The Climate Minute

It was fun to present a short session on ‘How to Make a Podcast’ at the MCAN/TAC conference. If you are interested in podcasting, but need to have some of the mystery removed, listen here for tips that we have learned in working on the “Climate Minute” and “A Climate Hawk’s Companion” podcast series. Note that we’ve included some of the slides from the talk as part of the podcast (if you download the file and play it in your own media player -- just as an experiment!) This blog is mostly links. You can find the context for them in the podcast. Just click on the icon to listen, or subscribe to us on iTunes. Good examples of podcasts that you might want to imitate: Mike Duncan's "A History of Rome" is a compelling ‘monologue’ format. BBC's "A History of the World in 100 Objects" is in the documentary style. Slate's Gabfest. is a group discussion. All Songs Considered is a highly focused ‘interview’ show. Some links to get you started: Apple

Sorry for that rather befuddling title, but today Ted and I talk about the State Department's (DOS) Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the Keystone XL (KXL).  Let's get right to the links pretty darn quick (PDQ...). As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Last Friday the State Department released it's Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL pipeline segment from Canada to Steele City Nebraska (the Texas portion of the pipeline already approved). Essentially the State Department report finds that the pipeline would have little to no negative environmental impact, as the tar sands will be exploited either with or without the pipeline. This is a story with many, many parts.  First of all, many believe the findings are incorrect on their face.  NRDC provided a compelling comment on that point. We've also found interesting this story citing the connection

Did you know today was the start of Spring?  Well, it is.  Spring is here, budding trees, blooming flowers, the whole shebang.  That snow out there?  Pay no attention... it's spring I tell you... As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Yes, March 1st is the start of meteorological spring, which runs from March 1st to June 1st.  The meteorological seasons correspond to temperature norms, where the more recognized astrological seasons (in which springs begins with the vernal equinox on March 20th) are based on the planet's position relative to the sun. Actually to us the beginning of meteorological spring means it's nine days to the the MCAN conference.   That's right, the annual MCAN conference is Sunday, March 10th, at Northeastern University.  We're thrilled to have Mayor John Fetterman of Braddock Pennsylvania as our keynote speaker.  Mayor John is on the cutting edge of creative thinking about urban communities and epitomizes the determination to improve those places around us that motivate MCAN activists. Here are some links to go along with our talk this morning. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in town at the offshore wind conference and reaffirmed that the Interior Department was set to auction offshore wind leases along the Atlantic seaboard.  Administration officials  believe there may be up to 1 million megawatts of capacity offshore.   The bad news in Secretary Salazar's speech was that the sequester could delay permitting of renewable facilities by the Interior department.  As you know, March 1st brings not only spring, but the onset of the federal budget sequester.  Barring a last minute deal, the budget sequester will go into effect at or near midnight tonight. The sequester, the across the board arbitrary verying percentage (generally 8.2% for discretionary spending and around 9% for military spending) cut in all federal programs, will hit everything from the military to state and federal environmental programs. The sequester will not impact the MCAN conference however.  You have heard we're having a conference, right?  There's still time to register for the conference here.  And hey, its Daylight Savings Time again -- so remember to set your clocks ahead Saturday night ("spring ahead, fall back") or you'll be late to the conference! It's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you as always.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  See you next week.Download Enhanced Podcas

