Democrats Can't Have It Both Ways on Keystone XL and Climate Action

Self-styled "centrist" Democrats like Senators Michael Bennet (Colorado), Bob Casey (Pennsylvania), Claire McCaskill (Missouri), and Tim Kaine and Mark Warner (Virginia) say they recognize climate reality and support action to cut carbon pollution.

But ... then they see polls that show the public is split on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline ... and feel pressure from Very Serious People in Washington who won't say no to anything the oil, gas and coal industries want ... and think, maybe we can have both? Get credit for support this current & specific polluting pipeline AND burnish climate bona fides by hand-waving towards some future & not yet existent climate effort?

No. Climate action isn't just about the easy & popular things, like clean energy and energy efficiency. It's also about the hard things, like saying no to oil and coal barons who may spend lots of money to try to defeat you in your next re-election campaign. You can't claim to support climate action, but wilt like corn caught in a global warming-fueled drought every time big polluters come asking for a favor. 

Either you support climate action. Or you support Keystone XL and don't really care about things like climate-fueled extreme weather or protecting our natural resources for future generations. You can't have it both ways.

Virginia Consumers Fleeced by Peabody's Expensive, Dirty Coal Power

Some Virginia communities like Danville bought into Peabody Energy's promise of cheap coal-fired power - and now as the project's pricetag balloons to $5 billion they're paying for it big time:

Coal giant Peabody Energy promoted the controversial Prairie State Energy Campus to public officials in Virginia and seven other states as a cheap, long-term source of “clean coal” power.

But a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) charges that the troubled coal-fired power plant and coal mine operation will end up costing cities and towns in Virginia up to 100 percent more for that power than what was promised.

The Prairie State Energy Campus is a 1,600-megawatt, coal-fired electrical power station and coal mine under construction near Marissa, Illinois, less than 50 miles from St. Louis. About 95 percent of the project is being financed by more than 200 local government units in eight states: Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and West Virginia.

"Clean coal" was always a lie and its death sealed the coal industry's fate. But just as it was with tobacco, Virginia remains filled with apologists who know it's easier to say what people want to hear and cash industry checks than to speak the truth. And Democrats like Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are just as much a part of the problem as Republicans - they may vote the right way sometimes, but their pro-industry rhetoric supports the bipartisan smokescreen that hides the truth that cigarettes cause cancer coal-fired power plants are deadly, expensive, and outdated.

New Poll: Only 1 in 7 Americans Support Inhofe Polluter Bill; Majorities Want EPA Mercury & Carbon Action

UPDATE 11:58am: Warner & Webb voted with Sen. Inhofe. Disgraceful. Fortunately, 53 other senators stood up for public health & killed the bill.

Not only is Sen. Jim Inhofe's bill to block new Environmental Protection Agency mercury standards horrible public policy that would kill a lot of people, a new United Technologies/National Journal poll finds it's wildly unpopular with voters:

A new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll finds that 57 percent of the public supports a recently-finalized Environmental Protection Agency rule controlling mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal-fired power plants as long as companies are given more time to comply.

The poll found that a similar majority—55 percent—thinks EPA should be able to control greenhouse-gas emissions that most scientists agree cause climate change. Just slightly more than one-third of the public—36 percent—said Congress should stop EPA from such regulation. A federal court is expected to rule soon on whether the agency is within its right to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.

The poll’s findings put a majority of Americans out of step with Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., who is sponsoring a measure coming up for a vote on Wednesday that would nullify EPA’s mercury rule entirely. Just under 20 percent of survey respondents said the Senate should vote to uphold the rule as it stands now, while only 14 percent said the Senate should vote to get rid of it. 

Again, I'd ask Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb: This is a hard call? Really? Which part is a tough call, the part where it lets corporate polluters profit by treating America's air and water like an open sewer? The part where people with asthma die? Or the part where it's incredibly bad politics?

Photo courtesy Flickr's Symbiosis

Warner & Webb Undecided on Whether to Let Polluters Keep Killing People

Today, the Senate is expected to vote on a bill by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) to block the Environmental Protection Agency from setting science-based standards for mercury and other toxic pollutants. That Sen. Mark Warner & Sen. Jim Webb are considered "swing votes" by the coal mining industry is a sad statement about how the Democratic Party of Virginia remains pathetically in the back pocket of the coal industry.

Pollution from coal-fired power plants is a major cause of asthma attacks. Historically in America, rather than address those causes, we enjoy "cheap" electricity, then let people get sick - 20 million Americans a year have asthma attacks, with 2 million of those being treated in the emergency room, and 5,000 people a year dying. Economists call those people externalities - costs that don't show up on your power bill.

