Related: Peak oil postponed again? | Deepwater Horizon worker claims oil rig leaking weeks before explosion | States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | Oil, oil everywhere? Well, just maybe | World has enough oil reserves, says BP boss

Naked Capitalism
June 26, 2010

Gulf resident and fisherman’s wife Kindra Arnesen took advantage of the offer extended to her to visit cleanup sites and staff meetings:

At any rate, I was invited the following week to go behind “enemy lines.” They gave me, of all people, security clearance to go into the base of operations meetings in Venice, Louisiana eight days in. Open door invitation to sit like a fly on the wall. Can you believe it? It’s really going on. They also gave me security clearance to go up to the Homer Incident Command Post which is over the entire region of Louisiana. I’ve been in Coast Guard planes all the way out to the site itself. Helicopters. Boat rides. I have been everywhere that anybody could ever want to go to get an inside look at what’s really going on.

Arensen appears to have been invited in because she got media coverage earlier in June when CNN covered her efforts to organize wives of Gulf fisherman over concerns about the safety of working on oil cleanup:

Arnesen believes it was vapors from the oil and the dispersants from the BP Gulf oil disaster that made her husband and the other shrimpers sick. She says they were downwind of it, and the smell was “so strong they could almost taste it.”

For several weeks, she hesitated to talk publicly about it. Like many fishermen who can no longer fish in the Gulf, her husband has signed a contract to work with BP to clean up the oil, and she doesn’t want to bite the hand that puts food on her family’s table.

But now Arnesen, a 32-year-old “uneducated housewife” — her words — is breaking her silence and is encouraging others in her community do the same. After attending a lecture by Rikki Ott, a toxicologist who’s worked with families affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Arnesen decided to organize other wives to ask questions about the safety of working near the oil.

Apparently embedding is more successful with journalists than with people who have a stake in the events they are witnessing. Her report indicates (transcript via Suburban Guerilla, courtesy Democratic Underground):

1. BP is playing down concerns over the safety of exposure to oil and chemical fumes, and attributing ailments and symptoms to causes that strain credulity. In addition, it is, as we reported earlier, making it well nigh impossible for responders to obtain respirators (the method is bureaucratic impediments: they not only need to prepare an OSHA form, but need an evaluation by “a medical professional”. Pray tell, how many people have the time and money to do that? (The detail of the interview indicates a Catch 22 in action). And again as reported here, BP is refusing to employ workers who bring their own respirators, even those OSHA rules workers to provide them.

2. Cleanup measures are far less aggressive than depicted to the media and visiting politicians:

So basically, this whole “ponies and balloons” act — if someone does not come in and properly oversee this response — our marsh now is being used as a boom. an overworked (?) boom, a big, giant sponge. It’s on both sides of us. It will fill up, it is filling up, constantly. We have heavy, heavy crude penetrating our marsh right now as we speak. They deploy , and then they pull ‘em back in when the politicians leave and this is not acceptable!

They’re not cleaning it up; they’re covering it up! This is, we’re barely into this. This could go on for years and years and they are already cutting costs! Cutting costs, cutting corners, taking shortcuts is why we are all sittin’ in this room today.

Enough is enough!

Now, as far as EPA, OSHA, NOAA, BP, and the federal government , they every one of them’s in collaboration with each other. That comes from someone at the top of NOAA. That’s who I’ve been talking to. They gave me someone at the top of NOAA. But, they’re all in collaboration with BP.

[Ed. Note: Washington's blog also supplies an additional video with the text below.]

Former clean-up worker Candy Morris also said the clean-up efforts are just for show, are only cosmetic, and are just for the cameras:

Source | See also under Environment: Maurice Strong: I don’t want to rule the world but global cooperation needed on climate, population, and consumption | Canada commits $400M to climate change fund | Peak oil postponed again? | Bee decline could be down to chemical cocktail interfering with brains | Deepwater Horizon worker claims oil rig leaking weeks before explosion | States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | Climate and CO2 levels linked: study | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Throw cold water on bulk-water export opposition | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Polar bears not at risk: Nunavut | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Bulk water exports prohibited under new U.S.-Canada border regulations | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | The promise and the peril of an engineered climate | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Vancouver bans smoking in parks | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | Ontario unveils $8B in renewable energy projects | Mercury still plagues Ont. First Nation: report | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | Arctic winds and not global warming ‘responsible for much of record loss of sea ice’ | UK: Carbon capture storage lauded, will ‘generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year’ | UK climate change ads pulled as ‘misleading’ | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Baffin Bay polar bear hunting quota to be cut despite Inuit claim of rising numbers | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Obama proposes Great Lakes cleanup | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned | Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canada files ‘continental’ Copenhagen emissions target with UN | Natural water vapour largely responsible for Global Warming: NOAA, NASA | ‘Bin Laden’ slams U.S over global warming, dollar, in another unconfirmed tape | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | For more see The Memory Hole – Environment

gov·er·nance (n.) \ˈgə-vər-nən(t)s\
See government

Perhaps, next, we should look up doublespeak. Or doublethink, for those who buy his line. Who’s he kidding? The EU was sold as being merely a system of economic cooperation as well. While the UN and international relations wonks use the term ‘governance’ in a wider context to apply to “corporate governance, international governance, national governance and local governance”, there is no real daylight between the two, unless the intention is to imply states are to be run as corporations. Which, on further reflection, is probably not too far from the truth. Nice try smearing everyone who disagrees with you as ‘right wing’, though. Tell us another story, Mr. Strong.

Related: Canada commits $400M to climate change fund | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Davos 2010: George Soros warns gold is now the ‘ultimate bubble’, calls for IMF to handle climate fund | Copenhagen Accord Establishes Global Government Framework | Canada part of Copenhagen climate deal | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | World leaders push for climate deal | UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance | Copenhagen climate summit releases draft final text | IMF could fund climate adaptation: Soros | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Canada agrees to contribute to $10-billion climate change fund | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Leo Hickman, The Guardian
June 23, 2010

What I do want, says the man self-labelled ‘the planet’s leading environmentalist’, is for nations to co-operate fully on issues they cannot deal with alone

Maurice Strong, the founding executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme and self-proclaimed “world’s leading environmentalist”, has hit back at his critics in a rare interview with the Guardian.

Responding to internet speculation and repeated attacks by prominent rightwing climate sceptics that he is using the climate change issue to establish a global government, the 81-year-old Canadian, who organised both the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 and the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, said his only motivation was to alert the world that mankind’s current actions are environmentally unsustainable.

