Contradicting McCain, Holtz-Eakin Says Wind Industry Needs Subsidies»

On Monday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) gave a major address on global warming policy at the North American headquarters of the Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas, a location criticized as “hypocritical” for his longstanding and active opposition to federal support for the domestic wind industry. In 2004, he introduced legislation that would have eliminated the renewable energy production tax credit, and his continued opposition prevented renewal of the tax credit in 2007 and 2008. He has also vigorously opposed any form of a federal renewable electricity standard.

When asked by Grist magazine in October on his position on subsidies for green technologies like wind and solar, McCain responded:

I’m not one who believes that we need to subsidize things. The wind industry is doing fine, the solar industry is doing fine. In the ’70s, we gave too many subsidies and too much help, and we had substandard products sold to the American people, which then made them disenchanted with solar for a long time.

But in a press telebriefing Monday following McCain’s address, top adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said:

When you look at wind and the production tax credit and you look at some of the other alternatives, they cannot given the current market conditions totally be successful without existing production tax credits.

Pressed by Living on Earth’s Jeff Young whether McCain supported the renewable energy production tax credit, Holtz-Eakin said, “He would want to make sure that we did not at this point in time stop the wind and solar from progressing.”

As each day goes by, it’s becoming more difficult for Holtz-Eakin, who made sure to tell reporters on the call that he is a “PhD economist,” to keep track of McCain’s incoherent policies and inconsistent promises.

UPDATE: Gristmill’s Kate Sheppard pressed McCain yesterday on his opposition to renewable energy subsidies but his support for nuclear industry subsidies. McCain did not address the contradiction, but did say: “I am unashamed and unembarrassed by my advocacy for nuclear power.” Also at Gristmill, Charles Komanoff finds:

Over the past 25 years, the entire federal subsidy for wind power [$3.75 billion] has been no greater than the subsidy bestowed on nukes each year from the fifties through the eighties [total $154 billion].

Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »

Coal Industry Sponsors CNN, CNN Praises Coal»

CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi has been promoting coal-to-liquids technology and praising “clean coal, 99 percent clean” for an entire month. On Tuesday, CNN held a no-holds-barred coalfest, promoting coal-to-liquids and coal gasification technologies, calling coal “seductive,” and criticizing “blogs” who “go nuts” and “environmentalists” who “want to get rid of coal.”

What’s motivating CNN to closely mirror coal-industry talking points?

One hopes it has nothing to do with this:

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity is a $45 million front group for over 40 companies in the coal industry.

Breaking: Polar Bear ‘Threatened’ By Global Warming, But Arctic Drilling Can Continue»

After years of delay, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne made a landmark decision on whether global warming pollution is regulated by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Kempthorne ruled that the polar bear should be classified as a “threatened species” due to the decline of polar sea ice, critical to its survival. Kempthorne stated:

They are likely to become endangered in the near future.

The Department of Interior, under Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, fought for several years in the courts since 2005 to avoid making a decision on whether the precipitous decline in Arctic sea ice due to global warming is making the polar bear an endangered species. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dale Hall testified in January that there was no significant scientific uncertainty in the endangerment posed by global warming to polar bears — the only legal justification under the Endangered Species Act for a delay.

Kempthone’s decision to follow the science is in marked contrast to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson’s action to override his staff in refusing to regulate tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions.

However, Kempthorne also argued vigorously that his decison does not compel the Bush administration to construct a plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, repeating President Bush’s entirely spurious claim that would be a “wholly inappropriate use” of the Endangered Species Act. The Interior news release announces, “Rule will allow continuation of vital energy production in Alaska.” In justifying his declaration that the ESA places no new restrictions on Arctic drilling, Kempthorne claimed that the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) is “more stringent” than the ESA. However, the court ruling that compelled him to issue today’s rule states that “the protections afforded under the ESA far surpass those provided by the MMPA.”

Read the rest of this entry »

CNN’s Ali Velshi Confuses Coal With Soap»

On the date of the West Virginia primary, CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi appeared throughout the morning and afternoon, waving a lump of coal. In one segment yesterday morning, Velshi described the coal-to-liquids process:

It is a cleaner burning fuel in the end — now I get in a lot of trouble when I say this, because the blogs go nuts on this — I didn’t say coal was clean. I said that the fuel that is derived from coal happens to be a very clean-burning fuel. What happens prior to when it becomes gasoline can be very dirty.

