The Wonk Room

Repower America? ABC Says No»

Since September, Al Gore’s We Campaign has been running their Repower America advertisement that criticizes the “hundreds of millions of dollars” that big oil spends on lobbyists and ads to keep Americans “stuck with dirty and expensive energy.” Coverage of the presidential race by the corporate media has been fueled by this dirty money — CNN is sponsored by the coal industry, and CBS by Exxon Mobil. And following Tuesday’s presidential debate, ABC aired one of Chevron’s greenwashing “Human Energy” ads. But ABC refused to air “Repower America.”

A spokesperson for the Alliance for Climate Protection, the We Campaign’s parent organization, sent the Wonk Room ABC’s excuse:

Per our Guidelines, national buildings may be used in advertising provided the depictions are incidental to the advertiser’s promotion of the product or service. Given the messages and themes of this commercial, the image of the Capital building is not incidental to this advertising. Please replace the image with one that is not of another national building or monument. Thank you.

Here’s the offending image, on screen for one second:

While running ads calling for conservation and depicting happy children and unspoiled nature, Chevron was simultaneously expanding its operations in the tar sands of Alberta, Canada and oil fields of the Niger Delta, and lobbying to lift the offshore drilling moratorium.

Cathy Zoi, CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection, sent the following message to the 1.6 million members of the We Campaign:

I sent a letter asking ABC to reconsider their decision and put our ad on the air, but still we haven’t heard back more than a week later. I think they need to hear from all of us. Can you help? Please send a message to ABC and tell them to air the Repower America ad this Friday on 20/20. Just click here:

http://www.wecansolveit.org/ABC

We’re working to get 100,000 public comments to ABC before 20/20’s next airing.

Our Repower America ad has a clear and simple message — that massive spending by oil and coal companies on advertising is a key reason our nation hasn’t switched to clean and renewable sources for our energy.

UPDATE 10/10/08: Cathy Zoi writes:

In just 24 hours, more than 100,000 folks sent messages to ABC in support of airing our Repower America ad. But we still haven’t heard from ABC.

Al Gore: ‘Clean Coal’s Like Healthy Cigarettes’»

At the Clinton Global Initiative, Al Gore ripped apart “clean coal,” the coal industry catch-all propaganda term for advanced coal technologies, both existing ones that reduce traditional pollutants and developmental ones, like carbon capture and sequestration. Gore was asked by Bill Clinton, “Do you believe that the current economic difficulties will make it harder or easier to pass good climate legislation?” Here’s Gore’s answer:

For the first time in all of human history, we, as a species, have to make a decision. If we make the right decision then the answer to the question you asked is, the economic crisis can provide an opportunity to make the right kind of changes.

What should we do? We should stop burning coal . . . without sequestering the CO₂. The coal and oil companies have spent in the United States alone a half a billion dollars in the first eight months of this year promoting a lie that there is such a thing as “clean coal.” Clean coal’s like healthy cigarettes — it does not exist. It could theoretically exist. The only demonstration plant was canceled. How many, how many such plants are there? Zero. How many blueprints? Zero.

Watch it:

Gore continued with a discussion of how the United States and the rest of the world should build a new, smart electricity infrastructure based on wind, solar, and geothermal power “to take the energy from the places where the sun falls and the wind blows to the places where the people live” — including a link from places like Darfur to Europe:

We are now — what we should do is make a one-off investment to switch our energy infrastructure from one that depends on fuel that is dirty, dangerous, destroying the habitability of this planet, and rising in price, to a new global energy infrastructure that is based on fuel that is free forever: the sun, and the wind, and geothermal. There’s a myth that the technology is not available. It is available. Concentrating geothermal [Ed.: He means “solar”] power is competitive today. Wind is competitive, though intermittent, today. Geothermal is competitive today.

More »

Gore: Lifting Oil Shale Moratorium ‘Is Utter Insanity’»

The Wonk Room has previously explained how the push for oil shale is like drilling for a trillion tons of tater tots. At the Global Clinton Initiative on Wednesday, Gore offered a stark criticism of the House of Representatives vote to eliminate the moratorium on oil shale development in the continuing resolution for the 2009 budget:

Now, one final point. Today, today, the US Congress is dealing with energy. They are without debate and without a single hearing preparing to lift the moratorium on the development of oil shale, which would vastly multiply the amount of CO2 from every gallon of gasoline.