“I’ve always made it clear that I do not believe that global government is either necessary or feasible,” said Strong, who was a key official at the UN for decades until his retirement in 2005.

“What I do believe is that we need a system of global governance through which nations can co-operate and deal with issues they cannot deal with alone. Maybe that statement is too sophisticated for some, but it shouldn’t be.”

Last month, Glenn Beck, the conservative Fox News host and popular US talk radio presenter, portrayed Strong as a malevolent figure using his UN contacts to bring about the “collapse” of the world’s “industrialised civilisations”.

Beck said: “[Strong is] involved in collapsing the global economies into the hands of a global government.”

Last year, Lord Monckton, the prominent climate sceptic who recently became the deputy leader of the UK Independence Party, accused Strong during a US TV programme of being a central figure in a “collusion” between UN officials, business leaders and scientists to use climate change as a device to make money.

Strong, a former oil and utilities industry executive who is currently a director of the Chicago Climate Exchange, North America’s only exchange trading credits for greenhouse gas emissions, rejected the accusation.

“It’s true that I do get a modest fee from Chicago Climate Exchange, which I helped [to found], because I believe the cap-and-trade system, while not perfect, is one of the best ways to ensure that people have the incentive to reduce their emissions at the lowest cost,” he said.

“That’s a long way from suggesting that I could invent the climate change issue to make profit.

“I have business interests, but they are pretty modest and I believe that business has to contribute to the solutions. To do that, they have to be profitable.”

Strong also rejected internet speculation by conspiracy theorists that he is a member of clandestine groups, such as the Bilderberg Group and the Illuminati. “I have got lots of connections, but they’re not amongst them,” he said.

On the issue of whether humanity can tackle the environmental challenges he believes it now faces, Strong was downbeat.

“Analytically, I’m pessimistic,” he said. “I believe the odds are against us for making the changes we need to make in time.

“But, operationally, I’m optimistic because I believe that it is still possible. [It becomes] tougher the longer we delay it.

“That’s why I’m trying all these things because I believe we should still be trying as long as it is still possible. My pessimism is based on whether I think we will actually make these changes …

“The combination of population growth and the growth in consumption is a danger that we are not prepared for and something we will need global co-operation on.”

Source | See also under Globalization: Canada commits $400M to climate change fund | G20 Bank tax push gains momentum as UK, France, Germany introduce national legislation | Gold reclaims its currency status as the global system unravels | How will democracy fare under the G20’s new world order? | Blame Canada: How Paul Martin, Larry Summers sketched out G20 new world order | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | EU to push for global bank tax at G20 | U.S. seeks international organization in battle against cyber terror | Huntsville G8 will host 10 more countries, says PM | Bilderberg 2010: What we have learned | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | Tucker Bilderberg 2010 Wrapup: Attack on Iran discussed, World Treasury Dept delayed | Bilderberg 2010: Don’t call it a pow-wow! | G20 agenda named as “global government” by thinktank, Toronto summit set to sit on hands | Former Nato Secretary-General Admits Bilderberg Sets Global Policy | G20 leaders signal move from aid to business, call for increase to central bank budgets | Bilderberg Agenda Revealed: Globalists In Crisis, Supportive Of Attack On Iran | G20 to delay tough bank tax regulations | Geithner speaketh on the globalization of risk as G20 meets in Seoul | PM takes pre-summit pitch to Europe | G20 now singing different regulatory tunes | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | European Council On Foreign Relations: EU Needs To Use Crisis For Greater Power | Dublin Trilateral attendees let slip need for world govt, war with Iran, Bilderberg oversight | European Powerbrokers Present Proposal For New Economic And Political Order | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | International Copyright Draft Release Was Apparently A One Time Deal: Now We’re Back To Secrecy | Lewenza: Canada-EU deal will affect more than trade | Western Central Banks back Trillion Dollar European rescue plan, ECB to manage markets | MPs divided on Canada-Colombia trade agreement | Canada, EU at loggerheads over bank tax | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Greek rescue fears hit global stock markets | Cybersecurity event seeks to spur international talks | Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe | European Central Bank chief: Bank of International Settlements to Rule the Global Economy | Greece’s near bankruptcy won’t scuttle Canada-EU trade talks: minister | Harper calls for global economic governance, lauds G20 as ruling forum | Truth and Reconciliation Commission seeks global forum on abuse of native peoples | Big stakes in Canada-Europe trade talks, but little attention | US prepares to push for global capital rules | World Bank gets $3.5-billion boost, revamps voting structure to make China number 3 | Greek bailout not limited to €45bn, Flaherty warns | Flaherty wins delay in decision on global bank tax at interim G20 meeting | IMF to move quickly on Greek request for loan | Global bank tax urged by IMF | Abdelrazik’s bank assets frozen | University of Toronto, Peter Munk to reveal new School of Global Affairs | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Thousands condemn secrecy of New Zealand round of internet copyright talks | Nuclear summit urges anti-terror treaty | Terence Corcoran: The rise of global statism | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Tucker: Bilderberg To Meet in Spain, Prolong Global Financial Recession For Another Year | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | J.P. Morgan rolls into Calgary | Toronto braces for G20 logistics crunch | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Clinton’s Arctic comments cheer Inuit | Interpol heads to World Cup in record numbers | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | EU ‘Free Trade’ and CETA: Advancing the Transatlantic Agenda | CETA worse than ACTA – EU Trade Negotiators Demand Canada Completely Overhaul Its Intellectual Property Laws | IMF struggles to conceal glee at Greek deal | Canadians to get biometric, RFID enabled passports in 2011, security experts voice concerns | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | Revealed: ACTA to cover seven categories of intellectual property | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | Banking reforms urgent, Harper says at G20 sherpas’ meeting | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | G20 ’sherpas’ meet with IMF, World Bank on Ottawa | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | MEPs vote overwhelmingly for an EU Tobin Tax | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | Frustrated Icelanders vent rage by voting no in referendum | EU considers general carbon tax | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | IMF chief proposes new reserve currency | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | EU executive recommends fast-track membership for Iceland | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | Inuit group blasts Cannon over summit | Precedent setting meeting called as Canada’s premiers attend Governors Association in Washington DC | Global security to top agenda of G8 foreign ministers | Euro currency union shows strains | G20 security could strangle downtown | Gordon Brown’s plan for global bank tax ‘a step closer’ | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Indigenous groups left out of Arctic leaders’ summit | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | A New Generation of ‘ North American’ Citizens | Hollywood loses landmark copyright case in Australia | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Global Bank Insurance Levy Wins Support over Transaction Tax at Davos | No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | Harper urges G20 to follow economic accords | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU urged to adopt bank supertax | Flaherty to use February G7 in Iqaluit (or Ottawa?) to push for global changes to financial system | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Sarkozy says world currency disorder unacceptable | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | For more see The Memory Hole – Globalization

Related: Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Davos 2010: George Soros warns gold is now the ‘ultimate bubble’, calls for IMF to handle climate fund | Copenhagen Accord Establishes Global Government Framework | Canada part of Copenhagen climate deal | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | World leaders push for climate deal | UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance | Copenhagen climate summit releases draft final text | IMF could fund climate adaptation: Soros | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Canada agrees to contribute to $10-billion climate change fund | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Allan Woods, Toronto Star
June 23, 2010

OTTAWA—Canada has set up a $400 million fund to help developing countries cope with climate change, a move that has earned the country a rare cheer from environmentalists.

