Climate 411

Looks like the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) is one of the most popular kids on the Capitol Hill campus.

In spite of months fear-mongering and outright lying by opponents, a new poll says 71 percent of likely voters favor the bill.

The Zogby poll sampled people across the country and found:

• 71 percent favor the climate bill that was recently passed by the House of Representatives.
• 67 percent think Congress is either “doing the right amount” or “should be doing more” to address global warming.
• 51 percent think that “efforts to reduce global warming and promote clean energy” will lead to new job creation,  and
• another 17 percent think the efforts will not affect American jobs at all — which means less than one-third are worried the bill will cause job losses.
• Favorable views of the bill were high among all age and income groups; ditto for the belief that environmental efforts will create new American jobs.
• Even Republicans aren’t as opposed to the bill as their party leaders might want them to be; 45 percent have a favorable view of ACES. (A whopping 89 percent of Democrats and 73 percent of Independents like the measure)

Says Zogby analyst Sam Rodgers:

Clearly, voters strongly favor the ideas outlined in the bill. Support for action on clean energy and energy efficiency was strong coming out of the election, and it is still strong today.

The moral of the story: Next time you read one of those opposition pieces about how support for ACES is eroding — don’t believe it. Americans see the potential in clean energy.

See the complete methodological statement on the survey.

The dog days of summer are making everything seem slow and sleepy — except in Congress, where efforts to finish work on clean energy legislation are in high gear. (You might have guessed this from our super-charged pace of blog posting today!)

In addition to everything else going on, EDF experts are busy testifying at hearings on the Hill:

• Last week, Jennifer Havercamp testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming about intellectual property rules and how they’ll affect the development of new technologies to fight climate change.
  (See her written testimony [PDF].)
• Tuesday, Nat Keohane testified before the Senate Finance Committee about how clean energy legislation will strengthen the economy.
  (See his written testimony [PDF].)
• And tomorrow, Fred Krupp is testifying before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The hearing is on “Climate Change and Ensuring that America Leads the Clean Energy Transformation.” Fred is summing up all the evidence that we can meet 2020 emissions targets – at low cost – while creating jobs. (Update: Here’s a link to the written testimony.)

Between all this testimony, reviewing new analyses and studies, and launching a new ad campaign, we are keeping the heat on Congress this summer!

One of the most common questions about the American Clean Energy and Security Act is, “Who will it cover?” The bill will apply to firms that emit more than 25,000 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.

Supporters have always said that meant the bill would only regulate big polluters. Opponents claimed that small businesses, schools, churches – even individuals – could be subject to new government rules.

Now, a new study from Duke University gives us the answer.

Turns out that the 25,000-ton threshhold includes only 1.3 percent of all U.S. manufacturing facilities — a fraction of America’s more than 350,000 sites. However, those few companies are responsible for 82.5 percent of  the manufacturing sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. According to Duke’s David Cooley:

Large-scale polluters are responsible for a supermajority of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, so we can get enormous environmental benefits while regulating a small percentage of firms.

The bill will also apply to about half of the country’s electric power plants, but almost no farms or commercial buildings.

Who’s not on the list? No schools. No churches. No individuals. If you don’t own your own smokestack, you can pretty much count on being exempt.

EDF is proud to have provided funding for the study, which you can download from the Duke site [PDF].

Last week, Environmental Defense Action Fund launched a hard-hitting new campaign targeting members of Congress who opposed the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The ads call them out for their failure to help reduce America’s addiction to imported oil.

Steve Cochran, director of EDAF’s national climate campaign, said this:

This is a sustained campaign to educate the public. The public should know when their elected representatives vote against their interests.

Opponents of this bill have based their campaign on phony numbers and scare tactics. We’re going to beat them with the facts. As this bill moves to the Senate, we are focusing on letting constituents know who is ready to take action to cut imported oil and who just wants to talk about it.

The ads will run through the end of September, and you can see them online:
Mark Souder (R-IN)
Tim Holden (D-PA)
Patrick Tiberi (R-OH)