Where does Paul Ryan stand on green issues?
By Carrie Mihalcik / current.com / @CDMihalcik
Mitt Romney announced on Saturday that Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan will be his vice presidential running mate. Ryan is well known for his controversial budget, but where does he stand on environmental issues?
Right alongside Romney and the Koch brothers.
Ryan is a climate change denier and has often ridiculed the work of climate scientists. In a 2009 op-ed against limiting greenhouse gases, Ryan referenced the hacked emails of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, saying, "(Climatologists) intentionally mislead the public on the issue of climate change." He also implied that global warming couldn't be real because his state was "buried under snow."
Ryan has voted to ban the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases and has opposed enforcing limits on CO2 emissions. On the League of Conservation Voters' Environmental Scorecard, Ryan scored only 13 percent for the last session of Congress. During the first session of the 112th Congress, Ryan has scored only 3 percent.
Ryan is also in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry. He has received more than $240,000 from the oil and gas industry — including the Koch brothers. Koch Industries, owner of one of the largest petrochemical companies in the world, is Ryan's sixth-largest donor and has donated $65,500 to him since 1999.
Ryan's budget resolution for fiscal year 2013 retains a "decade’s worth of oil tax breaks worth $40 billion" and cuts billions from renewable energy projects. Ryan has repeatedly voted against extending tax credits for renewable energies and biofuels. Instead he prefers to support projects like the Keystone XL pipeline and oil drilling on the continental shelf.
Whereas Romney has run to the right on environmental issues to play to his base during the campaign, Ryan has a long record of putting the American people at risk by siding with the fossil fuel industry.
July was hottest month on record
July was the hottest month on record for the contiguous United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average temperature across the country was 77.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 3 degrees above the 20th-century average. January through July were the warmest first seven months of any year on record for the United States.
Reid comes out swinging for the environment
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is on a roll. First he slammed Mitt Romney over taxes, and now he is taking on climate skeptics. During a speech at the National Clean Energy Summit, Reid took a firm stance against people who try to ignore climate science and the effects of global warming:
It's time for us all — whether we're leaders in Washington, members of the media, scientists, academics, environmentalists or utility industry executives — to stop acting like those who ignore the crisis or deny it exists entirely have a valid point of view. They don't.
Virtually every respected, independent scientist in the world agrees the problem is real and the time to act is now. Not tomorrow. Not a week from now. Not next month or next year. We must act today.
Hansen: Climate crisis requires intervention
Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, joined Eliot Spitzer on "Viewpoint" to discuss a new study he co-authored that links recent heat waves in the United States to global warming. Hansen warns that we need to start reducing carbon emissions or we may see 20 to 50 percent of the species on the planet driven to extinction.
In a "Viewpoint" Web exclusive, Hansen also discussed what the effects of climate change will be in our lifetimes if policies don’t change.
NRC halts issuing of renewals and new licenses for power plants
The New York Times reports that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has suspended making final decisions on licenses for nuclear power plants until it can reassess the process for storing nuclear waste. In June, the U.S. Court of Appeals found that the NRC had failed to fully evaluate the risks of storing nuclear waste in spent fuel pools or on-site in dry casks. The industry has been working on the assumption that the federal government would eventually create a fuel disposal system.
Wind energy reaches a new milestone
Wind energy in America has reached a historic milestone, 50 gigawatts of electric generating capacity. That's enough energy to power 13 million American homes (or enough to send Marty McFly back to the future 40 times). The American Wind Energy Association breaks down the energy details in this handy chart:
(Photo: Getty Images)
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- tags:
- Environment, Energy, Weekly Planet
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johnnyTremaine
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Freedom is at stake. There is no religion in the Republicans-only the worship of the golden calf.This is not anti-semitism, it is global dictatorship.Consider the origins of AYN, RAND's propaganda, the NDAA, Patriot Act, Homeland Security, the War on Terror, and of the BUSH DYNASTY that still rules America with an Iron fist. Sheldon Adelson, Mike Bloomberg and Larry Silverstein are 3 of the ' ELDERS ".