The fund is Canada’s contribution to an annual $30 billion global pot that rich countries agreed to establish through at a climate gathering last December in Copenhagen. The financial commitment, good through 2012, was one of the few concrete outcomes of the meeting, which had planned to broker a global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 2012 and 2020.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Canada is responsible for 2 per cent of the world’s emissions but is contributing 4 per cent of the fund.

“This contribution is consistent with our traditional share of developed country donor pledges in the context of multilateral international assistance efforts,” Prentice said Wednesday. “It will help developing countries reduce emissions and support adaptation and capacity building.”

A number of environmental groups that have traditionally been critical of the Conservative government welcomed the announcement, but said it would be troubling if this money came from funds that would normally go toward more traditional aid work in poor countries.

The U.S., the European Union, Japan, Australia and Norway have already announced their contributions to the three-year climate fund, bringing the pot to more than $10 billion. Canada’s contribution is on par with the funding announced by Norway ($333 million a year), Germany ($421 million in 2010), and France ($502 million a year).

“I think that Canada’s showing its interest in supporting significant progress in the Copenhagen Accord and it’s also understanding climate change in the broader development context, which are two developments that are very good to see,” said John Drexhage, climate change director with the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Prentice also said he plans to introduce regulations to limit emissions from the electricity sector sometime next year. Those rules would set new emissions standards for coal-fired generating plants and prohibit the construction of new coal plants, such as those operating in Ontario, unless they are equipped with technology to pipe emissions into permanent storage underground.

Ontario energy minister Brad Duguid welcomed the announcement. But he said if Ottawa wants to close coal plants, as Ontario is doing, it should help fund energy conservation programs and renewable energy sources.

“We’re ahead of every other jurisdiction in the world” in phasing out coal, he said. “But we hope it’s also an indication that if it’s an important issue to them, there will also be federal support coming to assist provincial populations adjusting to this type of initiative.”

Source | See also under Environment: Peak oil postponed again? | Bee decline could be down to chemical cocktail interfering with brains | Deepwater Horizon worker claims oil rig leaking weeks before explosion | States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | Climate and CO2 levels linked: study | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Throw cold water on bulk-water export opposition | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Polar bears not at risk: Nunavut | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Bulk water exports prohibited under new U.S.-Canada border regulations | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | The promise and the peril of an engineered climate | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Vancouver bans smoking in parks | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | Ontario unveils $8B in renewable energy projects | Mercury still plagues Ont. First Nation: report | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | Arctic winds and not global warming ‘responsible for much of record loss of sea ice’ | UK: Carbon capture storage lauded, will ‘generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year’ | UK climate change ads pulled as ‘misleading’ | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Baffin Bay polar bear hunting quota to be cut despite Inuit claim of rising numbers | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Obama proposes Great Lakes cleanup | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned | Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canada files ‘continental’ Copenhagen emissions target with UN | Natural water vapour largely responsible for Global Warming: NOAA, NASA | ‘Bin Laden’ slams U.S over global warming, dollar, in another unconfirmed tape | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | For more see The Memory Hole – Environmentdirec

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph
June 23, 2010

So there is plenty of oil and gas after all. Prices will bumble along gently until well into the next decade. We are becoming more efficient in our use of energy, with 3pc extra savings annually. That is a faster pace than the rising real cost of fuel. Mankind will not run out of fuel for a very long time.

That at least is the story today from the International Energy Agency. Their medium-term outlook for fossil fuel markets is a dazzling contrast with last year’s warnings that a combination of break-neck industrialisation in China and lack of investment in new oil fields (thanks to the credit freeze) would exhaust global spare capacity by 2013.

The IEA said then that we would need “four new Saudi Arabias” within a generation to cope with the rise of China, and there were no such Saudi Arabias in sight. Such are the perils of forecasting the volatile variables of supply and demand for oil.

What has changed – apart from human emotions? For starters, the global gas market has been undergoing a revolution as a result of a) liquefied natural gas, a technology that is only just coming into its own and allows countries such as Qatar to ship their once useless reserves of gas on frozen hulls across the world; LNG output will increase by 50pc from 2008 to 2013. Actually, this is not that new, but never mind.
b) advances in US gas extraction from rock, which have turned the US into the world’s biggest producer of gas. Europe is jumping on the bandwagon. “The development of unconventional gas in North America is of global significance,” said the agency. Indeed it is. The knock-on effects run right through the energy complex.

The IEA now expects spare capacity of oil to remain at a comfortable 3.5m barrels a day (bpd) in 2015, with consumption edging up by an extra 1m bpd each year to around 90m bpd (or 92m if global growth is stronger). All this is quite manageable. It talked of a “gentle nominal price escalation through mid-decade, with prices rising from $77 to $86″.

The alarmist stories we heard last year from certain City banks about collapsing supply (I will spare the names) were wildly wrong. The IEA’s upward revisions from 2009 come from the US, Russia, Colombia, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Egypt, and even the UK (+80,000).

Supply is rising from off-shore Brazil, the Caspian, Canadian oil sands, and biofuels, offsettting declines in the North Sea. Non-OPEC output will actually grow from 51.5m (bpd) to 52.5m by 2015. No crisis there … Latin America will jump from 3.9m to 5.1m, the old Soviet bloc from 13.3m to 13.8m.

On the demand side, America’s gasoline use is slowly “evaporating”. Consumption is falling by 0.6pc a year. This will continue after the new standard of 35.5 miles per gallon for light vehicles that came into force in April. Battery technologies for electric vehicles are on the cusp of a break-through, so long as lithium does not run short, (Half the world’s reserves are in Bolivia). Japanese researchers have built an 8-wheel prototype with a motor in each wheel that massively extends battery life because less energy is lost. “The transportation game-changer is just beginning,” said the IEA.

