The Climate Minute

The Climate Minute - James Hansen retirement edition

James Hansen retired from NASA, paving the way for him to expand his role in the climate debate, it's about time, jeez, you almost never hear from the guy...  Kidding aside, that's just one of the things Rob and Ted talk about in this issue of the Climate Minute.  From the wind swept expanses of the Athabasca tar sands fields to town meeting in Manchester Massachusetts, welcome to the MCAN Climate Minute. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window, or go to our iTunes page and download or subscribe to the podcast. Some links to go enhance your listening experience: James Hansen is retiring after 46 years in NASA service.  Congratulations to Dr. Hansen, and we're excited to see you expand your activism (if that's possible) for the good of of the planet. Dr. Hansen's predictions from 1981 prove to be pretty reliable, over thirty years later.  Maybe he was on to something, eh? Bummer given his predictions about the impact of Keystone XL on climate change. But the fight over Keystone isn't over yet.  We've provided what we hope is a handy guide to talking Keystone with your climate denier friends and maybe getting them to oppose the pipeline on non-climate grounds. The Mayflower, Arkansas spill is just the latest disaster involving tar sands.  Perhaps the most galling aspect of that spill is the fact that tar sands derived oil doesn't even pay into the trust fund that is being used to clean up the spill.  If that doesn't get people ticked off about the idea of transporting more tar sands through the country, I don't know what does. To top it all off, Exxon has been running the show in Mayflower, and even denying press access to the disaster. Chris Hayes, of "All In" on MSNBC has done some excellent shows about the Mayflower spill and Keystone recently, check them out (after you're done listening here, of course!). Closer to home, tempers are flaring over wind turbines, with folks in Kingston upset about turbine flicker(sorry, story's only available behind the Globe's paywall), and Falmouth voting at town meeting next week on whether or not to spend millions of dollars to take down their existing turbines. There is some good news at town meetings though, with Manchester-by-the-Sea, a town as pretty as its name would suggest, passing the optional Stretch Building Code earlier this week, and towns like Lunenburg, Framingham, and West Newbury coming up in the next several weeks. The Legislature is in hearing season, and while the hearing on the Oil Heat Efficiency program we talked with Natalie Hildt about earlier this week has been pushed off, the debate about the future of transportation funding in the Commonwealth will take place next week. Competing plans have been proposed by the Governor and Legislative leadership, and while the Governor's plan provides more support for the system and new projects not covered in the Legislature leadership's plan, the Legislative plan does contain taxes on gasoline and electricity that inch us ever closer to our favorite topic: the Carbon Tax! The Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance has many thoughtful posts about the competing plans and what they feel is truly needed for lasting transportation reform in Massachusetts. Spring also means the fight for the updated bottle bill starts over.  Tomorrow night there will be a great event in Arlington, "The Battle for the Bottle Bill," a night of comedy, music, and conversation about the new bottle bill legislation before become hill.  Go here for more information.  We've only been trying to to get those pesky water bottles and juice bottles taken care of for 16 years, maybe this is the year! The bladeless wind turbine, via Grist Let's end on a hopeful note.  Ted found a neat new invention -- a bladeless wind turbine.  Perhaps the power of the future will be generated by these machines and "wind turbine syndrome" and flicker will be a thing of the past.  Or perhaps Ted's suggestion of mass numbers of Crookes Radiometers generating our power a sip at a time will be our savior.  I don't know, but I'm not the one in the conversation with a patent to his name... As always, it's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. You can donate and support the Climate Minute and all of MCAN's other climate change fighting activities by hitting that "donate now" button, or going to www.massclimateaction.net/donate.  Much thanks to Maura from Quincy and Leo from Wrentham who helped support us last week! Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  See you next week.

