[✔️] November 12, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | Huge contradiction, Sabine correction, Manchin tries to harness the bull, Exxon knew, Simon Michaux. 2012 Grover Norquist

Sun Nov 12 09:08:20 EST 2023

/*November *//*12, 2023*/

/[ Opinion from The Atlantic  ]/
*One Huge Contradiction Is Undoing Our Best Climate Efforts*
The math isn’t adding up.
By Zoë Schlanger
NOVEMBER 10, 2023

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the fight against climate change is 
finally going well. The clean-energy revolution is well under way and 
exceeding expectations. Solar is set to become the cheapest form of 
energy in most places by 2030, and the remarkable efficiency of heat 
pumps is driving their own uptake now. Sales of electric vehicles could 
surpass those of gas-burning cars in the next six years. The world’s 
biggest powers are putting huge sums toward infrastructure to usher in 
some form of energy transformation. Pledges are being made; legislation 
is being passed. The world, it seems, is finally lurching in the right 
direction.

But none of that is enough, practically speaking, because of one 
enormous hitch: The world is still using more energy each year, our 
consumption ticking ever upward, swallowing any gains made by renewable 
energy. Emissions are still rising—more slowly than they used to but, 
nonetheless, rising. Instead of getting pushed down, that needle is 
fitfully jiggling above zero, clawing into the positive digits when it 
needs to be deeply pitched into the negative. We are, in other words, 
simply not making a dent...
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/11/climate-change-policies-contradictions/675967/

/[ this //controversial //Net Zero lecture repairs her previous version 
-- video ]/
*[Re-upload] The Net Zero Myth. Why Reaching our Climate Goals is 
Virtually Impossible*
Sabine Hossenfelder
Nov 11, 2023  #science #climatechange #environment
- -
Everyone is talking about Net Zero. But Net Zero what? What does this 
even mean? Is it a reasonable goal? How far are we on the way? And do we 
have any chance of reaching it? For this video, we have collected all 
facts and numbers that you need to join the discussion.

This video comes with a quiz which you can take here: 
https://quizwithit.com/start_thequiz/1699515745778x206633411542960240

Many thanks to Jordi Busqué for helping with this video 
http://jordibusque.com/

    00:00 Intro
    00:20 Net zero definition
    01:56 Why aim for Net Zero?
    05:05 Where are we on the way to net zero?
    07:19 Not all is bad
    10:54 Carbon Capture
    15:03 Resistance
    16:25 Summary
    16:36 Make a Difference with Planet Wild!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bJTOymi3eo

/[ He helped with a bubble gum repair to a Titanic gash.  a shrewd 
politician just beginning to act against a world of a hundred Pearl 
Harbor catastrophes per day - Manchin is trying to harness this dilemma. 
Maybe some day, but for now anything less than World Government will be 
tepid tokenism.  ]/
*Joe Manchin deserves (some) credit for fighting climate change*
You do, in this circumstance, gotta hand it to him.
By Umair Irfan  Nov 11, 2023,
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — with nearly $370 billion 
allocated to wind turbines, electric cars, transmission lines, heat 
pumps, and environmental cleanup — is the single largest piece of US 
legislation to keep climate change in check.

And West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who this week announced he will 
not seek reelection, was absolutely essential to getting it over the 
line. Don’t take my word for it: President Joe Biden specifically 
praised Manchin this week for his vote on the IRA, which passed the 
Senate 51-50 on August 7, 2022...
- -
It’s hard to overstate how big of a deal the Inflation Reduction Act is 
for climate change. The country has committed to cutting its greenhouse 
gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The IRA on 
its own is poised to cut emissions by about 40 percent, according to the 
Environmental Protection Agency. Manchin was also critical in shaping 
the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that includes 
funding for adapting to the effects of climate change, though that law 
passed the Senate 69-30.

It’s also important to note how difficult it was to pass these bills, in 
no small part due to Manchin himself. As the deciding vote, he 
previously tanked the $555 billion Build Back Better Act in 2021. And as 
legislators scrambled to come up with a backup plan, Manchin’s 
opposition to the Clean Energy Performance Program — which would pay 
power utilities to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy sources — 
kept a powerful tool to limit emissions in the box
- -
In response, environmental activists focused their ire on Manchin, 
noting his longstanding ties to the fossil fuel industry. According to 
Open Secrets, Manchin was the largest Senate recipient of money from the 
coal, oil, and gas industries in 2022. Campaigners also painted him as 
wealthy and out of touch: They accosted him on his houseboat and 
surrounded his Maserati.

During negotiations for the BIL and IRA, Manchin effectively leveraged 
his position. He landed a $925 million hydrogen hub to develop clean 
hydrogen in West Virginia. In the IRA, Manchin secured a permanent 
extension of the federal fund for coal miners affected by black lung 
disease, incentives to build renewables in old fossil fuel mining 
regions, and tax credits for hydrogen and carbon capture, technologies 
that could extend a lifeline to coal, oil, and gas.

