What the heck is CCS and can it really help fight climate change? An expert explains | Grist

It is conventional wisdom among People Who Matter that burning coal is going to continue, even accelerate, no matter what kind of legislation is passed or international agreements are forged. That’s why carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)—technology that buries power-plant carbon dioxide emissions underground—is widely seen as the bright, shining hope for maintaining a livable climate: it’s the only way to burn coal without frying the planet.

Counterpoint: Climate skepticism for beginners - Jerome Bastien

In order to properly test the theory that increased CO2 leads to catastrophic warming, we need to rely on the good old scientific method, which consists in using the theory to make a prediction, and testing that prediction against observations. If the observations fit the prediction, then the theory lives another day, otherwise, it doesn’t (or at least it shouldn’t). In the case of AGW, the theory predicts that there should be a measurable hotspot in the upper troposphere. Observations from satellites and weather balloons have been made, and no hotspot has been found. In a less politicized field, this would have been the end of it.

Back to the Future: Carter, Obama, and Clean Energy in America - Environmental Capital - WSJ

Thirty years ago today, President Jimmy Carter gave the speech variously remembered as the “Malaise” speech or the “moral equivalent of war,” outlining what he hoped would be America’s first real national energy policy.

So the question of the day is naturally: Is it déjà vu all over again? That is, does the Obama administration’s aggressive push to boost clean energy and reduce dependence on foreign oil amount to a flashback to the Carter years, with everything that entails?

Wildlife Promise: Video: CAP's Joe Romm on ACES

Here's an interview with Joe Romm, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and blogger at Climate Progress. Joe's a fascinating player in the clean energy & climate legislation debate -- Joe thinks the carbon pollution cuts in the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act should be deeper, but he's been willing to support ACES as a good start and worthwhile compromise: