Thursday, 04 Jan 2007

Where Credit is Due

Democrats take control of U.S. Congress, vow energy-fund reallocation

Here at Grist, we're advocates of multipartisan cooperation and fans of progress, no matter what its origins. But as the Democratic-led, greener-seeming Congress takes over today, we'd like to allow ourselves a whoop. Whoop! One of the Dems' top priorities is an energy package that will stick it to Big Oil. By repealing oil and gas tax cuts and forcing the payment of long-shirked royalties, the Dems estimate they can generate $14 billion to $16 billion to put toward renewable energy. Whoop! "The Democrats are appropriately shifting money from the 20th-century technologies to the 21st-century technologies," said a solar-industry rep, while Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) got feistier: "There will be a new cop on the beat to force every big oil company that is currently lining its pockets with taxpayer dollars to come back to the negotiating table." The fun will come when Congress debates how to divvy up the fund, and when or if the bill makes it to the president's desk. But still we say: whoop!


Far from being the merciless robo-governor some feared, Arnold Schwarzenegger has proved himself a green thinker, unveiling groundbreaking climate policies that put his state well ahead of the rest of the country. Much of that progress is due to the behind-the-scenes work of former adviser Terry Tamminen, who's now setting out Johnny Appleseed-style to help other states follow California's lead. Can he help create a de facto national climate plan? Tamminen talks with David Roberts about the prospects for success, the promise of hydrogen technology, and the sweet nothings Tony Blair whispered in his ear.

Knock Us Over With a Feather

Exxon spent millions fostering climate-change confusion, report says

Echoing recent claims made by Britain's top science group and others, the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists has issued a report slamming ExxonMobil for paying big bucks to mislead the public about climate change. OK, they're small bucks by mega-profitable Exxon's standards; still, the "modest but effective" $16 million the company spent from 1998 to 2005 "manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," said UCS policy director Alden Meyer. His comparison is intentionally apt: Exxon, it seems, borrowed tactics and even people from Big Tobacco's 40-year fight to fend off critics. It also, says UCS, used access to the Bush administration to shape official climate communications. Exxon rushed to defend itself, saying many of the conclusions were inaccurate and calling the report "yet another attempt to smear our name and confuse the discussion of [this] serious issue." Is that what the kids call irony?

Wallaby Darned

Australia says it's warming faster than much of the rest of the globe

They lost the Croc Hunter, were besieged by wildfires, got slammed by a cyclone, and now this: research from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology indicates that Down Under is warming faster than the global average. Our condolences, mates. While global temps have risen by around 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the last century, the temperature in Australia has kept ahead with an average rise of about 1.6 degrees. Last year saw plenty of wacky weather, with parts of the country subjected to excessive rainfall while the most populated areas continued to experience a multiyear drought. "Most scientists agree this is part of an enhanced greenhouse-gas effect," says Neil Plummer of the meteorology bureau. Such scientific logic doesn't sway the country's government, which did not include climate change in its four key priorities for the coming year -- even though some experts predict that a combination of global warming and the El Niño weather system are likely to make 2007 the warmest year on record.


There's a new devil in Tasmania, and it's causing animation all over the world. With a rapacious forestry company threatening the legendary biodiversity of this Australian island, activists are speaking up, led by mild-mannered Bob Brown. The Australian parliamentarian -- whose long record of activism includes standing nearly alone against the Iraq war when President George W. Bush spoke to that body a few years back -- talks with Gregory Dicum about fighting off greedy corporations, how his mum taught him respect for nature, and why social and environmental issues go hand in hand.