Thirteen years after public health and conservation groups started pushing the Clinton administration to strengthen clean air standards, the Obama administration finally delivered last December, unveiling new rules. But electric utilities and their allies, led by Sen. Inhofe, are trying to block the rule, giving $9,313,822 to Congress so far this cycle alone (61% to Republicans).

Virginia parents, despite their inability to write the large checks demanded in this post-Citizens United world, are fighting back:

Kim Meltzer, a Charlottesville mother who has rushed her two-year-old son to the ER because of asthma attacks, hopes politicians will do the right thing for those who don't have a voice in Washington. "I'd like the environment to be one in which my children and all people can live in and not worry about breathing toxic fumes."

What's most pathetic about Sen. Inhofe's effort is that coal's enemy isn't clean air regulations - it's the rising cost of digging the last bits of coal out of the ground compared to natural gas that's cheap now and renewables that are falling in price every day. "Even without the EPA rules, coal is not really competitive," says one energy industry analyst.

And for all the squawking in Congress about creating jobs, cutting mercury and other toxic pollution does create jobs:

The EPA has estimated that as many as 15,000 construction jobs lasting several years will result.

[NRDC Clean Air Director John] Walke says this is a win-win for the American economy and the health of the American people. "It's finally time to clean up these dirty power plants, they are being given plenty of time to clean up, and it's a tremendous health gain for Americans that we finally clean up these dirty plants."

And what about coal? Virginia just invested billions in a new coal-fired power plant in Wise County ... which a Virginia State Corporation Commission analyst has testified (PDF) that, because the higher rates needed to pay for it, will actually result in a net loss to Virginia of 1,474 jobs.

And yet Senators Warner & Webb have to be talked into standing with public health and against giving coal plants a free pass to foul our air with mercury, sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides, and other toxic pollutants. Shameful.

Mark Warner Thinks Disabled Seniors, Not Big Oil, Should Sacrifice to Balance Budget

Sen. Mark Warner's "Gang of Six" budget plan would've repealed the CLASS Act, part of the 2010 health reform law designed to help seniors who need help with daily tasks such as bathing and dressing. Who does Sen. Warner think should not be asked to sacrifice? Wildly-profitable oil companies:

On Thursday, a handful of Senators wrote a letter (PDF) to President Obama that stated, “as you continue your negotiations, we urge you to remember the oil and gas industry is part of the solution.” Or, in other words, don’t single out big oil companies and their taxpayer subsidies as a way to reduce the deficit.

These nine Senators—six Republicans and three Democrats—have received $7.1 million in oil and gas industry cash during their career in Congress, according to our analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics. [...]

Ending oil subsidies didn’t make it into the tentative default deal reached over the weekend, but as Congress looks to create a commission to enact further deficit reduction measures, it’ll be important to watch what influence Big Oil and other industries will exert on the process.

Sen. Warner himself has received a smaller amount of oil & gas money relative to his oil state co-signers. But it's interesting to note the letter he signed onto tries to pass off as fact the oil & gas industry's claim to be "supporting over 9 million jobs." Just 2 years ago, the oil & gas industry was only claiming to employ less than 1.8 million people & support 4 million more. So either the oil & gas industry's share of jobs has shot up by more than a third in the midst of nationwide stagnant employment, or they now feel the need to fudge their numbers because clean energy employs more than 2.7 million Americans, 50% more than the oil & gas industry had claimed 2 years ago.

After his Gang of Six failed, Sen. Warner now wants a seat on the debt commission. Our Democratic leaders shouldn't pick someone who'll be fighting to protect Big Oil subsidies while trying to slash our social safety net.

What Would Gulf Coast Oil Spill Look Like Off Virginia's Coast?

Thanks to the magic of Photoshop, we can cut the Gulf Coast spill & paste it, scaled to size, off the Virginia coast in the area where drilling is planned. Via Twitter's Brad Johnson, here's what it looks like proportionately:

Obviously this is not exactly what a Virginia oil spill would look like. There are many variables -- wind direction & speed, water current patterns. This is not a forecast, it simply shows relative sizes.

What would all that oil do? Would it head out to sea? Towards the Chesapeake Bay & Virginia Beach? Up to Ocean City? Who knows.

But hey, at least oil spills come with a darkly comic side. Sen. Mark Warner, a relentless cheerleader for oil & gas drilling off Virginia's shores, is now being listed among coastal-state senators who've "expressed concerns about the safety & environmental impacts of offshore drilling." Who says you can't try to have it both ways?

Cross-posted from BlueVirginia.us

Ask Senators Warner & Webb to Keep Christmas Cold

Merry Christmas! The Green Miles is in Holyoke, MA this morning, drinking organic coffee (Newman's Own Nell's Blend!) with my mom & cousins. And of course, celebrating the passage of the health insurance reform bill in the Senate. We all have friends & family members who'll be helped -- either through help paying for insurance or through new protections on pre-existing conditions.