Well, the Keystone protest in Washington is over and Rob and Ted are back at the pink and orange coffeehouse to compare notes about the march and try to figure out what's next. The protest created an interesting back-and-forth between several observers as to the most effective path forward for the climate movement, and we give our two cents. Also, some breaking news coming out of DC (well, breaking rumor) about the next EPA director has Massachusetts environmentalists a-flutter. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here are some links to go along with our talk this morning. We've cobbled together some clips from the speeches and march. Forgive the amateur video, but, hey, we're amateurs at this... [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ_tp7RKJnY] The march caused a some folks to question the approaches required to fight climate change.  Apparently, Andy Revkin of the NY Times Dot.Earth blog was engaging in a little twitter back and forth during the march with Phil Aroneau of 350.org about the value of protesting Keystone, among other things, which naturally got some folks fairly ticked off. Revkin is more inclined not to draw a line in the sand on Keystone, as too much of a focus on Keystone hurts efforts to secure other carbon-reducing policies.  In crude terms, and as this little dust-up has been summed up by Dave Roberts of Grist, this is a fight between the Radicals and the Very Serious People (VSP). For my part, I believe Roberts is right when he states that protesting Keystone is not going to hurt any other action, why would it?  This isn't a zero sum game in which my marching around the White House precludes me from fighting for renewable energy in my town.... Rivken's piece got me thinking about the "grand bargain" that has been floated in certain quarters; would the community accept Keystone if it was paired with a carbon tax, but that seems to be a meme spouted mostly by people on the outside looking in, and not a serious discussion. Beyond Dave Robert's analysis that activism on Keystone doesn't preclude other solutions though is discussion of a clash of cultures in the climate movement.  Susan Cagle wrote a piece titled "At climate rally, some signs of fraying in a movement’s big tent" which played up VSP vs. Radical divide within the climate movement itself.  Cagle presented a vignette of a young person climbing a tree and being scolded by an older marcher for damaging the tree as well as the climate movement itself. She went on in the piece to interview a couple of the younger protesters who thought many of the Keystone marchers were being too passive, and that the climate movement has to move outside of the "mainstream" -- we can't be concerned about trees, or niceties  while the planet burns. Wen Stepehenson echoes this call in a recent Boston Pheonix piece exhorting climate change activists to be the new abolitionists, that the time to be reasonable is long since passed. For my part I believe the movement has to have many faces, from angry to hopeful, to be successful.  If we are to move the mass of people we have to present both the problem (Keystone) and the solutions (clean energy, energy efficiency, better zoning, local food etc etc etc). The young man interviewed in the Cagle piece was very frustrated, I understand that.  But there's useful frustration and there's wasted frustration.  When you say that you'd like to tell the President: ‘You fucking start this change or we’re going to do it ourselves,’” said Max. “We’re going to take over and cross this fence and walk over to that White House.” Well.  Frankly, that's wasted frustration.  I'm sorry, but climate change cannot be solved by jumping the White House fence, swearing at the President, and getting shot by the Secret Service.  Our government may be made up of pandering captives of special intere

Life is back to normal in New England after last weekend's snowstorm dumped about 24 inches or more on parts of the region.  Ted and Rob are getting ready to go to Washington for this weekend's Keystone XL protest, but there is other news, so settle in and let's talk about what's happening in Massachusetts and beyond relative to climate change this week. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here are some links to go along with our talk this morning. The President laid down the law at the State of the Union this week; if congress doesn't act to pass a market-based carbon reduction program, he will use the power of his administration to act. Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe opines that the President's threat of increased regulation will drive legislators to embrace cap-and-trade programs, like the successful RGGI program.  You can read his editorial here, grab it before it goes behind the paywall. The President's speech ignited another round of supposition about a possible Carbon Tax-for-Keystone trade, in US as well as in Canada.  Would the President try and appease both the fossil fuel lobby and the environmental lobby by offering a deal on both issues?  Or would that just create two unhappy camps? In the midst of this discussion, Senators Barbara Boxer and Bernard Sanders have filed a "cap and dividend" bill to impose a carbon tax, and disperse (much) of the proceeds to taxpayers. The coming abdication of Pope Benedict presents a possibility for a new vigor about climate change from the Catholic Church.  A non-European pope, particularly a southern-hemisphere pope, may redirect Rome's attention on the planetary suffering that will ensue from Climate Change.  While the primary experience of climate conscious Catholics has been one of deafening silence, there are groups within the church paying attention to Climate Change. In other meteorlogical news (har har, couldn't resist) later today asteroid 2012DA14 will come as close to Earth as we're likely comfortable with.  2012DA14 will actually pass closer to the planet than the orbit of several satellites, and yesterday a meteor streaked across the sky in Russia, causing injuries to hundreds and causing quite a commotion. We mention this, not because unlike certain newsreaders on CNN we're trying to tie these events to climate change, but to point out that this is the "bright shiny object" syndrome that drives news coverage and media attention, while the inexorable march of climate change caused by human emissions of greenhouse gasses, goes if not mocked than underreported -- and has consequences orders of magnitude larger than 2012DA14 or that meteor over Russia! Fortunately there are some weather people paying attention.  Kudos to Boston's own Channel 5 meteorologist Harvey Leonard who explained very clearly and calmly that while you can't go and pin the development of a winter storm on climate change, the trend toward larger and larger storms is very clearly due to climate change and associated warming.  Good on 'ya Harvey -- we loved you when you were announcing school was out when we were kids, and we love you now. Thanks for listening, and here's a little gift.  Here's NPR's Bands that Should Be Bigger podcast with some links to great artists you should be listening to, particulary Adam Arcugai and Seryn. Remember - our annual conference is coming up March 10th at Northeastern University.  Register today to get the early bird rate! Well we'll see you in Washington, and as always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.Download Enhanced Podcas