Free yourselves from the Holocaust guilt complex instilled by our fabricated , confabulated FOR+PROFIT privitized educational system, that produces more atheletes than scholars. Who does the monopolized engine of commerce serve ? Small business . hahaha, CHINESE WALMART and CASINOS and OIL, GAS and COAL !
Rise up hourly exploited, under-paid workers and take to the streets, carry a sign that comdemns the PLUTOCRACY !
Demand systemic political and economic reform and nationalization of energy and financial markets. FREE ENERPRISE is a 99 % lie,, The stock markets are fixed and manipulated by ' the too big to fail ' banks. It is the means by which the FEW exploit the MANY, FOREVER.. You will never be rich,(1%) you will never succeed in business (101%). Your loans will fail. Keep trying, just go bankrupt and try again, it is possible, if you feed the golden calf of USURY. The machine must allow some winners to maintain it's facade of legitimacy.Go for the TRUTH. The power of the truth will eventually win, unless they sufficiently murder enough of us , as Stalin and Hitler did to destroy free will, then it will take us decades to recover, and many of our lives and family's futures will be consumed by poverty and the disease of inaction.
By the way who destroyed these ' EVIL ' empires of past repression ? -WE DID, the American people rallied under the reluctant inspiration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a devout DEMOCRAT.
Now the Republican Fascists have adopted the methods of the WWII Dictators to rally an DISINFORMED populace using the CONTROLLED MEDIA of FOX, CNN an MSNBC, etc , to support a ticket of phoney baloney greed-masters to make a final bid to secure the destruction of the constitution and the free world as we know it.
SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY is the answer. We should be more like Norway and France.. and and much less like Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany . What do we look like now ?
I say Mussolini's Italy, and we know how that ended.Tax the rich bastards heavily. HEAVY REGULATION on energy and any industry that pollutes. Go easy on all retail and non- essential busineses. These assholes take undue advantage of people in need. That is a fundamental concern to a "government of the people, for the people" ,
BAN WARS OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY, and nationalize mineral rights to protect the environment, keep essential services affordable of the world and prevent the exploitation of 'WE THE PEOPLE". This is what America is all about., not the lie of unrestrained economic opportunity for the clever few , who would sell their mother to the dragon for a penny.
Make Congress a mandatory national obligatoion. Hold a 2 year lottery to appoint background investigated, competent and certified ( on some level of verifiable suitability) individuals to the post of congressman and Senator.
Take the money oput of public service. Then politics will be truely dedicated to public service. Use all the surveillance technology now employed to spy on dissenters to ensure the honesty and integrity of government. Establish clear and consistent rules and regulations against bribery and conflicts of interests, and severe penalties for violations.
The corpulent, bloated, CALIGULA's of politics will become but a horrible reminder of past excesses, and a reviled scar on American history. Altuism and selflessness must TRUMP greed and demagoguery, if freedom is to reign
- 9 months ago
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johnnyTremaine
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SecretJeff2284
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And Washington State has Hydro-Eletric, Wind Power, and Nuclear Power, yet the State is looking to shutdown 2 of those sources because they are too expensive to pay, and would rather go with what China still uses, Heavily Polluted Coal and Oil Power Plants, and that makes me concerned on it, one thing is for sure if I were to save enough money, I would go for putting Solar Panels on my house for it, because the issues of those very dirty Power plants.
- 9 months ago
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SecretJeff2284
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Vic_Romano
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I'd say he's somewhere between where the Koch brothers tell him to stand and not giving a shit whatsoever.
However, just like war and foreign policy, I have little hope that the powers that be are even going to make our environment an issue during this election.
- 9 months ago
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Vic_Romano
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JanforGore
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Harry Reid: "We must act today." How many times have we heard that? Where is it? And really, where does Ryan stand? He isn't standing, he is running way behind with his hands out. Just another shill who will wind up on the wrong side of history.
- 9 months ago
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JanforGore
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mrpuma2u
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The only green Ryan is interested in is money from the Koch bros. and the like. Green energy doesn't make insane profits, so therefore Ryan hates it and sees it as competition to those who would fill up his campaign coffers.
- 9 months ago
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mrpuma2u