Climate Hawk's Companion - How to improve oil heat efficiency

Much is made of Massachusetts' nation-leading energy efficiency programs, but there are still gaps in the system that need to be addressed. The rate-payer efficiency programs in Massachusetts provide excellent coverage of heating system upgrades for customers who heat with gas and electricity.  Unlike gas and electric customers, homes and businesses in Massachusetts that rely on oil heat currently have limited access to energy-saving programs. This Climate Hawk's Companion is a discussion with Natalie Hildt, a senior manager with NEEP, the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships.  Natalie explains an important new effort to achieve greater home heating oil efficiency through legislation currently up for debate on Beacon Hill.  Click the Climate Hawk's Companion logo to hear our conversation with Natalie.

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H. 2741 is legislation filed by Representative Frank Smizik and twenty other legislators that creates an oil heat efficiency program funded through a small (2.5 cents per gallon) charge on heating oil sales.  This is the same way the current gas and electric heating programs are funded, through surcharges on electricity and natural gas.

This small charge would fund a $20 million program which would fund efficiency work that would result in savings of $120 million per year.  In addition to the impressive savings the efficiency programs would produce, the program would add thousands of job providing energy efficiency services and help boost the local economy. It also addresses the rapidly aging fleet of oil heat equipment in the state: in Boston alone some 40% of all oil heating systems are more than 20 years old and terribly inefficient. Unlike previous attempts to set up a program for oil heat, this effort is endorsed by a wide variety of stakeholders, from efficiency experts to environmentalists and the Massachusetts Oil Heat Council, which represents oil dealers across the state. The legislation will be the subject of a hearing before the Joint committee on Revenue at 10:30am on April 9th in State House hearing room B-2.  For more information on how to testify or send a letter in support of this important legislation, check out the Mass Oil Heat Coalition's fact sheet: Action Alert Oilheat Efficiency in Mass - 4.1.13

The Climate Minute - Spring brings...?

Spring officially showed up last week, and spring in Massachusetts means: Lilac Sunday? Maple sugaring?  Yes... and town meeting!  Rob and Ted talk a little about town meeting, a little about Keystone and fracking, and some Mauna Loa and Mayor Menino to fill out the bill.  Grab a cup  of joe and settle in for this week's Climate Minute. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. With concern about fracking continuing to grow, more communities may try to regulate fracking activities on the local level.  This will result in more cases like the one in Dryden, New York, where the industry is seeking to avoid a patchwork series of regulations. Could you use a primer on fracking and its consequences?  Huffington Post has a nice roundup of fracking info sources. In the "oh sure, why not" category comes a story that Oklahoma researchers are drawing a connection between hydraulic injection processes used in oil drilling with earthquakes.   While the process used in oil production is slightly different from the process used in natural gas production, fears that fracking will lead to more destructive earthquake activity seems to have some basis. Keystone continues to be in the news, and the comment period is supposed to close in mid April.  In spite of the lingering concern over the CV's of the report consultants, the State Department has taken the position that comments on the DEIS will remain confidential. Sick and tired of your climate denier friends extolling the virtues of a 1,200 mile pipeline carrying toxic "dilbit" down the backbone of this nation?  Climate Progress has a sarcastic list of the "benefits" of Keystone -- memorize two or three to give back to your friends. Here's my sarcastic addition: Oh, I'm sure you can build a 1,200 mile pipeline that won't leak or crosses any streams... Again, the website Credo has made it easy to submit an electronic comment on the Keystone pipeline Draft EIS here.  They'll provide you with a generic comment text which you can change, and they'll electronically deliver the comment for you.  They have collected 68% of the signatures they need to reach their goal of delivering 200,000 comments on the pipeline. As climate activists, we have internalized the idea that global carbon dioxide levels are rising from year to year. Indeed this is the bedrock on which we make our case that clean energy is needed. Most of us have seen a chart showing a squiggly but rising line representing CO2 levels, and some even know it as the ‘Mauna Loa” data. This makes it is worthwhile to note that the Mauna Loa curve, better known in scientific circles as the Keeling Curve , turns fifty-five this year. It was in March, 1958 that Dr.  Charles David Keeling began making the longest continuous record of CO2 levels available today. Spring also brings town meeting season.  Those of you living in New England have the grand pleasure and terrible responsibility to practice direct democracy in its purest form as town meeting convene across the state.  For some history and perspective on town meeting, here's an interesting article.  You can find your town's website address here.  Usually the town meeting warrant will be posted and you can familiarize yourself with what's up for debate before you attend. Speaking of local government, we would like to close with an acknowledgement of Mayor Menino's announcement of his retirement.  If your a college junior and you grew up in Boston, there has not been a mayor but Tom Menino.  Mayor Menino is a classic example of a quietly powerful Mayor.  His predecessors - the urbane Kevin White and sharp-elbowed Ray Flynn - perhaps cut larger figures, but no one exercised the degree of control over Boston for the amount of time Tom Menino did.  Under Menino's governance Boston has been a model of forward-thinking on climate and energy, and we wish him all the best. It's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you as always.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  See you next week.