Oh my goodness it's snowing!  Winter Storm Nemo is barreling down on New England bringing giddy weathermen (I swear I heard one giggling during his forecast) and between two and three feet of snow.  Being the good New Englanders that we are, Ted and I have stocked up on bread and milk, and are settling in to a leisurely MCAN Climate Minute for February 8, 2012.  As everything is closed and the Governor has practically ordered us to stay home from work today, we had some extra time to chat.  Get a coffee, toast up that bagel, and buckle in for a half-hour of local, state, and national climate talk on this week's MCAN Climate Minute. As always, click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here are some links to go along with our talk this morning. The RGGI states have agreed to a new, lower carbon caps bringing the regional cap on emissions from stationary sources (read: power plants) from 165 million tons to 91 million tons in 2014 and 2.5% lower each successive year.  MCAN supported this lower number in our comments to RGGI, which you can see here. This of course isn't the final word, as the proposal has to be accepted by each state. We talked about new proposals to fund transportation infrastructure through various vehicle miles traveled (VMT) proposals.  Politico has a story about the bi-partisan discussions going on in Washington over the need to find new revenue sources for transportation funding.  For an interesting read on "pay as you drive" insurance, a related concept to VMT charges, and their potential impact on miles driven and thus climate impacts, check out this MIT and Conservation Law Foundation report. For an update about what's going on in Falmouth, there are several stories up on the net.  Here's a story that says the cost of removing the turbines could be as high as $11 million!  This story suggests that the average homeowner would face a tax increase of $53 to $66 per month.  Of course, there would ongoing costs to the town in terms of the lost revenue from electricity production.  Interestingly a cross section of responses on the Cape Cod Times facebook page show strong support for keeping the turbines. As I said on the podcast, I was at a meeting where some testimony was read from a Board of Health hearing in Cape Cod.  One person was recorded as saying the her sleep disturbances continued, even after the turbines had been shut off during the night time hours.  To paraphrase, "even the fact that they're there is enough to keep me awake."  In my humble, non-medical opinion -- that's not the fault of the turbines, and that doesn't seem to be a problem just taking down the turbines will solve... For information on buses available to DC for next weekend check out 350ma.org, and stay tuned to our Facebook page for any updates on where we'll be on Sunday the 17th. Well, I'm off to enjoy the snow.  We'll have a separate post up regarding our annual conference (with our announced Keynote speaker -- sorry, gotta listen to the podcast for that little tidbit) and another one about last night's presentation on the Waste-Climate Connection later in the day. Here's a little something to keep you chuckling though the shoveling... [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR7A7KRpMe8?rel=0] As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.Download Enhanced Podcas