As the Wonk Room reported, on April 25, Velshi said:

You see the signs for clean coal, 99 percent clean. I’m not 99 percent clean when I get out of the shower. . . I just look clean.

And then yesterday afternoon Velshi got excited:

Most people think of coal as a relatively dirty thing. You may have seen the ads on TV for 99.9% clean coal, that’s clean coal technology. Bottom line is people are split on the cleanliness of coal.

Watch it:

There are, in fact, no such ads, because even the coal industry isn’t willing to be that misleading about coal. Velshi seems to be confusing coal propaganda with the classic Ivory Soap slogan, “99 and 44/100% pure.”

Velshi asked for people to email suggestions about what “we should cover when it comes to energy.” Here are a few items not discussed in yesterday’s coalfest on CNN: Read the rest of this entry »

CNN Goes Nuts For Coal»

As primaries are held today in the coal-rich but job-poor state of West Virginia, CNN — whose presidential debates have been sponsored by the coal industry front group ACCCE — is spending significant air time promoting coal-industry spin. The Wonk Room has previously highlighted CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi’s exploitative promotion of coal-to-liquids technology. Today, Velshi brought the rest of the CNN team into his coal-propaganda orbit.

CNN’s American Morning show was drenched with segments promoting coal above the chyron “MAKING GAS FROM COAL: REDUCING DEPENDENCE ON OIL.” Velshi even handed out coal to hosts John Roberts and Kyra Phillips. Phillips chirpily exclaimed, “We’ve got hope. We’re going to make gas out of coal.” Roberts introduced a segment on an eccentric inventor developing coal gasification — not the same as coal-to-liquids — technology by saying “We have huge supplies of it: coal!”

On “Your World Today,” senior correspondent Allan Chernoff confused coal-to-liquids with coal gasification and intoned, “Environmentalists want to get rid of coal. That’s not happening.” On CNN Newsroom, Brianna Keilar called the “250-year supply” of coal “seductive” before begging Ali to show off his lump of coal some more.

Watch video from today’s coalfest: Read the rest of this entry »

Senators Demand Answers On EPA Ouster Of Mary Gade»

As first reported by the Chicago Tribune, Mary Gade resigned from her position as the Midwest regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on May 1 amid an ongoing dispute with Dow Chemical over dioxin pollution from its Midland, Michigan headquarters. Gade told the Tribune that “There’s no question this is about Dow.”

The Wonk Room has extensively reported on her resignation and compared it to the politicized firings of U.S. Attorneys under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Today, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have sent a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson:

We are writing to request from you full information of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Gade’s departure. As you know, Congress and the American people expect EPA to enforce vigorously our public health protections — and to preserve the integrity of the enforcement program by excluding politics from such activities. We are troubled by reports suggesting that there was a link between her efforts to assure an aggressive cleanup by Dow and her allegedly forced departure, and are seeking answers from you to key questions.

Boxer and Whitehouse serve on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and have oversight of the EPA. They have requested answers to their questions and all related documents “no later than May 27, 2008.”

Administrator Johnson, now mired in scandal, has refused to appear before Congress for over a month. In April he went to Australia. Upon his return he found himself unable to testify, due to “ongoing back issues.”

The EPA currently is refusing to honor multiple subpoenas for other documents.

Read the full letter below:
Read the rest of this entry »

McCain’s Corporate Tax Cut Would Save Energy & Utility Companies Over $2.8 Billion»

A global warming plan that weans America off dirty energy requires taking a stand against the huge utility & energy companies. But John McCain’s tax plan seems slightly more interested in lining their pockets.

An analysis from the Center for American Progress Action Fund finds that John McCain’s massive corporate tax cut would save America’s ten largest electrical utility companies and ten largest energy companies over $2.8 billion. (This is in addition to the $4 billion tax break for America’s five largest oil companies.)

Read the full analysis and see the chart here.

McCain Wants It Both Ways On Global Warming, Ends Up Attacking His Own Plan»

Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) delivered a major speech on global warming at the North American headquarters of the Danish wind-power company Vestas, despite having prevented the passage of critical renewable energy tax credits for the wind industry in December and February. His campaign also unveiled an advertisement that includes this voiceover:

One extreme thinks high taxes and crippling regulation is the solution. The other side denies the problem even exists. There’s a better way.

