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WASHINGTON - It may have taken the help of a Nobel laureate and a financial crash, but US congress seems to be getting a shivering picture of the climate on a cold winter’s day in Washington. Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Clinton Vice President warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday of climate change’s dire consequences, and the US House of Representatives passed a$50 billion energy package, which will now go to the Senate for approval. Detail
It was a busy day on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Al Gore appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to urge senators to take action on climate change. And on the other side of the Hill, the House of Representatives passed an economic recovery package that contained plenty of proposals to fund energy efficiency measures.

Gore’s testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee covered all parts of what he called the “climate crisis.” Click here to read his full testimony.

Sitting literally under the spotlight, Gore described the geopolitical consequences of “climate refugees” - people forced out of their homes by storms, weather changes or rising sea levels. He warned of melting polar ice, forest fires and competition for scarce water. He offered data showing that if emissions continue to increase at their current levels, it would lead to an 11 degree Fahrenheit rise in global average temperatures.

“This would bring a screeching halt to human civilization and threaten the fabric of life everywhere on Earth,” Gore said. “And this is within the century, if we don’t change.” Gore’s statement is timely. With the climate negotiations in Copenhagen facing a December deadline, and President Barack Obama urging Congress to pass climate change legislation, Gore emphasized the need for a new international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Gore called on the Senate to quickly pass President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package and then to move faster this year to enact cap-and-trade legislation that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Gore said that doing both of these would provide momentum to the international climate talks as the world looks to President Obama for immediate leadership.

Indiana Republican senator Richard Lugar, the Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking member asked Gore an important question: Why should 67 senators support ratification of a new climate treaty when the Senate voted unanimously more than a decade ago against what became the Kyoto Protocol?

Gore explained that developing countries, including Brazil, China and Indonesia have taken considerable steps to reduce their greenhouse emissions in ways that they never considered when Kyoto was being negotiated in 1997. “I think that makes it a very different situation,” Gore said. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) promised a continued effort in the international climate negotiations in the run up to Copenhagen. He said that the Obama Administration would face a difficult role as it joins the talks.

“As the new Administration sets a new tone with the global community, this issue will be an early test of our capacity to exert thoughtful, forceful diplomatic and moral leadership on any future challenge that the world faces,” Kerry said.

Economic Stimulus Package
As Gore was delivering his remarks in the Senate, the House of Representatives passed legislation to help the flagging US economy. President Obama has said that he wants Congress to complete the economic package by mid February. Part of the House package was a $50 billion energy package – the recovery bill’s largest long-term investment – that would (according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Office):

    * create more than 500,000 jobs;
    * provide energy efficiency grants and loans to school districts, colleges, local governments and hospitals;
    * accelerate deployment of smart grid technology to make the electric grid more efficient and reliable;
    * and fund energy efficiency research and development and deployment.

The initiatives approved by the House include extending and enlarging consumer tax credits to help homeowners buy new efficient furnaces, windows, doors, windows and insulation; giving consumers rebates to purchase energy efficient appliances; putting $7.5 billion towards efficiency upgrades in federal low income and public housing; and modernizing more than 75% of government buildings to cut their energy costs.

All eyes are now on the Senate which will take up the debate in early February with the President’s mid-February deadline looming.

Postet 09.12.2010 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Jonathan Temple's Cancun blog: Private sector mitigation efforts in South America

CANCUN, Mexico – The private sector has a leading role to play in climate change mitigation efforts. One example is the cattle industry in Brazil where the private sector and NGOs are working together. A group of NGO leaders discussed sustainable farming practices in the Bellona room at the Cancun climate change meeting on Tuesday 7th December.

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Postet 26.05.2010 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

WASHINGTON VIEW: Oil spills into congressional probes while Obama tries to get climate and energy bill to floor debate

WASHINGTON – BP is preparing for a so-called “top kill” in another of its hopes at clogging the leak in the Gulf of Mexico that has been gushing for 36 days. The top kill is a measure not everyone is sure about, but seems to be one of BP's last remaining options.

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Postet 18.05.2010 i Jonathan Temple's Blog

WASHINGTON VIEW: BP makes small progress in Gulf leak as US climate and energy legislation unveiled

WASHINGTON – In the last couple of weeks, Charles Digges’ eye-witness coverage of the oil spill disaster in Louisiana has ensured that you and all the readers of www.bellona.org are well-informed about developments as they happen.

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Postet 08.05.2010 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: Senate to unveil climate and energy bill with amendments for CCS and wind – Gulf oil spill seen as aiding passage

WASHINGTON – Bellona USA was pleased to welcome Bloona President Frederic Hauge and other Bellona Oslo staff to Washington DC and New York in the last week of April as they acquainted themselves with Washington goings-on, and, unexpectedly, how the United States deals with a major oil spill.

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Postet 20.01.2010 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: Massachusetts defeat shakes Democrats

WASHINGTON – The Republican win of Scott Brown in Massachusetts – a traditional Democratic bulwark – in a special election held to fill the Senatorial seat of the late Ted Kennedy has shaken up US Congress, which, until today, held the upper hand over the Republicans. Brown’s win, meanwhile, puts a question mark over the passage of energy and climate legislation, including a cap-and-trade scheme.