With the health insurance reform debate in Congress now in its final stages, I had a party in Arlington this week to look ahead to the Senate's clean energy & climate debate. Just as with the health debate, industries making huge profits will be pressuring Virginia Senators Mark Warner & Jim Webb to kill reform & preserve the status quo. We talked about ways to let Warner & Webb know that Virginians are behind clean energy solutions.

We started by recording some YouTube clips asking for action, which my friend Chris posted to Repower America's Wall. I decided to add a little season to my greetings:



If you're on Twitter, you can ask Mark Warner to support clean energy & climate legislation by signing our Act.ly petition to Keep Christmas Cold.

If Democrats Won't Green Their Events, Who Will?

Former Virginia Governor and current candidate for U.S. Senate Mark Warner held his "almost annual" pig roast at his farm in King George this weekend. You can read a full review over at VirginiaDem.org.

This note from Not Larry Sabato's Twitter feed caught my eye:

No recycling at Mark Warner Pig Roast.

Whenever I see Ben, the blogger who writes Not Larry Sabato, he never fails to rub it in The Green Miles' face that he has a smaller carbon footprint than I do. (I have to carpool to an office out in Reston two days a week while Ben doesn't even own a car. Although I wonder how many flights a year he takes? We may need to do a The Green Miles vs. Not Larry Sabato carbon weigh-in. Where was I?) Anyway, I'm not surprised Ben was watching out for a green faux pas.

I saw some half-hearted eco-efforts myself at the Arlington Democrats Chili Cookoff on Labor Day. There was recycling and several of the cooks prepared vegetarian chili or used locally-grown ingredients. But there were also plastic forks, styrofoam bowls and napkins and fliers not made out of recycled material. Eco-friendly alternatives are available at just about every grocery store in the DC area these days, so there's no excuse for not buying green.

Most hypocritical -- ice chests of bottled water. The Cookoff took place at the Lyon Park Community Center, which has a kitchen with running water. Democrats on the Arlington County Board have pledged to avoid bottled water whenever possible and county agencies have done a great job of following through. So why is bottled water unacceptable at county events, but made available at virtually every Arlington Democrats event?

I don't want to sound like a nattering nabob of negativism. National Democrats certainly broke new ground on holding a sustainable event with their extensive efforts to green the Democratic National Convention. And if we're going to pass legislation to slow climate change and make America more energy independent next year, it's Democrats like Mark Warner who are going to make it happen.

But here's the thing -- consumers don't change habits easily. They need to be shown that going green is both important and hassle-free (which is one of the reasons I started this here blog). Every time you bust out the bottled water, you're sending uncertain consumers a subtle message this all that green stuff is just a fad -- it's OK to fall back into those old habits at the first sign of possible inconvenience.

The bottom line is, if you're going to talk the talk on going green, you have to walk the walk. If Democrats won't take every reasonable step to green their events, who will?

Democrats' Disastrous "Me, Too" Drilling Strategy

You've seen the cycle a million times before. Republicans see a political opportunity to pander. They take a position that, despite being the public policy equivalent of junk food, scores points with voters. Democrats, fearful of losing populist ground, say "me, too!"

It's a devastatingly corrosive strategy that fails on every single level. Contrary to removing the issue from play or co-opting it, voters faced with Tough Stance or Tough Stance Imitator will choose the genuine article. A Republican opponent will still hammer the Democratic candidate just as hard with a snide "I'm glad my opponent has come around to my position" (the great part about this attack -- doesn't matter if the Democrat came around to this position at age 6, you can still use it).

It gets worse. Any Democrat who doesn't pander on the issue is branded as an extremist liberal unwilling to hammer out a deal. And if legislation is passed, even if it's a down-the-middle compromise, guess who the media will give credit for championing it? (Hint: Not us.)

So why are Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, and Jim Webb all supporting Republican proposals to drill for fossil fuel off Virginia's shores?

It's hard to call Kaine and Warner's positions anything other than trying to have it both ways. Gov. Kaine claims he only supports natural gas exploration "to determine potential natural gas deposits." Mark Warner twists himself into knots, saying, "I favor the exploration piece, not the development piece." And then what? It's sort of a window-shopping approach to drilling.

Despite his longstanding support for more drilling, Sen. Webb does deserve credit for voting the right way on other energy issues, supporting proposals to extend renewable energy tax credits and crack down on speculators. Both bills were killed by GOP filibusters.

Fortunately, both Creigh Deeds and Brian Moran voted against an offshore drilling plan during this year's special session. While neither candidate has yet laid out detailed energy plans, it's promising that both did the right thing on drilling this year.

