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5/30/2009 Lawrence Solomon: Enron's other secret -- In the climate-change debate, the companies on the ‘environmental’ side have the most to gain. First in a series.
We all know that the financial stakes are enormous in the global warming debate — many oil, coal and power companies are at risk should carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases get regulated in a manner that harms their bottom line. The potential losses of an Exxon or a Shell are chump change, however, compared to the fortunes to be made from those very same regulations. The climate-change industry — the scientists, lawyers, consultants, lobbyists and, most importantly, the multinationals that work behind the scenes to cash in on the riches at stake — has emerged as the world’s largest industry. Virtually every resident in the developed world feels the bite of this industry, often unknowingly, through the hidden surcharges on their food bills, their gas and electricity rates, their gasoline purchases, their automobiles, their garbage collection, their insurance, their computers purchases, their hotels, their purchases of just about every good and service, in fact, and finally, their taxes to governments at all levels. These extractions do not happen by accident. Every penny that leaves the hands of consumers does so by design, the final step in elaborate and often brilliant orchestrations of public policy, all the more brilliant because the public, for the most part, does not know who is profiteering on climate change, or who is aiding and abetting the profiteers. Some of the climate-change profiteers are relatively unknown corporations; others are household names with only their behind-the-scenes role in the climate-change industry unknown. Over the next few weeks, in an extended newspaper series, you will become familiar with some of the profiteers, and with their machinations. This series begins with Enron, a pioneer in the climate-change industry.

To magnify the leverage of their political lobbying, Enron also worked the environmental groups. Between 1994 and 1996, the Enron Foundation donated $1-million to the Nature Conservancy and its Climate Change Project, a leading force for global warming reform, while Lay and other individuals associated with Enron donated $1.5-million to environmental groups seeking international controls on carbon dioxide. The intense lobbying paid off. Lay became a member of president Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development, as well as his friend and advisor. In the summer of 1997, prior to global warming meetings in Kyoto, Japan, Clinton sought Lay’s advice in White House discussions. The fruits of Enron’s efforts came soon after, with the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. An internal Enron memo, sent from Kyoto by John Palmisano, a former Environmental Protection Agency regulator who had become Enron’s lead lobbyist as senior director for Environmental Policy and Compliance, describes the historic corporate achievement that was Kyoto. “If implemented this agreement will do more to promote Enron’s business than will almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring of the energy and natural-gas industries in Europe and the United States,” Palmisano began. “The potential to add incremental gas sales, and additional demand for renewable technology is enormous.” The memo, entitled “Implications of the Climate Change Agreement in Kyoto & What Transpired,” summarized the achievements that Enron had accomplished. “I do not think it is possible to overestimate the importance of this year in shaping every aspect of this agreement,” he wrote, citing three issues of specific importance to Enron which would become, as those following the climate-change debate in detail now know, the biggest money plays: the rules governing emissions trading, the rules governing transfers of emission reduction rights between countries, and the rules governing a gargantuan clean energy fund. (National Post)
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posted: 3/14/11                   0       1
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keywords: Al Gore, Big Oil, Bill Clinton, Carbon Dioxide, Clean Air Act, Climate Change, Coal, Denmark, Enron, Enron Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, European Climate Action Network, European Union, Exxon Mobil, German Watch, Greenhouse Gases, Greenpeace, James Hansen, John Palmisano, Ken Lay, Kyoto, Kyoto Protocol, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nature Conservancy, Ozone Action, Royal Dutch Shell, Sulphur Dioxide, The Climate Institute, US Climate Action Network, US Congress, United Kingdom, White House, World Resources Institute, World Wildlife Fund, Worldwatch Add New Keyword To Link



2/19/2009 EPA expected to act in regulating carbon dioxide
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials. The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States' negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen. The environmental agency is under order from the Supreme Court to make a determination whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant that endangers public health and welfare, an order that the Bush administration essentially ignored despite near-unanimous belief among agency experts that research points inexorably to such a finding. Lisa Jackson, the new EPA administrator, said in an interview that she had asked her staff to review the latest scientific evidence and prepare the documentation for a so-called endangerment finding. Jackson said she had not decided to issue such a finding but she pointedly noted that the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Massachusetts v. EPA, is April 2, and there is the wide expectation that she will act by then. "We here know how momentous that decision could be," Jackson said. "We have to lay out a road map."