The Climate Minute - Start By Doing What Is Necessary...

St. Francis Assisi is credited with the saying "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."  Timely words for climate activists from the Saint.  This week Ted and Rob discuss whether the President is doing what's necessary (never mind what's possible or impossible), and Ted waxes philosophical about the equinox while a new Pope gives environmentalists some hope. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. To read more about the President's plans to address automobile-sourced greenhouse gas emissions, here is a good piece from the New York Times.  The other new initiative we discussed was the President's proposal to include greenhouse gas emissions impacts in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  As former Massachusetts Energy and Environment Secretary Ian Bowles tweeted out earlier this week, Massachusetts has been requiring ghg impacts as part of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act review since about 2007.  Naturally some legislative luddites are trying to get involved and block the President's proposal. For more on the President's Clean Energy Trust proposal, check out Climate Desk here.  On the worrying side of the ledger, you should read about the delay in new source review for coal plants which is a concerning development. As you're aware the vernal equinox is upon us, and while the thing about an egg standing its end is hogwash, it is a time to take note of.  The equinox actually occurred on the 20th, at  11:02am.  As Ted points out, the equinox is an occasion to re-orient ourselves with a view toward nature (and our place in it), something lost in modern times but celebrated throughout antiquity.  Any occasion which causes us to think about our place in the grand scheme of things is welcome, and should work to raise consciousness of environmental issues including climate change. The new Pope of the Catholic Church chose the name Francis, who is the patron saint of, among other things, ecology.  Pope Francis gave his first homily as Pope this Tuesday, and his speech touched on the importance of protecting the environment in a number of passages.  Here's perhaps the most direct:

The vocation of being a “protector”, however, is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.

Hopefully he will continue to enunciate these sentiments to the world's 1.8 billion Catholics. Slate's gabfest had an interesting conversation about religion and modernity, which is fortuitously times given the equinox reminding us of our more nature-abiding past, and the installation of a new Pope taking the name of his church's most famous environmentalist.  I guess I would make the argument that a focus on conservation and environmental awareness is actually a move back toward older forms of faith and spirituality.  What do you think? In more temporal matters, Mayor Menino's proposal on building energy labeling will come up for a hearing on March 28th.  Larry Harmon wrote a very critical op-ed about the proposal in the Boston Globe, the state Department of Energy Resources has an illuminating white paper on the concept here.  Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) has a very helpful report here. For more news about the pending "de-listing" of the Mt. Tom coal plant, go here.  The great news about DPU's order relative to the proposed new gas plant in Salem is here, and for more discussion about what the sale of Brayton Point may mean, check out here, and Conservation Law Foundation's excellent analysis of the economic circumstance of Brayton here.  Finally, to stay up on all the news regarding New England's remaining coal polluters power plants, friend "Coal Free Massachusetts" on Facebook. Reminder: The website Credo has made it easy to submit an electronic comment on the Keystone pipeline Draft EIS here.  They'll provide you with a generic comment text which you can change, and they'll electronically deliver the comment for you.  They have collected 160,000 signatures toward their goal of delivering 200,000 comments on the pipeline. Tom Friedman (apparently Tom Friedman's Column of the Week is a new Climate Minute feature...) wrote a column last Saturday on the political and economic benefits of carbon taxes. If you're looking for a great conference full of ideas on how you can make a difference in your community, you should check out the Massachusetts Sustainable Communities / Sustainable Campuses conference happening on April 24th at the Worcester DCU center.  More information is available here. Also, don't forget to come back and visit for more details on our April 17th meeting with state officials discussing the Commonwealth's Clean Energy and Climate Plan. It's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you as always.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  See you next week.

