Today, nearly two years later, that future appears within our grasp.  Both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees support a cap & trade system that would accomplish these three goals.

To all my fellow conservative contributors — and you, our valued Terra Rossa readers — I’d like to say thank-you for making your views known here at Terra Rossa and plowing the ground for a new energy future to take seed and grow.  Well done.

I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished here at Terra Rossa.  And I’m confident a new energy future is just on the horizon.

Scientists report further shrinking of Arctic ice
Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin, 8.27.08

Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second-lowest level since record-keeping began three decades ago, a group of international researchers determined yesterday, a revelation underscoring how rapidly climate change is transforming ecosystems in northern latitudes.

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Colorado Senate race is energized by debate over drilling
Congress Daily, Erin McPike, 8.26.08

While much of the focus in Denver is on the presidential race, delegates and others who watch even a bit of television this week can’t avoid the air war being waged in the race for Colorado’s open Senate seat.

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Renewable energy is the key to voters’ hearts.
Denver Post, Bob Ewegen, 8.26.08

If it’s suspense you want, you’re better off watching “Burn Notice” than the Democratic National Convention.
But off camera, the gathering is proving a fertile venue for innovative ideas — especially in the arena of the new energy economy that Colorado has helped pioneer.

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Energy Independence II
Townhall, John Stossel, 8.27.08

“John Stossel sounds like a real defeatist. … We have our backs to the wall, and he’s raising the white flag.”
“Stossel has lost his mind.”
My column last week mocking “energy independence” angered people.

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UN: Cutting fossil fuel subsidies could reduce greenhouse gas emission
Xinhua (China), 8.27.08

A newly published UN report says scrapping fossil fuel subsidies could play an important role in cutting greenhouse gases while giving a small but not insignificant boost to the global economy.

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Utility fees sought for environmental research center
Los Angeles Times, Marc Lifsher, 8.26.08

With this year’s legislative session in its final days, lawmakers Monday unveiled a bill mandating new fees from electricity ratepayers to fund a University of California-run global warming research center.

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New lawsuit seeks to force EPA to limit oil refineries’ global-warming emissions
Providence Business News (RI), Susan A. Baird, 8.26.08

Rhode Island and Massachusetts have joined a new multistate lawsuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to regulate oil-refinery emissions.

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‘Drill now’ revolt continues
Human Events, Connie Hair, 8.25.08

Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi jets her way into the fourth week of her book tour with a dismal sales rank (as of Saturday night) on Amazon.com of 22,184th. Some 22,183 books are selling better than Pelosi’s own as House Republicans maintain their high-voltage revolt on Capitol Hill and nationwide demanding that Pelosi bring the House back into session for a vote to end the Congressional embargo on offshore drilling.

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Climate change threatens South Asia food supplies
Associated Press, 8.25.08

Melting Himalayan glaciers, rising sea levels and depleting fresh water sources as a result of global climate change are posing grave threats to food production and economic development in the populous South Asia region, experts said Monday.

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World Bank launches film contest to highlight climate change
Xinhua, China, 8.26.08

The World Bank announced on Monday the launch of a world-wide documentary competition that will highlight the social aspects of climate change as experienced and/or observed by the film-maker(s).

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Forget oil, coal remains king
USA Today, 8.24.08

As oil and natural-gas prices remain high and lawmakers agonize over whether to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas, coal looms as an antidote — still relatively cheap despite recent price surges because of a boom in exports.

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Drilling boom revives hopes for natural gas
New York Times, Clifford Krauss, 8.24.08

American natural gas production is rising at a clip not seen in half a century, pushing down prices of the fuel and reversing conventional wisdom that domestic gas fields were in irreversible decline.

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Research says climate change already drying out Southwest
Associated Press, 8.24.08

Human-caused climate change has already shifted the jet stream that brings the Southwest its winter snowstorms to the north, which is making the region’s late winter and early spring drier, according to new research by a team of Arizona scientists.