Even some who favor an aggressive approach to climate change said they were wary of the agency's asserting exclusive authority over carbon emissions. They say that the Clean Air Act, now more than 40 years old, was not designed to regulate ubiquitous substances like carbon dioxide. Using the law, they say, would capture carbon emissions from new facilities, but not existing ones, blunting its impact. They also believe that a broader approach that addresses all sectors of the economy and that is fully debated in Congress would be better than a regulatory approach that could drag through the courts for years. (New York Times)
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posted: 5/26/09                   2       22
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11/18/2003 Crimes Against Nature: Bush is sabotaging the laws that have protected America's environment for more than thirty years
George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats. The Bush attack was not entirely unexpected. George W. Bush had the grimmest environmental record of any governor during his tenure in Texas. Texas became number one in air and water pollution and in the release of toxic chemicals. In his six years in Austin, he championed a short-term pollution-based prosperity, which enriched his political contributors and corporate cronies by lowering the quality of life for everyone else. Now President Bush is set to do the same to America. After three years, his policies are already bearing fruit, diminishing standards of living for millions of Americans. I am angry both as a citizen and a father. Three of my sons have asthma, and I watch them struggle to breathe on bad-air days. And they're comparatively lucky: One in four African-American children in New York shares this affliction; their suffering is often unrelieved because they lack the insurance and high-quality health care that keep my sons alive. My kids are among the millions of Americans who cannot enjoy the seminal American experience of fishing locally with their dad and eating their catch. Most freshwater fish in New York and all in Connecticut are now under consumption advisories. A main source of mercury pollution in America, as well as asthma-provoking ozone and particulates, is the coal-burning power plants that President Bush recently excused from complying with the Clean Air Act. (Rolling Stone)
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posted: 11/28/10                   0       4
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keywords: 9/11, Abraham Lincoln, Adirondacks, Alcoa, Alternative Energy, Aluminum, Aluminum Company Of America, American Enterprise Institute, American Petroleum Institute, American-indian Tribes, Andrew Card, Anne Gorsuch, Appalachian Mountains, Arctic, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona, Austin, Bears, Big Oil, Bill Clinton, Bracewell, California, Carbon Dioxide, Chevron, Christine Todd Whitman, Christopher Shays, Civil War, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Cleveland, Climate Change, Coal, Colorado, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Connecticut, Cuyahoga River, Delaware River, Denver, Dick Cheney, Dominion Resources, Don Evans, Dow Chemical, Duke Energy, Dupont, Edison Institute, Endangered Species Act, Enron, Entergy, Environmental Protection Agency, Eric Schaeffer, Exxon Mobil, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Federalist Society, Fish, Florida, Food And Drug Administration, Frank Luntz, Franklin D Roosevelt, Fred Palmer, Freedom Of Information Act, Gale Norton, General Electric, General Motors, George Orwell, George W Bush, Germany, Gladys Kessler, Gray Davis, Greenhouse Gases, Haley Barbour, Halliburton, Heritage Foundation, Houston, India, Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, International Biosphere Reserve, Iowa, Italy, J Steven Griles, James Zahn, Jamess Watt, Jeff Ruch, Jerry Falwell, Joe Allbaugh, John Graham, John Mccain, John Pemberton, Joseph Coors, Joseph Lieberman, Karl Rove, Ken Lay, Kentucky, Klamath River, Koch Industries, Kyoto Protocol, Lake Erie, Los Angeles Times, Magna Carta, Mammoth Cave National Park, Marc Himmelstein, Marc Racicot, Marshall Institute, Martin Marietta, Mercury, Methane, Michael Oppenheimer, Middle East, Mike Kelly, Mike Leavitt, Mississippi, Monsanto, Montana, Mountain States Legal Foundation, National Academy Of Sciences, National Aeronautics And Space Administration, National Energy Policy Development Group, National Environmental Strategies, National Marine Fisheries, National Mining Association, National Research Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, New Delhi, New Mexico, New York, Newt Gingrich, Nitrogen Oxide, Nuclear Energy Institute, Oregon, Panthers, Pat Robertson, Patterson, Paul O'neill, Peabody Energy, Pentagon, Police, Pollution, Powder River, Reason Foundation, Reliant Energy, Rita Lavelle, Riverkeeper, Robert Burford, Robert Watson, Rome, Ron Arnold, Ronald Reagan, Sagebrush Rebellion, Salmon, Sierra Club, Smithfield Foods, Spain, Spencer Abraham, Steven Griles, Sulfur Dioxide, Swans, Terrorists, Texaco, Texas, The New York Times, Tom Brown Inc, Tom Delay, Trees, Txu, US Army Corps Of Engineers, US Bureau Of Land Management, US Congress, US Department Of Agriculture, US Department Of Justice, US Department Of The Interior, US Government Accountability Office, US Public Interest Research Group, Unesco, United Kingdom, United Nations, United States, United States Energy Association, Utah, Waterkeeper Alliance, Wayne Valis, West Virginia Coal Association, Westar Energy, White House, William Raney, Wise Use, World Trade Center, Wyoming, Yellowstone Add New Keyword To Link



10/31/1992 Smog Season Ends With 41 Stage 1 Alerts--a Low Total
Environment: Mild summer contributes to cleaner air. Numbers have dropped 47% since 1988.

Tying 1990 for the cleanest skies on record, Southern California's smog season ends today with 41 smog alerts--continuing a decade-long trend of slow, steady improvement in the nation's most polluted area. Much of the decline in 1992 is a testimonial to the summer's mild weather, especially in June and early July. Many of the Stage 1 health alerts for ozone in the Los Angeles Basin were congregated during an unusual bout of summery conditions in late April. (Los Angeles Times)
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posted: 10/5/10                   0       1
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