Time to Stop Making Excuses

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter:

As more and more evidence is compiled, the truth about climate change becomes more and more clear. We are seeing storms and superstorms, droughts and glacial melting, heat waves and sea level rises, barges running aground on the Mississippi and wildfires raging, hundreds and hundreds of phenomena totally consistent with the models and predictions of what results from humans throwing billions of tons of carbon into the air, as well as totally inconsistent with other explanations, like naturally occurring cycles or solar variations or volcanic eruptions or some such thing.

Almost a decade ago, two scientists from New Jersey, Rob Socolow and Steve Pacala, presented a way of thinking about the problem intended to help deal with it. Let's look at specific steps, using current knowledge and technology, that humans (and policymakers) could take, each step saving 25 billion tons in emissions from being released over the next 50 years compared to a business as usual scenario.  They suggested calling these bunches of carbon "wedges" because each step could be visualized as a wedge cut out of a graph of growing carbon in the air. Each of these steps would be challenging but achievable without technological breakthroughs. With maybe 10 such wedges, the climate could be stabilized and climate runaway could be avoided.

Wedges consist of such things as doubling vehicle fuel efficiency, stopping large deforestation, improving the efficiency of heating and cooling buildings by 25 percent, replacing or retrofitting coal-fired power plants so they double efficiency, and increasing electricity generation with wind by a factor of 25 or so from the level of a decade ago. A menu of wedges, picked and chosen depending on what various countries could do and what the projected cost would be, made the problem seem tractable.

Some of us thought then that we could get to work: that the wedge visualization made the problem less daunting, and that lawmakers would all see not just the costs of implementing the wedges but also the economic, societal, and technological benefits.

Alas, years have passed, and denial and inaction have prevailed.  Some benefit has been gained from the surge in production of natural gas that has displaced some coal in generation of electricity. Although that benefit is incidental "and accidental, from a policy point of view", climate scientists nevertheless welcome it. However, the world finds itself now in need, not of 10 or 12 remedial wedges, as scientists thought a decade ago, but probably 20 or more.

It is time to stop making excuses for our reluctance to commit.

Announcing Community Office Hours

In the months ahead, I am holding a series of community office hours in towns throughout Central New Jersey.  A full list of upcoming events is available on my website.

At each event, I or a member of my staff will be available to help you deal with any problems you may be having with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services, or any other federal agency.  Staff also will be available to provide information on federal grants and contracts, acquiring flags flown over the U.S. Capitol, and more.

The office hours are intended to provide an easy, accessible way for you to seek help, and I hope you'll stop by.  If you are unable to attend, though, please know that you can seek assistance at any time by calling 1-87-RUSH-HOLT (1-877-874-4658).

The History of the House

Since 1789, the U.S.House of Representatives has been at work creating the laws of the land and shaping the American experience.  History.House.Gov is an effort to preserve, collect, and interpret the heritage of the House, serving as the institution's memory.

This new comprehensive website integrates the history of the House, the art and artifacts in the House Collection, and records and research materials that date back to the beginnings of Congress. Features include:

• A searchable database of the art, artifacts, and documents in the House Collection
   
• A searchable database of the nearly 11,000 individuals who have served as representatives
   
• A blog showcasing unique stories in House history, research tips, and themes relevant to current events
   
• Daily highlights from House history
   
• Educational resources for educators and students
   
• Research resources to help answer questions about the House and historic legislation.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

Say it Aint So Bob: Menendez Blocks Obama’s Scientists Over Unrelated, ‘Deeply Offensive’ Cuba Policies

From Think Progress's Wonk Room -

Obama’s climate scientists are collateral damage in an unrelated fight over Cuba policy with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Menendez is responsible for an anonymous hold on the nominations of Dr. John Holdren and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, both world-renowned experts on climate change and the physical sciences. Holdren and Lubchenco “sailed through” their confirmation hearing on February 12. But as the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports, Menendez has anonymously blocked their full Senate confirmation “as leverage to get Senate leaders’ attention for a matter related to Cuba rather than questioning the nominees’ credentials.” Menendez, a Cuban American, took to the Senate floor last night “to deliver a withering denunciation” of proposed changes to U.S.-Cuban relations included in the budget omnibus:

We should evaluate how to encourage the regime to allow a legitimate opening – not in terms of cell phones and hotel rooms that Cubans can’t afford, but in terms of the right to organize, the right to think and speak what they believe. However, what we are doing with this Omnibus bill, Mr. President, is far from evaluation, and the process by which these changes have been forced upon this body is so deeply offensive to me, and so deeply undemocratic, that it puts the Omnibus appropriations package in jeopardy, in spite of all the other tremendously important funding that this bill would provide.

Menendez points to a memo prepared by the staff of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) as recommending a policy change that Menendez worries could “rescue the regime by improving its economic fortunes,” namely giving Cuba “financial credit to purchase agricultural products from the U.S.”

These picks have in fact languished for months, having been put forward by President Obama on December 20. Lubchenco’s nomination to be administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has been stalled in part by the turmoil over finding a Secretary of Commerce, whose department includes NOAA. NOAA career staff are gamely working to draft a spending plan for the $830 million in the recently passed recovery act, and energy adviser Carol Browner is managing climate policy from the White House with a skeleton staff. But the Office of Science and Technology Policy is a key White House office, and its director Holdren is meant to be the top science adviser to the president. The “wise counsel” of Holdren and Lubchenco is irreplaceable, especially given the scope of the challenges our nation faces.

Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi declined to comment on the putatively anonymous hold. “He takes a back seat to no one on the environment,” Mohamadi discussed by telephone, saying the senator’s “record best reflects his feelings on the urgency of combatting climate change.” When asked if Sen. Menendez hopes to have climate legislation on President Obama’s desk before the end of 2009, Mohamadi explained that Sen. Menendez believes it “would be helpful to have it in place going into the December international climate change conference in Copenhagen.”

Each day that Dr. Holdren and Dr. Lubchenco have to sit on the sidelines makes that goal more unlikely.