Taxing Carbon
New York City Mayor Bloomberg Call for National Carbon Tax
By Sewell Chan
The New York Times, November 2, 2007.

"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg plans today to announce his support for a national carbon tax. In what his aides are calling one of the most significant policy addresses of his second and final term, the mayor will argue that directly taxing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change will slow global warming, promote economic growth and stimulate technological innovation -- even if it results in higher gasoline prices in the short term. Mr. Bloomberg is scheduled to present his carbon tax proposal in a speech this afternoon at a two-day climate protection summit in Seattle organized by the United States Conference of Mayors. The summit's other keynote speaker, former President Bill Clinton, on Thursday announced an effort by his private foundation and the mayors' conference to help 1,100 American cities buy energy-efficient products as groups and qualify for volume discounts." The full text of Bloomberg's speech is copied at the end of the article.

Bloomberg Joins Gore and Dingell as Nation's Leading Advocates for Carbon Tax
By Charles Komanoff
The Carbon Tax Center, November 2, 2007

"With his speech today, NYC Mayor Micheal Bloomberg joins former Vice-President Al Gore as the nation's leading advocates of a carbon tax to cap and reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called last week for a national carbon tax on global-warming pollutants and a European levy on imports from countries not complying with the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions. In September, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, the powerful chair of the House Commerce Committee, proposed a hybrid carbon tax combining a straight carbon tax on coal, oil and natural gas with a surcharge on gasoline and jet fuel. In his Seattle remarks, Bloomberg hones in on the key advantage of a carbon tax over a carbon cap-and-trade scheme -- price certainty: Both cap-and-trade and pollution pricing present their own challenges - but there is an important difference between the two. The primary flaw of cap-and-trade is economic - price uncertainty. While the primary flaw of a pollution fee is political, the difficulty of getting it through Congress. But I've never been one to let short-term politics get in the way of long-term success. The job of an elected official is to lead -- not to stick a finger in the wind. It's to stand up and say what we believe -- no matter what the polls say is popular or what the pundits say is political suicide."

The Lieberman-Warner Bill
Global Warming Bill Advances in Senate
The Associated Press, November 2, 2007

"Lawmakers took the first step Thursday on a bipartisan global warming bill [America's Climate Security Act, PDF 17 pages] that would impose mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases from power plants, industrial facilities and transportation. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., pushed the legislation out of his global warming subcommittee by a 4-3 vote, agreeing to a number of changes aimed primarily at garnering the needed majority to advance it. The bill calls for setting limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are emitted from power plants, refineries, factories and motor fuels. Polluters could exceed the limits by buying credits from companies whose emissions are under their allowable ceiling... Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who favors more aggressive cuts in greenhouse gases, agreed to support the bill after additional emission reductions from natural gas use were included. Earlier, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was persuaded to support the measure when changes were made in the bill to help farmers. Voting against the bill were Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Bernard Sanders, I-Vt. The full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plans to take up the bill in coming weeks, when its chairman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is expected to seek greater greenhouse gas cuts."

Sanders Explains Why He Voted Against Global Warming
Bill Erin Kelley
The Burlington Free Press, November 2, 2007

"Sen. Bernie Sanders voted Thursday to oppose a sweeping global warming bill because he does not believe it is strong enough to prevent catastrophic climate change by the middle of this century... 'This bill is too weak in a number of ways,' Sanders said. 'Number one and most importantly, it does not reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, which the scientific community is telling us very clearly must be done for us to have even a 50-50 chance of keeping the planet from catastrophe. The bill would lower emissions by up to 63 percent. But that's just not good enough.' Sanders also objected to the legislation because it would allow new coal-fired power plants to be built... The senator is concerned that the bill offers no guaranteed funding for clean energy sources such as solar and wind. The bill offers subsidies to the coal industry to develop cleaner coal-burning technology and to the automobile industry to re-tool plants to create more fuel-efficient cars."

Lautenberg Wins Last Minute Changes To Warming Bill
By Darren Samuelsohn
E&E Daily, November 1, 2007

"Two provisions were added yesterday to a global warming bill on the move in the Senate to win the support of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (Dem-NJ). The changes would advance new restrictions on [greenhouse] emissions from the natural gas sector and mandate binding scientific reviews that could allow for stronger pollution reduction requirements... Earlier in the week, Lautenberg's support for America's Climate Security Act, S. 2191, was uncertain, but his office issued a statement saying he will [now] vote for [it]. 'To protect our families and our planet, we need to drastically reduce emissions, and this bill is a good starting point,' [he] said. [The legislation is] likely to be approved at today's Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee markup."

Mayors and Local Governments
U.S. Mayors Meet in Seattle to Push for a Green Revolution
By Lisa Stiffler
Seattle Post-Intelligence, November 1, 2007

"Fluorescent bulbs were climate change activism on training wheels. For the next generation, it's time for a green revolution, for overthrowing the old order and ushering in the new, environmental and local elected leaders say. They talk about a campaign as passionate as the civil rights movement, as nationally unifying as World War II... man-on-the-moon-sized investments in... clean energy... [and] strict standards for vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions... This week Seattle is the epicenter for city-led crusades to slow global warming as it hosts the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Summit. Seattle and Mayor Greg Nickels are acknowledged leaders in the effort to tame climate change. Officials Monday announced that the city's emissions beat Kyoto Protocol goals -- an achievement few have matched. So just as residents were starting to feel good about [the changes they've made], the new message is more is needed -- much more. But it's no reason to succumb to green fatigue, activists say. 'It's really important not to demean the 'screwing in the light bulb,'' said K.C. Golden, policy director of Seattle-based Climate Solutions. 'It's not that it's not effective, it's that it's not effective... in isolation...' On Thursday, Golden will announce a new effort called 1Sky to unite local actions into something on a scale large enough to tackle the climate change challenge... Its initial focus is on setting tough near-term goals... 30 percent [CO2] reductions by 2020, creating millions of jobs in the clean energy sector and stopping the construction of new American coal plants... 'This is a huge transformative challenge for Americans and humanity,' said Ted Nordhaus, an author who has called for the 'death of environmentalism' to make way for new approaches... 'The idea that we were ever going to solve it by putting a modest price on carbon (emissions) and driving our cars a little less is kind of crazy,' he said... 'The one thing that we can't afford is to become fatigued about all this,' said Bill McKibben, organizer of Step It Up national climate change events. 'We've got to be thinking about global warming not as another item on a list of problems, but as the lens through which we look at this world.'"

