China chastises U.S., Europe over greenhouse gases while Japan buys CO2 rights from...Latvia?

China's top climate envoy got into what MSNBC is calling "a rare public spat" with the U.S. and Europe Wednesday, contending that it's not fair to expect all countries to play a role in combating global warming when it's the older ones that originally caused the problem.

The spat occurred at a news conference at the U.N. climate talks in Bangkok, where delegates from 180 countries have been locked in the talks for 10 days on trying to hammer out a new climate agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

The Chinese envoy's comments "laid bare what has been clear in at the negotiating tables for days — that a long-running divide between rich and poor countries shows no sign of abating despite promises by some major developing countries to cut their emissions of the gases responsible for climate change," MSNBC says.

So how do those rich countries hit their emission targets? By buying the carbon dioxide rights of less developed countries, of course.

That's what Japan has been up to this week, shopping around for someone's CO2 emission rights that it could buy. Japan is already the world's fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and expects to have trouble meeting its emission reduction goals under the Kyoto treaty.

So last week Japanese officials went shopping for emission rights in the Czech Republic and the Ukraine, and this week it has concluded a contract with Latvia to acquire rights to emit 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.This is a big business -- a recent World Bank report estimated that the value of global carbon markets jumped from $110 million in 2002 to $126 billion in 2008.

--Craig Pittman

Apple, Nike, utilities splitting with Chamber of Commerce over climate change, showing shift in political alliances

The exodus began last month, as Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear energy provider; a New Mexico utility holding company called PNM Resources,and Pacific Gas & Electric, California's biggest utility  all headed for the door. Then came Nike resigning from the board, and now, today, the almighty Apple departed as well, resigning from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its climate policy.

“We strongly object to the chamber’s recent comments opposing the EPA.’s effort to limit greenhouse gases,” wrote Catherine A. Novelli, vice-president of worldwide government affairs at Apple, in a letter  to Thomas J. Donohue, president and chief executive of the chamber. "“Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the chamber at odds with us in this effort."

You may recall that the Chamber not only opposes the EPA's climate change rules and the Waxman-Markey bill that was passed by the House earlier this year. It also wants the EPA to hold something like the "Scopes monkey trial" to determine if global warming is real and is really being caused by people. But now it's the Chamber that's on trial, painted by its former members as "scientific obstructionists."

Democrats who support climate-change legislation are hooting about the departures from the Chamber, which according to Newsday spent $7.4 million lobbying on climate change this past spring. Jay Inslee, a House Democrat from Washington State and a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, told Forbes that the string of resignations was "an earthquake."

The Wall Street Journal notes that the growing rift amid the Chamber's members "is highlighting how the climate-change issue is straining traditional alliances in Washington, as some businesses seek to profit from overhauling the energy market and others try to cut deals to head off tougher regulation."

--Craig Pittman

EPA unveils first national greenhouse gas reporting system

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that, starting in January, it will require about 10,000 facilities nationwide to report the amount of their greenhouse gas emissions, to provide a better understanding of where greenhouse gas emissions originate and will help to reduce emissions.

Setting up the first national greenhouse gas reporting system could also make it easier for the EPA to step in with regulations to cut U.S. emissions if Congress fails to pass climate change legislation, Reuters notes.

“This is a major step forward in our effort to address the greenhouse gases polluting our skies,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said. “For the first time, we begin collecting data from the largest facilities in this country, ones that account for approximately 85 percent of the total U.S. emissions."

--Craig Pittman

Energy Secty says Americans are "like your teenage kids" when it comes to climate change

With the Senate showing signs of balking at passing a climate-change bill this year, leaving President Obama feeling boxed in by the upcoming Copenhagen climate conference, Energy Secretary Steven Chu made some comments to the Wall Street Journal that may not help matters much.

Chu, speaking on the sidelines of a smart grid conference in Washington, told the WSJ that he didn’t think average folks had the know-how or will to to change their behavior enough to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

“The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act,”  Chu said. “The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is.”

Still, Chu said, he is optimistic that eventually the public will see the wisdom of the Obama Administration's pitch that energy efficiency and caps on greenhouse-gas emissions will help the economy rebound. Although if he's thinking the public is just a bunch of teenagers, maybe Chu could put his message into a musical about high school to convince everyone.

[Photo: "High School Musical" from Disney]

--Craig Pittman

U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants 'Scopes monkey trial' for global warming

The nation's largest business lobby, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wants the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a rare public hearing on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change, the Los Angeles Times is reporting.

Chamber officials -- who want to halt sweeping emissions regulations -- say it would be "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century," says the LAT -- "complete with witnesses, cross-examinations and a judge who would rule, essentially, on whether humans are warming the planet to dangerous effect." After all, you can't spell "ape" without EPA, right?

But EPA officials, in no mood to monkey around, called the chamber's proposed trial a "waste of time."  EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said the agency based its findings on global warming "on the soundest peer-reviewed science available, which overwhelmingly indicates that climate change presents a threat to human health and welfare."

