Senate Democrats abandon comprehensive climate bill

It was a crappy, half-a$$ed measure anyway. Good riddance for sure!

residenttroll wrote: Hey SC, how ya doin?

I've got a climate change scientific question that I am not able to find in any research.

How does taxing exhaust change the climate?

Hiya RT! I've been better, how are you?

Need clarification - do you mean car exhaust, coal plant emissions, or something else entirely?
As far as taxing those kinds of things, I don't think cars or energy plants pay taxes so they probably won't care! In all seriousness, taxing emissions won't change the climate, it will hopefully change our behaviors which will change the climate. That's kind of a general answer so if there's something more specific that you're looking for, let me know and I'll see if I can answer, or dig up more info!

I personally don't believe cap-and-trade is the answer. It lets the gov't waffle on goals, provide loopholes and incentives which cost us taxpayers more, and accomplishes little in the grand scheme. I'm all for fee and dividend (it doesn't tax exhaust).

Under this approach, a gradually rising carbon fee would be collected at the mine or port of entry for each fossil fuel (coal, oil and gas). The fee would be uniform, a certain number of dollars per ton of carbon dioxide in the fuel. The public would not directly pay any fee, but the price of goods would rise in proportion to how much carbon-emitting fuel is used in their production. All of the collected fees would then be distributed to the public. Prudent people would use their dividend wisely, adjusting their lifestyle, choice of vehicle and so on. Those who do better than average in choosing less-polluting goods would receive more in the dividend than they pay in added costs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/opini ... .html?_r=1
http://www.civilianism.com/futurism/?p=4760

The fee-and-green-check approach is transparent, fair and effective. Congressman John Larson defined an appropriate rising fee. $15 per ton of carbon dioxide the first year and $10 more per ton each year. Economic modeling shows that carbon emissions would decline 30 percent by 2020. The annual dividend then would be $2000-3000 per legal adult resident, $6000-9000 per family with two or more children.” . . . .

http://bravenewclimate.com/2009/11/09/f ... nd-better/

Petition to sign:
http://www.climatelobby.com/

The climate change lobby explosion:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/investig ... te_change/

...the special interests that seek to derail, blunt, or tailor any new climate policy to their narrow agendas have already gathered in staggering numbers. A Center for Public Integrity analysis shows that more than 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists to influence federal policy on climate change in the past year, as the issue gathered momentum and came to a vote on Capitol Hill. That's an increase of more than 300 percent in the number of lobbyists on climate change in just five years, and means that Washington can now boast more than four climate lobbyists for every member of Congress. Although some see the proliferation of voices engaged on the issue as a positive, the lobbying onslaught has caused growing alarm among some advocates of climate action.

This is not good - lobbyists are too narrow-minded in their specific interest, whether it's an energy company OR the Sierra Club, to truly be what's needed for an effective, big-picture, long-term fix like what's needed to mitigate the effects that are gathering momentum in our climate.

Climate Progress blog: solution to reach 350ppm
http://climateprogress.org/2009/03/26/f ... enewables/

We must deploy every conceivable energy-efficient and low carbon technology that we have today as fast as we can.
This is what the entire planet must achieve:
* 1 wedge of albedo change through white roofs and pavement (aka “soft geoengineering) — see “Geoengineering, adaptation and mitigation, Part 2: White roofs are the trillion-dollar solution“
* 1 wedge of vehicle efficiency — all cars 60 mpg, with no increase in miles traveled per vehicle.
* 1 of wind for power — one million large (2 MW peak) wind turbines
* 1 of wind for vehicles –another 2000 GW wind. Most cars must be plug-in hybrids or pure electric vehicles.
* 3 of concentrated solar thermal (aka solar baseload)– ~5000 GW peak.
* 3 of efficiency — one each for buildings, industry, and cogeneration/heat-recovery for a total of 15 to 20 million GW-hrs. A key strategy for reducing direct fossil fuel use for heating buildings (while also reducing air conditioning energy) is geothermal heat pumps.
* 1 of solar photovoltaics — 2000 GW peak
* 1/2 wedge of nuclear power– 350 GW
* 2 of forestry — End all tropical deforestation. Plant new trees over an area the size of the continental U.S.
* 1 wedge of WWII-style conservation, post-2030 [just a placeholder, will blog more on this later]

What we need are one of these (not sure if I posted this here already or not):
An energy plan covering the technical feasibility with cost options by an independent, non-profit group for how to get Australia to replace all fossil fuel energy and go 100% renewable energy by 2020 (10 years roadmap)!
Background story http://anz.theoildrum.com/node/6682
PR Statement http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org/
The full report http://media.beyondzeroemissions.org/ZC ... ort_v1.pdf (8.4MB):

Zero Carbon Australia outlines a coherent and thoroughly researched blueprint showing how 100% renewable energy is achievable using technologies that are commercially available today: wind power and concentrating solar thermal with molten salt storage. It goes through the options, costs and benefits, confirming that a 10 year transformation of the stationary energy sector is achievable and affordable. This will also add huge stimulus to the new green economy and create jobs.

(That was all so much more than you asked for, huh?! I just wanted to fully convey why I'm against cap-and-trade and see if I could convince you that fee-and-dividend makes more sense, lots of info as usual, my apologies for the overload)