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Energy in the Balance
The Weekly Standard, Irwin M. Stelzer, 8.22.08

BEWARE THE CAPITULATORS. Republicans are chortling over the fact that their “drill, drill, drill” campaign seems to have forced Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi to backtrack and agree to relax–by no means eliminate entirely–the ban on offshore drilling. Beware what is contained in the Trojan horse the Illinois senator and the congresswoman from San Francisco are offering as a peace token to the Republicans and to Americans who are appalled that Congress continues to prevent the development of our oil resources while crude oil and gasoline prices, although softening in recent weeks, remain high enough to contribute to the forces that are pulling the economy perilously close to recession.

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Climate change is a burning issue
Long Beach Press-Telegram, Thomas D. Elias, 8.24.08

Just in case anyone missed one of the key points of this summer’s still simmering siege of California wildfires, it is this: Climate change is here, it’s real and it is time to stop quarreling about the causes and get on with doing something about it.

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Climate change puts heat on forests
Reuters, Chris Baltimore, 8.25.08

Here in a 13,700-year-old peat bog, ecologist Ed Berg reaches into the moss and pulls out more evidence of the drastic changes afoot due to the Earth’s warming climate.

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Business leaders: make renewable energy cheaper
Associated Press, Oskar Garcia, 8.20.08

Representatives from corporate giants Google Inc. and General Electric Co. said Tuesday that transitioning the United States to renewable energy on a large scale would be possible - if renewable energy were cheaper.

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Group says climate resolutions increase
Associated Press, Tim Huber, 8.20.08

Shareholder resolutions related to climate change more than doubled over the past five years, according to statistics gathered by a coalition of public interest groups, environmental organizations and pension funds. Moreover, the coalition, Boston-based Ceres, says support for those measures averaged more than 23 percent in 2008, a new high.

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Wind power plan is more than hot air
The Kiplinger Letter, Jim Ostroff, 8.19.08

Can wind power provide 20% of the U.S.’ electric power needs by 2030? Texas oilman and billionaire T. Boone Pickens thinks so. He wants to displace millions of tons of coal used to produce electricity, slashing emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that’s been fingered as a cause of warming global temperatures.

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The idiocy of energy independence
Townhall, John Stossel, 8.20.08

It’s amazing how ideas with no merit become popular merely because they sound good.
Most every politician and pundit says “energy independence” is a great idea. Presidents have promised it for 35 years. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were self-sufficient, protected from high prices, supply disruptions and political machinations?

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Pacific nations call for help on climate change
Agence France-Presse, 8.20.08

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined Pacific island nations Tuesday in a call for immediate help to cope with the impact of climate change in the region.

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Scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions
Accra Daily Mail (Ghana), 8.20.08

The European branch of the world’s largest car maker, Toyota, has become one of six companies to join the Climate Neutral Network (CN Net), a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) initiative bringing together organizations which pledge to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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Clinton: US should demonstrate energy solutions
Associated Press, Oskar Garcia, 8.19.08

The United States can capture the world’s imagination by creating an energy independent state, territory or nation, former President Bill Clinton told an energy summit.

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Carbon dioxide storage test begins in SWVa.
Bluefield Daily Telegraph (WV), Charles Owens, 8.18.08

With a simple flip of a switch, state and federal officials embarked Monday on a historic six-month test in rural Southwest Virginia aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal.

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National clean energy summit: wonk-in-chief
Grist Mill, David Roberts, 8.19.08

On Monday, Bill Clinton gave the opening remarks at the National Clean Energy Summit, speaking for almost an hour and taking questions for another 30 minutes. The energy issue is hot politics these days, but those hoping to witness some of the ’90s-vintage Clinton political jujitsu left disappointed. Instead they were treated to — or, depending on their tolerance for wonkery, forced to endure — an extended disquisition on the finer points of energy policy. Applause lines were scarce.

