By George Black. Posted on OnEarth.org. July 28, 2011.
If you’re tired of beating your head against the wall of climate denial, try something simple: hard facts.
Amid the white noise of cyberspace, here’s a new website that’s really worth looking at: www.crywolfproject.org. I’ll get to the particulars in a moment, but what I especially like about the project is that it helps cut through the confusion about why we appear to be losing ground in the fight for public concern about climate change.
By Donald Cohen There’s an old adage that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. That seems to be the unofficial motto of the United States Chamber of Commerce, which has spent the last forty years repeating (and repeating and repeating) the mantra that government regulations on businesses “kill jobs” and economic growth. But their predictions are repeatedly wrong. The laws that they warned would bring economic ruin have become the basic health, safety, and environmental safeguards we now take for granted.
Yesterday New Hampshire Governor John Lynch stepped up and defended America’s only policy initiative against climate change. Lynch vetoed Republican legislation that would have removed his state from the continent’s functioning carbon dioxide pollution cap-and-trade system, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI.)
BRIEF: Koch front groups campaigned against the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a market-based cap-and-trade program established in 2007 by ten U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
By Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins. Posted on Huffington Post. March 16, 2011.
If a fire broke out in your office right now, would you know what to do? Would you know where to go? You likely would, thanks in large part to codes requiring fire exits and fire drills.
By Brad Johnson. Published in Think Progress. February 1, 2011.
At a Washington DC press conference, U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials blasted President Obama’s call for a clean energy future. Christopher Guith, vice president for policy at the Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, said a national clean-energy standard is “ridiculously premature,” even though 25 states have renewable and alternative energy standards, the first established in 1983. The Institute’s president, former Bush official Karen Harbert, said that the United States should instead allow “increased access to land for oil and gas drilling both onshore and offshore,” drilling a deeper hole with fossil fuel dependence.
By Laurie Johnson. Posted on the Natural Resources Defense Council's Switchboard blog. September 13, 2010.
With stalled clean energy legislation in DC, opponents of environmental protection have shifted their focus away from pro-active legislation toward dismantling existing environmental protection laws. Against the Supreme Court’s mandate, industry-funded politicians and the lobbyists that support them (e.g. National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)) are trying to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from doing its job: requiring polluters to reduce global warming pollution. Predictably, they are making the same argument they’ve always made—one that’s never come true: “Protecting the environment will destroy jobs; it will be impossible for firms to meet any new requirements and stay in business at the same time.”
By Laurie Johnson. Posted on the Natural Resources Defense Council's Switchboard blog. June 18, 2009.
Over three decades of experience with environmental regulation show that investments in environmental protection, coupled with GDP growth, led to an increase in jobs that were orders of magnitude larger than any job losses caused by environmental requirements. The dire job loss predictions by industry simply never came to pass. Instead, tens of thousands of new jobs were created every year, much more than the job reductions per year that various government agencies and academic analyses found after the fact, in only a few sectors.[1] We detail the data further below.
Wind the tape back to before environmental regulations were passed, and we see that the opponents of the day, just like today's climate obstructionists, made dire job loss forecasts. They never came true.
By Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen. Posted on Huffington Post. May 11, 2009.
In its first 100 days, the Obama administration did more to address global warming and the environmental crisis than the Bush administration did in eight years.
Why on Earth Do We Listen to Those Who Cry Wolf?
By George Black. Posted on OnEarth.org. July 28, 2011.
If you’re tired of beating your head against the wall of climate denial, try something simple: hard facts.
Amid the white noise of cyberspace, here’s a new website that’s really worth looking at: www.crywolfproject.org. I’ll get to the particulars in a moment, but what I especially like about the project is that it helps cut through the confusion about why we appear to be losing ground in the fight for public concern about climate change.
Read MoreRegulating Greenhouse Gases a Job Killer? Quit Crying Wolf
By Donald Cohen
Read MoreThere’s an old adage that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. That seems to be the unofficial motto of the United States Chamber of Commerce, which has spent the last forty years repeating (and repeating and repeating) the mantra that government regulations on businesses “kill jobs” and economic growth. But their predictions are repeatedly wrong. The laws that they warned would bring economic ruin have become the basic health, safety, and environmental safeguards we now take for granted.
New Hampshire Governor Defends RGGI
By Jake Blumgart
Yesterday New Hampshire Governor John Lynch stepped up and defended America’s only policy initiative against climate change. Lynch vetoed Republican legislation that would have removed his state from the continent’s functioning carbon dioxide pollution cap-and-trade system, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI.)
Read MoreCASE STUDY: Koch Front Groups Attack RGGI – the Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Posted on Greenpeace.org. April 13, 2011.
BRIEF: Koch front groups campaigned against the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a market-based cap-and-trade program established in 2007 by ten U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
Read MoreThe Men Who Cried Wolf
By Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins. Posted on Huffington Post. March 16, 2011.
If a fire broke out in your office right now, would you know what to do? Would you know where to go? You likely would, thanks in large part to codes requiring fire exits and fire drills.
Read MoreChamber Of Commerce Continues Decades-Long Assault Against Clean Economy
By Brad Johnson. Published in Think Progress. February 1, 2011.
At a Washington DC press conference, U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials blasted President Obama’s call for a clean energy future. Christopher Guith, vice president for policy at the Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, said a national clean-energy standard is “ridiculously premature,” even though 25 states have renewable and alternative energy standards, the first established in 1983. The Institute’s president, former Bush official Karen Harbert, said that the United States should instead allow “increased access to land for oil and gas drilling both onshore and offshore,” drilling a deeper hole with fossil fuel dependence.
Read MoreRepublicans Can't Name A Single "Job Killer" Regulation
By James Lardner. Posted on ReMapping Debate. January 25, 2011.
"Job-killing regulations? Opponents fail to support claims with evidence" investigates the right-wing’s persistent use of “job killer” rhetoric to describe anything they don’t like.
Read MoreProtecting the Clean Air Act: Getting the Jobs and Investment Story Right
By Laurie Johnson. Posted on the Natural Resources Defense Council's Switchboard blog. September 13, 2010.
With stalled clean energy legislation in DC, opponents of environmental protection have shifted their focus away from pro-active legislation toward dismantling existing environmental protection laws. Against the Supreme Court’s mandate, industry-funded politicians and the lobbyists that support them (e.g. National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)) are trying to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from doing its job: requiring polluters to reduce global warming pollution. Predictably, they are making the same argument they’ve always made—one that’s never come true: “Protecting the environment will destroy jobs; it will be impossible for firms to meet any new requirements and stay in business at the same time.”
Read MoreThe Historical Record of Job Growth and Environmental Protection: A Convenient Truth for Climate Legislation
By Laurie Johnson. Posted on the Natural Resources Defense Council's Switchboard blog. June 18, 2009.
Over three decades of experience with environmental regulation show that investments in environmental protection, coupled with GDP growth, led to an increase in jobs that were orders of magnitude larger than any job losses caused by environmental requirements. The dire job loss predictions by industry simply never came to pass. Instead, tens of thousands of new jobs were created every year, much more than the job reductions per year that various government agencies and academic analyses found after the fact, in only a few sectors.[1] We detail the data further below.
Read MoreWind the tape back to before environmental regulations were passed, and we see that the opponents of the day, just like today's climate obstructionists, made dire job loss forecasts. They never came true.
Crying Wolf Again: Big Business Gearing up for a Fight Against Obama’s Environmental Program
By Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen. Posted on Huffington Post. May 11, 2009.
In its first 100 days, the Obama administration did more to address global warming and the environmental crisis than the Bush administration did in eight years.
Read More