QUICK NEWS, December 7: TALKIN’ CLIMATE CHANGE; TEA PARTY STANDS UP FOR SOLAR; WIND CAN CLEAN UP

TALKIN’ CLIMATE CHANGE A sneaky new rhetoric is holding back progress on climate change

Levi Tillemann, December 34, 2015 (Quartz)

“…[T]oday the big danger is not climate-change deniers but those who serve up cynicism in insidious new forms…The environmental movement is now confronting people who admit the reality of climate change but scoff at attempts to combat it…[T]he argument that US efforts to address climate change are pointless unless China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, steps up…cedes climate-change leadership to the economic planners of China. It relies on a profoundly nihilistic sentiment…[A]ttacks on the economics or environmental shortcomings of technologies that address the long-term challenges of greenhouse gas emissions [make it seem as if New Energy technologies are] to blame…Skepticism sounds good in theory…[but not when it overrides] environmental concern…[J]ournalists have a right and duty to examine the potential effects and downsides of environmental policies, technologies, industries and business models…[But if] 99 reputable scientists say that climate change is being driven by humans for every one contrarian…the conversation shouldn’t be treated as a simple ‘he said, she said’ debate…” click here for more

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TEA PARTY STANDS UP FOR SOLAR The Tea Party leader taking a stand for solar energy: 'I will do what's right'; Debbie Dooley is a self-described ‘crusader’ for solar power in Florida, where she is up against major public power utilities. But she has already won a similar battle in Georgia, and she says her message is that of a true conservative

Richard Luscombe and Tom Pietrasik, 6 December 2015 (The Guardian)

“Debbie Dooley is a firebrand Republican and an outspoken founding member of the Tea Party…Along with a diverse grassroots citizens’ coalition including environmentalists and other left-leaning activists, Dooley is taking on Big Energy and its big-spending conservative backers…She is at the spearhead of a campaign to place an initiative before Florida voters next year that would give consumers the freedom to choose to buy their solar energy from smaller private companies and bypass the mega-bucks utilities…[Dooley’s] Green Tea coalition of environmentally conscious conservatives is a key component of the Floridians for Solar Choice amalgam…[Big public power utilities like] Florida Power and Light, Duke Energy, Tampa Electric and Gulf Power are among the donors who have ploughed millions of dollars into a rival group, Consumers for Smart Solar, which is promoting its own initiative…[T]he attacks from right wingers on Dooley [have become more caustic in recent months but she says she is fighting to save the environment for her grandson while her ‘fellow Republicans’ deny their policies damage the environment because they are] ‘greedy for economic reasons.’” click here for more

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WIND CAN CLEAN UP Report Touts Wind Energy's Potential To Curb Carbon Emissions

Ambar Espinosa, December 7, 2015 (Rhode Island National Public Radio)

“…[Rhode Island’s offshore wind can power 350,000 homes and offset the carbon emissions of nearly 400,000 cars by 2020, according to Turning to the Wind from Environment America…Federal lawmakers haven't consistently renewed the Production Tax Credit (PTC) responsible for spurring wind energy growth over the past 20 years. It expired last year…[T]ax credit programs, including the Offshore Wind Investment Tax Credit, provide benefits that ultimately result in reduced carbon emissions…” click here for more

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