in the run-up to the midterm elections.

After weeks of indecisive caucus meetings and passionate but vague speeches calling for “comprehensive energy legislation,” Reid’s office on Friday assured POLITICO that clarity, at long last, is coming.

The majority leader is set to meet this week with the five Senate committee leaders who hold jurisdiction over slices of energy and climate legislation. He will give them a scaled-down menu of options prepared by his staff and tell them to assemble an energy package that could get 60 votes. The options will break down into three core elements, and the question will be how the leaders choose to combine them.

The first and easiest piece is a Gulf-spill response measure to reform offshore drilling and raise disaster liabilities on oil companies. “That one’s must-pass,” said Scott Segal, an energy lobbyist at Bracewell & Giuliani, echoing the sentiments of congressional staff members on both sides of the aisle.

Another line for an energy bill to cross

Add another line to the slew of lines an energy bill must cross before getting through the Senate: The big transmission line.

Eleven governors from the Northeast have signed a letter to Senate leaders protesting the latest energy bill’s plan (PDF) to promote a giant electric power transmission line to link the windy Great Plains to the Midwest population centers. The governors say that the transmission line, expected to eventually cost $160 billion, would be subsidized by citizens in their states.

“In its current form, this legislation would harm regional efforts to promote local renewable energy generation, require our ratepayers to bear an unfair economic burden, unnecessarily usurp states’ current authority on resource planning and transmission line certification and siting, and hamper efforts to create clean energy jobs in our states,” the governors said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch

Wind Industry Ramps Up Energy Bill Lobbying

With the prospect dimming that the energy bill being cobbled together behind closed doors in the Senate will include a cap on carbon, the wind industry is ramping up its lobbying efforts this week to ensure that its priorities don’t get left behind in the rush to secure 60 votes.

I just got off the phone with Rob Gramlich, a senior vice president for policy at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the leading lobbying group for the U.S. wind industry. He says wind industry CEOs are preparing to lobby senators in the coming days to strengthen key provisions in climate and energy legislation that could benefit the industry.

AWEA is calling for an increase in the so-called renewable electricity standard (RES) included in various energy and climate proposals currently on the table. A federal RES would require that a certain percentage of the country’s electricity be produced from renewable sources like wind and solar.

Without the votes for an economy-wide cap on carbon emissions, an RES appears likely to be one of the central provisions in a climate and energy package, leaving liberal Democrats with the task of claiming victory on a bill that falls far short of their policy goals.

AWEA is working to increase the RES well above the requirement included in the energy bill passed by the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee last year, which calls for 15 percent of the nation’s electricity to come from renewables by 2021. The group is advocating for a proposal to increase the RES to 25 percent by 2025.

Gramlich says the group will be targeting farm-state Democrats and Republicans in wind-rich regions, dispatching the heads of number of major wind developers to lobby key senators.

California Schemin’

Coal is America’s cheapest and most plentiful energy source. But in California, coal is a small, shrinking part of the energy picture, and the industry is usually a minor player in state politics. So why are out-of-state coal companies suddenly trying to sink California’s groundbreaking climate change law?

The first law of its kind in the nation, California’s Assembly Bill 32 is intended to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2020 through a variety of means, including energy efficiency standards and a cap and trade system similar to those being considered on the national level. The law, passed in 2006, will go into effect later this year””unless voters choose to suspend it. Last month, the law’s opponents gathered enough signatures to allow a statewide vote on Proposition 23, an initiative that would prevent AB32 from being enacted.

Even if California voters decide to scrap the climate bill in November, coal companies will be effectively forced out of the Golden State within a few years. Their share of the state’s energy mix has been falling since it banned new electricity contracts with coal-fired power plants four years ago; coal currently generates just 16 percent of California’s electricity. (The bulk comes from less carbon-intensive sources such as natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower.) “Coal contracts now in effect will simply not be renewed,” explains Stanley Young, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, the state air quality agency. “The demise of coal is imminent even if AB32 weren’t there.”