Energy firms help pay for Calif. regulators' far-flung trips
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — State officials who lead California's war on global warming often travel abroad on trips supported by the major greenhouse gas polluters they regulate, a Bee investigation has found. Industry lobbyists and executives routinely join them.Ellsworth aide to address cap and trade Thursday » Evansville Courier & Press
Since 2006, more than two dozen top state officials have fanned out across the globe on such trips, bound for a climate change policy tour in Europe, meetings with high-level government officials across South America and China, even a safari in Kruger National Park in South Africa – all on someone else's dime.
They have logged more than 700,000 air miles and touched down in 17 nations, on trips collectively costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the process, their air travel alone emitted 275,000 pounds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
An aide to U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., will give a briefing on cap and trade legislation and its impact on the local agriculture environment Thursday during a Conservation Field Day in northeastern Vanderburgh County. The public is invited to the event, sponsored by Quad County Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
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In a statement released after the vote, Ellsworth said that while he believes climate change "poses a threat to the planet," he could not support a bill with the potential to have such a drastic economic impact.
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"To be honest, the state can't cover the costs," said Eileen Tutt, deputy secretary for climate change at the California Environmental Protection Agency. "And yet it's important that policymakers take these trips."
If the state can't cover the costs, what is it doing peeing into the wind trying to regulate global warming? Hubris much?
now feel uneasy about taking trips paid for by Chevron, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric, Shell Oil, British Petroleum and other companies who stand to benefit from the legislative...
Since 2006, more than two dozen top state officials have fanned out across the globe on such trips, bound for a climate change policy tour in Europe, meetings with high-level government officials across South America and China, even a safari in Kruger National Park ...
Do you know of or have you ever been a paid stooge for the oil companies?
Why yes your honor. I do know of paid oil company stooges. CARB, Cal EPA, PUC, In fact a veritable who's who of climate change oversight in California government – from Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, to Susan Kennedy, chief of staff for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – mingled abroad with top executives from Chevron, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric, Shell Oil, British Petroleum and others.
Someone has to tell Joe Romm.
You want to draw straws?
The travel has occurred at a critical juncture – as California conceived, approved and now prepares to enforce its pioneering Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. That law drew national acclaim with its calls for slashing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Reaching that goal, according to the California Air Resources Board, will require a tsunami of new regulations, incentives and programs, including lower carbon transportation fuel, more solar panels on rooftops, a high-speed rail system and a carbon trading system embraced by industry.
In 2006, one memo advised state travelers bound for Brazil and Argentina on a climate change and alternative fuels tour to bring swimsuits "as it is heading into summer in South America and you will have a day off in some cities."
The $12,500-per-person outing, which included a stop at the five-star, beachfront Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio de Janeiro, was booked by a San Francisco travel agency called Rascals in Paradise. It was paid for by CFEE, which is funded by major oil and utility companies.
CFEE will not disclose how much revenue it receives from each of its more than 30 business and corporate members, from Goldman Sachs to PG&E or the four environmental groups it also counts as members.
(Last week, PG&E said it donates $45,000 a year to CFEE from its charitable contributions program. The money comes from shareholder – not ratepayer – funds and is approved by the board, a spokesperson said.)
"No one organization gives more than 4 percent of our operating budget," said P.J. Johnston, spokesman for CFEE. But he added, "I'm not going to break down the internal workings of this organization beyond what's required by law."
Quite right P.J. We must do this in the proper manner.
Subpoena's for everybody.
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