Billionaire activist to meet with White House officials
Washington (CNN) – Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalist who’s pledged to spend millions in this year’s midterm contests, will discuss climate change with top White House officials and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew this week, according to officials.
At the Wednesday meeting, Steyer will also sit down with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros to confer on a forthcoming report assessing the economic effects of climate change.
Rubio says humans aren't behind climate change
Washington (CNN) - Sen. Marco Rubio says he doesn't believe humans are causing climate change and doesn't think any action can reverse course.
This as a new White House report indicated that Rubio's home state of Florida is one of the most vulnerable to rising sea levels.
"I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it," the first term senator said Sunday on ABC "This Week," after being asked by ABC News' Jon Karl whether humans were contributing to the heating up of the planet.
Huntsman sails around climate change
(CNN) - Former Utah. Gov. Jon Huntsman, known for having the most moderate view on climate change in GOP presidential field, suggested Tuesday the verdict was still out on mankind's role in the situation.
"Because there are questions about the validity of the science...I think the onus is on the scientific community to provide more, to help clarify the situation," Huntsman said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.
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Perry's global warming position hurts GOP, Huntsman says
Rock Hill, South Carolina (CNN) –Presidential candidate Rick Perry stood by his belief Saturday that manmade global warming is an unproven scientific theory while another White House contender is warning that the mindset puts the Republican Party in a "losing position" in 2012.
Former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, who is trailing top tier candidates in most national polls, openly criticized Perry's position on Twitter this week. He stressed the potential impact on the party in a taped interview that airs Sunday.
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Poll: Global warming fears cooling
(CNN) - Americans' perceptions of the issue of global warming appear to be cooling.
In a Gallup Poll released Monday, 51 percent of respondents said they "worry a great deal or fair amount" about global warming, down from 66 percent in 2008.
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Gore says snow doesn't disprove global warming
Washington (CNN) - A crippling winter storm may be wreaking havoc across the United States, but former Vice President Al Gore says that doesn't mean global warming is debunked.
Gore, an outspoken environmentalist, took to his blog yesterday to post a response to Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly, who wondered on his show why much of New York State was covered in snow.
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Cancun delegates reach climate change deal
Cancun, Mexico (CNN) - Delegates at the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, approved an agreement early Saturday, despite objections from Bolivia and with praise from the United States government.
On Saturday, the White House said President Barack Obama congratulated Mexican President Felipe Calderon on the conference's conclusion in a phone call.
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CNN Poll: Skepticism on global warming heating up?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/12/07/art.climatechange.gi.afp.jpg caption="CNN Poll: Skepticism on global warming heating up?."]
Washington (CNN) - A rise in skepticism among Americans over global warming is mostly due to changes among Republicans, according to new national poll.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, indicates that two-thirds of all Americans believe global warming is a proven fact. That's down eight points since June of 2008, with views among Democrats holding steady while Republicans' belief in global warming dropping 11 points.
"The growing skepticism among Republicans, with no matching shift among Democrats, suggests that the changes measured in this poll may be a reaction to having a Democrat in the White House rather than a shift in underlying attitudes toward global warming," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
The poll's release come as a United Nations climate summit opened in Copenhagen, Denmark. That global conference began under a cloud of accusations, after international attention the past two weeks over hacked e-mails that suggest some scientists faked data to support the argument of global warming. But Holland notes that polls released last month from other organizations have found similar shifts in views on global warming for several months. He says that indicates the changes in the new CNN survey are not the direct result of the media attention to the leaked e-mails from climate researchers.
Poll: Global warming skepticism on the rise
Washington (CNN) - A new national poll indicates that some Americans are cooling to global warming.
According to an ABC News/Washington Post survey released Tuesday - less than two weeks before the start of a global conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark - 72 percent of those polled believe that climate change is happening, down 8 points over the past year.
The poll indicates that the rise in skepticism is mostly due to a shift among Republicans and independents. According to the survey, 54 percent of Republicans questioned believe global warming is happening, down 22 points over the past three-and-a-half years, with a drop of 15 points among independents. The belief in climate change dipped 6 points among Democrats during the same period of time.
The survey's release comes as a Democratic-sponsored "cap-and-trade" proposal to cut pollution slowly makes it way through Congress. The bill calls for the federal government to limit the amount of greenhouse gases that companies can produce in their factories or power plants, and to penalize companies that exceed greenhouse gas limits with fines or by making those businesses pay money to other companies that produce less pollution.
House Democrats unsure of global warming bill's passage
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caption="House Democrats are lobbying their counterparts to support a landmark energy bill."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Democratic leaders are furiously lobbying their members and moderate Republicans to support a landmark energy bill in the face of resistance from some conservative members of their own party, and staunch opposition from the GOP - roadblocks that are making it difficult to find the 218 votes necessary to pass the measure, according to Democratic leadership aides.
A vote on the Clean Energy and Security Act, which would restrict emissions of green house gases and require use of alternative energy in an effort to slow the effects of global warming, is scheduled for Friday.
The legislation's lead sponsors held a pep rally outside the Capitol on Wednesday to whip up support for the legislation's passage.
"We are going to pass the most important energy and environment bill in history," declared Rep Ed Markey, D-Masachusetts, chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. "We are going to reduce the carbon we send up into the atmosphere but at the same time we are going to begin to back out the oil that we import from countries that we should not be importing it from."
The legislation would require a 17 percent emissions reduction from 2005 levels by 2020, mandate electric utilities to meet 20% of their electricity demand through renewable energy sources by 2020, provide $90 billion for new investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy, along with $60 billion for carbon capture and sequestration. Another key provision, termed "cap-and-trade," would require industries and manufacturers to cut carbon emissions by setting up a system where they could buy and sell pollution credits.
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