This is utter insanity.

And it demonstrates the wealth and power of the entrenched carbon lobby to twist policy and to put out illusory impressions about this, is overwhelming free debate. So, we need to stop this. You know, each year, we have a great discussion here, and there’s progress made. But it’s not enough. It’s not enough.

We, the human species, have to solve this crisis.

Watch it:

Yesterday, Sen. Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) unveiled an economic stimulus bill (S. 3604) which would continue the oil shale moratorium, includes $500 million to support weatherization of low-income homes, $7.5 billion for loans to auto companies to manufacture advanced, more energy-efficient vehicles, $2 billion for public transit, $350 million for Amtrak, $300 million for advanced battery research, $300 million to help local governments improve energy efficiency, $750 million for environmental clean up, and $800 million for urban and rural clean water systems.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund supports the passage of this green economic recovery plan, which is coming up for a vote right now.

UPDATE: The bill was filibustered 52-42. Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) joined forty Republicans to vote against the bill. Sens. Biden (D-DE), Graham (R-SC), Kennedy (D-MA), McCain (R-AZ), Obama (D-IL), and Stevens (R-AK) did not vote.

UPDATE II: Eric Kleiman, Bayh spokesman, explains Bayh’s vote against the stimulus bill:

The package included billions of dollars in deficit-financed spending of questionable stimulative value, including $925 million for a U.S. polar icebreaker and $250 million for the next generation NASA spacecraft.

Exclusive Video Of Gore’s Remarks At The Clinton Global Initiative: ‘It Is Time For Civil Disobedience’»

Vice President Al Gore, speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative yesterday, called on young people to “prevent the construction of new coal plants” through civil disobedience, repeating a call he made last year in an interview with Nick Kristof. At CGI, Gore said:

If you’re a young person, looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now and not done, I believe we’ve reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.

Watch it:

The New York Times’s Paul Vitello claimed there was only “scattered applause,” despite the boisterous reaction from the crowd.

People, young and old, have been committing acts of civil disobedience against coal plants and mountaintop coal mining across the planet — including England, North Carolina, Wise County and Carbo, Virginia, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Bright Green Blog’s Eoin O’Carroll responds:

Leaving aside whether breaking the law is ever justified, it seems odd that Gore doesn’t seem to include himself in the category of the “young people” he thinks should risk jail to halt global warming. After all, at age 71, Ghandi was arrested and served two years in prison. The US labor organizer Mother Jones was still facing charges of sedition in her 80s. Even TV president Martin Sheen, who is eight years older than Gore, managed to get himself arrested at an antinuclear action in Nevada last year, for what he says is the 65th time.

Climate Progress’s Joe Romm argues, “there is something young people can do that is vastly more important right now — and that is to get politically involved immediately.”

We Campaign Takes On ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Propaganda Machine»

Last month, the Wonk Room reported that the oil and coal industries and their conservative allies are spending two million dollars a day “to influence public opinion and public policy” this year. Most visible in this lobbying, advertising, and campaign donating machine has been Newt Gingrich’s “Drill Here, Drill Now” campaign, which has successfully driven the energy debate onto the false shoals of expanded drilling.

Evidently, Al Gore and the We Campaign have had enough. They’ve released a new ad, which they hope to run on national television, directly attacking industry propaganda and making reference to the recent sex, drugs, and oil scandal rocking the Bush administration.

Watch it:

The policy goal underlying the “Drill, Baby, Drill” message — lifting decades-old protections on America’s lands and waters — would help only Big Oil’s already obscene profits. But the primary political goal has been to prevent Congress from enacting genuine change, by killing climate legislation, blocking renewable energy investments and standards like those called for by the We Campaign, demonizing biofuels, and corrupting the media — drilling us deeper into the pollution economy just when we need to build our way out.

Today, Center for American Progress Action Fund fellow Bracken Hendricks is testifying before the House Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming about the Center’s plan for a Green Recovery. You can watch watch the webcast live at 1:30 pm.

The Green Jobs Now Day of Action, on September 27, is now little more than a week away.

Transcript: More »

The Assault On Gore — And On The American Dream»

Last week, Former Vice President Al Gore challenged the nation “to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years.”

