by Mark Silva

Al Gore, the Nobel Prize-winning former vice president and Democratic nominee for president in 2000 who won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College, contends that those who doubt global warming -- and he counts Vice President Dick Cheney in that crowd -- remind him of those who doubt that man landed on the moon or who believed the world is flat.

These are among the declarations that the Democratic warrior against climate change (and an ucommitted super-delegate so far this year) makes in an interview airing Sunday evening on CBS News' 60 Minutes. Another declaration: Gore, pictured right at a climate confernce in India, will use profits from his book and film, An Inconvenient Truth, to support a $300-million advertising campaign to boost awareness of global warming. Enter Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks.

Gore, who repeatedly has ruled out another run for the White House yet is repeatedly asked the question in the midst of a protracted campagin for the Democratic nomination, speaks with Lesley Stahl in an interview airing at 7 pm EDT Sunday.

Stahl tells Gore that some prominent people, including the nation’s vice president, are not convinced that global warming is manmade.

Gore replies: “You’re talking about Dick Cheney. I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view, they’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat.

"That demeans them a little bit, but it’s not that far off.''

Some of the ads that Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection will air will feature an ecumenical odd couple, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Pat Robertson. as well as odd political bedfellows, Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, and a pairing of country crooners who flank the right on left on the radio, Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks.

(Photo of Gore in New Delhi March 15 by Raveendran / AFP / Getty Images)

by Frank James

The presidential candidates talk the talk when it comes to vowing to end America's addiction to oil but do they walk the walk or, better yet, drive the drive when it comes to their personal choices in the vehicles?

The answer appears mixed but there definitely is a tendency among them for bigger, gas guzzlers, as this photo gallery indicates.

by Matthew Hay Brown

The head of the EPA has agreed to appear before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee later this month – but the agency still hasn’t turned over the documents the panel has requested on his decision to block California from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the committee, called EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson’s “continuing refusal to cooperate” with the panel “absolutely unacceptable.”

“What started off as foot-dragging is looking suspiciously like a cover-up,” she said Friday. “What is Stephen Johnson trying to hide?”

Johnson denied California permission last month to begin regulating tailpipe emissions of the gases that scientists say contribute to global warming, reportedly against the unanimous recommendations of the EPA’s legal and technical staffs.

Boxer, who is investigating the ruling, had requested the documents in time for a “field briefing” she chaired Thursday in Los Angeles. EPA Associate Administrator Christopher P. Bliley told Boxer that her request could entail tens of thousands of e-mails and documents and that the agency would get back to her.

Boxer went ahead with the briefing, which featured an empty chair for the EPA – Johnson had declined her invitation to participate – and an empty box labeled “EPA Documents.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, at a January 30, 2007 Senate hearing. (Chuck Kennedy/MCT)

by Matthew Hay Brown

A delay in the decision on whether polar bears need to be protected from global warming has given Sen. Barbara Boxer another opportunity to blast the Bush administration on the environment.

“The Bush administration has failed to do what is necessary and once again they must be taken to court before they will act,” the California Democrat, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said today.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was supposed to make a recommendation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on whether polar bears should be protected under the Endangered Species Act because climate change threatens their habitat by Wednesday.

In a statement today, officials said they still needed a few more weeks.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working diligently to reach a final decision on the proposal to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act,” the agency said. “We expect to provide a final recommendation to the Secretary of the Interior and finalize the decision within the next month.”

Officials said new information supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey contributed to the delay. The USGS reported in September that thinning sea ice would lead to the deaths of two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population – including all those find in Alaska – by 2050.

“As a result of the new USGS research findings, the Service reopened and later extended a second comment period to allow the public time to review the information and respond,” the agency said. “We received numerous comments on the USGS reports and have been working to analyze and respond to the information provided during the comment period.”

by Matthew Hay Brown

The Senate investigation into the EPA decision last month on greenhouse gases isn’t going at all the way Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer wanted.

First, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson declined Boxer’s invitation to defend his decision to deny California permission to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles at a “field briefing” next week in Los Angeles.

Now one of his associates tells the California Democrat that the agency won’t be providing the documents she requested in time for the session.

“Who does the Administrator think he and the EPA work for?” Boxer asked in a statement released late Friday. “The EPA Administrator needs to be reminded that he works for the American people. The Bush EPA can run, but they can’t hide. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold the Bush EPA accountable for this outrageous, unprecedented decision.”

EPA Associate Administrator Christopher B. Bliley wrote Boxer Friday that the agency was trying to gather the documents she requested, but would not be able to meet the Monday deadline she had set.

