From Mother Jones The Top 10 Fossil Fools in Congress

[bluebellbaby]

And I was surprised that there were 5 named Democrats, including Obama..."One of Bunning's top collaborators on the coal-to-liquid front was Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)—although he jumped ship in 2007, right after it became a political liability."

Will we ever know if the Media selected Democratic Nominee, Obama, will support a clean and realistic future for us and our children free of oil and "green house" gas causing energy?...

I know you all will think I'm crazy and added this as flamebait...if that's the correct term...but what do we really know about Obama...I want change...REAL CHANGE...NOT PROMISES...or "just another politician doing what he needs to do to get elected...

Here's the link to the full article...

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/05/fossil-fools.html

All of the members listed are shameful and disgusting...please note there are Democrats on this list...makes me wonder if we will ever get an honest candidate or leader in this country that will put US..."WE THE PEOPLE" first!

Or am I just "talking out my butt" here...?

Does anyone know if Obama has a true realistic plan for renewable energy sources and not "softball quotes" or "read his website" please!
:hide:

[jody]

1. Forget about details, all you have to do is chant "Hope, Change" and all your fantasies will

come true.

[bluebellbaby]

2. LOL...love the graphics...

[izquierdista]

3. Southern Illinois

I can almost guarantee that Obama's support has to do with coal technology being studied at a lot of universities downstate.

While I'm with you that coal has hideous environmental problems used as is, there is some interesting research being done that mitigate a lot of the problems. Fluidized bed combustion can cut the pollutants released by burning coal in a power plant almost to zilch. In the future, coal tar liquids may become the preferred starting material for a variety of chemical manufacturing processes. Every energy technology has its downsides; coal is still worth studying.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Hey, where the heck is Ted Stevens on that list...

He's certainly old enough to be a fossil, and he's always out there chanting, "ANWR, ANWR, ANWR." Doesn't he qualify?

[lojasmo]

5. Yes, you are talking out of yoru butt.

Read the fucking web site.

Barack Obama's Plan
Reduce Carbon Emissions 80 Percent by 2050

* Cap and Trade: Obama supports implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama's cap-and-trade system will require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100 percent auction ensures that all polluters pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these emission rights away to coal and oil companies. Some of the revenue generated by auctioning allowances will be used to support the development of clean energy, to invest in energy efficiency improvements, and to address transition costs, including helping American workers affected by this economic transition.
* Confront Deforestation and Promote Carbon Sequestration: Obama will develop domestic incentives that reward forest owners, farmers, and ranchers when they plant trees, restore grasslands, or undertake farming practices that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Invest in a Clean Energy Future

* Invest $150 Billion over 10 Years in Clean Energy: Obama will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial-scale renewable energy, invest in low-emissions coal plants, and begin the transition to a new digital electricity grid. A principal focus of this fund will be devoted to ensuring that technologies that are developed in the U.S. are rapidly commercialized in the U.S. and deployed around the globe.
* Double Energy Research and Development Funding: Obama will double science and research funding for clean energy projects including those that make use of our biomass, solar and wind resources.
* Invest in a Skilled Clean Technologies Workforce: Obama will use proceeds from the cap-and-trade auction program to invest in job training and transition programs to help workers and industries adapt to clean technology development and production. Obama will also create an energy-focused Green Jobs Corps to connect disconnected and disadvantaged youth with job skills for a high-growth industry.
* Convert our Manufacturing Centers into Clean Technology Leaders: Obama will establish a federal investment program to help manufacturing centers modernize and Americans learn the new skills they need to produce green products.
* Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund: Obama will create a Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund to fill a critical gap in U.S. technology development. Obama will invest $10 billion per year into this fund for five years. The fund will partner with existing investment funds and our National Laboratories to ensure that promising technologies move beyond the lab and are commercialized in the U.S
* Require 25 Percent of Renewable Electricity by 2025: Obama will establish a 25 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025.
* Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology: Obama will significantly increase the resources devoted to the commercialization and deployment of low-carbon coal technologies. Obama will consider whatever policy tools are necessary, including standards that ban new traditional coal facilities, to ensure that we move quickly to commercialize and deploy low carbon coal technology.