The Climate Minute: Keystone is the Key

With only a few weeks left in the Keystone comment period, Rob and Ted spend a considerable amount of time of this podcast talking about the pipeline and what you can do about it. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Thanks to all who came to the MCAN/TAC conference this past weekend.  We had a great time and enjoyed meeting new people, learning some new things, and generally sharpening both our knowledge and our enthusiasm. We'll be posting materials from the conference on this site (look at the "Conference 2013" tab at the top), but for now why don't you check out some of the photos, or listen to the podcast Ted put together (about putting together podcasts -- how meta!). In other news, the comment period for the Keystone Draft Environmental Impact Statement is ticking down, with comments due in mid April. The New York Times provided its comment against the pipeline here. Tom Friedman (also of the Times) thinks that the President is likely to approve the pipeline... and that means it's time to get crazy.  Friedman opines that if we make enough noise about the Keystone decision we might get some concessions -- a carbon tax perhaps, or some other sweetener. Grist thinks the President should do the right thing from the get-go and just disapprove the pipeline, crack down on existing dirty power plants, and that talk of trades is defeatist. Of course, even a Presidential approval might not be the end of this story.  Several environmental lawyers who know their way around the National Environmental Policy Act think that the Keystone EIS doesn't meet the requirements of the the law and is legally insufficient.  It's quite likely this decision could end up in court either way -- one assumes Transcanada would file some sort of appeal to the President's decision as well. The website Credo has made it easy to submit an electronic comment here.  They'll provide you with a generic comment text which you can change, and they'll electronically deliver the comment for you.  They're apparently half-way toward their goal of delivering 200,000 comments on the pipeline. And there are of course other ways to express your objection to the pipeline and use of tar sands.  Congratulations to the young activists arrested in the Westborough, MA, headquarters of TransCanada.  You can follow their actions on their blog.   Tom Ashbrook of NPR had an interesting discussion with a number of young people talking about the edgier, more urgent new face of climate activism. Rep. Waxman, Senator Whitehouse, and a number of other congresspeople are "crowd sourcing" new carbon capping legislation.   They are asking for comments and your thoughts on the best ways to place a price on carbon.  Their discussion draft can be found here. Waxman is a quiet leader on climate change.  You don't see if on the Sunday morning talking-head shows too often, but he is a passionate advocate for these issues, to the point of being unafraid to push the president in caucus. On the local scene, Rep. Tom Conroy (D-Wayland) and Sen. Michael Barrett (D- ) have filed h. 2532, "An Act relative to shifting from carbon emissions to transportation investment" which would place a state-level carbon tax.  We'll keep you informed as to when the bill is up for a hearing. Finally, More concerns have arisen about Energy Secretary designee Ernest Moniz's positions, this time surrounding his work on clean coal.  I think it's important to remember that Moniz is a researcher, and was researching the potential for carbon sequestration to reduce or eliminate coal combustion's carbon emissions.  Now while sequestration would not address some of the horrible aspects of coal production (such as mountaintop removal or the toxic water pollution caused by coal mining), it would provide lower emission coal power -- which would be positive from a carbon standpoint. But more importantly, Moniz understands and agrees the we live in a "carbon contrained world," which is something we need and should support in our Energy Secretary. It's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you as always.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  See you next week.