Watch it:

One half of the ad is true: A significant constituency of the right wing denies that global warming exists or requires action. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, promotes the Skeptic’s Guide to Debunking Global Warming Alarmism. Right-wing media promote false headlines about climate change science. And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Bush administration’s response to global warming is to embrace an energy policy of increased fossil fuel dependence.

But what “extreme thinks high taxes and crippling regulation is the solution”? Those calling for a carbon tax instead of a cap-and-trade system to set a price on emissions are primarily conservative economists like Glenn Hubbard and Gregory Mankiw, the chairmen of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2001 to 2005. Is McCain calling Wall Street conservatives “extreme”?

And what “crippling regulation”? The only thing McCain describes as a “regulation” is an energy efficiency standard for building codes. The global investment firm McKinsey & Company has found that mandatory energy efficiency standards, far from being crippling, overcome present market failures and policy distortions and can drive massive return on investment. Is McCain calling McKinsey “extreme”?

McCain’s just trying to have it both ways — his campaign is trying to promote the complex system of government regulation necessary to establish a fair and national carbon market and still pay homage to a right-wing ideology that considers any governmental solutions anathema. Read the rest of this entry »

McCain’s ‘Hypocritical’ Wind Power Photo-Op»

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is poised to make a major speech on global warming today at the North American headquarters of the Danish wind-turbine company Vestas. In the speech, McCain takes steps to rhetorically distance himself from President Bush’s shameful record of inaction on global warming:

I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges.

Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Joe Romm notes that McCain has chosen a “clever, but ultimately hypocritical location” for his address, because “conservatives including John McCain, are the main reason McCain has to go to a Danish wind turbine manufacturer to give a climate speech.”

Last year, Sen. McCain told Grist, “The wind industry is doing fine.” In fact, the United States was the market leader in wind technology — following government investments decades ago under President Carter. In the past 26 years that McCain has been in Congress, Romm explains, conservatives “repeatedly gutted the wind budget, then opposed efforts by progressives to increase it, and repeatedly blocked efforts to extend the wind power tax credit.” Now the United States is a “bit player” in the $36 billion global market.

In these past “eight long years” alone, McCain has worked with other conservatives to kill federal renewable electricity standards and renewable energy production tax credits. Here are some of the lowlights:

McCain Opposes Renewable Electricity Standards. A renewable electricity standard would require utilities to generate a certain portion of their electricity from wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources. Twenty six states, including Arizona, have such requirements. The passage of a renewable energy standard in Colorado in 2004 was a key incentive for Vestas in siting its new wind turbine plant in that state. Sen. McCain voted against renewable electricity every time:

– 2002 (Vote 50): Voted against 20 percent requirement.
– 2002 (Vote 55): Voted to gut 10 percent requirement.
– 2002 (Vote 59): Voted to gut 10 percent requirement.
– 2005 (Vote 141): Voted against a renewable portfolio standard.
– 2005 (Vote 363): Cast deciding vote to cut rural Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency program funding rom $23 million to $3 million.

McCain Opposes Renewable Production Tax Credits. The renewable electricity production tax credit has been key to the growth of the domestic wind industry by supporting power companies, businesses, and individuals who employ wind, geothermal, solar, and other types of renewable electricity. However, the tax credit has been allowed to expire three times in the past decade — in 2004, McCain introduced an amendment that would have eliminated the tax credit entirely. McCain’s continued opposition to the tax credit is putting the wind industry at risk again:

– March 2006 (Vote 42): Voted against extension of tax credits.
– March 2007 (Vote 98): Skipped vote to extend tax credits.
– June 2007 (Vote 223): Skipped vote to extend tax credits.
– December 2007 (Vote 416): Skipped vote to extend tax credits — extension failed by one vote.
– February 2008 (Vote 8): Skipped vote to extend tax credits — extension failed by one vote.

A report from the Union of Concerned Scientists shows how this failure of conservative priorities — from Bush and McCain — “contributes to a boom-bust cycle of development that plagues the wind industry.”

UPDATE: In 2003, Vestas cancelled plans to construct a wind turbine plant in Portland, Oregon and laid off 500 employees because of the uncertainty surrounding the production tax credit.