A time to sow, a time to reap.  That's what this week's Climate Minute is about.  What seems like a lull in the action is really the calm before the storm.  A lot of what happens 6, 12, or 18 months from now will be ordained by actions we take today.  So let's get busy! Click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here are some links to keep you busy in the meantime. As we mentioned, Rep. Tom Conroy and Sen. Michael Barrett proposed a carbon tax legislation, currently numbered House Docket 3422, but it will eventually be assigned a "real" number and sent to a committee.  To follow legislation as it makes its way through the process, check out the Massachusetts legislature's webiste at www.malegislature.gov. For some interesting speculation on Senator Secretary Kerry's role in the Keystone pipeline approval, check out The Energy Collective's post here.  If you've got a right-leaning friend who you'd like to convince to oppose Keystone, send them this story about a couple of Texas landowners, including a 78 year old grandmother who are being bullied by the pipeline company and having their land "stolen" under eminent domain.  Yeah, you read that right -- a Canadian company can use Texas law to take someone's private property for their use.  Great democracy you got going there... We've got ourselves another Senate race in Massachusetts, with Congressmen Markey and Lynch already in the fray, and rumors swirling about possible Republican contenders (Brown again?  Scot Lehigh has been jonesing big-time for another run by erstwhile Governor [and God's gift to reporters] Bill Weld). As you know by now, February 17th is the big day down in DC.  People will come from around the country to protest the Keystone pipeline, and you can be there!  Ted's been checking out the train schedule and of course 350MA is putting together buses. MCAN will have a speaker about the Waste and Climate connection at our next Climate Education meeting next week on February 7th in Lexington.  More information on the Lexington meeting, or our March 10th conference at Northeastern can be found on the MCAN Climate Action Calendar.  To register for the conference, go to the registration site here. For all manner of climate activities, remember to check out our climate calendar.  Catch us on Twitter, or Facebook, or just drop us an old-fashioned email at comment@massclimateaction.net. Well, that's it for this week.  As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.Download Enhanced Podcas

In this edition of the Climate Hawk’s Companion we discuss the National Climate Assessment (NCA). The NCA is required to be updated every four years by the US Global Change Research Association.  This year's report is the product of over 240 researchers and scientists. In this podcast MCAN President Ted McIntyre discusses the contents of the report. In order to hear the podcast, click on the "Climate Hawk" icon. Here are a few useful links to topics mentioned in the podcast. Some background on the US Global Change Research Program that produced the National Climate Assessment is here. Some discussion of the National Climate Assessment itself is here.  Go here to download chapters or offer comments on the report. If you don’t want to read the whole report, here is a review from ThinkProgress. If you prefer a discussion of the graphics in the report, go to Grist. The League of Conservation Voters press release is here. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is a passionate voice calling for the Senate to address climate change. This link will give you is a taste of the impact of Sandy on NYC. NPR has made several reports on the Mississippi’s low level in the ongoing drought. Go here to learn about the Townhall Meeting schedule. …Ted McIntyreDownload Enhanced Podcas