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Postet 09.12.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: US EPA announces greenhouse gas pollutants while US industry announced intent to sue

LONDON – Since Monday, two issue have been gaining in importance for the US delegation to the Copenhagen climate talks, which will stand President Barack Obama in better stead with his international colleagues, but could put him at protracte loggerheads with industry at home.

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Postet 26.11.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: Obama dazzles world with plans to attend Copenhagen, while more Americans greet climate change with a yawn

WASHINGTON – Thanksgiving week has descended on Washington, so Congress is adjourned. The Administration of President Barack Obama, however, is in the heat of preparations for COP 15, which White House officials have confirmed Obama wil be addressing on December 9th while he is in the neighbourhood to pick up his Nobel Prize in Oslo on December 10th.

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Postet 11.11.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: Mr Obama may go to Copenhagen ‘if’ his presence will tilt the scales

WASHIGTON – As usual, politics – mainly the healthcare debate – dominates discussion her in the US capital. Yet, Copenhagen, energy, and climate change are also very much in the spotlight, and the daily reports from Capitol Hill on the climate bill, now out of Senate Committee and on to other committees, and other US green efforts are so numerous and varied that trying to cover them all is like trying to drink from a fire hose.

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Postet 21.09.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: US emissions go down, but hopes dim for US climate legislation before Copenhagen

WASHINGTON – The United States has seen a drop in its carbon emissions, thanks in part to alternative power initiatives, as stricter transport and auto emissions and fuel standards. But Congressional hopes are low that this will translate into bonafide climate legislation before December’s Copehagen climate negotiations.

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Postet 19.08.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: Hot, humid House and Senate recess precedes autumn climate battles

WASHINGTON – Congress has finally adjourned and the President has gone for a well-earned vacation. This is standard operating procedure for Washington DC in August when the hot and humid weather forces everyone to slow down. The politicians will be back in September after consulting their constituents on the economy, health care and climate change.

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Postet 27.06.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: House passes ‘most important environment or energy legislation in our nation’s history’

ASPEN, Colorado – In a historic victory today, the House of Representatives voted 219 - 212 to approve a comprehensive global warming bill that sets mandatory limits on US greenhouse gas emissions.

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Postet 18.06.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: CCS gets a big second chance, while US climate bill progresses amid dim prognoses for Copehagen

WASHINGTON – The Administration of US President Barack Obama has revived financial support canceled by the Bush administration for FutureGen, the United States’ first coal burning plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

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Postet 21.05.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View – Congress begins the debate on a cap-and-trade bill

WASHINGTON – On May 15th, Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee took a big step toward building US climate change policy with the release of a 932-page bill that is expected to be approved by the committee by the end of this week. If passed by the committee, the bill will than face scrutiny from other House committees. The Senate has yet to consider climate change legislation.

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Postet 04.05.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

WASHINGTON VIEW: World economies ask more for US emissions cuts while political landscape in DC shifts

WASHINGTON – The world’s major economies wrapped up a climate change discussion that fell slightly short of expectations with President Barack Obama, while committees in the House of Representatives continue to debate climate change legislation.

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Postet 26.04.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View: Gore tells Congress ‘now is the time to act’

WASHINGTON – As mentioned in the last Washington View, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held numerous hearings on Capitol Hill last week highlighting the climate change debate and the need for the US to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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Postet 21.04.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View

WASHINGTON – Congress is back in session, and President Obama has returned from Europe. Washington DC is humming with activity.

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Postet 06.04.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View

WASHINGTON – As the Easter break approaches, US climate change politics are firmly centered in Congress – which is perhaps as it should be.

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Postet 12.03.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Washington View

WASHINGTON – Nearly two months after President Obama’s inauguration, the US Congress is working hard to write legislation that could ultimately reduce US greenhouse gas emissions. But this is taking place in the middle of the worst economic downturn for 70 years, a fact often raised by the opponents of new climate change solutions. This Washington View examines the major issues under discussion on Capitol Hill and how the debate is shaping up.

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Postet 24.02.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Obama to reveal his first budget - climate change still sharing the spotlight with the economy

WASHINGTON – Trying to fix the battered economy dominates conversation in the US Capital, but energy and climate change are poised to get some robust attention in 2009.

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Postet 29.01.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Mr. Gore goes to Washington, and other US climate developments

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Postet 19.01.2009 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Reflections on Obama's election

Today in the USA is Martin Luther King's Birthday, a national holiday to commemorate a brave African American who perhaps more than anyone else laid the foundation for Barack Obama's historic election as the 44th President of the United States.

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Postet 28.11.2008 i Jonathan Temple's Blog av Jonathan Temple

Obama Transition

Washington DC buzzing with chatter about the Obama transition. Environmental groups press for action early in 2009. Obama affirms his climate change goals. But the economy will dominate when Obama takes office. Orzag appointment as OMB czar will be helpful.

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