Bill Clinton Describes Climate Challenge as Greatest Econ...
By Lisa Stiffler and Jennifer Langston
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 2, 2007

"Former President Clinton told mayors Thursday that fighting global warming was a chance to create good jobs and give an economic boost to the middle class, to save cities and residents money with improved energy-efficiency. He urged the mayors, business leaders and community members in attendance at Benaroya Hall to view climate change as an opportunity. 'It is a godsend,' he said. 'It is not castor oil that we have to drink... It is in my view, for the United States, the greatest economic opportunity that we've had since we mobilized for World War II. And if we do it right, it will produce job gains and income gains substantially greater than those produced in the 1990s when I had the privilege to be president.' The crowd -- many of whom were in Seattle for a climate change summit organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors -- repeatedly applauded his words of encouragement and vision for addressing global warming. The Clinton Foundation more than a year ago started the Clinton Climate Initiative to specifically assist cities internationally working to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. One of its prime strategies is pooling the cities' buying power into a consortium and joining with vendors to bring down the costs of energy-efficient items by making high-volume purchases. Clinton said the goal was to give manufacturers larger, guaranteed markets, which would cut prices; he recounted similar strategies that he'd used to successfully slash the costs of AIDS medications in impoverished nations."

Seattle Reports Meeting 'Kyoto' Standards
By Jennifer Langston
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 30, 2007.

"Seattle has reduced its emissions of gases that contribute to global warming to 8 percent below what they were in 1990, according to a study released Monday. But population growth -- and residents' distaste for getting out of their cars -- could undermine those gains and jeopardize the city's ability to meet its Kyoto Protocol target five years from now, officials said. Mayor Greg Nickels, who has challenged mayors around the country to meet the goal of a 7 percent reduction by 2012, called that 'a promise I made and a promise I intend to keep. We have to go well beyond Kyoto in order to be able to deal with climate disruption that has been occurring ... on the planet,' Nickels said of the international agreement that the U.S. has refused to sign. 'But it's nice to say that at least at one point in time we've achieved that goal.' Thursday, more than 100 mayors will visit Seattle for a two-day national conference on how local leaders can curb global warming in their own communities and push for federal action. Former President Clinton is expected to give a keynote address and Al Gore will speak via satellite. The inventory released Monday attempts to measure the 'carbon footprint' of the entire Seattle community -- from electricity used to power homes to tailpipe emissions to pollution from airplane trips that residents take. Most gains from 1990 to 2005 came from cutting pollution associated with residential, commercial and industrial energy use, the study found."

New York City Considers Crackdown on Plastic Bags
By Edith Honan
Reuters, October 29, 2007

"New York City may follow an international trend and crack down on plastic shopping bags, seeking to cut their use with a plan officials hope will be a model for other cities. A proposal introduced [by the City Council] on Monday requires stores larger than 5,000 square feet to set up an in-store recycling program and sell reusable bags. Some 700 food stores plus large retailers such as Target and Home Depot would have to collect used bags and provide a system for turning them over to a manufacturer or to third-party recycling firms. Stores would be required to use bags printed with a reminder to consumers: Please return this bag to a participating store for recycling... In 2002, Ireland introduced a tax on plastic bags, reducing their use by 90 percent. Some communities in Australia have banned them in retail stores since 2003. In March, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets and the state of California enacted a law in July that requires large stores to take back plastic bags and encourage their reuse. Americans use an estimated 84 billion plastic bags annually, and the production of plastic bags worldwide uses over 12 million barrels of oil per year, the council said."

World's Local Governments Vow to Combat Climate Change
By Lee Jong-Heon
Truthout.org, October 31, 2007

"Delegates from 136 countries, representing local governments, vowed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use renewable and clean energy sources to combat climate change, at the second World Congress of the United Cities and Local Governments. Some 2,000 mayors, councilors, and other officials of local autonomies from around the world attended the four-day Congress, in the South Korean resort island of Jeju, which concluded on Wednesday. In the world's largest meeting of local administrators, participants vowed to make concerted efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, use renewable and clean energy sources, and invest more in technological innovations. 'For if we do not act now to mitigate the consequences of global warming, the results could be devastating,' was the declaration adopted, under the theme, 'Changing cities are driving our world.' The unanimous consensus in general meetings was that one of the main issues facing world cities of world's local leaders for the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference, in Bali, in December. Organizers believe that UCLG's high-profile campaign against climate change could be very effective as cities are responsible for 75 percent of the world's energy consumption and 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. 'The fight against climate change begins in our cities. So it is vital that UCLG positions itself as a key player and possesses a clear and committed message on the issue,' said Bertrand Delanoe, UCLG president who is also the Mayor of Paris... Founded in 2004, the Barcelona-based UCLG, is the world's biggest local government organization, representing over half the world's population."