Tweet

A new Zogby poll commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation found that 71% of respondents supported the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill recently passed in the House of Representatives.  Only 19% of respondents said they were “strongly opposed” to the House bill, indicating that polluting industries and their front groups have failed in their grandiose efforts to convince the public that the House bill amounted to a sinister, hidden “energy tax”.

Fifty-four percent of respondents to the Zogby poll agree that the Senate needs to act immediately to pass legislation to fight global warming. “We need a new energy plan right now that invests in American, renewable energy sources like wind and solar, in order to create clean energy jobs, address global warming and reduce our dependency on foreign oil,” the 54% agreed.

Tweet

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin penned an op-ed in Tuesday’s Washington Post slamming Obama’s “cap-and-tax” plan and promoting America’s home-grown, (not) cheap, (not) clean, (not) abundant fossil fuel supply. 

Palin clearly wants to be relevant in her forthcoming post-resignation days, and what better way than by declaring herself the lead spokesperson attacking efforts to stop climate change?

In true GOP fashion, Palin seeks to put the fear of God and all things scary into readers minds, foretelling an apocalyptic future for any who subscribe to the idea that we need to curb carbon emissions to save the climate and protect our economy from carbon dependence. 

Palin declares Obama’s cap-and-trade (er, sorry, she says “cap-and-tax” four times) energy plan an “enormous threat to our economy” that “would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.”

Permanent damage?  You mean the tipping point beyond which scientists conclude that we won’t be able to recover the climate and will surely face more devastating floods, droughts, and heat waves?

No, no. That’s not the “permanent damage” Sarah Palin predicts.

Instead, Palin is talking about the damage that efforts to curb carbon emissions might have on the profits of the world’s largest polluters, including the oil industry which has treated her and her family so well over the years, providing gobs of campaign funding and a job for dear husband Todd (when he’s not out snowmobiling, of course).

Tweet

Oil industry operatives are sweating bullets over whether the incoming Obama Administration will be keen to buy “dirty oil” from Alberta tar sands. The early news for them is not good.

The president-elect last week sent Jason Grumet, a policy adviser mentioned for a possible energy post, to an environmental conference in Washington to offer reassurances that there would be swift movement on climate change legislation. Observers feel this is an early sign that Obama is taking a hard line on carbon.