“Please be assured that EPA respects your very strong interest in this issue and is committed to providing the committee to the extent possible information necessary to satisfy its oversight interests consistent with our Constitutional and statutory obligations,” Bliley wrote. “Your request is a top priority for this agency and we are working hard to respond as quickly as possible.”

By Matthew Hay Brown

As oil futures topped $100 a barrel today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said congressional Democrats would try again to end government breaks for the industry – an approach that has been rejected by President Bush.

“It is unfortunate that President Bush opposed our legislation to repeal multi-billion dollar subsidies given to Big Oil companies,” Pelosi said in a statement. “We will again seek to repeal these subsidies and to enact strong legislation to stop price gouging at the pump and pursue anti-trust actions against OPEC entities that fix the price of oil.”

The White House, meanwhile, spoke of expanding domestic production, including drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“We have to figure out a way to increase supply here in the United States, done in environmentally sensitive ways, which we know how to do, so that we can have an increase supply of oil here while world demand continues to increase at a really astronomical pace for demand for oil,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters.

Violence in the Nigerian oil center of Port Harcourt and rough weather that threatened oil-exporting ports in Mexico helped push the price of light, sweet crude for February delivery over the century mark, the Associated Press reports. Adjusted for inflation, the cost remains within range of highs set in 1980.

Prices at the pump, which tend to lag behind futures, rose slightly today, according to the Oil Price Information Service. The national average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline climbed 0.6 cents today to $3.049. That was down from $3.061 a month ago, but up from $2.322 a year ago.

by Matthew Hay Brown

A Senate panel investigating EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson’s decision to deny California the authority to regulate automobile emissions of greenhouse gases apparently will have to proceed without Johnson himself.

The agency chief has denied an invitation by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer to discuss his decision at a “field briefing” next month in Los Angeles, the committee said today.

“Rather than looking in the eyes of the people he is affecting, Mr. Johnson is hiding out in Washington, D.C.,” Boxer said in a statement. “His shameful decision denying the California waiver must be overturned.”

California, which has unique authority under federal law to develop its own air quality standards subject to EPA approval, had sought permission to begin limiting tailpipe emissions of the gases that scientists say contribute to global warming. A dozen other states, including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maryland, stood ready to enforce the California standards.

But Johnson denied the request last week, reportedly against the unanimous recommendations of the EPA's legal and technical staffs. Johnson said fuel efficiency standards signed into law by President Bush last week rendered the California proposal unnecessary.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Rep. Henry A. Waxman opened an investigation into an EPA decision to stop California from regulating greenhouse gas emissions today with a warning to the agency’s administrator: Don’t destroy those documents.

Waxman, the Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wants to know why Stephen L. Johnson denied a request by the State of California to begin limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new automobiles.

“Prior to making this decision you assured the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as well as the state of California and many others, that you would make this decision on the merits,” Waxman wrote to Johnson in a letter released by his office.

by Frank James

Fresh off his trip to Oslo, Norway to accept his Nobel Peace Prize for his role as the world's best-known Cassandra on global warming, former Vice President Al Gore was in Bali, Indonesia where he spoke to a United Nations climate conference today.

Gore took his nation, i.e. the Bush Administration, to task for being the leading obstacle to a new climate change agreement to supersede the Kyoto Protocol which is widely viewed as having been ineffective.

Here's an excerpt from the Associated Press's story:

The former vice president urged delegates to take urgent action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, and told them that the next U.S. president will likely be more supportive of international caps on polluting gases.

"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who flew to Bali from Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change.

by Mark Silva

The only thing slower than the advance of the glaciers during the Ice Age, perhaps, is the acknowledgement of the Bush administration that there is a problem called “climate change’’ in the modern world, and that the activities of human beings have a lot to do with it.

“90-percent likely’’ – that’s what the White House says today.

This is particularly pertinent today, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body, issues its fourth assessment report. And it will have some relevance on Monday, Nov. 26, when President Bush receives the U.S. winners of the Nobel Prize at the White House, including Al Gore, the former vice president who shared the prize for his work on global warming and collected more votes than Bush in the presidential election of 2000.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions out there about the administration's position on this,’’ says Sharon Hays, representing the U.S. delegation at the IPCC meeting in Valencia, Spain, where they have spent the better part of the past week hashing out language on which all can agree.

James Connaughton, chairman of the president’s Council on Environmental Quality, says: “In 2001, the president clearly acknowledged what the National Academy of Science told him: That surface temperatures of the Earth are warming, and humans are part of that equation. Now… there’s different formulations of that over time. Different scientists say it differently. But that's sort of the simple conclusion, and he's been consistent in that view since.’’