There are “demand risks”. Large parts of Asia, Latin America, and the Mid-East are at cusp of the “critical oil demand ‘take-off’ zone of $3,000 to $4,000 per capita income” when use explodes – ie, when they move from bicycles to scooters to cars, and install air-conditioning. Demand from emerging economies will make up 52pc of total global consumption by 2015. ( The rich countries have already hit the “S Curve” of saturation, followed by a long slow slide).

I am not an oil expert, just a curious spectator like many readers. I keep an eye on energy markets because they are a window into the global economy and the world’s strategic system.

I pass on the report without taking any particular view, and would be interested in your thoughts. My own suspicion is that Peak Oil has not been conjured away quite so easily as the IEA suggests, especially after BP’s debacle in the Gulf of Mexico.

At the very least, the marginal cost and risk cost of deep-sea drilling has rocketed. This must affect projects off Brazil, Angola, the Norwegian Arctic, and up in Russia’s `High North’. If the spill keeps gushing into the Autumn it may do to sea drilling, what Three Mile Island did to the US nuclear industry for thirty years.

Jeremy Leggett from Solarcentury and a member of the UK’s Task Force on Peak Oil argues that Big Oil has systemically overstated reserves for years to inflate share prices, shielded by captive regulators. Their deception compares to the systemic errors of the banks in the credit crunch, but ultimately on a bigger scale and with potentially more nefaste consequences.

I reserve my judgement on this. The energy market is infuriatingly opaque. But on balance, I think IEA was closer to the truth last year.

Source | See Also under Energy: Iran bars two UN inspectors in escalating nuclear row | Deepwater Horizon worker claims oil rig leaking weeks before explosion | States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Privacy czar raises alarm on smart meter data | UN Security Council imposes fourth round of sanctions on Iran | Iran has ‘fuel for 2 nukes’: UN report | Iran brokers deal with Turkey for uranium enrichment | Privacy commissioner outlines concerns surrounding Ontario’s Smart Grid plan | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | Unconstitutional? Ontario government slips another new energy tax in under the radar | UN-led uranium deal still on table: Iran | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Nuclear summit urges anti-terror treaty | Iran unveils new uranium centrifuges | J.P. Morgan rolls into Calgary | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | RCMP ends search – and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | Wiebo Ludwig arrested ‘to protect public’: RCMP goes fishing in pipeline bombing case | Review panel green-lights Mackenzie pipeline | RCMP pipeline bomber hunt draws harassment compliants, comparisons to secret police | RCMP warns EnCana bomber may strike this weekend | RCMP now refer to pipeline sabotage as ‘domestic terrorism’ | Latest EnCana pipeline explosion was deliberate: RCMP | Canada to match U.S. climate change rules | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | ‘Smart meters’ set to boost prices, track your power consumption by time of day in Toronto | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | Carbon tax resurfaces in Liberal policy proposal | Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Terence Corcoran: Ontario’s green energy plan sneaks in feed-in taxes | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | Google to enter market for energy use tracking | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change | Canadian, U.S. energy policies to be inextricably linked: Prentice | Russian gas begins flowing across Ukraine | Obama to visit Canada, Tories to propose ‘integrated carbon market’ | EU Fails To End Gas Crisis Between Ukraine and Russia | Row over Russian gas chokes supply to rest of Europe | RCMP investigate fourth pipeline bombing in British Columbia | Harper ready to harmonize with U.S. on climate change | Harper Govt. to push North American carbon market plan with Obama | UN announces green ‘New Deal’ plan to rescue world economies | Pipeline explosion investigation focuses on rural community | Ex-CSIS Agent, ‘Security Expert’, Paints Pipeline Explosion as “Terror” | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | Asia’s new ‘great game’ is all about pipelines | The Russo-Georgian War and the Balance of Power | Ontario joins continental WCI cap-and-trade scheme | Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan | Canada’s made in America energy policy | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | Pipeline Opens New Front In Afghan War | Canadians could be defending Afghan gas pipeline | World has enough oil reserves, says BP boss | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | Time has come to put ‘price on waste and pollution’: Dion | SPP Summit: Guard resources, Ottawa urged | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change | RCMP bombed oil site in ‘dirty tricks’ campaign

Alok Jha, The Guardian
June 22, 2010

£10m Insect Pollinators Initiative will look at the multiple reasons thought to be behind devastation of bees, moths and hoverflies

A cocktail of chemicals from pesticides could be damaging the brains of British bees, according to scientists about to embark on a study into why the populations of the insects have dropped so rapidly in recent decades. By affecting the way bees’ brains work, the pesticides might be affecting the ability of bees to find food or communicate with others in their colonies.

Neuroscientists at Dundee University, Royal Holloway and University College London will investigate the hypothesis as part of a £10m research programme launched today aimed at finding ways to stop the decline in the numbers of bees and other insect pollinators in the UK.

Insects such as bees, moths and hoverflies pollinate around a third of the agricultural crops grown around the world. If all of the UK’s insect pollinators were wiped out, the drop in crop production would cost the UK economy up to £440m a year, equivalent to around 13% of the UK’s income from farming.

Pollinators are also crucial for the quality of fruits and vegetables. Perfectly shaped strawberries, for example, are created only if every single ovary has been pollinated by an insect. And the number of seeds in a pumpkin depends on the number of species of insects that have pollinated the plants. “If you’ve got 10 pollinators, you’ll get more seeds in the pumpkin than you would have got if you’ve just got one pollinator,” said Giles Budge of the Food and Environment Research Agency. “It is important to have that diversity in a pollinating population.”

According to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, three of the 25 British species of bumblebees are already extinct and half of the remainder have shown serious declines, often up to 70%, since around the 1970s. In addition, around 75% of all butterfly species in the UK have been shown to be in decline. The new £10m Insect Pollinators Initiative (IPI), the largest programme to date of its kind, will look at the multiple reasons thought to be behind this devastation in insect population.

Chris Connolly of Dundee University’s Centre for Neuroscience has been awarded £1.5m to lead the work on whether pesticides are having an affect on the brains of bees. Pesticides could be blocking the electrical and chemical signals between neurons, he said, and only subtle changes may be required to produce serious brain disorders. These problems might stop bees identifying the best sources of nectar, or it might affect their ability to navigate to nearby food source and back home again.

Brain disorders in bees might also interfere with their ability to communicate with nest-mates using the “waggle dance”, where bees come back to their hive and spread information about the food sources they have found.

The IPI will bring together ecologists, molecular biologists, mathematicians and computer experts to study the decline of honeybees and other insect pollinators from a range of different angles.