Good morning from the pink and orange coffeehouse.  Certainly a heady week for climate activists; both the President and his designee for Secretary of State mentioning climate change as a compelling and high-level problem our government needs to address. These statements come mere weeks before the expected decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, fueling hope among the faithful that the President will do the right thing on the pipeline. In today's conversation Ted and I discuss Keystone, the some of the pressures on the President, and what we can do.  Click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here's some further reading on some of the issues we touch upon in this week's Climate Minute. Darren Samuelsohn argues in Politico that the President will focus on smaller profile, administrative actions fully within his control instead of engaging a large-scale battle with Congress over new legislation. Comedian Jim Meyer has a deliciously sarcastic piece in Grist outlining the true story of how tar sands become usable oil and gasoline.  The facts are true, and the tone may be just the right thing to have it impact your favorite climate skeptic/denialist. ThinkProgress has the data, and wind beat everything else last year in terms of new installed capacity.  Your humble commentator must mea culpa though, I was off on the number of natural gas facilities represented by 8,700 MW of capacity -- it's really 94 (I thought it was more 10-15!), which means the average is 92 MW, which is a fairly small gas plant.  Most likely there were a large number of smaller "peaker" units sited, which may actually play an important role in our future energy mix as we rely more heavily on intermittant renewable sources like wind and solar. (And you'd much rather have natural gas peakers than diesel fuel peakers...) Keep an eye out for the Sierra Club's "100 Days of Activism."  You can follow their plans for events here.  For an interesting interview with Michael Brune, Sierra's national Executive Director, check out this NPR story. And this weekend is the Portland, Maine protests against Tar Sands pipelines through New England.  For more information on the events scheduled, check out 350MA.org. Tomorrow kicks off Brookline's 2013 Climate Week, and MCAN will have a speaker about the Waste and Climate connection at our next Climate Education meeting on February 7th in Lexington.  More information on the Lexington meeting, or our March 10th conference at Northeastern can be found on the MCAN Climate Action Calendar.  To register for the conference, go to the registration site here. For videos of the Northeastern University "open classroom" discussions on climate and energy, go here.  Next week's discussion in on mitigation and features MIT Sloan School professor Henry "Jake" Jacoby. For information about getting your town in the Solarize Mass program, check out their website.  The first deadline (for a submission of community interest) is Feburary 6th. Here's a non-podcast bonus (think of it as a Jon Stewart-esque "Moment of Zen"), check out this story about the gas flaring from North Dakota oil wells being seen from space. The story itself is an awful testament to waste, greed, and disregard for environmental consequences, but contains the following incredible video of the Earth as seen from the International Space Station. My, my does it look lovely from a distance. Too bad we get the up close view... As always remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  Have a great weekend. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip2ZGND1I9Q?rel=0]Download Enhanced Podcas

Good morning from the pink and orange coffeehouse. Today is a day of new beginnings and fresh starts. President Obama takes oath of office (well, an ersatz oath, the Constitution requires the president to be sworn in on the 20th of January*) and a new two-year session of congress begins. Today Ted and I talk about our hopes and dreams on this day which is uniquely suited for that. This is a day to press the "reset" button and start fresh. Will the folks in Washington be able to put this contentious campaign season behind them and move forward in the best interest of the nation? Click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. There's plenty of reading you can do while waiting for the pomp and circumstance, here are a few things we've been reading over the past couple of days. A concerned grandmother has rewritten the President's Newtown speech to orient it toward climate change. This is a speech we'd love to hear the President make. The National Journal puts high stakes on this year's State of the State speech, scheduled for February 12th. Will he draw a line in the sand on climate, or miss the opportunity? Politico has a nice collection of opinions on what the President might say (or not) or do (or not) on climate change. Rachel Maddow talks about "Organizing for Action," the reboot of Obama for America as an issues-based non-profit. Well, that's it for this week. Grab the kids, sit them down in front of the TV or radio and let yourself get goosebumps as the Brookline Tabernacle Choir performs the Battle Hymn of the Republic. This is a day for all Americans -- let's see how long we can stay "Americans" before we start falling back into division... As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon. * Well, specifically the 12th Amendment. Here's a little inaugural trivia for you: the last two Presidents to be inaugurated on a Monday after a private swearing-in on a Sunday were Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower in 1981 and 1953, respectively. The next "fake" swearing in will be in 2041.Download Enhanced Podcas

While we may view our task in fighting climate change as daunting, Martin Luther King faced challenges even more difficult than ours. He was arrested for civil disobedience in Alabama. In response, he wrote the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, which is a document we can still learn from today.  Later he received a Nobel Prize.  His comments on the moral arc of universe are in A Testament of Hope. We should take inspiration from Dr. King’s words and actions in our own struggle against climate change. Many thanks to Greg Greenway for permission to use his music. See him in concert with Brother Sun sometime soon. Thanks as well to Tony Berg and Pamela McIntyre for their reading of Dr. King’s words. As always, in order to hear the podcast, click on the "Climate Hawk" icon. …Ted McIntyreDownload Enhanced Podcas