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Legislative lowdown: the do-nothing Congress
Human Events, Brian Darling, 8.18.08

For conservatives who have the stomach to monitor Congress, the 110th Congress has been especially unsatisfactory. Real Clear Politics has Congress with an average approval rating of 20% and a disapproval rating of 74%, strong evidence that the American people are nauseated with Congress.

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Chinese oil firm targets coal-to-liquids
Sydney Morning Herald, 8.19.08

A subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil giant has thrown its weight behind an ambitious, $3 billion coal-to-liquids (CTL) project planned for South Australia.

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France sticks with nuclear power oil prices and climate change, it says, vindicate ’50s choice
International Herald Tribune, Steven Erlanger, 8.18.08

It looks like an ordinary building site, but for the two massive, rounded concrete shells looming above the ocean, like dusty mushrooms.

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US exchanges launch cap and trade CO2 contracts
Reuters, 8.18.08

The U.S. Chicago Climate Futures Exchange has completed the first exchange-traded deals in permits to emit carbon dioxide under a U.S. cap and trade scheme, the bourse said on Monday.

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Renewable power’s growth in Colorado presages national debate
Washington Post, Peter Slevin, 8.18.08

When Colorado voters were deciding whether to require that 10 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable fuels, the state’s largest utility fought the proposal, warning that any shift from coal and natural gas would be costly, uncertain and unwise.

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Glacier Park: The next century - disappearing namesake may make pristine wildnerness symbol of climate change
The Missoulian (MT), Michael Jamison, 8.18.08

The tourists huddled in a shivering pack amid what should have been the heat of July, crowding around Laura Kloeck while she explained a bit about climate change.

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Dear 44: The energy debate
Politico, William Kovacs, 8.18.08

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports both public and private sector action to control greenhouse gas emissions. In order to be effective, such action must be based on sound science, rational debate and realistic solutions. Unfortunately, on climate change, this has not been the case.

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Udall’s U-turn on oil exploration
Townhall, Mark Hillman, 8.17.08

Mark Udall’s message to Colorado voters is crystal clear: just tell me want you want to hear, and I’ll say it.

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Oxfam sees climate change role for East Africa nomads
Reuters (South Africa), Daniel Wallis, 8.18.08

Pastoralist communities like the Maasai could offer insights into coping with climate change in East Africa, but their political marginalisation means valuable knowledge is not being used, aid agency Oxfam said on Monday.

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Truckers ask other drivers to take go-slower approach
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8.14.08

The American Trucking Association has called for Congress to set the highway speed limit at 65 miles per hour nationally — 5 mph below what’s now allowed on Minnesota interstate highways outside the metro area. But a mandated speed-limit rollback will be a tough sell, only 13 years after the widely flouted national 55-miles-per-hour standard was lifted.

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Traditional energy’s modern boom
Washington Post, Joel Achenbach, 8.15.08

The guys on the derrick, filthy with mud and grease, have the best view in the county. Their drilling rig rises from a bulldozed, flattened patch of meadow near the top of a hill. To the south is an old farmhouse and a white barn. Hay bales dry in the sun.

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Texas energy producers push for more gas, offshore drilling
Marshall News Messenger (TX), Jamaal E. O’Neal, 8.15.08

The legislative push to allow more oil and gas drilling throughout the nation continues to grow, and now one Texas organization is getting in on the action.

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Power failure
Washington Post, Editorial, 8.14.08

THE BUSH administration is not known for undying concern for the environment in general or clean air in particular. That’s why it was a stunning setback when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last month struck down the administration’s single boldest move in favor of clean air: a regulation from its Environmental Protection Agency that sought to clean up the air from power plants. In an odd twist, the ruling was handed down on the same day the EPA opted to avoid issuing rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In both cases, the action now turns to Congress.