“The landscape has changed considerably over the last 30-40 years, we’ve seen well-documented changes in our birds, our flora and also in some of our insects but now there’s a growing concern that our insect pollinators are also in decline, whether that’s in terms of the number of honeybees, number of bumblebee species, butterflies and hoverflies,” said Andrew Watkinson, director of the Living with Environmental Change programme, which is part of the IPI.

Jane Memmott of the University of Bristol has been awarded a £1.2m grant to identify the hotspots of insect biodiversity in Bristol, Reading, Leeds and Edinburgh. “We’re divvying the cities up not just into gardens – we’ll look at bits of wasteland, industrial estates, shopping malls – to ask where there are the little oases for plant pollinators. We’ll ask what we can do in cities to make them more pollinator-friendly?”

Claire Carvell of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology will use her £500,000 award to analyse DNA from live wild bees to track how far and wide queen bees fly to start new nests and how far worker bees fly to look for food. “Bumblebees live in colonies of a few hundred workers and a queen. If we want to conserve their populations, we need to think about the number of nests and not just the number of individual bees. But we’re faced with a challenge – it’s almost impossible to find bumblebee nests in the wild.”

The IPI has been funded by the Natural and Environmental Research Council (Nerc), the UK government’s department for environment, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Scottish Government and the Wellcome Trust. Alan Thorpe, chief executive of Nerc, said: “We can take for granted the variety of vegetables, fruits and flowers that we can enjoy every day but some of the insect pollinators on which they rely are in serious decline. Understanding the complexities of environmental ecosystems is a priority that will help to ensure the survival of pollinators and the benefits they provide.”

Source | See Also under Food: Federal product safety seizure bill C6 back from the dead | UK will open door to GMO frankenfoods, minister suggests | Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality | Health Canada says BPA perfectly safe | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Agriculture Canada Report: Farming income gets hammered in 2010 | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Fury as EU approves antibiotic resistant GM potato | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | The ‘egg police’ crack down on local grey market eggs | Raw milk farmer to continue fight | Ont. appealing raw milk producer’s acquittal | Stop selling unlicensed natural health remedies: pharmacy regulators | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Court approves raw milk co-op | Raw milk farmer vows to fight on | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | New toxic milk case in China kept secret for a year, reports say | Do you want anti-cancer drug in junk food? | Food summit offers thin pledges to hungry | Court upholds aboriginal fishing rights on Vancouver Island | Canada’s flax crop mysteriously contaminated by GM seeds | Britain will starve without GM crops, says major report | It is too late to shut the door on GM foods | Passage of Bill C-6 Imminent, Gives Health Canada Warrantless Search and Seizure Powers | BPA in womb linked to aggression in girls | Williams says international fish deal erodes Canadian sovereignty | Food prices set to rise? | US House approves sweeping new food powers for FDA | Organic food no more nutritious, study finds | Listeriosis report urges cleanliness and – increased federalization of food safety | Ottawa considers culling 20% of pork industry | New Ontario regulations forcing local butchers out of market | Bisphenol A traces found in baby food: Health Canada | Bee population feels sting of cold, parasites as N.B. population drops | Elevated BPA levels in people drinking out of plastic bottles, study finds | Meet – and eat – the modified Atlantic salmon | Bee expert takes issue with dated UN data minimizing honeybee deaths | Researchers working on swine flu ‘vaccine corn’ | Will recession spark global food crisis? | High-fructose sweeteners linked to obesity, diabetes | Most Canadian producers excluded as new ‘Product of Canada’ label rules set | Tests find Bisphenol A in majority of soft drinks | Details being withheld of listeria discussion held prior to outbreak | Harper government withholds listeriosis notes | Doomsday seed vault’s stores are growing | Genetically Modified Seeds: Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach | Milk trial defence: Raw milk is safe and food choice a right | Milk trial prosecution: Cow share contracts ‘a preferred customer list’ | Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury | Farmer turns to Constitution as defence at raw-milk trial | UK Hospitals will take meat off menus in bid to cut carbon | Raw milk crusader returns to court to fight charges | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | UK Environment minister calls for international food treaty, GM foods at Fabian Society address | SWAT Teams raiding Amish, Food Co-ops in Rural US | GM Crops Climb to Nearly One-Tenth of Global Crop Production | Raw milk producer fined $55,000 | “Trace amounts” of Melamine found in Canadian infant formula | FDA finds traces of melamine in U.S. infant formula | Rich countries, corporations launch great land grab | Genetically engineered meal close to your table | The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops | Ottawa to revive bill restricting natural health products | Europe’s secret plan to boost GM crop production | Ontario farmer found guilty of contempt in raw-milk trial | Health Canada adds bisphenol A to list of toxic substances | Listeria reporting rule dropped before crisis | Tests find melamine in candies, milk, infant formula from China | New study raises concerns Bisphenol-A could be related to heart disease | Govt. Report: Fluoride in Water Supply Harms Thyroid Function | Raw milk fans rally at court for dairy farmer | Bayer on defensive in bee deaths | Hunger in Africa blamed on western rejection of GM food | Shun meat, says UN climate chief | Are we already dining on clones? | Bisphenol tied to lower brain function | Radiation touted to protect meat | GM crops could lead to ‘disaster’: Prince Charles | Chemical Industry Source of Hyped FDA Study ‘Exonerating’ Plastic Bottles | You can’t stop the raw milk, activist says | Small Farmers Pushed to Plant GM Seed | American thinktanks sowed seeds of food crisis | Sludge biosolids decried as ‘toxic stew’, used as fertilizer | Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser | Agribusiness positions GM crops as panacea to predicted global food shortage | Billions needed annually to raise food production: UN chief | Monsanto Plans to Save World with its Biotech Crops | Naturopaths Fear Proposed Bill C-51 | Farmer Surveilled, Raided for Natural Milk Operation has Trial Delayed | High-level UN task force to tackle global food crisis | Farmers to kill off 150,000 pigs | Head of IMF says if food prices remain high, consequences are dire | Canada’s C-51 Law May Outlaw 60% Of Natural Health Products | Codex Alimentarius — An Emerging Threat | Codex Alimentarius Commission adopts more than 50 new food standards

Related: States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill

Graeme Wearden, The Guardian
June 21, 2010

Oil worker told the BBC’s Panorama programme that both BP and Transocean, who owned the rig, were informed of the leak

An oil worker who survived the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion has claimed that the oil rig’s safety equipment was leaking several weeks before it exploded, triggering the huge spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tyrone Benton says that he spotted a leak on the rig’s Blowout Preventer (BOP), the device that is meant to shut the well down if there is an accident. He told the BBC’s Panorama programme that both BP and Transocean, who owned the rig, were informed of the leak, and the faulty part – a control pod – was switched off rather than being repaired.