He’s been pleased with the results. “Today, West Virginia is attracting 
more investment, opportunity, and jobs than it has in decades,” he said 
in a video announcement. “Here at home and across the country, we are 
building more roads, bridges, manufacturing plants, and energy 
infrastructure than almost any time in American history.”...
- -
So why credit Manchin on climate?

In short, he easily could’ve said no, but he didn’t. Keep in mind that 
climate change legislation has long struggled in Congress, even under 
far more favorable circumstances. In 1997, the Senate, with a 52-seat 
Republican majority, voted 95-0 against the Kyoto Protocol, an early 
attempt at an international climate treaty. The 2009 American Clean 
Energy and Security Act, a.k.a. Waxman-Markey, which would have created 
a cap and trade scheme to limit carbon dioxide emissions, didn’t even 
come up for a vote in the Senate where Democrats had a 60-vote majority 
because of the threat of a Republican filibuster.

Manchin, a Democrat in a state Trump won by almost 39 points in 2020, 
has also been in a dicey position. Despite this, Manchin voted with Joe 
Biden 88 percent of the time. Meanwhile, Republicans, if anything, have 
become even more hostile to action on climate change. Every Republican 
voted against the IRA, including the two senators from Texas, the 
largest wind energy-producing state; the two senators from Louisiana, 
which is losing land to sea level rise; and the two senators from 
Florida, where insurers are fleeing due to mounting losses from extreme 
weather. None of the Republican contenders for president are willing to 
say that humans are heating up the planet.

Climate change, at its core, is a collective action problem. To limit 
warming, everyone is going to have to eventually zero out their 
greenhouse gas emissions, not just in the US but around the world. That 
demands a radical transformation of the global economy, and the window 
for action is slamming shut. Those changes require building coalitions, 
making concessions, and taking steps that appear frustratingly 
inadequate because the alternative is dithering as the situation gets 
worse. This year is likely to be the hottest year humanity has ever 
measured and possibly the hottest humans have ever experienced, a grim 
window into the future of a warming world.

The same challenge is playing out at an international scale. At the end 
of November, climate negotiators from around the world will gather at 
the COP28 conference for a deliberative process somehow even more arcane 
and vexatious than the US Senate. At the meeting — held in the United 
Arab Emirates, a major oil producer — countries whose economies depend 
on fossil fuels will have to come to an agreement with countries baking 
under extreme heat or being swallowed up by rising seas. Countries that 
are literally at war with each other will have to sign off on the next 
steps to limit carbon dioxide.

So one can deride all the features of the US political system that end 
up putting so much weight on one Senate vote — Senate malapportionment, 
a right-wing-dominated Supreme Court, archaic legislative traditions — 
but unless any of these variables change, that single vote matters, even 
if it’s always milked for maximum drama.

Whether his decision was sincere, cynical, or hypocritical, actions 
speak louder than words, and Manchin ultimately delivered a victory for 
Democrats and US efforts to curb climate change. And whether or not 
Democrats and environmental campaigners are feeling grateful, they’re 
facing a much more hostile landscape for the Senate in the next election 
and may soon find that they will miss him when he’s gone...
https://www.vox.com/climate/23955967/joe-manchin-climate-change-senate-biden-inflation

/[ Exxon Knew - updating video indictment of disinformation ]/
*How Long Did Exxon Know About Climate Change?*
Planet Zero - Climate Change
Nov 11, 2023  #climatecrisis #exxonmobil #greenwashing
It should come as no shock that ExxonMobil is aware that their product 
is harming the planet and contributing to climate change. But what may 
surprise you is that they had knowledge of this going as far back as 
1977. Yet, with all this research about carbon emissions and their 
impact on climate, Exxon refused to inform the public, openly lied on 
record, and made no changes to their operations. Now, in 2023, with our 
climate showing warning signs of a breakdown, what consequences should 
Exxon face for their actions?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q9jvU0Ygus

- -

*[ Planet Zero is a worthy and interesting channel ]*
https://www.youtube.com/@PlanetZeroVideos/featured

/[ discussions familiar across the simple and the complex ]/
*Peak Oil Chat: October Edition w/ Simon Michaux*
Andrii Zvorygin
Streamed live on Oct 30, 2023
See our Peak Oil Chat with Simon Michaux. Topics: Michael Dowd, Saudi 
demand vs supply, deep dives into Net Zero 2050, Baseline calculations, 
Power & Metal Production, Hydro storage, Hydrogen, Sensitivity 
Scenarios, Alternative Batteries, Commodities, Thorium, Q&A, and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4E_rlxwzDI

/[The news archive about Tax Killer Grover Norquist  ]/
/*November 12, 2012 */
November 12, 2012: Powerful conservative activist Grover Norquist is 
quoted in the National Journal as saying that a federal revenue-neutral 
carbon tax would not violate the Republican Party's "no new taxes" 
position. After being viciously criticized by representatives from Koch 
Industries, Norquist abruptly flip-flops.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/13/1182511/grover-norquist-abruptly-reverses-position-on-carbon-tax-after-facing-criticism-from-koch-backed-group/

*Grover Norquist Abruptly Changes Position On Carbon Tax After Facing 
Criticism From Koch-Backed Group*
By Stephen Lacey on Nov 13, 2012

Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist raised a lot of eyebrows on Monday 
when he told National Journal that a carbon tax might be on the table if 
it were swapped with a cut to the income tax.