Climate Hawk's Companion - Podcast on Podcasts

It was fun to present a short session on ‘How to Make a Podcast’ at the MCAN/TAC conference. If you are interested in podcasting, but need to have some of the mystery removed, listen here for tips that we have learned in working on the “Climate Minute” and “A Climate Hawk’s Companion” podcast series. Note that we’ve included some of the slides from the talk as part of the podcast (if you download the file and play it in your own media player -- just as an experiment!) This blog is mostly links. You can find the context for them in the podcast. Just click on the icon to listen, or subscribe to us on iTunes. Good examples of podcasts that you might want to imitate:

• Mike Duncan's "A History of Rome" is a compelling ‘monologue’ format.
• BBC's "A History of the World in 100 Objects" is in the documentary style.
• Slate's Gabfest. is a group discussion.
• All Songs Considered is a highly focused ‘interview’ show.

Some links to get you started:

• Apple describes GarageBand.
• Make a podcast with GarageBand.
• Apple's advice on podcasting.

Download Audacity if you use a Windows based computer. The Blue Yeti Microphone is a good choice, although a “USB Headset” from Staples is an easy place to start. We use WordPress as a location for our podcasts. PodBean helps us get the podcast onto iTunes. Some information on legal questions:

• The Fair Use Doctrine.
• Stock photos.

If you know more about the legal issues of who and where you can record, what permissions you need and how much you can ‘borrow’ from the internet, please comment on our blog. Good Luck, and let us know if you are successful!

….Ted McIntyre

The MCAN Climate Minute - DOS KXL DEIS PDQ...

Sorry for that rather befuddling title, but today Ted and I talk about the State Department's (DOS) Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the Keystone XL (KXL).  Let's get right to the links pretty darn quick (PDQ...). As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Last Friday the State Department released it's Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL pipeline segment from Canada to Steele City Nebraska (the Texas portion of the pipeline already approved). Essentially the State Department report finds that the pipeline would have little to no negative environmental impact, as the tar sands will be exploited either with or without the pipeline. This is a story with many, many parts.  First of all, many believe the findings are incorrect on their face.  NRDC provided a compelling comment on that point. We've also found interesting this story citing the connections between some of the consultants who worked on the report and the project proponents. Among the chatter in the wake of the DEIS was NY Times columnist Joe Nocera's taking to task of James Hansen for his fixation on the pipeline. Nocera's been a pretty strong proponent of the pipeline, so this latest story isn't surprising   He takes Hansen to task though for the passion he has displayed on the pipeline, which alludes to a running discussion in the climate community about the lengths to which activists should go to wake the nation ("rouse the conscious of the nation" in the words of Frederick Douglas) to the threat of climate change and our inadequacy in addressing same. Wen Stephenson (author of the "New Abolitionists" story we talked about a couple of weeks ago) has a piece in Grist this week about the risks being taken by young people -- getting arrested in opposition to Keystone.  Read the piece, it's an excellent look into the passion these young people feel for the climate crisis. Yes, read the piece, but unless you want to be discouraged don't read the comments.  There are a couple of the loopy denialist comments, but the most dispiriting ones perhaps are from fellow progressives who are criticizing either the young people out there protesting and getting arrested, or criticizing those who are unable, for whatever reason, to make that level of commitment. Creedo, an online activism site, is collecting pledges of people willing to be arrested (among a number of steps).  At last check over 30,000 people indicated their willingness to risk arrest to stop the pipeline. So speaking of commitment, what do we do about Keystone now? Well, first of all, this report is a draft. It is out for a 45-day comment period and will be finalized and sent to the president shortly after the period ends.  While it's highly unlikely that submitted comments will change the outcome of the report, you can be sure the political folks in the White House would pay attention to thousands of comments expressing deep disagreement with the conclusions of the report.  Remember -- this report is intended to provide the President with a specific piece of information; the projected environmental impact of Keystone.  The President's final decision should encompass the totality of the Keystone decision. If we have the President of Denver 2008, and of the inaugural speech in 2012 and of the 2013 State of the Union -- that President would reject Keystone regardless of the calculation the State Department report makes that the tar sands would just be exploited anyway so there's little environmental impact from the pipeline.  That President we heard in Denver, or on the steps of the Capitol Building, or in the House Chamber understands that we are not going to do anything that will further endanger the climate.  We should not be a part of it.  If the Canadians want to build a pipeline through their part of the Rockies, or ship the tar sands by rail -- that's on them.  But we're not going to help release million and millions of tons of greenhouse gases into our already compromised atmosphere. Anyone may submit comments on the DEIS at keystonecomments@state.gov. This Sunday (after our conference, which ends at 5pm), 350.org will have a video chat with Bill McKibben to discuss next steps in the fight against the pipeline.  Local organizations are hosting gatehrings to take part in the videocast, find the local one near you on the 350 website. The 350Massachusetts event will be held at First Parish Church in Cambridge at 7pm.  For more information check out our calendar listing here. In other news (what, there was other news?), the President finally got around to nominating Gina McCarthy to head EPA and Ernest Moniz to be the next Secretary of Energy.  Moniz has been criticised by some for his affection for nuclear power and unwillingness to categorically dismiss fracking (although less reported is his belief that fracking only buys us time to full deploy clean energy sources). You'll have to listen to the podcast to get our views on McCarthy and Moniz, which actually have some relevance as we each know one of them. You can read about the alarmingly high jump in atmospheric CO2 in the past year here.  The discussion of how climate change might have influenced the Arab Spring and particularly the current civil war in Syria. The film Greedy Lying Bastards, a documentary on the war against climate change action, is out can be found at the Coolidge Corner threater and the AMC Lowes in the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers.  Here are The Boston Globe and New York Times reviews. Finally; got a denier you want to annoy?  Share with them this story about Tambora which erupted in 1816 and created "the year without a summer."  Or perhaps how the eruption of Krakatoa impacted the weather for months and months halfway across the globe.  So, one volcanic eruption can cancel summer for a year, while 6 billion humans burning coal and driving SUVs can have no impact on the climate? It's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you as always.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  See you next week.