Gore’s call was virtually ignored by the mainstream press, which afforded energy and global warming only three percent of the coverage during the week of Gore’s speech. What paltry coverage there was often “repeated and amplified many common points of confusion with global warming policy.” Right-wing editorial pages and blogs went further, attacking Gore’s plan as “nutty” (Rocky Mountain News), “absurd” (Wall Street Journal), “lunatic” (The Atlantic), “climate claptrap” (Real Clear Politics), and in “energy la-la land” (San Francisco Chronicle). Speaking with right-wing pundit Dean Barnett on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) mocked his former colleague:

Yeah, Gore is the only, uh, engineer or scientist I’ve heard, heh, who thinks that’s possible. I mean, that would be wonderful, but that’s a dreamworld. That’s not reality and I think the American people are interested in straight talk, not dreamworld talk. We’re going to be using fossil fuels to some extent or another for multiple decades.

Listen here:

Gore was absolutely right when he pointed to the right-wing and corporate breakdown of rational discourse in his 2007 book, The Assault on Reason. In the real world, as Gore explained in his speech, “our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core” of today’s “economic, environmental and national security crises.” His conservative critics are the ones living in a “dreamworld.”

As the Wonk Room has previously noted, Gore’s challenge to cut U.S. emissions by one-third in ten years is on the scale of what is necessary to avoid climate catastrophe. Gore’s goal is possible. At Gristmill, Gar Lipow explains:

If you follow our plan you would probably see the grid more like 90 percent decarbonized in first 10 years. But you would also see 85 percent of truck freight shifted to mostly electrified trains, construction of light rail, and massive reductions of emissions in residences, commercial buildings, and industrial use. So we reduce emissions by more than Gore’s proposal, and reduce oil use significantly too, something Gore’s plan would not do. So not only is Gore’s plan feasible over a 10 year period, much greater reductions are feasible than Gore calls for over a 10 year period. Gore remains, as he as always has been, a mainstream centrist.

The Post Carbon Institute has released a plan entitled “10 Steps in 10 Years to 100 Percent Renewable Power,” outlining what it will take to reach Gore’s goal. As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial board wrote:

Can it be done? Yes. A carbon-free future can become reality — if the nation is willing to invest money, creativity and national spirit. This type of impossible goal is exactly the sort of dream that’s made America, well, America.

UPDATE: At Daily Kos, Devilstower writes how Gore’s challenge affects the grassroots Energize America campaign for progressive energy policy, saying it makes “many things about that 2006 plan suddenly seem timid.” He continues:

Many voices have already been raised in support of Gore’s plan, but predictably the defenders of the status quo are legion. It’s funny how some of the same voices who are quick to point to the transition from whale oil to petroleum as a sign that technology will always be there to save us, are now screaming “not yet!” Let’s get this straight from the start. There’s no question that Gore’s plan is possible. But the biggest advance of Gore’s plan might be more psychological than physical. By setting such a lofty and laudable target, Gore draws both the screams of the naysayers and the minds of the general public in a way that a more timid plan would never achieve.

Transcript: More »

Right Wing Doctors Audio Clips To Distort Al Gore’s Comments About Cyclone Nargis»

Using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a strategy for many global warming activists, and it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to tie the recent Myanmar cyclone to global warming.

Poor wrote that Gore said in an interview on National Public Radio, “The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China – and we’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.” (Listen here.)

In fact, the audio clip has been doctored and the conclusion that “Al Gore Calls Myanmar Cyclone a ‘Consequence’ of Global Warming” is false:

Gore Says Myanmar Cyclone Not A Consequence Of Global Warming. The BMI headline ignores that Gore says in the interview that “any individual storm can’t be linked singularly to global warming – we’ve always had hurricanes.”

Gore Properly Described Relationship Between Storms And Global Warming. In the interview, Gore discussed Nargis and the devastating storms that struck China in 2006 (Typhoon Saomai) and Bangladesh in 2007 (Cyclone Sidr). He goes on to say that “the emerging consensus” among climate scientists is that the “the trend toward stronger and more destructive storms appears to be linked to global warming, and specifically to the impact of global warming on higher ocean temperatures in the top couple of hundred feet of the ocean, which drives convection energy and moisture into these storms and makes them more powerful.”

Story Presents False Clip Of Interview. The audio clip included with the online story includes two segments that have been spliced together, out of order, to mislead the listener as to Gore’s actual meaning. The actual transcript (see below) makes it clear Gore was saying that the “consequences” of global warming we’re seeing was the melting of the polar ice cap, which is unequivocally due to anthropogenic climate change.