“It’s possible you could structure something that wasn’t an increase and 
didn’t violate the pledge,” he reportedly said.

As president of Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist has convinced 
hundreds of members of Congress to sign a pledge that they will never 
raise taxes. While his influence appears to be waning in Washington, 
Norquist’s tax pledge is still considered gospel for many Republicans. 
That’s why his willingness to consider a tax on global warming pollution 
is a big deal in political circles.

But one day later, after being criticized by the American Energy 
Alliance, the advocacy arm of a Koch-supported energy think tank devoted 
to promoting fossil fuel development, Norquist has completely reversed 
his statement, saying there virtually “no conceivable way” he could 
support a tax on carbon.

“Grover, just butch it up and oppose this lousy idea directly. This 
word-smithing is giving us all headaches,” wrote AEA in its newsletter, 
while promoting a newly-published study labeling carbon taxes “political 
cronyism.”

Americans for Tax Reform issued this statement this morning:

    *Americans for Tax Reform opposes a carbon tax and will work
    tirelessly to ensure one does not become law.*

    Taxing American energy consumption not only opens up a new revenue
    stream for proponents of big government, but threatens to forever
    damage the American economy.

    Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist describes a
    carbon tax this way:

    “The creation of any new tax such as a VAT or energy tax — even if
    originally passed with offsetting tax reductions elsewhere — would
    inevitably lead to higher taxes as two taxes would be at the
    disposal of politicians to increase taxes. Two smaller tapeworms are
    not an improvement over one big tapeworm. Tapeworms and taxes grow.

    There is no conceivable way to add an energy or VAT tax to the
    burdens American taxpayers face that would not violate the pledge
    over time.  If someone first passed and implemented a constitutional
    amendment with 2/3 of the House and Senate and 3/4 of the states
    concurring to forbid the restoration of the income tax, we might
    more safely consider passing a VAT or energy VAT. And then it would
    be foolish and economically destructive thing to do.”

Meanwhile, conservatives who understand the threat of climate change 
continue to discuss the prospects for pricing carbon in Obama’s second 
term, possibly as part of a grand bargain on a deficit deal. While some 
consider taxing carbon pollution a “pipe dream,” others believe it’s one 
of the only opportunities to get Congressional Republicans to support a 
carbon reduction policy. Norquist’s immediate reversal shows just how 
difficult it will be to bring enough Republicans around on the issue and 
get something done.

The Obama Administration said last week that it has no intentions to 
introduce a carbon tax proposal.
https://web.archive.org/web/20121115231519/https://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/13/1182511/grover-norquist-abruptly-reverses-position-on-carbon-tax-after-facing-criticism-from-koch-backed-group/

=== Other climate news sources ===========================================
**Inside Climate News*
Newsletters
We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or 
once a week, our original stories and digest of the web’s top headlines 
deliver the full story, for free.
https://insideclimatenews.org/
---------------------------------------
**Climate Nexus* https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*
Delivered straight to your inbox every morning, Hot News summarizes the 
most important climate and energy news of the day, delivering an 
unmatched aggregation of timely, relevant reporting. It also provides 
original reporting and commentary on climate denial and pro-polluter 
activity that would otherwise remain largely unexposed.    5 weekday
=================================
*Carbon Brief Daily https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up*
Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief 
sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of 
subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours 
of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our 
pick of the key studies published in the peer-reviewed journals.
more at https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief
==================================
*T*he Daily Climate *Subscribe https://ehsciences.activehosted.com/f/61*
Get The Daily Climate in your inbox - FREE! Top news on climate impacts, 
solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered week days. Better than coffee.
Other newsletters  at https://www.dailyclimate.org/originals/

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ 

/Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/

/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe 
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request> 
to news digest./

Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only -- and carries no images 
or attachments which may originate from remote servers. Text-only 
messages provide greater privacy to the receiver and sender. This is a 
personal hobby production curated by Richard Pauli
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for commercial 
purposes. Messages have no tracking software.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote 
<mailto:contact at theclimate.vote> with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, 
subject: unsubscribe
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at 
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for 
http://TheClimate.Vote <http://TheClimate.Vote/> delivering succinct 
information for citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List 
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously restricted to 
this mailing list.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20231112/b4756ea2/attachment.htm>