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terrybankert
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[With the Republican loss of Congress-trb]...Energy Firms Come to
Terms With Climate Change
By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112401361.html?referrer=email
Saturday, November 25, 2006; Page A01
[Comments by Terry Bankert -trb][see below-em]
While the political debate over global warming continues, top
executives at many of the nation's largest energy companies have
accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see
federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable.
[They had no choice. Bush and the Republican party have lost
Congress. Democratic inquiry will soon reveal the damage the
Republicans, to allow more big business profits, have caused this
country.-trb]
[People are destroying our environment, our mother earth.-trb]
[We have...a mystical tapestry of clutured traditions, racial, ethnic, national,
religious and family, that has woven earthly spirtuality into every aspect of
life...mother earth spirtuality holds great potential for the environmental
movement as it emerges as a world and political issue.-em]
The Democratic takeover of Congress makes it more likely that the
federal government will attempt to regulate emissions.
The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works.
They are also working to change some company practices in
anticipation of the regulation.
[The cause of the environment is a song of love, and the Indians have drummed its rhythm. Just as indians have given us a Mother earth spirtuality, so too they have given us the concept of a worthy warrior who has the qualities to fight for what she or he holds sacred.-em]
[Are your elected officals worthy warriors? Are you?-trb]
[Question your congressman, or future Congressmen like Dan Kildee
about global warming. If global warming is addressed now this effort
will make life better for your grand children.-trb]
"We have to deal with greenhouse gases," John Hofmeister, president
of Shell Oil Co., said in a recent speech at the National Press
Club. "From Shell's point of view, the debate is over. When 98
percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the
science'?" [But yet Shell and other big money big oil firms have done just that debated the known accepted science to delay emission control.
When confronted with the question save the profits or save the
country they are for profits.-trb]
Hofmeister and other top energy company leaders, such as Duke Energy
Corp.'s chief executive, James E. Rogers, back a proposal that would
cap greenhouse gas emissions and allow firms to trade their quotas.
Paul M. Anderson, Duke Energy's chairman and a member of the
president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, favors a
tax on emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse
gas. His firm is the nation's third-largest burner of coal.
[What does it take to inject a sense of urgency into this country? Do we have to tear a hole in the sky before we wake up? Well, we've done that.-em]
Exxon Mobil Corp., the highest-profile corporate skeptic about global
warming, said in September that it was considering ending its funding
of a think tank that has sought to cast doubts on climate change. And
on Nov. 2, the company announced that it will contribute more than
$1.25 million to a European Union study on how to store carbon
dioxide in natural gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea, Algeria and
Germany. [These "think our way tanks" were to confuse the media and
give a false logic to a then Republican Congress to continue its
support of big oil.-trb]
[Do we have to see life giving rain be turned so acidic that it kills the fish
and trees and endangers human health? Well we've done that.-em]
These changes come as Democratic leaders prepare to take over key
committees on Capitol Hill. Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), who calls
global warming "the greatest challenge of our generation," will take
the place of Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) as chairman of the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee. Inhofe refers to global
warming as a "hoax."
[These newly powerful Democrats are now our warriors to fight issue by
issue.-trb]
[In the past warriors were honored when they defended their family and tribe.
Today, the new tribal members are planetary citizens, and the threat to quality of life- indeed it its very survival - goes far beyond the constricted view shaped by military consideration.
As the threat changes so too the qualities we honor in a warrior must change.
Guns and swords are inneffective against the complex and varied assaults of an environment thrown out of natural balance.
A true earth warrior must be imbued with the determination to let nature restore her inherent harmony. Although we can expect great progress from the greening technology and the inventiveness of the human spirit, we should not allow ourselves to be beguiled that information and technology advance will be sufficient.
The Indians talked of "mystic warriors". They understood what Einstein ment when he said:
The more nowledge we acquire, the more mystery we find...
A human being is part of the whole, called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space.
He expierences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness, this delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its
beauty.
Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.-em]
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), the incoming Energy and Natural
Resources Committee chairman, said he hopes to "do something on
global warming." Even though the Bush administration's expected
opposition might make the enactment of legislation unlikely in the
next two years, many companies cannot put off decisions about what
sort of power plants to build.
[Do we have to watch the great seas rise, inundate our coastlines, and disrupt agricultural patterns through global warming? Well we're doing it. -em]
Duke Energy, for example, has not added significant power generation
in two decades, and customer demand is rising 1 to 2 percent a year.
The company has included a price for the carbon emitted in its cost
estimates for a new coal-fired generating plant proposed for Indiana.
"If we had our druthers, we'd already have carbon legislation
passed," said John L. Stowell, Duke Energy's vice president for
environmental policy. "Our viewpoint is that it's going to happen.
There's scientific evidence of climate change. We'd like to know what
legislation will be put together so that, when we figure out how to
increase our load, we know exactly what to expect."