Hays: “The president gave a speech back in 2001, I believe it was, in which he articulated his thoughts on climate change science. And when he made that speech, he echoed very clearly what the National Academies of Science was saying about climate change and the human attribution issue, which was, at that time, six years ago, less clear than it is now. And so his words echoed the National Academies of Sciences, which, in turn, were really a restatement of what appeared in the last assessment, the 2001 IPCC assessment on climate change.

“So the president has been saying the same thing as what the scientists have been saying about climate change, whether or not humans are playing a role in it, since 2001. More recently, the President made a speech at the Major Economies meeting that he convened where, again, he cited the IPCC directly in articulating the administration's view on climate change science. So it is and has been absolutely in sync with the what the science is saying.

“What's changed since 2001 is the scientific certainty that this is happening,’’ Hays says. “So back in 2001, the IPCC report said that it was likely that humans were having an impact on the climate. And "likely" has a very specific meaning in IPCC reports. It means that scientists think it's about 66 percent, or two-thirds, likely to be true. In the more recent report, the one that came out in February of this year, the IPCC said that it was very likely that humans were having an impact on the climate. And that, again, has a very specific meaning, meaning 90 percent likely.’’

Now, if you’re looking for a lot of confidence that the government is on top of this problem, read some of the press briefing that Connaughton, Hays and Harlon Watson, senior climate negotiator for the Department of State, have given on the occasion of the IPCC report today:

by William Neikirk
Video by Sabrina Fang

Al Gore is now a Nobel laureate.

But will he be a presidential candidate, too?

Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize today for his efforts in highlighting the global warming issue and put himself back into the presidential picture if he is so inclined.

The announcement was made in Oslo. He shared the award with the International Panel on Climate Change. They were cited for their efforts in warning the world of the dangers of climate change.

The former vice president has dedicated much of his time since his narrow 2000 loss to President Bush to warn the nation—indeed the world—that the planet is headed toward a potentially catastrophic warming.

Nobel Peace Prize Committee Chair Ole Danbolt Mjoes on announcement that former Vice President Al Gore is co-winner of the prestigious award. Photo by Daniel Annum Lauten-AFP/Getty Images.

Barack Obama at the Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, S.C., on Sunday. Today. he presents an energy policy. AP photo by Mary Ann Chastain

by Mike Dorning

Presidential candidate Barack Obama hopes to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and combat global warming with a national auction system that would make every company pay for the right to emit smoke and other sources of carbon.

The "cap-and-trade" auction system is based on the idea that the easiest way to reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming is to simply charge a price for pollution. The approach has long been favored by environmentally minded free-market economists who believe that a pollution "price" would reduce emissions more efficiently than complex government regulations.

Under the Obama plan to be formally announced in a speech today, the government would set a national cap on carbon emissions that by 2050 would be reduced gradually to 80 percent of 1990 carbon emissions. The national cap in turn would determine the number of individual carbon allowances available for auction to industry. So the price of a carbon allowance should reach the level necessary to limit emissions to the right level.

Promoters of the approach believe that such an auction system works better than complicated government standards for industry-by-industry emissions limits and the inevitable grandfather clauses to allow some old factories to continue polluting because it is not economical to retrofit them.

Instead, the market makes decisions about which plants install potentially costly control systems to limit carbon emissions, which ones do not, and which ones simply shut down. Companies make individual decisions on what, if any, controls are economical for individual factories based on the price set for carbon allowances by the national auction.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change at the State Department today. AP Photo by Gerald Herbert.

by Mark Silva

Representatives of the world’s biggest polluters – as well as emerging economies giving Western powers a run for their Global Warming money – are assembled at Foggy Bottom today for the start of what President Bush promises will become an international agreement to set national goals for limits on climate-changing pollutants.

Critics, of course, say this “aspirational’’ attempt to set goals nation by nation falls short of the mandatory global limits that were the goal of the Kyoto Protocols – a treaty which the Bush administration has refused to sign as an unwanted break on the nation’s economy.

But the Bush administration insists that the venture which started at the State Department today will bring important players such as China and India to a table at which all the world’s major industrial nations and emerging powers will set guidelines for a cleaner environment. Bush’s goal is to have that agreement in place by next year.

“We come together today because we agree that climate change is a real problem -- and that human beings are contributing to it,’’ Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the opening of the forum today. “The best science tells us exactly this. Now, it is our responsibility as global leaders to forge a new international consensus on how to address climate change.’’

