Late 2012? Just after the presidential election where Barack Obama wins
another 4 years of 10% unemployment and the endless winless war in
Cavemanastan? Have you been following the recent news, Josh? Republicans
will be taking over Congress soon. And these aren't the make deals behind
closed doors Republicans we have all come to love and respect. Sen. Joe
Miller, AK and Sen. Sharron Angle, NV. They want to eliminate Social
Security. Sen. Joe Buck, CO. Sen. Linda McMahon, CT (she and I were born
in the same small town, possibly the same hospital and our fathers may have
worked together at one time), Sen. Carly Fiorina, CA (she was McCain's
economic advisor until she told reporters he wasn't qualified to run a
corporation. HP said the same about her). And there are others in both the
House and Senate that are on the way. Little wonder Bart Gordon is running
for the exits.
You aren't a physical scientist, so as you have told me, you have to take
the science at our word. But as a social scientist and I'm guessing,
political scientist, you should be able to see the handwriting or is it
handwringing on the wall. Liberals or progressives as they now want to be
called, won't support any kind of research program that offers an
alternative even for a short time to a cap and trade program. Cap and trade
is dead for the next few years, unless they want to pass a bill that applies
to one power plant and run it as some kind of fantasy league video game.
I'll trade you one Tampa Electric for one AEP Mountaineer and a Shearron
Harris nuclear, Josh. How about it? The Republican Party will be run by
the tail wagging Tea Party faction that will be against spending of any
kind, especially wasting money on their non-existent global warming problem.
You're right, we have been down this road before, sort of. September 2001,
Bush says no to geo and Kyoto and yes to endless wars. June 2004, DOE tells
me and MacCracken and Caldeira and LBL to get lost. Three times in the last
5 years a bipartisan bill to get $10 million for cloud seeding research (for
rainmaking in the parched SW U.S.) never made it out of committee. 2006,
Pete Worden, on his own, authorized a meeting on geo. FOIA obtained e-mails
showed that his bosses in Washington were not amused. 2008, Dave Schnare's
bold attempt to get funding via a supplemental ended when the Sierra Club's
rep redlined it out.
All the senior managers at DOE and NASA need is some political cover and the
hundred millions start to flow. Read the polls, boys. Read the polls.
Of course, we all know that things in Washington sometimes move very slowly.
Tom Davis, VA, now retired, remarked in 2008 that hearings on geo might be
held in 2009. He was only off by one year.
It may not matter. Isn't the world supposed to end in December 2012 anyway?
Or was that the Kyoto Protocol.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Josh Horton" <[email protected]>
To: "geoengineering" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 4:46
Subject: [geo] Federal Research Program in 2012?
(from http://geoengineeringpolitics.blogspot.com/)
One of the featured speakers at yesterday's Future Tense Event in
Washington, D.C., was Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN). As Chairman of the
House Committee on Science and Technology, Gordon oversaw a series of
groundbreaking hearings on geoengineering over the past year. At the
conference Monday, Gordon raised the possibility of introducing a bill
to authorize a federal geoengineering research program, perhaps in
late 2012. Apart from Ehsan Khan's abortive attempt to initiate
research at DOE during the Bush Administration, this would constitute
the first federal proposal to sponsor and support research into the
feasibility of climate intervention strategies.
I would like to see more details about this proposal. What funding
levels? Which technologies? Which agencies? How does this reconcile
with Gordon's plans to retire after this session of Congress? This is
potentially a very important development.
Josh Horton
[email protected]
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