[What does it take to wake up world governments to the global threat? Can we not see the miners canary is dying- that we must save the earth if we are to save ourselves.-em]
One reason companies are turning to Congress is to avert the
multiplicity of regulations being drafted by various state
governments.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of seven
Northeastern states, is moving ahead with a proposed system that
would set a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions, issue allowances to
companies, and allow firms to trade those allowances to comply with
regulations.
California is drawing up its program. Other states are also
contemplating limits. Even the city of Boulder, Colo., has adopted
its own plan -- a carbon tax based on electricity use.
"We cannot deal with 50 different policies," said Shell's
Hofmeister. "We need a national approach to greenhouse gases."
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the
federal government is obligated to regulate carbon dioxide as a
pollutant; its decision could force the government to come up with
guidelines.
[We should give them what they fear to protect ourselves. Demand 50 different energy policies.-trb]
Though many energy firms had already voiced support in recent months
for federal regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions, the coming
changeover in Congress has intensified the discussions.
"There have been many more folks wanting to engage on the detailed
architecture of climate-change legislation," said Jason S. Grumet,
executive director of the bipartisan National Commission on Energy
Policy. "The tenor, tone and the detail of discussions has changed in
the last couple of months.
Nobody's going to want to be the last company to come before the Congress and say,
'I've been opposing you for five years, but now can I have my piece?' "
Some businesses are making new hires based on the assumption that
legislative activity on global warming will increase in the coming
months. Truman Semans, director of markets and business strategy for
the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, said at least half a dozen
of the companies that belong to the center's Business Environmental
Leadership Council have recently hired staff members focused on
global warming.
Not every energy company is planning to curb greenhouse gas emissions
in the near future. TXU Corp. is planning to spend $10 billion to
build 11 new coal-fired power plants, which would more than double
the company's carbon dioxide emissions, from 55 million tons to 133
million tons a year. That increase in emissions is more than the
total carbon dioxide pollution emitted in all of Maryland or by 10
million Cadillac Escalade sport-utility vehicles.
In an e-mail to The Washington Post, TXU spokeswoman Kimberly Morgan
said that the company supports "a comprehensive, voluntary,
technology-based approach to global climate change based on carbon
intensity" that is both "flexible and cost effective."
"We are at a point in time where other states and businesses are
starting to take global warming seriously," said Colin Rowan,
spokesman for the advocacy group Environmental Defense. "California
is heading toward the future, and TXU and Texas are sprinting full
speed back to the 1950s."
The company's approach may pay off in the short term, but it may not
last. "Over the next two years I don't think environmental policy is
going to change radically," said Carl Pope, executive director of the
advocacy group Sierra Club. But he added, "I think the environmental
agenda and conversation will change radically."
Corporate America wants to be part of that conversation. Duke
Energy's Stowell said: "Industry is coming together and
saying, 'Okay, if we're going to do this, let's do this in a way that
won't wreck the economy.' "
[They argue against wrecking the economy, I argue against wrecking the
earth.-trb]
[We do not seek a back to nature movement; instead we emphasize the realization
that we can never leave nature.
As we leave behind the worldview of a dead mechanistic earth, it is only
natural to begin to evision the great transformation that lies ahead.
The worn out age built on fosil fuels is drawing quickley to its end, and the
glimpses of a postmoderfen civilization are begining to excite a new generation
of futurist.
Poised as we are on the verge of a new dawn, we need to draw upon sacred
traditions and values...always rise early to great the daybreak star, for it is
the star of understanding...As the moderen age ends and the new age is being
born.. learn to evlove so as to survive..adapt or die...
the nobleist instinct of them all is the reverence for life.(Albert
Schweitzer)-em]
[ If we do nothing today our great grandchildren will not know the earth we walk
on today!-trb]
-----end-----
[Global emission is our survival issue. Just imagine if the money
spent on the Bush wars had been put into research and development to
stop global warming.- Bush and Cheney are just big oil profiteers.
They will get away with it. Its is up to us to createw new leadership to save
the earth. -trb]
Posted here by
Terry Bankert [trb]
http://attorneybankert.com/
see:"Mother Earth Spirituality, Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and
our World, Harper Collins Pub,
Ed McGann 1990" cited [-em] |
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Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:20 am |
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pissed off ma ma bear
Guest
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| I think everyone should go out and rent this new movie about Global Warming that Al Gore,,,made, you know the guy who actually won the presidency 6 yrs ago, and it was stolen from him,,,well turns out one of the main reasons he got into politics is because of what we are doing to our earth,,,and the way he teaches this , a dumby will totally understand, believe me I know,,,I understand it finally,,,,laugh,,,after seeing this , it is really scarry what our world it coming to in just a few short years if something is not done,,,,and after watching this, and seeing actually how intelligent Al Gore really is, my husband looked at me and said,,,Oh my god,,,can you imagine how nice our world would have been had he been President,,,,GO RENT THE NEW MOVIE,,,BE AMAZED |
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Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:46 pm |
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