Joining the EPA in reaching that conclusion are the National Air and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and even the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And lest you think they're just aping what the EPA said, those federal agencies have lots of company among scientists worldwide.

"The need for urgent action to address climate change is now indisputable," said a recent letter to world leaders by the heads of the top science agencies in 13 of the world's largest countries, including the head of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

[AP photo]

Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

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Forged letters --- now totaling 12 -- sent by lobbyist working for pro-coal group

Remember those three letters from minority groups opposing the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and how they turned out last week to be phony? There have been some further developments, to say the least.

"A total of 12 forged letters -- all appearing to come from local groups unhappy with a climate-change bill -- were sent to three congressional offices this summer by a Washington lobbying firm, according to the pro-coal group the firm was working for," the Washington Post is reporting.

The lobbying firm that sent the forged letters, Bonner & Associates, has now been denounced by its own client, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, for sending letters opposing the Waxman-Markey bill signed by non-existent people.

The Post describes the growing scandal as a saga of modern Washington " in which an 'American coalition' claiming 200,000 supporters still relies on a subcontractor to gin up favorable letters."

It's already sparked a bit of naked protesting (see YouTube clip below) and, of course, congressional hearings. Meanwhile, the Post adds, "a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice said she could not comment about whether that department was investigating, or about whether forging letters to Congress violates federal law."

--Craig Pittman

Politifact: Palin's claim of job losses from climate change bill is "mostly true"

Earlier this week we noted that Alaska's soon-to-be-ex-Gov. Sarah Palin penned an op-ed column blasting the Obama Administration for supporting the Waxman-Markey bill to combat climate change and instead touting offshore drilling as the solution.

"I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy," Palin wrote. "It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage."

In fact, she wrote, "job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs."

Now our colleagues at the Pulitzer-winning Politifact operation have examined Palin's claim and ruled it: "Mostly True."

"She's correct that there is a program in the bill that would help displaced workers, but she paints a narrow view of how the bill will affect employment," writes Poltifact reporter Catherine Richert. "Yes, some workers will be displaced and need to be retrained, but some experts are projecting growth and new jobs in industries that benefit from the new policy. We rate her claim Mostly True."

--Craig Pittman

Palin blasts Obama over cap-and-trade plan, touts drill-baby-drill instead

The soon-to-be ex-governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, penned an op-ed piece in today's Washington Post blasting President Obama over his support for a bill to use cap-and-trade to limit greenhouse gases.

"I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy," Palin wrote. "It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage."

Instead of approving the Waxman-Markey bill, Palin suggested focusing on -- say it together, people! -- "drill, baby, drill!":

"In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats."

Palin's critics have already begun counter-attacks on her op-ed piece -- but one of the more interesting takes is in the Wall Street Journal, which notes that "the biggest beneficiary of the energy and climate bill currently in the Senate will probably be natural gas, which is currently as cheap as coal and twice as clean...Seen that way, Gov. Palin could probably find plenty of reasons to support the administration’s energy plan."

[AP photo: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin]

--Craig Pittman

Climate Action Partnership splintering over climate-change bill, says WSJ

The U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a group of businesses and environmental organizations that includes Florida's largest utility, was instrumental in building support for capping U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases.

But now that a bill to do just that has passed the House and is headed for the Senate, the partnership is starting to fracture, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The problem: In order to win the support of enough members to get the bill passed, House Democrats had to add in a lot of extra provisions. Now members of the Climate Action Partnership "say the bill is too burdensome and contains provisions that have little to do with fighting climate change," the WSJ reports.

The partners balking at the current version of the Waxman-Markey bill include Ford, GM, Conoco-Phillips and Caterpillar, the story says. But FPL Group, the parent of Florida Power & Light -- and the nation's biggest producer of solar and wind power -- is sticking by the bill, now slated for a Senate vote in the fall.

"While no legislation is perfect, this bill is a critical step in the right direction," FPL's CEO, Lew Hay III, said in a statement when the bill the passed the House last month.

--Craig Pittman

House passes controversial climate change bill by just 7 votes, after last-minute push by Obama

After three hours of debate, and some last-minute lobbying by President Obama, the House of Representatives tonight narrowly passed the Waxman-Markey bill to combat climate change by setting up a cap-and-trade system.

The tally was 219 to 212 -- a mere seven-vote margin, with 44 Democrats voting no, according to the New York Times. Here's a breakdown of the roll call, which shows Rep. C.W. Bill Young  and Gus Bilirakis voting no along with most of the GOP, and Rep. Kathy Castor voting yea with most, though not, all of the Democrats.

The bill is "a patchwork of compromises," notes the Times, and "falls far short of what many European governments and environmentalists have said is needed to avert the worst impacts of global warming. And it has pitted liberal Democrats from both coasts against more conservative Democrats from areas dependent on coal for electricity and heavy manufacturing for jobs."

And as tough as the passage was in the House, "it is just the beginning of the energy and climate debate in Congress, since the issue now moves to the Senate, where political divisions and regional differences are even starker."

Here's President Obama's Rose Garden speech today in support of the bill's passage:

--Craig Pittman