The Climate Minute: Spring Forward!

Did you know today was the start of Spring?  Well, it is.  Spring is here, budding trees, blooming flowers, the whole shebang.  That snow out there?  Pay no attention... it's spring I tell you... As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Yes, March 1st is the start of meteorological spring, which runs from March 1st to June 1st.  The meteorological seasons correspond to temperature norms, where the more recognized astrological seasons (in which springs begins with the vernal equinox on March 20th) are based on the planet's position relative to the sun. Actually to us the beginning of meteorological spring means it's nine days to the the MCAN conference.   That's right, the annual MCAN conference is Sunday, March 10th, at Northeastern University.  We're thrilled to have Mayor John Fetterman of Braddock Pennsylvania as our keynote speaker.  Mayor John is on the cutting edge of creative thinking about urban communities and epitomizes the determination to improve those places around us that motivate MCAN activists. Here are some links to go along with our talk this morning. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in town at the offshore wind conference and reaffirmed that the Interior Department was set to auction offshore wind leases along the Atlantic seaboard.  Administration officials  believe there may be up to 1 million megawatts of capacity offshore.   The bad news in Secretary Salazar's speech was that the sequester could delay permitting of renewable facilities by the Interior department.  As you know, March 1st brings not only spring, but the onset of the federal budget sequester.  Barring a last minute deal, the budget sequester will go into effect at or near midnight tonight. The sequester, the across the board arbitrary verying percentage (generally 8.2% for discretionary spending and around 9% for military spending) cut in all federal programs, will hit everything from the military to state and federal environmental programs. The sequester will not impact the MCAN conference however.  You have heard we're having a conference, right?  There's still time to register for the conference here.  And hey, its Daylight Savings Time again -- so remember to set your clocks ahead Saturday night ("spring ahead, fall back") or you'll be late to the conference! It's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you as always.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  See you next week.