In this edition of the Climate Hawk’s Companion we discuss the Solarize MA program. As the website says “ Solarize Massachusetts (Solarize Mass) is a program that encourages the adoption of small scale solar PV by deploying a coordinated education, marketing and outreach effort, combined with a tiered pricing structure that provides increased savings as more people in the community go solar.” Our podcast guest is Carolyn Barthel, who volunteered to be the “Solar Coach” for the program in the town of Mendon. As a community activist, she has some interesting insight into how to pursue this program. In order to hear the podcast, click on the "Climate Hawk" icon. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center provides some examples of the presentations and survey used in the most recent Solarize Mass cycle. If you are interested in more about residential solar, read this. Both individual residences and small business are permitted to participate in the program. One of the businesses in Mendon that is installing PV is a great place for kids, the Southwick Zoo. As of last November, the program has facilitated contracts across the state for 802 projects totaling 5.1 MW of solar power. The next round of the program is underway, and Green Communities need to express their interest by February 7th, and complete their application by February 20, 2013. Solarize Mass is one of a number of opportunities for grants and assistance that is provided to Green Communities. In order to become a Green Community, a town must satisfy five criteria but then becomes eligible for valuable aid in becoming more sustainable. Here (see “Meet the Green Communities”) is some information about which towns are already Green Communities and what aid they have received. MCAN is ready to assist if you want your town to go the Green Community Status. Good Luck! …Ted McIntyreDownload Enhanced Podcas

Good morning from the pink and orange coffeehouse.  Two Thousand Thirteen unfolds before us awash in possibilities.  This edition of the MCAN Climate Minute looks forward with hope and energy...  At least until February, right? Click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the left to start the recording in a new window. Here’s more information about some of the things we talked about in this edition of the Climate Minute: Apparently you weren't imagining it, 2012 was the hottest year on record, both locally and nationally.  National Geographic discussed the national figures, while our local records were covered in this report from WWLP Channel 22 in Springfield. For more information about the Westborough TransCanada protest (and to make a donation to help defray the legal costs of the protesters), go to their website here.  The direct link to their donation page is here. Speaking of natural gas leaks, our great friends at the Conservation Law Foundation have prepared a report on the environmental and economic impacts of natural gas distribution leaks.  They have an excellent blog post about the issue here. It's conference time again!  You can register for the Mass Climate  / Toxics Action Center Local Environmental Action Conference here. Check out the MCAN calendar for upcoming climate-related events including our February 7th climate education meeting.  You can even post your own events.  For more information on the Northeastern University's "Climate Change. Challenges.  Solutions" open classroom series, go here.  In addition the Northeastern Environmental Law Society is hosting a series of evening lectures on climate and energy issues this winter as well. Congratulations to Amesbury for adopting the Stretch Energy Code -- and particularly to Councillor Christian Scorzoni who championed the cause. For information on tar sands and Keystone pipeline events, check out 350Massachusetts' site.  There is a January 15th deadline for signing up for a bus to Portland, Maine. Again, a huge "thank you" to all those who donated in December helping MCAN achieve it's best donation month ever.  We're 18.75% to our goal of $40,000 for the 12 months from December '12 to December '13.  If you haven't been able to give yet, please consider clicking that big, blue button at the end of this post.  Your tax deductible donation will go help fight climate change on the local level throughout Massachusetts. Finally, on a hopeful note, if we foul up Earth too much there are apparently a number of planets we might be able to move to.  Well, there goes the neighborhood... For those of you coming over from Facebook or listening off the blog, you can now subscribe to this podcast on iTunes.  Check us out in the iTunes Store (searching for MCAN or Massachusetts climate will find us), or go here. Well, that's it for this week.  As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  Have a great weekend and we look forward to talking with you again next week! Download Enhanced Podcas

