Advanced BioFuels USA

by Dana Milbank (The Washington Post: Opinion)  On the eve of the Obama administration’s release Tuesday of a report warning about grave consequences of climate change, presidential counselor John Podesta went into the White House briefing room and crowed about fossil-fuel production in words that could have been penned by Dick Cheney.
“The United States is now the largest producer of natural gas in the world and the largest producer of gas and oil in the world,” Podesta declared. “It’s projected that the United States will continue to be the largest producer of natural gas through 2030. For six straight months now, we’ve produced more oil here at home than we’ve imported from overseas.”
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It was a jarring juxtaposition: a new warning Tuesday about threats to life, health and commerce posed by carbon emissions, preceded by a boast Monday about record levels of carbon-fuel production. This is the contradiction at the heart of President Obama’s climate-change policy.
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After Podesta’s presentation, a reporter observed that it seemed like “a wholehearted endorsement of fracking” (an increasingly popular method of producing natural gas) and that Obama had similarly lauded the technique.
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But (Joe) Romm, the climate-change expert, says industry has been using the “bridge” argument for three decades. There’s now some evidence that methane leaked in the transport and production of “clean” natural gas could erase the carbon advantage it has over coal.
“The science says you’re going to need to leave most of the carbon, the fossil fuels, in the ground if you don’t want to render large parts of the planet uninhabitable,” he argues. READ MORE and MORE (The Washington Post)

 
Excerpt from The Washington Post: …  The federal climate assessment — the third since 2000 — brought together hundreds of experts in academia and government to guide U.S. policy based on the best available climate science.
The authors of the more-than-800-page report said it aims to present “actionable science” and a road map for local leaders and average citizens to mitigate carbon and other gas emissions that warm the planet.
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Burning coal for electricity, using gasoline to fuel vehicles, clear-cutting forests and engaging in certain agricultural practices that remove carbon-trapping vegetation contribute to the problem, the assessment said.
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The authors pointed to major concerns for the mid-Atlantic region, which includes the District, Maryland and Virginia.
“As sea levels rise, the Chesapeake Bay region is expected to experience an increase in coastal flooding and drowning of . . . wetlands” that protect against storm surge, the report said. That’s especially bad because the lower bay region is at higher risk as a result of of sinking land. Water quality would decline and low-oxygen “dead zones” would increase.
If there are higher greenhouse gas emissions, the majority of Maryland and Delaware, and parts of West Virginia and New Jersey, are projected to have 60 extra days per year of temperatures topping 90 degrees starting around the middle of the century, the report said.  READ MORE