The MCAN Climate Minute - Protests and protestations.

Well, the Keystone protest in Washington is over and Rob and Ted are back at the pink and orange coffeehouse to compare notes about the march and try to figure out what's next. The protest created an interesting back-and-forth between several observers as to the most effective path forward for the climate movement, and we give our two cents. Also, some breaking news coming out of DC (well, breaking rumor) about the next EPA director has Massachusetts environmentalists a-flutter. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here are some links to go along with our talk this morning. We've cobbled together some clips from the speeches and march. Forgive the amateur video, but, hey, we're amateurs at this... [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ_tp7RKJnY] The march caused a some folks to question the approaches required to fight climate change.  Apparently, Andy Revkin of the NY Times Dot.Earth blog was engaging in a little twitter back and forth during the march with Phil Aroneau of 350.org about the value of protesting Keystone, among other things, which naturally got some folks fairly ticked off. Revkin is more inclined not to draw a line in the sand on Keystone, as too much of a focus on Keystone hurts efforts to secure other carbon-reducing policies.  In crude terms, and as this little dust-up has been summed up by Dave Roberts of Grist, this is a fight between the Radicals and the Very Serious People (VSP). For my part, I believe Roberts is right when he states that protesting Keystone is not going to hurt any other action, why would it?  This isn't a zero sum game in which my marching around the White House precludes me from fighting for renewable energy in my town.... Rivken's piece got me thinking about the "grand bargain" that has been floated in certain quarters; would the community accept Keystone if it was paired with a carbon tax, but that seems to be a meme spouted mostly by people on the outside looking in, and not a serious discussion. Beyond Dave Robert's analysis that activism on Keystone doesn't preclude other solutions though is discussion of a clash of cultures in the climate movement.  Susan Cagle wrote a piece titled "At climate rally, some signs of fraying in a movement’s big tent" which played up VSP vs. Radical divide within the climate movement itself.  Cagle presented a vignette of a young person climbing a tree and being scolded by an older marcher for damaging the tree as well as the climate movement itself. She went on in the piece to interview a couple of the younger protesters who thought many of the Keystone marchers were being too passive, and that the climate movement has to move outside of the "mainstream" -- we can't be concerned about trees, or niceties  while the planet burns. Wen Stepehenson echoes this call in a recent Boston Pheonix piece exhorting climate change activists to be the new abolitionists, that the time to be reasonable is long since passed. For my part I believe the movement has to have many faces, from angry to hopeful, to be successful.  If we are to move the mass of people we have to present both the problem (Keystone) and the solutions (clean energy, energy efficiency, better zoning, local food etc etc etc). The young man interviewed in the Cagle piece was very frustrated, I understand that.  But there's useful frustration and there's wasted frustration.  When you say that you'd like to tell the President:

‘You fucking start this change or we’re going to do it ourselves,’” said Max. “We’re going to take over and cross this fence and walk over to that White House.”

Well.  Frankly, that's wasted frustration.  I'm sorry, but climate change cannot be solved by jumping the White House fence, swearing at the President, and getting shot by the Secret Service.  Our government may be made up of pandering captives of special interests, but it's the only government we got.  We're not going to solve this problem without government action, and that means getting political leaders on board.  And political leaders are notorious for finding the middle ground. Until we fix our government (through campaign finance reform, among other things), we're going to have to work within its limits. (Of course, it doesn't help that the President was golfing with Big Oil executives while the march was going on.) By the way, Roberts has a very good piece up this morning about "what's next" after the Keyston decision.  Take a gander at it here. Secretary of State Kerry made his first major foreign policy speech, and climate change featured prominently:

"So let’s commit ourselves to doing the smart thing and the right thing and truly commit to tackling this challenge," he said. "Because if we don’t rise to meet it, rising temperatures and rising sea levels will surely lead to rising costs down the road. If we waste this opportunity, it may be the only thing our generations are remembered for. We need to find the courage to leave a far different legacy."

