Author: Guest Contributor

By Peter Montague
From http://www.precaution.org/lib/07/ht071025.htm

It now seems clear that the coal and oil industries are not going to allow the United States to curb global warming by making major investments in renewable sources of energy. These fossil fuel corporations simply have too much at stake to allow it.

Simple physics tells us that the way to minimize the human contribution to global warming is to leave the remaining fossil fuels in the ground — stop mining them as soon as humanly possible. This obvious solution would require us to turn the nation’s industrial prowess to developing solar power in its many forms as quickly as we can — we would need a “‘Manhattan Project’ for Energy,” as the strategy journal of the top U.S. military planners said recently.

Look at the relative size of our current government investments in solar vs. fossil fuels. In 2007 the federal Department of Energy spent $168 million on solar research. On the other hand each year since 1991 the U.S. government has spent 1000 times that amount — $169 billion — subsidizing the flow of oil from the Middle East, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, our top military planners. And that figure doesn’t include what consumers paid for the oil itself. If our solar investment remains one-tenth of one percent of our investment in oil, there will be no solar power to speak of in our future.

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At the end of the welcoming address of Point Carbon’s “Carbon Market Insights” conference on October 30th 2007, Rising Tide took the stage to present them with a deed to the sky:

Jessie: Before we begin we’d like to express how overjoyed we are at the opportunity to commend you all for undertaking the important work you are doing in taking care of the climate change problem”

Jessie: “we have a very special gift for all of you here, as the cutting edge of market based solutions to climate change we present to you a deed to the next frontier that is literally over all of your heads:”

David: “This indenture made on the 30th day of October in the year of our lord Two Thousand and Seven on behalf of the Secretary of the Sky bestows the full and rightful ownership of all parts of the atmosphere to the Carbon Traitors of Carbon Market Insights. Wittnesseth, that it be hereby known and proclaimed to all that the Carbon Traitors of Carbon Market Insights are recorded as the true and legal beneficiaries of the Sky and all its carbon existent or henceforth emitted and duly recorded by the Secretary of the Sky. We hold it to be self evident that all Greenhouse Gases are created equal, be they held in trees, pig shit, fossil fuels in the ground or combusted.

David: “so, thank you very much, we are also leaving with you a key to the sky
so that you are now the rightful owners, here is you deed.

David and Jessie:
“Generations of the future
Are begging us now
Renounce this treachery
Please spare this cash cow
So sink this idea
Offset your Illusions
There’s no market based quick-fix
for unchecked pollution

****applause***

Congressman Inslee: “So let’s hear it for the Sky Raiders here. I don’t know if I can top that”

See below for a press release from Friends of the Earth on the bill.

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Rising Tide North America opposes all forms of Carbon Trading, but this bill is especially bad since it GIVES AWAY (rather than auctions) the right to pollute the atmosphere to the fossil fuel industry, which it can then trade or sell, making record profits.

For more background on Carbon Trading we recommend:
1. Carbon Trade Watch’s “The Sky Is Not the Limit” http://www.carbontradewatch.org/pubs/skyeng.pdf
2. Rising Tide UK’s “The Case Against Carbon Trading” http://risingtide.org.uk/resources/factsheets/carbontrading
3. The Corner House’s many resources: http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/subject/climate/
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Lieberman climate bill could have record corporate giveaways

October 17, 2007

For Immediate Release

For more information contact:
Nick Berning, 202-222-0748

Legislation’s allocation of permits to polluters could be worth trillions, says analysis from Friends of the Earth, and the coal industry stands to be the biggest winner

WASHINGTON — Global warming legislation expected to be introduced tomorrow could provide giveaways worth hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars to polluting industries, according to an analysis of a draft of the legislation conducted by Friends of the Earth.

The cap-and-trade legislation, sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), would attempt to limit U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by setting annual emissions limits for each industry. Under this legislation, a set amount of greenhouse gas pollution would continue to be allowed — and the way in which these transferable allowances, or permits, would be allocated could richly reward the country’s largest global warming polluters, as each permit could be sold or traded for cash just like a stock or a bond.

“What we’re looking at is the potential for corporate giveaways that are orders of magnitude larger than anything environmentalists have ever faced — potentially the biggest corporate giveaways in American history,” said Erich Pica, one of the authors of the Friends of the Earth analysis of the August draft of the legislation. “Polluters should have to pay for their pollution, not be rewarded for it.”

The Friends of the Earth analysis found that the coal industry in particular stands to benefit from this legislation, precisely because it is currently the industry most responsible for global warming pollution. Depending on market conditions, the coal industry could receive permits worth up to $231 billion in the first year alone, 48 percent of the total permit allocation. It could then sell or “trade” its permits to others for their cash value, or it could emit at no cost carbon that less fortunate industries would have to pay to emit.

“If Congress is going to implement a cap-and-trade system, it should auction off 100 percent of permits so that taxpayers reap the financial rewards. We could use that money to help Americans adjust to higher energy costs, and to subsidize clean, alternative forms of energy,” Pica said. “Instead, Senators Lieberman and Warner have proposed auctioning off only 24 percent of permits at the outset of this legislation, setting up a rigged market in which most permits are handed out to polluting industries for free. If you see a lot of polluters lining up in support of this legislation, that’s why.”

While the specific language of the legislation being introduced tomorrow could differ somewhat from the draft circulated in August, permit allocations will reportedly continue to be a problem. Friends of the Earth will update its analysis after the legislation is introduced to reflect the final numbers in the bill.

Friends of the Earth’s analysis of the Lieberman-Warner draft can be found at http://foe.org/globalwarming/Coal%20Rush.pdf.

Our August statement responding to the initial release of the Lieberman-Warner draft can be found at http://action.foe.org/dia/organizationsORG/foe/pressRelease.jsp?press_release_KEY=250.

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