Graham Says Climate-Change Legislation May Be ‘Very Difficult’ - Bloomberg.com

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. climate-change legislation will be harder to pass this year on the heels of the divisive congressional battle over health care, Senator Lindsey Graham said.

The push by Democratic lawmakers to force a health-care bill opposed by Republicans through the Senate this week would “make it very difficult to do anything complicated and controversial” next such as climate-change legislation, Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters in Washington yesterday. He said he will continue working on a bill.

A proposal for a cap-and-trade program that would seek to limit greenhouse-gases by letting polluters buy and sell emission allowances on an open market had already divided the Senate along regional lines. Republicans’ anger over a rare two- step voting tactic used by Democrats to pass the $940 billion health-care measure doesn’t help matters, said Kevin Book, an analyst at Clearview Energy Partners LLC.

“Climate and energy legislation odds are now less likely,” Book, a Washington-based managing director for analysis, said in a report yesterday.

CO2 Market Rift Over Hungary May Shrink Trading, Investors Say - Bloomberg.com

The emergence of recycled CERs is the third incident in less than a year to raise red flags in carbon markets. Last year, some EU governments said unidentified sellers of carbon permits engaged in “carousel fraud,” where traders disappear after collecting tax and before forwarding it countries. Earlier this year, Internet fraudsters conned factories out of passwords and then stole carbon allowances.

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: A Summary of Richard Tol's look at IPCC AR4 WGIII

The Fourth Assessment Report of Working Group 2 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been widely criticised for being overly pessimistic about the impacts of climate change. The IPCC has admitted that errors were made, but argues that the mistakes were just that. However, all errors point in one direction: alarmism about climate change. This suggests, at least, an inadvertent bias.

Howlin’ Wolf: Paul Ehrlich on Energy (Part III: Conservation) — MasterResource

What level of energy usage should a person or family have? The Ehrlichs answered this question when discussing the energy needs of the developing world.

On average each person should be able to achieve the basics of a decent life: clean water, adequate food and food storage facilities, energy for cooking, basic medical care, schooling, and opportunities for work. Beyond these essentials, at least bicycles, transistor radios, and access to communal TV viewing facilities could be made available to virtually everyone. . . .