HuffPo contributor Bruce Niles warns that [in its current form] ACES (The American Clean Energy and Security Act) is a disaster in the making. As the current version is written, this policy further threatens life on the planet as we know it, not to mention that it “threatens to block the way for the U.S. to transition rapidly to a clean energy economy.”
Just in case you had any doubt whether the coal zombies would prevail…Everything is ACES.
The bill exempts a slug of plants permitted but not yet built, plus the huge fleet of America’s oldest and dirtiest coal plants, from any requirement to clean up and cut their CO2 emissions.This is a disaster in the making, because it threatens to block the way for the U.S. to transition rapidly to a clean energy economy. These old dirty coal plants need to clean up or be retired.
But the way the bill works right now, instead of encouraging investment in new industries and new plants that are subject to stringent standards, it leaves the door open to expand the old plants with no added safeguards. By “grandfathering” existing coal-fired capacity, which accounts for 44 percent of U.S. electricity generation, the bill repeats the mistakes of the 1977 Clean Air Act — mistakes that we have been paying for in the form deadly air pollution ever since.
Three decades ago, Congress exempted older plants from soot and smog limits that applied to new units, on the assumption and promise by the industry that they would soon be retired. Instead, the industry took full advantage of this loophole to refurbish old plants and, in some cases, to expand their capacity and emit even more of the air pollution that causes tens of thousands of asthma attacks, hospitalizations, heart attacks, and premature deaths every year.
The House has passed H.R.2454 and, after the August recess, the Senate will consider the proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act. “Although coal-fired power plants account for roughly a third of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions (making them our single largest source of global warming pollution),” writes Bruce Niles, “the legislation gives them a free pass to continue business as usual — without making any serious reductions in heat-trapping CO2 for at least fifteen years, and bringing us increasingly closer to a climate crisis.”
As it currently stands, ACES has a huge loophole that would allow Big Coal “to vent billions of tons of pollution without consequence.” And, it is doubtful whether there is enough political power organized to insist that the Senate close the loophole.
Niles recommends that ACES should require “the oldest, dirtiest plants to be retired by a certain date or meet the same pollution standards as new plants.”
And, until they retire or clean up, existing plants must be prohibited from expanding their capacity and increasing carbon pollution. These measures would create an incentive for industry to use cleaner technologies instead of continuing to lean on the dirty dinosaurs that generate too much of our electricity today.
And, as this blog previously has noted, our Congress critters are further protecting the nation’s oldest and most dangerous coal plants by killing the Environmental Protection Agency‘s authority to regulate carbon emissions.
The stakes could not be greater. We cannot let Big Coal get away with another massive loophole to continue polluting at the same level as today for 1-2 more decades. Congress must close the coal loophole and make the coal industry slash its pollution.
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James Hansen believes that with urgent strong actions “it still is feasible to solve the global warming problem before we pass tipping points that would guarantee disastrous irreversible climate change.”
“As President Obama was meeting with other G8 leaders in l’Aquila, Italy to discuss the global warming crisis in the lead-up to UN climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen this December, Greenpeace climbers hung a banner on Mt. Rushmore. The banner featured an unfinished portrait of the President with the message: “America Honors Leaders Not Politicians: Stop Global Warming.”
“The only practical way to avoid climate catastrophe,” states NASA’s leading climate scientist, “is to terminate emissions from the largest fossil fuel source: coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels.”
It is evident from H.R.2454 and past Senate action that our elected representatives will fail us and the rest of the world by refusing to take such action. That is why Professor Hansen advocates (and participates in) civil disobedience.
John De Cock makes it seem as if the Senate when they return from recess will be “rip rearing to go” into a pitched battle to pass an even better climate and energy security bill. Which will be but one in a series of brutal battles necessary to kill King Coal. Sounds historic, eh?
Well, it might work as a gaming script of some sort, and it certainly evokes the idea of noble deeds. Unfortunately, John may be overlooking the players in favor of the need for deeds.
Noble deeds, that is, rather than the evil this blog anticipates, e.g., hamstringing a more enviro-friendly EPA, pushing nuclear power over sustainable wind and power, doing nothing about emissions from coal-fired power plants, finding ways to favor the fossil fuel companies even further, etc.
Others already are preparing for this eventuality. For instance, Climate Progress invited a contribution by Paul Gilding, former executive director of Greenpeace International. And, Gilding, in his blog, the Cockatoo Chronicles, has advised “Don’t sweat the small stuff, Copenhagen is just a training exercise.”
Gilding can suggest that climate action advocates relax, since…
Nice scenario, yet for someone, who like the Obama administration, professes such conviction that our strategies need to be based on science, Gilding seems to be very much in denial about the irretrievable consequences of tipping points being passed.
Well, as the cocks grows, and Gaia is led from the Senate chambers to the place of execution, bear in mind that this is Washington Theater, it ain’t Hollywood. As de Cock says as a means of introduction to coal-fired brutality:
So a caveat to all, when the Senate is back in session, don’t expect a hero to ride to Gaia’s rescue at the fateful moment. (Fade to Coal Black)
This blog noted that advanced notice came from the Chooster, when he indicated that Copenhagen was just one timetable. (I was unable to find where I rhetorically asked if action taken after Copenhagen is not too late, then when does the best science indicate is too late?)
Bill McKibben has been reading (Subscription required for the Bad News) the bad signs also. “President Obama’s speech on Tuesday—coming at the beginning of what the UN has dubbed ‘climate week,’ …the beginning of a three-month push towards the global climate conference at Copenhagen,” mostly downplayed expectations.
HuffPo relays another expensive report from Mother Jones about how they got the word from John Podesta. The statement from Podesta, who headed Barack Obama’s presidential transition, is a strong indication that the Obama administration is giving up on reaching a comprehensive international climate change agreement this year.
The United Nations is planning a form of diplomatic shock therapy for world leaders,” reports West Coast Climate Equity. UN organizers hope that “Climate Week” will inject “badly needed urgency into negotiations for a climate change treaty.”
It is becoming widely acknowledged that the meeting in December in Copenhagen will fail to reach an accord establishing new standards post-Kyoto. (Yes, the treaty that the United States, along with a very other rogue nations, never ratified.)
Well, perhaps the MoJo server was stressed. Not only can I now read David Corn’s take on whether Copenhagen already is a Big Fail, but also inform you, dear AG reader, about the Melting Climate Change Deadline, so that if you happen to see a G20, you can give your elevator pitch, which starts, “What are you totally batsh*t crazy?”