The Reality Blog

How’s that for Clean?

Today, the E.P.A. made a major announcement. From the NYT:

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday formally declared carbon dioxide and five other heat-trapping gases to be pollutants that threaten public health and welfare, setting in motion a process that for the first time in the United States will regulate the gases blamed for global warming.

The E.P.A. said the science supporting its ‘endangerment’ finding was “compelling and overwhelming.” The ruling triggers a 60-day comment period before any proposed regulations governing emissions of greenhouse gases are published.

Lisa P. Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator, said: “This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations. Fortunately, it follows President Obama’s call for a low-carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation.”

This finding makes official what we already knew: the coal industry’s claims to already be “clean” or “77% cleaner” are a complete farce, because these claims completely ignore industry carbon dioxide emissions, which are now recognized as a dangerous pollutant.

The coal industry hasn’t reduced their CO₂ emissions at all. And until they can safely capture and store these emissions, any claims that coal is “clean” are now — according to both reality AND the U.S. Government — complete lies. We can only hope that ACCCE — the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity — will soon be “scrubbing” all mention of “clean” from their website and name.

Guess who’s #1?

A new report by the Center for Public Integrity finds explosive growth over the last five years in the number of lobbyists seeking to influence climate change legislation.

It turns out, the coal industry has been pretty busy lobbying for legislation friendly to the dirty status quo. In fact, they were #1 in these lobbying efforts.

According to the report, 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists in the past year — with expenditures topping $90 million. Among all these groups, it’s no surprise that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) came in at #1:

ACCCE spent $10.5 million lobbying Capitol Hill on climate in 2008 — more than any other organization solely dedicated to the issue.

Good ‘ol ACCCE — spending money on lobbying almost as fast as their industry pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Now that the EPA is reconsidering regulating C0₂ emissions how do you think they feel about that chunk of change?

It seems they find it cheaper to market and lobby than actually investing in the development of a commercial-scale system of carbon capture and storage. Such a system still doesn’t exist for a single one of the more than 600 power plants in operation in the US, and until it does, claiming that coal is “clean” is just blowing a whole lot of smoke.

EPA Decision on Global Warming Pollution Review

Yesterday, the EPA handed the coal industry a pretty serious wake-up call:

The decision could mark the first step toward placing limits on greenhouse gases emitted by coal plants, an issue that has been hotly contested by the coal industry and environmentalists since April 2007, when the Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide should be considered a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

The industry has vigorously opposed efforts to regulate those emissions, asserting that the policy should be set by Congress. Moreover, technology for capturing carbon dioxide emissions is expensive and virtually untested.

Here’s our public statement in support of the EPA’s position:

For immediate release: February 17, 2009

Reality Coalition Statement on EPA Decision to Review Regulation of Global Warming Pollution from Coal Plants

Today’s news that the Environmental Protection Agency will reconsider the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants is a positive step towards accounting for the massive and devastating impact that the coal industry is having on our planet.

Today’s action is a wakeup call to the coal industry: live up to your marketing claims and clean up your act. The climate crisis demands that we switch to truly clean carbon-free energy sources once and for all.

Read the full story, and stay tuned for more news and ways to get involved as this story develops.