Good morning from the pink and orange coffeehouse.  So, Fiscal Cliff averted, at least for the time being but what about the climate cliff?  Well, it's cold enough this morning that we're ready to declare victory over Global Warming... Just kidding!  This week we talk production tax credits, deathbed conversions, and the return of the Massachusetts legislature. Click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here’s more information about some of the things we talked about in this edition of the Climate Minute: We touched on Rep. David Deier's "deathbed conversion" to climate believer from lousy climate voter in a blog earlier this week.  For a borderline wonky discussion of the wind production tax credit extension, check out PeakOil.com's writeup.  Dave Roberts over at Grist is proclaiming that 2013 will be a huge year for wind due to the extension of the credit and the equally cloudy outlook for the future of the credit. Governor Chris "Never a Dull Moment" Christie was reduced to blasting away in a press conference as the House dallied on Sandy relief. Thought we were free of fiscal cliff talk?  Well, only for a couple of months.  As The Economist points out Congress and the president merely put off a couple of thorny issues, including the debt limit and fund sequestration which are yet to be resolved. This does give us some hope that a future deal may include some form of carbon tax, which as Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker points out in an excellent new piece, is still gaining traction on both sides of the philosophical (if not political) aisle. For a more pessimistic view of what the Fiscal Cliff issue says about our (in)ability to deal with the Climate Cliff, Joe Romm has an excellent piece up at Climate Progress. Monday will see the release of the latest Transportation Finance Commission report detailing possible solutions to the state's transportation morass.  More funding is a generally accepted need for everything from the MBTA to the state's crumbling bridges and roadways.  The Governor says he will be keeping his powder dry until his State of the State address in a couple of weeks, but look for rampant speculation as to which increased taxes or new funding sources will be recommended. For more information and to sign up for buses to the Portland, Maine pipeline protest, check out 350MA's page here.  Check out the MCAN calendar for upcoming climate-related events including our January climate education meeting when it is announced, and for more information on the Northeastern University's "Climate Change. Challenges.  Solutions" open classroom series, go here.  In addition the Northeastern Environmental Law Society is hosting a series of evening lectures on climate and energy issues this winter as well. (Can you tell who's a proud alum?) A huge "thank you" to all those who donated in December helping MCAN achieve it's best donation month ever.  We're 18.75% to our goal of $40,000 for the 12 months from December '12 to December '13.  If you haven't been able to give yet, please consider clicking that big, blue button at the end of this post.  Your tax deductible donation will go help fight climate change on the local level throughout Massachusetts. Finally, we at MCAN extend our most heartfelt condolences to the family and loved one of Rebecca Tarbotton, the executive director of the Rainforest Action Network who passed away in a swimming accident in Mexico the day after Christmas.  She will be missed but her impact will continue to be felt for years to come. Well, that's it for this week.  As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  Have a great weekend, stay warm, and we look forward to talking with you again next week! Download Enhanced Podcas

Well, it's our final MCAN Climate Minute of the year.  It's been a great experience, from our early (and horribly sounding) efforts in June, to getting onto iTunes this month.  In this final installment Click on the “MCAN Climate Minute” picture to the right to start the recording in a new window. Here’s more information about some of the things we talked about in this edition of the Climate Minute: American Electric Power announced the retirement of their "Big Sandy" powerplant in eastern Kentucky in 2015, as the cost of pollution control equipment made the plant uneconomical. "The Prize" is a 2008 book by Daniel Yergin which offers a wonderful look at the world of oil, money, and power. NRDC has an excellent webpage discussing the issues with fracking. For more information about how to get active on fracking and shale gas pipelines, check out 350ma.org. And, we didn't mention this in the podcast, but here's our prediction for the Superbowl this year: Patriots over Green Bay, 34-31.... Again, we've enjoyed our conversations with you in 2012, and look forward to coming at you from the pink and orange coffeehouse, or places yet to be discovered, in the new year. And, as always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.  Have a great weekend, and we look forward to talking with you again next week! Download Enhanced Podcas