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Giving parents, students, and school officials a voice in the American energy debate
Townhall, John Boehner, 8.15.08

All summer long, Americans have been hit hard – and continually – by high gas prices. Vacation plans have been altered. Family visits have been shortened or cancelled. And commutes to and from work are more costly than ever. While Americans are forced to deal with this reality each and every day, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues adjourned Congress and left Washington on August 1st for a five-week break, essentially telling families and small businesses to fend for themselves in the midst of this energy crisis.

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SF Exploratorium’s window on climate change
San Francisco Chronicle (CA), Jane Kay, 8.15.08

In Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, near the largest and fastest-moving glacier in the world, paleontologist Billy D’Andrea drills ice cores from frozen lake beds, looking for the single-celled algae that tell the story of global warming.

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Endangered Species: In More Danger
Time, Bryan Walsh, 8.12.08

Environmentalism is synonymous with loss. We fret about the loss of the rain forest, the loss of the Arctic ice cap and, eventually, the loss of a livable planet to climate change. But while that decline is undeniable, it can sometimes obscure several decades of real environmental achievement, including the rehabilitation of scores of animals rescued from the brink of extinction.

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What the airlines want from Washington
Forbes, Joshua Zumbrun, 8.13.08

If the airlines of the U.S. were single issue voters, there’s no doubt what that issue would be: fuel prices.

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Business leaders hear climate talk
Wichita Eagle (KS), Dan Voorhis, 8.14.08

Lawyer: Local environmental efforts useless…
Any action Kansas takes on its own to cut greenhouse gases is futile environmentally and harmful economically.
That was the word from environmental lawyer and nationally known speaker and writer Tom Mullikin.

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Ice Getting Thinner
Hartford Courant, Robert M. Thorson, 8.14.08

New England is on thin ice getting thinner. Our lakes and ponds are freezing later, thawing earlier and getting more dangerous. This aspect of climate change hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.

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Ghana to spend 1.4 billion dollars on climate-EPA
Accra Daily Mail (Ghana), 8.14.08

Ghana would need more than 1.4 billion dollars for restoration purposes if bad environmental practices were not changed, Mr William Abaidoo, Public Relations Officer, Environmental Protection Agency has said.

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Scientists condemn ‘ill-informed, negative’ Prince over GM crops warning
Times Online (UK), 8.14.08

The Prince of Wales was accused of launching an ignorant rant about genetically modified crops last night after claiming that the technology would cause “the biggest environmental disaster of all time” and lead to “no food in the future”.

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Bush administration wants changes to Endangered Species Act
Agence France-Presse, 8.12.08

The administration of US President George W. Bush has proposed revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) so that the law can not be used to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases.

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Industry, state officials and enviros battle over coal-fired energy
New Mexico Business Weekly, Kevin Robinson-Avila, 8.12.08

Sithe Global Power LLC and the Navajo Nation are a major step closer to building a massive, coal-fired generating plant near Shiprock in northwest New Mexico.

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‘Snake oil’
Washington Post, Editorial, 8.12.08

THE NATURAL Resources Defense Council Action Fund has taken out full-page ads in this newspaper and others to decry offshore drilling for oil as “George W. Bush’s Gasoline Price Elixir” that is “100% Snake Oil.” The environmental group calls on supporters “to stop the giveaway of our coasts.”

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Natural gas provides solutions to high gasoline prices
Human Events, Sen. James Inhofe, 8.12.08

Fellow Oklahoma native T. Boone Pickens is back in the news and hitting the airwaves with an energy idea that I believe is pure common sense.

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Idiot economics
Townhall, David Strom, 8.11.08

It has become popular for politicians to advocate going after oil companies for their seemingly outsized profits. Otherwise rational people turn red-faced with anger when they think about the tens of billions of dollars flowing into the coffers of “big oil.”

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Australia cotton faces climate change threat
Reuters, 8.12.08

Australian cotton production will suffer from increasing water shortages as a result of climate change, the government’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said on Tuesday.

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