Word coming out of DC has local hero Gina McCarthy will very soon be nominated for EPA Administrator.  The Washington Post thinks the nomination could come as soon as this Wednesday.  Having had the pleasure of working with Gina in two of her Massachusetts positions, I think she'd make an excellent Administrator, and has a wonderful ability to work with all parties to achieve significant environmental successes. Plus it's great having someone else with that accent in a position of power!  ("Cahhs in the market today...") In other cabinet news, many believe departing Sec. of Energy Stephen Chu will be replaced by MIT Professor Ernest Moniz.  Word of his potential nomination has some environmentalists concerned, as in the past Professor Moniz has supported fracking as a "bridge to a low carbon future."  Stay tuned... Remember - our annual conference is coming up March 10th at Northeastern University. You can read about the panels we're offering and the speakers who will be there here. Finally, Ted was smitten with Beasts of the Southern Wild.  For a deep read on its sociological and environmental importance, check out this article in the journal Southern Spaces. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.

MCAN Climate Minute - On Our Way to DC

Life is back to normal in New England after last weekend's snowstorm dumped about 24 inches or more on parts of the region.  Ted and Rob are getting ready to go to Washington for this weekend's Keystone XL protest, but there is other news, so settle in and let's talk about what's happening in Massachusetts and beyond relative to climate change this week. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here are some links to go along with our talk this morning. The President laid down the law at the State of the Union this week; if congress doesn't act to pass a market-based carbon reduction program, he will use the power of his administration to act. Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe opines that the President's threat of increased regulation will drive legislators to embrace cap-and-trade programs, like the successful RGGI program.  You can read his editorial here, grab it before it goes behind the paywall. The President's speech ignited another round of supposition about a possible Carbon Tax-for-Keystone trade, in US as well as in Canada.  Would the President try and appease both the fossil fuel lobby and the environmental lobby by offering a deal on both issues?  Or would that just create two unhappy camps? In the midst of this discussion, Senators Barbara Boxer and Bernard Sanders have filed a "cap and dividend" bill to impose a carbon tax, and disperse (much) of the proceeds to taxpayers. The coming abdication of Pope Benedict presents a possibility for a new vigor about climate change from the Catholic Church.  A non-European pope, particularly a southern-hemisphere pope, may redirect Rome's attention on the planetary suffering that will ensue from Climate Change.  While the primary experience of climate conscious Catholics has been one of deafening silence, there are groups within the church paying attention to Climate Change. In other meteorlogical news (har har, couldn't resist) later today asteroid 2012DA14 will come as close to Earth as we're likely comfortable with.  2012DA14 will actually pass closer to the planet than the orbit of several satellites, and yesterday a meteor streaked across the sky in Russia, causing injuries to hundreds and causing quite a commotion. We mention this, not because unlike certain newsreaders on CNN we're trying to tie these events to climate change, but to point out that this is the "bright shiny object" syndrome that drives news coverage and media attention, while the inexorable march of climate change caused by human emissions of greenhouse gasses, goes if not mocked than underreported -- and has consequences orders of magnitude larger than 2012DA14 or that meteor over Russia! Fortunately there are some weather people paying attention.  Kudos to Boston's own Channel 5 meteorologist Harvey Leonard who explained very clearly and calmly that while you can't go and pin the development of a winter storm on climate change, the trend toward larger and larger storms is very clearly due to climate change and associated warming.  Good on 'ya Harvey -- we loved you when you were announcing school was out when we were kids, and we love you now. Thanks for listening, and here's a little gift.  Here's NPR's Bands that Should Be Bigger podcast with some links to great artists you should be listening to, particulary Adam Arcugai and Seryn. Remember - our annual conference is coming up March 10th at Northeastern University.  Register today to get the early bird rate! Well we'll see you in Washington, and as always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.