Support Next Generation Biofuels

* Deploy Cellulosic Ethanol: Obama will invest federal resources, including tax incentives, cash prizes and government contracts into developing the most promising technologies with the goal of getting the first two billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol into the system by 2013.
* Expand Locally-Owned Biofuel Refineries: Less than 10 percent of new ethanol production today is from farmer-owned refineries. New ethanol refineries help jumpstart rural economies. Obama will create a number of incentives for local communities to invest in their biofuels refineries.
* Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard: Barack Obama will establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to speed the introduction of low-carbon non-petroleum fuels. The standard requires fuels suppliers to reduce the carbon their fuel emits by ten percent by 2020.
* Increase Renewable Fuel Standard: Obama will require 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be included in the fuel supply by 2022 and will increase that to at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol by 2030.

Set America on Path to Oil Independence

Obama's plan will reduce oil consumption by at least 35 percent, or 10 million barrels per day, by 2030. This will more than offset the equivalent of the oil we would import from OPEC nations in 2030.

* Increase Fuel Economy Standards: Obama will double fuel economy standards within 18 years. His plan will provide retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that they can build new fuel-efficient cars rather than overseas companies. Obama will also invest in advanced vehicle technology such as advanced lightweight materials and new engines.

Improve Energy Efficiency 50 Percent by 2030

* Set National Building Efficiency Goals: Barack Obama will establish a goal of making all new buildings carbon neutral, or produce zero emissions, by 2030. He'll also establish a national goal of improving new building efficiency by 50 percent and existing building efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade to help us meet the 2030 goal.
* Establish a Grant Program for Early Adopters: Obama will create a competitive grant program to award those states and localities that take the first steps to implement new building codes that prioritize energy efficiency.
* Invest in a Digital Smart Grid: Obama will pursue a major investment in our utility grid to enable a tremendous increase in renewable generation and accommodate modern energy requirements, such as reliability, smart metering, and distributed storage

Restore U.S. Leadership on Climate Change

* Create New Forum of Largest Greenhouse Gas Emitters: Obama will create a Global Energy Forum — that includes all G-8 members plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa –the largest energy consuming nations from both the developed and developing world. The forum would focus exclusively on global energy and environmental issues.
* Re-Engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change: The UNFCCC process is the main international forum dedicated to addressing the climate problem and an Obama administration will work constructively within it.


http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/

[bluebellbaby]

9. Reading "the fucking website" ...thanks for the info and the anger!

How much of the plans outlined will get us off of oil within the next 10 years? It's a plan...but I seen nothing for "the EV1"...that's the electric car the GM created in 1995...

Carbon trading only works if it's enforced...

Gas from Ethanol is worse than gas from oil...the farmers still need fertilizer created from oil...making ethanol a "red herring"...

But I do appreciate all the info...

[highplainsdem]

6. You want real change, not promises?

I discovered last night that Black Agenda Report, a progressive black journal

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=32

doesn't have much respect for Obama. To put it mildly.

Quotes from two articles:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=537

Obama’s White Male Voters: Do They Hear Something Blacks Don’t?
Presidential Politics 2008 - Obama
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford


-snip-

The white liberal/left, ineffectual and geographically scattered, are drawn irresistibly to the Black man who regales them with sweet nothings - literally, nothing in the way of the concrete policies for peace and social justice they claim to champion. His presence in their midst is enough. Besides, Obama is someone who is "capable of forging a progressive majority," they say.

That's a strange concept, since Obama doesn't act like a progressive, or claim to be one. But he has no problem with folks gathering around him. He's a real party guy.