I know what you're thinking. "Miles, you treehugging dope," you say, "Republicans will use the drilling issue to hammer us in November!" I'm sure they'll try, but I'm not so sure they'll succeed. Neither is Matt Yglesias:

So here's a thought: For years and years before 2006, the savvy leadership of the Republican Party took the view that indulging the base's passion for Mexican-hating would be a political error. It was important, thought Bush, Rove, et. al, to position the GOP as a forward-thinking pro-immigration party. Then along came a moment of political desperation for congressional Republicans at which point they seized upon immigrant-bashing as a cure for their midterm blues. Democrats, conditioned by decades of defeat to instinctively believe that whatever crap the GOP is pulling at any given moment is political genius, had a moment of panic. But at the end of the day, it turned out that the Republican strategists were right the first time and there is no mass swing constituency for immigration restriction capable of delivering elections -- the crank racists were already Republicans, and this just helped push Hispanics into the Democratic column.

Flash forward to the Great Drilling Debate of 2008. Recall that it's unlikely that Bush and the GOP leadership weren't pushing this issue back in 2006 or 2004 out of their deep-rooted environmental convictions. Instead, the leadership didn't used to push offshore drilling because they thought offshore drilling was a bad issue -- the people who care either work for the oil companies (and are Republicans anyway) or else are drilling opponents worried that their communities and coastal economies will be wrecked by drilling. But facing another drubbing in November, congressional Republicans have talked themselves into believing that "drill drill drill" will deliver them a victory.

I'm sure you've heard plenty of polls reported in the media that Americans want more drilling. And it's true that if you ask, "Do you want more drilling in an effort to lower gas prices," Americans say yes. But that question reveals more about Americans' desire for lower gas prices than it does about their desire for drilling. And there's also the minor detail of the question's premise simply being false -- the Dept. of Energy says new drilling wouldn't lower gas prices for at least a decade, and only then by a few pennies.

Ask Americans whether they want clean energy solutions or more drilling and they'll choose clean energy every time. And why wouldn't they? Americans love more choices. Clean energy solutions would give us more energy diversity. Americans love saving money. Energy efficient technologies will cut our energy bills.

Democrats are not dealing from a position of weakness on energy. They're dealing from a position of strength. Voters don't want more drilling. They want leadership on real solutions. Let's give it to them.

Look, I'm not saying we should never compromise on the drilling issue. There's a case to be made that the Gang of Ten energy proposal in the Senate right now could be a net positive bill. But if our Democratic leaders won't take strong stands now, we'll be negotiating from a position of weakness when the Senate reconvenes in September.

Speaking of which, have you called your members of Congress to tell them to oppose more giveaways to Big Oil and support clean energy solutions? You can find contact information here.

Cross-posted from RK

Opportunity Lost: Virginia Dems & the Wise Co. Power Plant

Virginia's Air Pollution Control Board last week approved Dominion's permit to build a coal-fired power plant in Wise County. You can read a first-hand account at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network's blog. The Southern Environmental Law Center has vowed to continue the fight against the Wise County plant in court.

The biggest losers are Virginia consumers who will now have to pay high costs in both the short term and long run. In the short term, we'll be paying at least $1.8 billion to build the plant. And in the long term, we'll bear the burden of skyrocketing coal prices along with any national carbon pricing.

But the plant decision also represents a huge opportunity lost for Virginia's leading Democrats:

• Opportunity lost for Gov. Tim Kaine, a relentless cheerleader for Dominion and coal who has seen his national standing tarnished and his statewide approval rating drop to 46 percent. There are many factors to Kaine's plummeting popularity like the ongoing gridlock on transportation solutions and his signing of the estate tax repeal. But his have-it-both-ways environmental stance - talking tough but refusing to take a stand on coal - has managed to tick off everyone, angering both flat-Earth conservatives and climate activist liberals.
  
  
• Opportunity lost for U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner, who put forth a strong energy plan but passed on an opportunity to put his principles into action. Warner instead pandered on the power plant while in southwest Virginia, calling it the proposed plant "an economic engine for the whole region" even though the SCC has said the plant would result in a net loss statewide of 1,474 jobs. Is Warner a Kaine clone - saying one thing in Northern Virginia and another down south?
  
  
• Opportunity lost for gubernatorial candidates Creigh Deeds and Brian Moran, who've chosen to stay completely silent on the most critical environmental issue our state has faced this year. Environmentalists fought hard to elect Tim Kaine, only to see him take environmental stances so soft they should be served in a mini-helmet covered in strawberry sauce and walnuts. Why should environmentalists bother fighting for either Deeds or Moran if they side with Dominion and coal over clean energy and climate action?

If Virginia Republicans were savvy, they could follow the models of Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), using environmental issues to win over moderate voters. But they're much too busy targeting immigrant families, trying to ban all abortions, and blocking funding for transportation solutions.