IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: Rising waters, shrinking glaciers; Slouching to Copenhagen; A Republican breaks ranks? ... PLUS: Even energy companies are taking on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over climate legislation ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': Columbia Journalism Review: Environmental Journalists accused of protecting Gore --- but filmmaker’s criticism is self-serving and wrong; George Soros to Invest $1 Billion in Green Energy; Is UK decision to scuttle new coal plant a blow against coal?; Marcellus Shale water quality: Who will pay to monitor gas drilling?; Solar Living, Without Compromising on Lifestyle ... PLUS: What lessons can be learned from the Spanish solar market collapse?....

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• RISING WATERS, SHRINKING GLACIERS:
  • Typhoon remnants threaten to bring Central Valley flooding, mudslides, weather service says (Sacramento Bee)
  • Philippines speeds up relief in typhoon-hit north (Reuters)
  • Kashmir's main glacier "melting at alarming speed" (Reuters)
• SLOUCHING TO COPENHAGEN:
  • EU's Barroso: "Very worried" about climate talks (Reuters)
  • Bangkok climate talks end with rich-poor rift wide open (Grist)
  • Norway Pledges 40 Percent Emissions Cuts (NY Times)
  • Saudis ask for aid if world cuts dependence on oil (Salon)
  • EU, US screwing up climate talks in Bangkok (DeSmog Blog)
  • U.S. may not make CO2 pledge this year --- envoy (Greenwire)
  • Denmark's top climate negotiator quits ahead of talks (Reuters)
• WILL DOMESTIC LEGISLATION PASS BEFORE COPENHAGEN?:
  • Sen. Boxer Says Obama Admin Could Make Climate Pledge in Copenhagen (Greenwire)
  • Looking beyond Copenhagen, with no Plan B (Grist)
  • US senator: global warming bill possible soon (AP)
  • Obama's Climate - Change Hopes Get A Boost (Reuters)
• A SENATE REPUBLICAN BREAKS RANKS?:
  • Climate Roadmap: Kerry and Graham Chart a Compromise Course–Of Sorts (Wall St. Journal)
  • OP-ED: Yes We Can (Pass Climate Change Legislation, by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)(NY Times)
  • A bipartisan breakthrough on climate (Energy Collective:
    
    Their proposal has six elements. (1) Aggressive reductions in emissions. (2) Support for nuclear power. (3) Financial incentives for so-called clean coal. (4) More domestic oil and gas production. (5) Trade barriers to protect U.S. industry from competition from places that don’t regulate greenhouse gases. (6) Cost controls.
• MUTINY AT THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:
  • Chamber Music: Commerce Boss Donohue Strikes Back at Apple (Wall St. Journal)
  • Energy Secretary Chu: ‘I Think It’s Wonderful’ That Companies Are Leaving The Chamber Over Its Denialism (Wonk Room)
  • PG&E CEO: We Left The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Because They Lied To Us About Climate Policy (Wonk Room)
  • Chamber president: ‘We’re not changing’ on climate legislation (The Hill)
  • Enviros waging 'orchestrated pressure campaign' --- U.S. Chamber CEO (E&E News)
  • How to lie about climate change (Salon)
  • Inside the Chamber of Carbon: Did the Chamber of Commerce break its own rules when it adopted the hard-line climate policy that scared off Nike and Apple? (Mother Jones):
    
    In an interview with Greenwire published yesterday, Nike backed other board members who say they never voted to approve the Chamber's climate policies. "We just weren't clear in how decisions on climate and energy were being made," said Brad Figel, Nike's director of government relations. "They're not being made at the board-of-director level, because we're a member of the board of directors. We were not consulted."
  • WATCH IT: PG&E's Darbee explains company's decision to leave U.S. Chamber of Commerce (E&E)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report...

• SEJ Accused of Protecting Gore: Filmmaker’s criticism is self-serving and wrong, however (Columbia Journalism Review)
  
  An independent filmmaker accused the Society of Environmental Journalists of “protecting” Al Gore on Friday after the filmmaker’s mic was cut while challenging the former vice president to acknowledge alleged errors in the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
  ...
  Gore and McAleer then fell into a short but pointless exchange about polar bears until two people from the Society of Environmental Journalists stood up and asked McAleer to take his seat. When McAleer refused, his mic was cut off and he finally sat.
• George Soros to Invest $1 Billion in Green Energy (Business Week)
• UK: Kingsnorth: A Blow Against Coal, or A Move For Clean Coal? (Wall St. Journal) [emphasis added]:
  
  Which makes the Kingsnorth decision look less than a strategic retreat and more like a tactical withdrawal.

  For all the bits of clean coal that have yet to be worked out—capture technology, for instance, and issues around storing carbon underground—one issue looms largest: Who’s going to pick up the tab? Power companies struggle to justify spending an extra $1 billion or so per power plant to clean it up; governments struggle to find the cash in the first place.

• Marcellus Shale question: Who will pay to monitor gas drilling? (Binghamton Press)
• Solar Living, Without Compromising on Lifestyle (NY Times)
• The Spanish solar collapse (Grist):
  
  There has been a lot of talk in the U.S. about the collapse of the Spanish solar market this year, commonly held to have been a solar bubble. However, few U.S. commentators seem to understand the Spanish market enough to go beyond the standard quip that the Spanish were simply throwing too much money at solar—and that feed-in rates were the culprit. A closer look reveals what Spain’s real problems were, and where those problems could happen in the U.S. as well.

                 

Article Categories: Green News