20 February 2015

In the News
NOAA & NASA-GISS: Helping the Warming Narrative
James Rust, Master Resource, 20 February 2015
Note to EPA: Ideological Fervor Is Not an Alternative Source of Energy
Washington Examiner editorial, 20 February 2015
Police May Call IPCC Chairman Pachauri for Questioning
Business Standard, 20 February 2015
NRDCs *Laughable* Defense against Sen. Vitters Collusion Charges
William Yeatman, GlobalWarming.org, 19 February 2015
Electric Car Benefits? Just Myths
Bjorn Lomborg, USA Today, 19 February 2015
No China Peak Coal in Sight
Armond Cohen, Energy Collective, 19 February 2015
Kyoto Protocol: 10 Years of Triumph
Benjamin Zycher, The American, 18 February 2015
Citibank To Invest $100 Billion in Climate Change Projects
Deirdre Fernandes, Boston Globe, 18 February 2015
Peeking behind the Green Curtain (Editors Must-Read)
Chris Horner, Washington Times, 17 February 2015
The High Cost of Energy Illiteracy
Steven Hayward, PowerLine, 16 February 2015

News You Can Use

Obamas Misplaced Priorities
The Obama administration spent more per year on green energy subsidies over the last 5 years than it
did on securing U.S. embassies, according to a report published this week by the Institute for Energy
Research

Inside the Beltway

EPA Air & Radiation Chief Fails to Inspire Confidence at NARUC
William Yeatman
On Monday and Tuesday, state and utility regulators gathered in Washington, D.C. for the National
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners winter meeting. For obvious reasons, EPAs Clean
Power Plan was the number one topic of discussion.
State regulators were highly critical of the regulation, which would usurp the states long held
prerogative over the retail provision of electricity. I think its pretty clear this is not workable for us,
said Wyoming Public Service Commissioner Alan Minier. Texas Commissioner Kenneth Anderson
described EPAs timelines as being physically impossible and completely unattainable.
EPA Air & Radiation chief Janet McCabe, whose office is responsible for the rule, did little to quell the
states concerns. As reported by E&E EnergyWires ($), McCabe told the state regulators that it is
incumbent upon state regulators to tell the agency how to ensure that the Clean Power Plan doesnt
threaten reliability.
McCabes comments are very troubling. After all, the comment period for the rule already has passed.
The agency has given itself a July deadline to finish the rule, which is only five months away. Yet the EPA
now is saying that it needs ideas as to how to ensure the rule doesnt endanger reliability. Shouldnt the
agency have foreseen this problem?

White House CEQ Extends Comment Deadline on NEPA Guidance

Myron Ebell
The White House Council on Environmental Quality has announced that it is extending the comment
period until 25th March on its revised draft guidance document on how federal agencies should include
climate change and greenhouse gas emissions in preparing Environmental Impact Statement under the
National Environmental Policy Act. The comment period was set to end on 23rd February.
The guidance document follows the language of NEPA, enacted in 1970, by recommending that the
direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from proposed actions be
considered in an EIS. NEPA applies to all major federal actions, including permitting decisions. The
guidance also considers the use of the Department of Energys Social Cost of Carbon guidance
document.
The original draft guidance was released in 2009 but never finalized. The revised draft is available here.
Comments may be submitted electronically at GCC.guidance@ceq.eop.gov. My CEI colleague Marlo
Lewis has been rushing to finish lengthy comments and will now have time to polish them and ask other
non-profit groups to join in signing them.

Across the States

Clean Power Plan Employment Losses by State and District
The Heritage Foundation this week published a study that breaks down the employment impacts of
EPAs Clean Power Plan by state and congressional district. The study is a refinement of a previous
analysis that found the rule would eliminate 580,000 manufacturing jobs and cause a loss of almost $2.5
trillion from the gross national product. Click here to see how many jobs the Clean Power Plan would
cost your district.

Around the World

Myron Ebell

British Political Establishment Unites In Economic Suicide Pact

The UK Climate Coalition announced on Saint Valentines Day that British Prime Minister David
Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband had signed a
joint agreement on climate policy. The leaders of the three main political partiesConservative, Liberal
Democratic, and Laborpledge to work together on three key areas: achieving a new legally-binding UN
climate agreement that limits global warming to two degrees Celsius; agreeing on a carbon budget
that achieves the targets set in the Climate Change Act of 2008; and enacting policies that accelerate
the transition to a competitive, energy efficient low carbon economy and that shut down coal-fired
power plants unless they are equipped with carbon capture and storage technology.
Londons political establishment has been in full agreement on global warming and energy-rationing
policies for many years. The Cameron-Clegg-Miliband pact seems to me a potentially significant step
beyond the existing consensus for at least two reasons. First, it means that climate policy will not be an
issue between the three parties in the upcoming general election campaign. It will be up to the United
Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) to challenge the establishment consensus. Polling has shown that
most Britons, like most Americans, dont believe global warming is a crisis that warrants the ruinously
costly policies supported by the three major parties.
Second, the three leaders are clueless about the economic effects of their policies and so is the Climate
Coalition that arranged the agreement as part of their Show the Love campaign. The reliably leftist
Independent newspaper reported last year that 2.28 million British households now live in fuel
poverty. Lucy Jolin writing last year in the equally leftist Guardian reported that there were an
additional 31,000 deaths in Britain last winter from cold weather. Many of those who died were elderly
people who could not afford adequate heating. The Climate Coalition includes over 100 organizations as
members, including Oxfam and Christian Aid.