“We saw a leak on the pod [and] we informed the company,” Benton told the programme, which will be broadcast at 8.30pm tonight. “They have a control room where they could turn off that pod and turn on the other one, so that they don’t have to stop production.”

Benton added that he was unsure whether the leaking control pod had been turned back on again before a huge gas explosion ripped through the rig on 20 April, killing 11 workers.

The failure of the BOP was one key factor that led to the ongoing environmental disaster. The BOP is designed to clamp the well tightly shut, using cutting equipment to slice through the casing, but on 20 April it did not engage.

After the explosion, BP sent robot submarines down to the seabed to try to trigger the BOP, but failed. The company has already admitted to a Congressional committee that the robots discovered a leak in the BOP’s hydraulic systems, which meant they could not generate enough force for its giant shears to cut through the pipe.

Last week, BP chief executive Tony Hayward repeatedly cited the BOP as a major cause of the disaster, saying it was “not as failsafe” as BP had been told.

Benton’s revelations will pile even more pressure on BP, at a time when its minority party in the leaking well is refusing to pay its share of the costs. Anadarko Petroleum Corporation argues that BP was “grossly negligent” or guilty of “willful misconduct” in the way it drilled the Macondo prospect, which some workers described as a “nightmare well”. Last week the Congressional committee accused BP of taking “risky” decisions to save time and money.

And in another development, BP has been accused of lying after internal documents showed that it has estimated that the leak could reach 100,000 barrels a day, much higher than its public forecasts.

$2bn and rising

The cost of the clean-up operation has now broken through the $2bn (£1.3bn) mark, BP told the City this morning. That is just a fraction of the total bill, though, with BP already committed to putting $20bn into an escrow account to cover compensation claims. That will not cap its liabilities, though, and there are suggestions that BP is now looking to raise $50bn.

The company has said it will sell off some of its assets. This has raised concerns in several countries, including Russia, where the TNK-BP joint venture generates around a quarter of BP’s global production.

Hayward is to fly to Russia to assure the Kremlin that BP can survive the oil spill disaster, the Financial Times reported today.

BP’s chief executive took the decision to meet Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in the next few weeks following a weekend board meeting, and after Medvedev warned that the catastrophe could lead to BP’s “annihilation”.

BP continues to insist that it will clean up the spill and pay “all legitimate claims”, and rejected Anadarko’s claims.

“These allegations will neither distract the company’s focus on stopping the leak nor alter our commitment to restore the Gulf coast,” said Hayward. “Other parties besides BP may be responsible for costs and liabilities arising from the oil spill, and we expect those parties to live up to their obligations.”

Shares in BP fell by more than 3% this morning to 345p, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 100. Swiss bank UBS warned shareholders that it did not expect the company to resume paying dividends until 2012. Last week it agreed to cancel payments for the rest of this year, but UBS believes that the cost of the Deepwater spill means a longer suspension is inevitable.

City sources believe that BP may have to sell its operations in the North Sea as part of its drive to cut spending and raise funds.

Source | See also under Environment: States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | Climate and CO2 levels linked: study | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Throw cold water on bulk-water export opposition | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Polar bears not at risk: Nunavut | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Bulk water exports prohibited under new U.S.-Canada border regulations | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | The promise and the peril of an engineered climate | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Vancouver bans smoking in parks | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | Ontario unveils $8B in renewable energy projects | Mercury still plagues Ont. First Nation: report | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | Arctic winds and not global warming ‘responsible for much of record loss of sea ice’ | UK: Carbon capture storage lauded, will ‘generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year’ | UK climate change ads pulled as ‘misleading’ | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Baffin Bay polar bear hunting quota to be cut despite Inuit claim of rising numbers | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Obama proposes Great Lakes cleanup | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned | Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canada files ‘continental’ Copenhagen emissions target with UN | Natural water vapour largely responsible for Global Warming: NOAA, NASA | ‘Bin Laden’ slams U.S over global warming, dollar, in another unconfirmed tape | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | For more see The Memory Hole – Environment

Paul Joseph Watson, Alex Jones, PrisonPlanet.com
June 20, 2010

Mounting evidence shows disaster was deliberately contrived either through conscious negligence or outright sabotage and is being allowed to worsen

There can now be no doubt whatsoever that the BP oil spill was purposefully contrived, either through deliberate negligence or outright sabotage, and is now being used to further the Obama administration’s political agenda. Criminal investigations into the government and BP’s role in the disaster need to be launched by state authorities in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi immediately, while local authorities also need to call emergency legislative sessions in order to take over emergency response efforts from the feds before the crisis gets much worse.

While BP CEO Tony Hayward is busy watching yacht races, Barack Obama, who took two vacations immediately after the oil spill, spends his time playing golf. If this disaster is on a par 9/11 as Obama claims then why is he fiddling while Rome burns? Every effort to find a solution to this crisis while cleaning up the mess has been lackluster and half-hearted. The federal government’s hyped rhetoric about how bad the consequences of this spill will be has not been matched with the appropriate action to combat the problem.

In hindsight, it’s becoming clear that the government has deliberately botched the response and prevented local authorities from doing their jobs, just as FEMA deliberately sabotaged the state response to Hurricane Katrina in order to make the crisis worse and create the pretext for a police state response, gun confiscation and ultimately more federal power.

Numerous reports have surfaced of locals and state authorities being prevented by BP contractors and the U.S. Coast Guard from helping to address the devastation the spill has created in the region.

“(Louisiana) Governor Bobby Jindal had ordered the state’s fleet of sixteen vacuum barges to clean up oil in the Louisiana marshes. On Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the barges and ordered them to stop the cleanup. Ostensibly, the Coast Guard wanted to “inspect” the barges — but then it didn’t inspect them. It just ordered them back to dock and then did nothing,” reports Fort Liberty.

Just as happened with Katrina, BP in alliance with the feds have erected an ‘information blockade’ around the oil spill. Reporters have been harassed, threatened with arrest and prevented from accessing the affected areas. Oil spill clean up workers have been gagged from talking about their experiences. Foreign ships have been prevented from helping in the clean up process. Every effort has been made to stop the truth about the oil spill from being uncovered – almost everything we learn about the situation comes directly from BP or the federal government. This strictly enforced cover-up shows that authorities are more concerned about protecting their information lock down than actually cleaning up the spill.

This is part of what the Pentagon calls “psychological information warfare” and it is intended to deceive and confuse the enemy (the American people) so that they don’t uncover the truth.

