'Wetenschapontkenners'

Taalverrijking in het Amerikaanse klimaatdebat. Een variatie op 'climate deniers'.

President Obama heeft de uiterste datum waarop bezwaren kunnen worden ingediend tegen plannen om de CO2–emissies (door vele media, inclusief 'The Guardian', hardnekkig doch tendentieus en onjuist 'carbon pollution' genoemd, want het is geen koolstof maar CO2 en CO2 is geen vervuiling maar een bouwsteen van het leven) van elektriciteitscentrales te verminderen, met 45 dagen verlengd, tot 1 december. De milieubeweging beschouwt dit als een verkeerd signaal met het oog op de klimaattop die op 23 september in New York zal plaatsvinden.  

Onder de titel, 'Obama delays key power plant rule of signature climate change plan', schreef Suzanne Goldenberg voor 'The Guardian':

A week before major UN talks on climate change, EPA extends comment period for rule to cut carbon pollution from plants.

Barack Obama applied the brakes to the most critical component of his climate change plan on Tuesday, slowing the process of setting new rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants, and casting a shadow over a landmark United Nations’ summit on global warming.

The proposed power plant rules were meant to be the signature environmental accomplishment of Obama’s second term.

The threat of a delay in their implementation comes just one week before a heavily anticipated UN summit where officials had been looking to Obama to show leadership on climate change.

In a conference call with reporters, the Environmental Protection Agency said it was extending the public comment period on the power plant rules for an additional 45 days, until 1 December.

The delay follows heavy lobby by Republicans and industry lobby groups to delay the rule – or withdraw it outright. Fifteen governors had called on Obama and the EPA to withdraw the proposed regulations, which would cut carbon pollution from existing power plants.

Some electricity companies had argued that the rules were extraordinarily complex, clocking in at about 1,600 pages, and they needed extra time to study the full implications.

But a delay puts the EPA on an even tighter deadline to finalise the rule before Obama leaves office in 2016. Even before Tuesday’s extension, the initial comment period for the new EPA rule was already longer than the norm.

The EPA’s acting assistant administrator, Janet McCabe, insisted that extending the comment period would not put the rule in jeopardy. “We will have plenty of time,” she said. McCabe also brushed aside suggestions that the delay would send the wrong message to leaders arriving for the UN climate summit in New York next week.

Maar ja, dat is natuurlijk professioneel optimisme, ofwel wensdenken van McCabe. Los daarvan zal die top toch hoe dan ook op een fiasco uitdraaien.

Inmiddels laat de kolenindustrie zich ook niet onbetuigd.

The coal industry, some utility companies, and Republicans in Congress have accused Obama and the EPA of waging war on coal with new rules.

A number of campaigners said they hoped the delay would give the EPA time to wear down industry opposition to the rules.

However, a leading industry lobby group, Americans for Clean Coal Electricity, remained unmoved by the promise of extra time to review the proposed rule.

“The fact remains that the agency’s proposed regulations are among the costliest our country has ever seen,” the lobby group said. “Considering how fundamentally flawed these regulations are, EPA could save all involved a lot of time, money and economic hardship if it just withdrew its proposal altogether.”

Lees verder hier.

Veel mensen hebben een vreemde, ja schizofrene relatie met de fossiele brandstoffenindustrie. Door de milieubeweging wordt deze in het algemeen in het verdomhoekje geplaatst, soms zelfs gedemoniseerd. Maar als de betrokken producenten er korte tijd de brui aan zouden geven (à la 'Atlas shrugged'), zou het machtige raderwerk van onze economie geheel stil komen te liggen. Geen openbaar vervoer meer, reizigers vast in treinen en metro's, paniek in liften die niet meer werken, verkeerschaos, geen elektriciteit, verwarming en watervoorziening meer thuis en op het werk, het betalingsverkeer in chaos, geen internet meer, geleidelijk opdrogend telefoonverkeer, operaties in ziekenhuizen onderbroken en afgelast, geen vliegreizen meer naar klimaatconferenties in verre oorden om onze planeet te redden, grootschalige plunderingen in steden, en misschien het ergste van alles: DDS moet noodgedwongen haar activiteiten staken.  

Wordt het niet eens tijd om de fossiele brandstoffenindustrie met andere ogen te bekijken? 

'Science deniers'

Ondertussen rapporteerde Lincoln Mitchell in de 'New York Observer' over een opmerkelijk speech van Bobby Jindal, gouverneur van Lousiana, Onder de titel, 'Bobby Jindal Blasts Obama Energy Team As ‘Science Deniers’', schreef hij:

It is not yet clear whether or not Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is running for president in 2016, but his recent comments in Washington should probably be seen in that context. Mr. Jindal was in Washington this week to, among other things, unveil his national energy plan. Crafting a national energy policy is not usually part of the work of the governor of Louisiana, so it is likely that a big part of Mr. Jindal’s trip was to explore further a possible presidential bid.

Gov. Jindal’s new energy policy, a report called “America’s Next Energy Plan-Organizing for Abundance” produced by America Next, a conservative non-profit policy group that promotes Mr. Jindal’s views, describes the administration’s current energy policy as “based on radical leftist ideology which is causing America to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” and goes on to assert “energy scarcity and skyrocketing energy prices result from failed public policy, not our unparalleled energy abundance.”

These are reasonably standard conservative views on the Obama administration’s energy policy; and Republicans criticizing Democrats for not drilling for enough oil is not news, but the Governor’s spoken remarks were more notable. “The reality is right now we’ve got an administration in the Obama administration that are science deniers when it comes to harnessing America’s energy resources and potential to create good-paying jobs for our economy and for our future.” Mr. Jindal’s use of the phrase “science deniers” to describe administration policy is intriguing especially in the context of the current political environment. We have grown accustomed to Democrats and progressives accusing Republicans and conservatives of being anti-science, but the reverse is much more rare.

Lees verder hier.

Tja, wie kaatst, moet de bal verwachten. Of was het een boemerang?

Voor mijn eerdere DDS–bijdragen zie hier.