Business & Media Institute Is Part Of Right-Wing Message Machine. BMI is a right-wing “free-enterprise” front group that is part of Brent Bozell’s conservative media machine, the Media Research Center. Poor describes himself on his Facebook page as a “professional jerk” with “very conservative” political views.

The actual transcript reveals that Gore was speaking in response to a question about conservative pastor John Hagee’s claim in a 2006 interview with Terry Gross that “Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

Poor’s story is being amplified and further distorted by the right-wing media machine. This morning, the Fox News “Fox and Friends” team covered the devastation of Nargis by attacking Gore’s “ill-advised” comments, claiming he is “in hot water again with climatologists.” Steve Doocy hosted Dr. William Gray, who has claimed that manmade global warming is “a big scam.” Here are Doocy’s two questions to Dr. Gray:

Al Gore says that the cyclone that’s killed a lot of people linked to global warming. Is that accurate?

When Al Gore says the big cyclone has killed all those people because of global warming, that’s, according to you, just wrong.

Watch it:

The people truly guilty of “using tragedy to advance an agenda” are Pastor Hagee, Jeff Poor, Matt Drudge, Steve Doocy, and their conservative ilk.

Digg It!

UPDATE: HT Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground Wunder Blog: Sea surface temperatures were over a full degree Celsius above average in the region where Nargis intensified before landfall, as can be seen from this May 1 National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration satellite map:

UPDATE II: Glenn Beck pushed the false story on his CNN show on May 7, and Media Matters exposes that Brett Baier claimed on the May 8 edition of Fox News Special Report: “Former Vice President Al Gore says global warming is to blame for the cyclone in Myanmar.”

UPDATE III: From ConWebBlog:

Poor’s BMI article now notes a “clarification” that “The original audio for this story included two accurate audio clips but placed in the incorrect order. They are now included on this story as separate clips.” Poor posted a version of his article at NewsBusters, but it doesn’t mention that Gore said that “any individual storm can’t be linked singularly to global warming,” it contains the original misleading out-of-order audio clip, and it contains no “clarification.”

Actual Transcript of Al Gore’s Interview with Terry Gross: More »

Gore Launches $300 Million Climate Action Campaign»

Today, former Vice President Al Gore and his organization, the Alliance for Climate Protection, launched a $300 million, three-year campaign with the goal of “educating people in the US and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable.” The Washington Post reports that the “We” campaign “aims to enlist 10 million volunteers through a combination of network and cable commercials, display ads…and online social networks.” Gore told 60 Minutes he and his wife Tipper had donated the Nobel Peace Prize money and all the profits from his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” to this new campaign.

The campaign’s website, wecansolveit.org, includes action alerts, blogger outreach, and the message of a “clean energy economy” fueled by energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The campaign will launch TV advertisements later this week that “will team up offbeat celebrity couples who may not have much in common but share a belief that it is important to address climate change,” including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson, and the Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith. Sign up for the campaign, and watch its debut ad:

The Alliance’s spending of $100 million per year on a public advocacy campaign may be without precedent. However, the public is being bombarded with propaganda from the industries whose emissions are causing global warming and thus have the most to lose — or gain — from how the United States regulates greenhouse gas pollution. Here’s a look at what Gore’s campaign is up against:

• The energy, transportation, agribusiness, chemical, and energy-intensive manufacturing sectors have spent a combined $80 million in donations to Congress and presidential candidates since 2007;
• The coal industry is sponsoring a $20 million lobbying campaign by the National Mining Association and a $40 million campaign by its front group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices;
• The American Clean Skies Foundation, a natural gas industry front group, is launching a “multi-million dollar media advocacy campaign” with a 24-7 online TV channel on Earth Day;
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Council for Capital Formation, and the energy industry front group Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth have launched a 17-state tour painting a doom-and-gloom scenario for the economics of climate change action;
• Chevron, a major exploiter of the Alberta tar sands, is running the “Power of Human Energy” campaign;
• General Motors, whose chairman recently called global warming “a total crock of shit,” is running “GMNext,” Gas-Friendly to Gas Free” and “Live Green Go Yellow” campaigns;
• ConocoPhillips, who spent $506 million to purchase oil and gas leases in polar bear habitat in February, is running ads with the tagline “So we can pass on what matters … to the ones who matter most.”