The Jones Act, which forbids foreign ships from operating between U.S. ports, can be waived in in cases of national emergencies or in cases of strategic interest. Belgian company DEME contends that it has the specialist vessels to fix the oil leak within two to four months, technology the U.S. does not have. By taking bids on a contract to fix the oil leak from international companies, Obama could have the problem solved within a matter of weeks, but he immediately refused the help of “thirteen entities that had offered the U.S. oil spill assistance within about two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion.” This is another clear example of the government’s motivation to allow the crisis to drag on indefinitely until they can use it to ram through their environmental agenda, which we shall cover shortly.

Every indication points to the oil spill having been deliberately caused, either by negligence or sabotage, by a combination of BP executives and those who hold the reigns of power in the Obama administration. This goes beyond Obama himself, who is merely there to read the teleprompter and employ his fine acting skills in selling the agenda that the globalists hope to enforce on the back of this contrived crisis.

On May 27, the New York Times reported on how just days before the explosion, BP chose to use a salt-water solution to seal the cement around the casing pipe which was known to be a far riskier option that the stronger heavy drilling fluid.

The choice of using a weaker salt-water solution, in light of the safety concerns surrounding the oil well in the weeks and months before the explosion, prompted heated arguments between a BP official and crew members employed by Transocean, the rig’s owner, on the morning of the blast, according to Douglas H. Brown, the chief mechanic for the Deepwater Horizon.

“Workers from the rig and company officials have said that hours before the explosion, gases were leaking through the cement, which had been set in place by the oil services contractor, Halliburton. Investigators have said these leaks were the likely cause of the explosion,” reported the Times.

Halliburton is named in the majority of some two dozen lawsuits filed since the explosion by Gulf Coast people and businesses who claim that the company is to blame for the disaster.

Halliburton’s role in improperly sealing the well with a riskier option, and the consternation this caused amongst workers on the rig, is shocking given the fact that just 11 days before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, Halliburton, the world’s second largest oilfield services corporation, surprised some by acquiring Boots & Coots, a relatively small but vastly experienced oil well control company, for the sum of $240 million dollars.

Halliburton is profiting from the oil spill it helped cause because Boots & Coots is now “under contract to BP – to help stop the Gulf oil spill,” reports the Christian Science Monitor.

“Could Halliburton have known that an oil disaster was on the horizon, and planned in advance to profit from it? News reports indicate they could have,” reports Raw Story.

“The New York Times reported in May that BP was concerned about the rig’s well casing — which Halliburton worked on — as early as June of 2009. The Times also reported that a Halliburton employee warned BP three weeks before the explosion that BP’s use of cement for the well casing was “against [Halliburton's] best practices.”

Given that it was in the process of acquiring a company that would receive millions of dollars in oil spill clean up contracts, was Halliburton’s overriding motivation to properly fix the well or to ensure it remained unstable?

BP itself was aware of cracks appearing in the Macondo well as far back as February, right around the time Goldman Sachs and BP Chairman Tony Hayward were busy dumping their stocks in the company on the eve of the explosion that led to the oil spill, according to information uncovered by congressional investigators.

The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP “was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast,” according to the report.

The fissures, which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13, could have played a role in the disaster, though this is a question still being explored by investigators. Improperly sealed, the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.

“The company attempted a “cement squeeze,” which involves pumping cement to seal the fissures, according to a well activity report. Over the following week the company made repeated attempts to plug cracks that were draining expensive drilling fluid, known as “mud,” into the surrounding rocks,” states the report.

As we previously highlighted, eyewitness evidence indicates that Deepwater Horizon managers knew that the BP oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20. A crew member who rescued burning workers on the rig told Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of a conversation between Deepwater Horizon installation manager Jimmy Harrell and someone in Houston. According to the witness, Harrell was screaming, “Are you fucking happy? Are you fucking happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.”

The fact that BP managers were aware of problems with the rig and were seemingly unconcerned about fixing them, in addition to Halliburton’s clear financial motivation in improperly sealing the cap, only lends more weight to the already startling indications of some having foreknowledge of the disaster.

On page 37 of British Petroleum’s own investigative report into the oil spill, it is stated that the Hydraulic Control System on equipment designed to automatically seal the well in an emergency was modified without BP’s knowledge sometime before the explosion.

Highly suspicious stock and share trades by people connected to BP before the explosion indicate some extent of foreknowledge.

Goldman Sachs dumped 44% of its shares in BP Oil during the first quarter of 2010 – shares that subsequently lost 36 percent of their value, equating to $96 million. The current chairman of Goldman Sachs is Bilderberg luminary Peter Sutherland, who is also the former chairman of British Petroleum.

Furthermore, as reported by the London Telegraph on June 5th, Tony Hayward, the current BP CEO sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the spill.

So we have clear evidence of foreknowledge, allied with brazen financial motivation on behalf of several directly connected parties to sabotage the oil well, or in the very least ensure that negligent safety procedures increased the likelihood of an explosion, allied with the fact that the well was indeed improperly sealed by these same parties, much to the anger of the people working on the rig.

But the motivation for allowing the well to blow and prolonging the crisis isn’t merely financial, it’s political too. The motto for the people who pull the strings inside the Obama administration, people like Rahm Emanuel and Hillary Clinton is to ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ – and Obama himself has certainly taken that to heart over the course of the last two months.

The elite are still desperate to impose a consumption tax on Americans as part of the move towards a “post-industrial revolution” and the kind of nightmare “green economy” that has left Spain with a 20 per cent unemployment rate. In a so-called green economy, over 2.2 jobs are lost for every “green job” created.

The Obama administration has aggressively exploited the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to manufacture an artificial urgency in an effort to speed the passage of cap and trade in pursuit of a “green economy,” an agenda firmly supported by the transnational oil corporations Obama is claiming to be reigning in. British Petroleum is one of the founding members of the cap and trade lobby, and has consistently “lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.”

Indeed, BP has been a faithful supporter of John Kerry’s climate legislation because the company has “explicitly backed” a “higher gas tax”. If Obama is able to exploit the oil spill to ram through his cap and trade program, BP stands to profit to the tune of billions. Allowing the crisis to worsen in pursuit of this goal is mutually beneficial to both the Obama administration and British Petroleum.

Obama’s “Agenda is to exaggerate the significance of the oil spill crisis to massive proportions, for two reasons,” writes the Telegraph’s Gerald Warner. “The first is that, the more Americans can be persuaded to regard the accident as a monumental, historic disaster, the less his patent impotence in the face of it will appear blameworthy. His second reason is that, in accordance with the Emanuel doctrine (never let a good crisis go to waste), he sees this as an opportunity to breathe new life into his moribund Cap-and-Trade climate change legislation.”

