Tuesday night’s speech seemed a far cry from from 2013, when Mr. Obama raised a call to arms against climate change deniers and fossil fuels – or as he once called them, “yesterday’s energy.” Remember his threat? “ If Congress won’t act on climate change, I will.” --Alicia Mundy,
The Wall Street Journal, 29 January 2014
Just 10 days ago, 18 green groups including the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters slammed the White House’s current energy strategy “all of the above” that draws on fossil fuels-oil, natural gas and coal, as well as clean energy. But Tuesday night, Mr. Obama reiterated his commitment to “all of the above,” which he linked to jobs and energy independence. "President Obama says he recognizes the threat of climate change, but he sure doesn't act like it," said May Boeve, executive director of 350.org. "If he was serious, he'd reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and stop promoting fossil fuels like natural gas.” --Laura Barron-Lopez,
The Hill, 29 January 2014
A group of the nation’s leading environmental organizations is breaking with the administration over its energy policy, arguing that the White House needs to apply a strict climate test to all of its energy decisions or risk undermining one of the president’s top second-term priorities. The rift — reflected in a letter sent to President Obama by 18 groups, including the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund and Earthjustice — signals that the administration is under pressure to confront the fossil-fuel industry or risk losing support from a critical part of its political base during an already difficult election year. --Juliet Eilperin and Lenny Bernstein,
The Washington Post, 17 January 2014
The National Security Agency monitored the communications of other governments ahead of and during the 2009 United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to the latest document from whistleblower Edward Snowden. The document, with portions marked "top secret," indicates that the NSA was monitoring the communications of other countries ahead of the conference, and intended to continue doing so throughout the meeting. Posted on an internal NSA website on Dec. 7, 2009, the first day of the Copenhagen summit, it states that "analysts here at NSA, as well as our Second Party partners, will continue to provide policymakers with unique, timely, and valuable insights into key countries' preparations and goals for the conference, as well as the deliberations within countries on climate change policies and negotiation strategies." --
Huffington Post, 30 January 2014
The EU’s energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, has spoken out against a planned 40% cut in CO2 emissions across the EU by 2030, just a week after he helped to launch the policy. Speaking at an ‘Industry Matters’ conference in Brussels, Oettinger said those who expected the cut to “save the world” were “arrogant or stupid”, and publicly questioned whether the reduction was even achievable. --
EurActiv, 29 January 2014
Like Frankenstein, the EU has created a renewable-energy monster it does not know how to tame. For the rest of the world, Europe offers a stark lesson. When it comes to unilateral cuts in greenhouse emissions and aggressive incentives for renewables, this is a global race you don’t want to win. As Europe shows, the winner loses—big. --Rupert Darwall,
The Wall Street Journal, 28 January 2014
High gas and electricity prices will continue to plague Europe for at least 20 years, damaging the competitiveness of industries that employ almost 30m people, the world’s leading energy forecaster has warned. In findings likely to inflame claims EU climate change policies are damaging the bloc’s manufacturers, the International Energy Agency said Europe will lose a third of its global market share of energy-intensive exports over the next two decades because energy prices will stay stubbornly higher than those in the US. --Pilita Clark, Financial Times, 30 January 2014