The no-nonsense white men that rule society and cling to ownership of the world were harder nuts to crack; you've got to sign a prenuptial to get skin-tight with them. No problem. Before Obama even began to strut on the national runway, he'd won the approval of the Wall Street and military/industrial (and nuclear power) branches of the Money Family. Run-of-the-mill citizens will be barred from state court relief, so as not to jam up big corporations with their silly lawsuits. Energy companies can count on their usual subsidies. The "sanctity of contracts" will not be violated to save homeowners from foreclosure, no matter how deep the credit crisis becomes. The voracious military will be fed an additional 92,000 soldiers and Marines, regardless of what happens in Iraq, to be available for more wars. Most importantly - and this is the really smooth part of Obama's game - the ever-increasing military budget will make moot all of Barack's and Hillary's (near identical) promises about health care, affordable housing, the whole public agenda that has been dangled in front of those fans and groupies in the cheap seats.

Once he gets in office, many of the swooners will find out that he's already married to the Power Mob.

From the second article, by Pam Martens and originally published at Counterpunch.org (moderators, please note this is a second article, not more quotes from the one above):

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=613&Itemid=1

Obama's Money Cartel: How Barack Obama Fronted for the Most Vicious Predators on Wall Street
Presidential Politics 2008 - Obama
Wednesday, 07 May 2008
by Pam Martens

-snip-

What might account for this persistent (but non-reality based) theme of distancing the Obama campaign from lobbyists? Odds are it traces back to one of the largest corporate lobbyist spending sprees in the history of Washington whose details would cast an unwholesome pall on the Obama campaign, unless our cognitive abilities are regularly bombarded with abstract vacuities of hope and change and sentimental homages to Dr. King and President Kennedy.

On February 10, 2005, Senator Obama voted in favor of the passage of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. Senators Biden, Boxer, Byrd, Clinton, Corzine, Durbin, Feingold, Kerry, Leahy, Reid and 16 other Democrats voted against it. It passed the Senate 72-26 and was signed into law on February 18, 2005. ...

-snip-

Three days before Senator Obama expressed that fateful yea vote, 14 state attorneys general, including Lisa Madigan of Senator Obama's home state of Illinois, filed a letter with the Senate and House, pleading to stop the passage of this corporate giveaway: The AGs wrote: "State attorneys general frequently investigate and bring actions against defendants who have caused harm to our citizens... In some instances, such actions have been brought with the attorney general acting as the class representative for the consumers of the state. We are concerned that certain provisions of S.5 might be misinterpreted to impede the ability of the attorneys general to bring such actions...."

The Senate also received a desperate plea from more than 40 civil rights and labor organizations, including the NAACP, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Human Rights Campaign, American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Justice and Democracy, Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), and Alliance for Justice.

-snip-

Please note the names of the senators who voted AGAINST that bill ("Biden, Boxer, Byrd, Clinton, Corzine, Durbin, Feingold, Kerry, Leahy, Reid and 16 other Democrats"), while Obama voted for it.

But he talks about Hope, and Change...

[Zhade]

7. "right after it became a political liability" - or, you know, he CHANGED HIS MIND.

NT!

[highplainsdem]

8. Just looking at that Mother Jones article - thanks for the link.

and there's a link there to an article on "Scrubbing King Coal" that's interesting, too:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/05/scrubbing-king-coal.html


Back to the Top 10 Fossil Fools again...


I see Mary Landrieu made the list:

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D-La.) Landrieu is known for putting the interests of the climate second to those of Louisiana energy companies. In the 2007 energy bill, the Senate had to decide whether to repeal recently enacted tax breaks to Big Oil and extend incentives for renewables. A filibuster to prevent this priority realignment held by a one-vote margin. Landrieu, who's thus far received $139,500 from oil and gas interests in the 2008 reelection cycle, was the only Demo­crat who voted with Republicans on the matter.

and so did Ted Kennedy:

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D-Mass.) Not to be out-nimbyed by those across the aisle, Kennedy opposes the offshore Cape Wind project, whose proposed site is near his Hyannis Port home. Hypocrisy? Here are Kennedy's own words: "I strongly support renewable energy, including wind energy, as a means of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and protecting the environment." Just, um, not where he lives.