Bush will address the conference tomorrow. As the president proposed at the Group of Eight summit for major industrial nations in Germany earlier this year, this meeting includes representatives from the G-8 and others: The United States, China, the European Union, Russia, Japan, India, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea, France, Mexico, Australia, South African, Indonesia and Brazil.

by William Neikirk

Two-thirds of the world's polar bear population could be wiped out by the mid-21st century because of changes of sea-ice conditions, the U.S. Geological Survey projects in a new study.

As a result of the federal agency's study, the polar bear could soon be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. A final decision on that designation is due in January.

A scientific team investigating the future of polar bears and their habits took six months to analyze the direct relationship between the presence of Arctic sea ice and the health of polar bears, according to the USGS. The bears "depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt for seals, their primary food," according to the agency.

Vice President Cheney quail hunting in 2002. AP Photo/David Bohrer, White House

by Frank James

I'm not among those who see the invisible hand of Vice President Cheney behind everything that happens at the White House.

But I have to admit, as soon as I learned about this executive order President Bush recently signed, ordering federal agencies to enhance hunting opportunities on federally managed lands, my suspicions did run in the direction of one of our nation's most famous hunters.

Here part of the executive order:

Section 1. Purpose. The purpose of this order is to direct Federal agencies that have programs and activities that have a measurable effect on public land management, outdoor recreation, and wildlife management, including the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, to facilitate the expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities and the management of game species and their habitat.

Sec. 2. Federal Activities. Federal agencies shall, consistent with agency missions:

(a) Evaluate the effect of agency actions on trends in hunting participation and, where appropriate to address declining trends, implement actions that expand and enhance hunting opportunities for the public;

(b) Consider the economic and recreational values of hunting in agency actions, as appropriate;

by William Neikirk

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has a plan for combating global warming. He would slap a 50-cent per gallon tax on gasoline, end the mortgage tax deduction for so-called "McMansions," and tax and put a cap on carbon dioxide emissions.

Proposals by a single congressman are usually not so noteworthy, but Dingell happens to be the powerful chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and accustomed to getting his way in Congress.

But the question is whether the House Democratic Leadership will go this far. He and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are often at odds on energy policy. But when Congress comes back this fall, legislation to combat climate change will be considered by the House.

He outlined his ideas in a town hall meeting in Ann Arbor Tuesday, according to a story in today's Detroit Free Press.

by David Lightman

The fight to ease global warming gained an important new ally today as Republican Sen. John Warner agreed to help lead the effort to enact sweeping legislation aimed at substantially reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Warner appeared at a news conference with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chairman of a key environmental subcommittee, to declare how throughout his career, "I have focused above all on issues of national security, and I see the problem of global climate change as fitting squarely within that focus."

Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, declared: "We hope it (this new bill) will be a turning point to stop the warming of our planet."

by Frank James

Former Vice President Al Gore stayed on message during an interview this morning with Meredith Vieira on the Today Show.

He wanted to talk about global warming and the televised Live Earth concerts this weekend to dramatize the problem that has become his signature issue. And he wasn't going to allow Viera to pull him too deeply onto sexier topics, as defined by journalists.

Like his son's arrest over the July 4 holiday for allegedly speeding and possessing pharmaceuticals, including pain killers and stimulants, without a prescription. Or the Democratic presidential field.

When Vieira started off the interview by asking Gore about his son Al Gore 3's situation, all he would say was:

Well, we're dealing with it as a private family matter, Meredith. And we love him very much, and we're glad that he's safe and that he's getting treatment. And we're going to leave it as a private matter.

That was it. Gore is scheduled to be on the Larry King show on CNN this evening and it will be interesting to see if he goes any further in talking about his son than he did with Vieira, especially under King's withering interviewing style. (Yes, that's sarcasm.)

He probably won't though since, not only is it a private family matter but it's a criminal legal matter and most good defense lawyer would likely urge the Gore family at this point to say little to nothing.

Posted by Mark Silva

ROSTOCK, Germany – President Bush appears to be getting precisely what he wanted from the G-8 summit on the question of climate change: A commitment of the G-8 nations and several others to work together on developing a global standard for reduction of greenhouse gases by 2009 – which an official communiqué from the summit of world leaders here will call "the Heiligendamm Process.''

It falls far short of the hard standards for pollution control that German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought in the three-day summit underway in nearby Heiligendamm.

The communiqué commits the G-8 nations – the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Japan and Canada – as well as four others, China, India, Brazil and South Africa – to international discussions on improving energy efficiency and cooperation in technology with an aim of reducing C02 emissions – a believed contributor to global warming.

"There needs to be a long-term global goal to substantially reduce emissions,'' said Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, calling it "a consensus document'' that charts "a way forward.'' The document will acknlowedge the "different… aspirational goals'' of several nations. "The commitment is to the development of a longterm global goal.''