Let me ask you a question.

[ProSense]

81. You know

"One denies climate change.

The other is actively helping it.

So there's crazy, and then there's CRAZY. "

...what's "crazier": hate.

Robertson pushes that too.

I mean, who is crazier:

Mark Udall or Pat Robertson?

Brian Schweitzer of Pat Robertson?

The unions backing Keystone or Pat Robertson?

It's a weird comparison.

President Obama’s New Budget Is Peppered With Efforts To Tackle Climate Change

By Jeff Spross

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The centerpiece of that effort is continued funding for regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency to cut carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s power plants. The agency has already revealed the rules for new plants, and should release its rules for existing plants in June of this year.

But there’s plenty else on climate and green energy issues in the budget. Here are some of the major items:

Clean Energy Tax Credits. This includes a permanent extension of the production tax credit for wind — a cost of $19.2 billion over ten years — which expired at the end of 2013. There’s also $401 million over that time period for alternative-fuel trucks tax credits, and $1.7 billion for cellulosic biofuel.

Cutting Fossil Fuel Tax Breaks. The budget would axe about $4 billion in tax breaks that are currently available to the oil and natural gas industries, and another $3.9 billion in tax preferences for coal.

Climate Resiliency Fund. Obama announced last month he would ask Congress for $1 billion to fund new technology and infrastructure to prepare for climate change, aid for communities, and new research. The budget makes good on that promise.

NOAA Satellites. Obama wants $2 billion to fully fund a new fleet of weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Fighting Wildfires. The cost of tackling wildfires in 2012 was 23 percent higher than the 10-year average. So Obama’s budget boosts the U.S. Forest Service’s budget 4.7 percent to $2.3 billion, in order to suppress and research wildfires.

Infrastructure vulnerabilities. The budget would give the Department of Homeland Security an extra $400 million to track down “critical infrastructure vulnerabilities” to climate change.

Clean Energy Technology. The National Science Foundation would get $362 million under the budget to research advanced forms of green energy.

Energy Networks. Overall, the budget boosts funding for the Energy Department to $27.9 billion in 2015 — an increase of 2.6 percent over 2014. That includes $355 million to beef up the robustness of the electrical grid and fuel transportation infrastructure.

Obama’s budget must be passed by Congress, which is pretty unlikely. “It’s a great place to begin this discussion, but will the Republican-led House of Representatives fund anything with the word ‘climate’ in it?” asked Daniel J. Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, in an interview with Bloomberg.

Of course, Congresses rarely pass any President’s proposed budget as is, usually writing their own that the President then signs.

But the Union of Concerned Scientists is on board with Obama’s priorities. “The president is confronting members of Congress with a reality they need to face: climate change is already hurting us economically,” said Angela Anderson, the director of the group’s Climate and Energy Program. “Resilience funding is essential to confront the consequences of climate change already being felt. Beyond that, Congress needs to get serious about reducing the risks of the changing climate. Unless and until we start cutting emissions that cause global warming, the problems communities are facing, and their price tags, will continue to grow.”
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http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/05/3366331/obama-2015-budget-climate/

Thank President Obama for protecting Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024650005

Jake Schmidt’s Blog

Secretary Kerry Makes Climate Change Top Priority in New Policy Directive: Some key actions to deliver on that policy

Secretary Kerry has just issued his first “Policy Directive” as U.S. Secretary of State. This new directive outlines that climate change is a central issue for the State Department and directs an “all hands on deck” approach to this issue. He rightly recognized that this will require strong action in the U.S., while helping spur global action. This is welcome sign that should ensure that all components of the U.S. diplomatic service are mobilized to help drive climate change action. His leadership will be critical on several key pending actions that can help deliver upon these new guidelines.

Working with the entire U.S. Administration Secretary Kerry can help deliver on these guidelines with a couple of key actions.

1. Reject KXL and other tar sands pipelines that will expand greenhouse gas emissions. The guidelines outline that the U.S. should: “Lead by example through strong action at home and abroad.” Keystone XL would cause an expansion of tar sands production and the associated greenhouse gas emissions (as my colleague pointed out). And tar sands expansion is helping Canada blow past its international commitment to address climate change. In its formal submission to the U.N. Canada acknowledged that it will fail to meet its commitment to cut its emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. And tar sands expansion is the single biggest emissions growth in Canada so enabling these emissions would fail both the “act and home and abroad test” in the directive. Secretary Kerry should listen to the 2 million people urging him to reject Keystone XL.

2. Support strong domestic action to deliver on the U.S. Climate Action Plan to meet the target outlined in Copenhagen. Strong implementation of the Climate Action Plan will put the US on track to meet its commitment to cut emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020. Chief among these are the domestic actions that the US takes on power plant carbon pollution, reducing the “super-greenhouse gas” called HFCs, and methane leaks from oil and gas. Aggressive implementation of the Climate Action Plan would be a clear sign that call for “strong action at home” in the directive is on solid ground.

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4. Secure a global agreement in December 2015 and push for an “all hands on deck” approach to climate action. In December 2015 countries are set to agree on the next round of legal commitments to address climate change. We don’t have the luxury of “kicking the can down the road” so all countries must come prepared to make bold and decisive commitments to curb their own carbon pollution and mobilize investments in developing countries. The State Department directive recognizes this moment when it states: “negotiate a new, ambitious international climate agreement applicable to all countries by 2015 to take effect in 2020”. Secretary Kerry and his team will play a critical role in ensuring that the U.S. is prepared to act aggressively in this agreement. Countries have begun to outline some of their visions for this agreement (see Reuters on US proposals, Reuters on Chinese proposals, RTCC on EU’s proposals, and here for all of the submissions).

At the same time, Secretary Kerry clearly recognizes that we need an “all hands on deck” approach (his recent speech referred to it as a “you name it approach”) where countries are using all of the tools and available avenues to address climate change. This principle is already evident in the U.S. effort to support phasing down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol, supporting reducing black carbon reductions from dirty diesel and other sources, eliminating public funding of coal projects, and pushing for major companies to commit to eliminate deforestation from their supply-chain. Secretary Kerry can continue to lead this push, while also ensuring that the entire State Department operation is supporting climate action (not supporting more investments in climate destructive activities).

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http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jschmidt/secretary_kerry_makes_climate.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024650409