Obama has now indicated that he will push for cap and trade to be added to a weaker energy bill after the mid-term elections in November. Every week that the oil spill crisis drags on, Obama’s political capital for the purpose of pushing a carbon tax increases in the name of ‘reducing dependence on oil’. The government has every interest in seeing the crisis worsen, not merely to justify cap and trade but also to mothball plans for new exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic, something to which the administration had never wanted to fully commit. . As a result of the oil spill, which every action of the federal government has made worse, that drilling has now been postponed.

Another benefit of the oil spill is that it serves as a convenient distraction and a cover for a number of other stories, primarily the gearing up for a military attack on Iran, which now seems likely as we learn that more than twelve U.S. and Israeli warships, including an aircraft carrier, passed through the Suez Canal on Friday and are headed for the Red Sea.

The underwater oil field still holds as much as 97 per cent of its oil, 2 billion gallons of oil, meaning that this disaster could be prolonged for anything up to four years. Even worse, if studies into the abiotic nature of oil in the Gulf region hold true, the crisis could be never-ending.

Given the multitude of alarming examples of foreknowledge, motivation for sabotage, and clear evidence of deliberate malfeasance and negligence, state authorities in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi need to immediately launch a mammoth criminal investigation into the role of BP, Halliburton and the federal government in causing the oil spill disaster, as well as their continuing cover-up of the true nature of the crisis, in addition to their efforts to block local authorities as well as foreign companies from helping to both stop the oil leak and clean up the devastation it has caused.

[Ed. Note: American readers can find contact information for their state governors at the source link below. You're encouraged by the authors to help push for prosecution.]

Source | See also under Environment: The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | Climate and CO2 levels linked: study | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Throw cold water on bulk-water export opposition | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Polar bears not at risk: Nunavut | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Bulk water exports prohibited under new U.S.-Canada border regulations | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | The promise and the peril of an engineered climate | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Vancouver bans smoking in parks | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | Ontario unveils $8B in renewable energy projects | Mercury still plagues Ont. First Nation: report | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | Arctic winds and not global warming ‘responsible for much of record loss of sea ice’ | UK: Carbon capture storage lauded, will ‘generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year’ | UK climate change ads pulled as ‘misleading’ | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Baffin Bay polar bear hunting quota to be cut despite Inuit claim of rising numbers | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Obama proposes Great Lakes cleanup | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned | Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canada files ‘continental’ Copenhagen emissions target with UN | Natural water vapour largely responsible for Global Warming: NOAA, NASA | ‘Bin Laden’ slams U.S over global warming, dollar, in another unconfirmed tape | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | For more see The Memory Hole – Environment

Related: BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill

Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post
June 18, 2010

While President Obama made the pitch for climate and energy legislation yet again Tuesday in his Oval Office address, he did not disclose the White House’s new strategy: push for a scaled-back bill in the Senate, and drag out the conference long enough to ensure a floor vote after the negotiations.

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said the administration continues to press for a broad Senate bill: “Last night President Obama reiterated his call for comprehensive energy and climate legislation to break our dependence on oil and fossil fuels. Next week he will be reaching out to senators on both sides of the aisle to chart a path forward.”

“A number of proposals have been put forward from members on both sides of the aisle. We’re open to good ideas from all sources, and will be working with senators on a comprehensive proposal,” LaBolt added. “The tragedy in the gulf underscores the need to move quickly, and the president is committed to finding the votes for comprehensive energy legislation this year.”

But several sources familiar with the administration’s thinking confirmed it has started pressing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to bring up a slimmed-down energy and climate bill next month. Such a measure would pass more easily than a comprehensive climate bill, and could still be negotiated with the broader bill the House passed a year ago.

Under this scenario, the final product of any House-Senate conference could come up for a final vote in a lame-duck session after lawmakers have faced voters in November, thereby cushioning the vote’s political impact.

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the majority leader was still consulting with his Democratic colleagues, who plan to discuss climate legislation during a caucus meeting Thursday.

“We haven’t settled on next steps and strategy,” Manley said in an interview. “Whatever we do, we’re going to need the help of the administration to get the 60 votes out of the Senate.”

In a statement released Tuesday night, Reid made it clear he still doesn’t see the votes for a broad climate bill in light of GOP opposition.

“I look forward to working with the president to find a bipartisan path to passing meaningful, comprehensive clean-energy legislation this year,” Reid said. “This legislation can only be passed if Republicans decide to work with us and demonstrate that they share our serious commitment to building a 21st-century energy strategy for America.”

And when asked if the leader was leaning toward a scaled-back bill, Manley replied, “We’re all moving toward that.”

Source | See also under Environment: Climate and CO2 levels linked: study | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Throw cold water on bulk-water export opposition | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Polar bears not at risk: Nunavut | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Bulk water exports prohibited under new U.S.-Canada border regulations | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | The promise and the peril of an engineered climate | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Vancouver bans smoking in parks | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | Ontario unveils $8B in renewable energy projects | Mercury still plagues Ont. First Nation: report | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | Arctic winds and not global warming ‘responsible for much of record loss of sea ice’ | UK: Carbon capture storage lauded, will ‘generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year’ | UK climate change ads pulled as ‘misleading’ | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Baffin Bay polar bear hunting quota to be cut despite Inuit claim of rising numbers | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Obama proposes Great Lakes cleanup | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned | Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canada files ‘continental’ Copenhagen emissions target with UN | Natural water vapour largely responsible for Global Warming: NOAA, NASA | ‘Bin Laden’ slams U.S over global warming, dollar, in another unconfirmed tape | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | For more see The Memory Hole – Environment

Related: Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Climategate: A 2,000-page epic of science and skepticism — Part 2 | Climategate: Al Gore lies | Climategate: A 2,000-page epic of science and skepticism — Part 1 | If Climategate Is No Big Deal, Why Are Questions About It Met With An Armed Response? | Climategate: Investigations into climate fraud fixed | ‘Independent’ United Nations panel to examine Climategate evidence | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Climategate: Global Warming scientists placed under investigation | Latest Climategate revelation: Climate change data dumped | Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation | Obama’s ‘Science Czar’ John Holdren Friend of Climate Deception Lab | “Climategate”: Peer-Review System Was Hijacked By Warming Alarmists | Top Climatology Lab Hacked, E-Mails Reveal Biased Science | E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming | Polar bear expert barred from conference by global warming advocates | Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record

CBC News
June 18, 2010