WRAP UP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
6/28/13

IN CONGRESS

Long-time Democratic Congressman Ed Markey won a seat in the U.S. Senate representing Massachusetts June 25 in a special election held after John Kerry left the post to serve as Secretary of State. Markey, an outspoken supporter of climate action, defeated Republican Gabriel Gomez with 55 percent of the vote. Markey announced his intention to give up his senior standing in the House late last year in order to stave-off a Republican pickup in the Senate. “There is so much at stake,” Markey said in a Dec. 27 statement announcing his candidacy. “I refuse to allow the Tea Party-dominated Republican Party to lead us off the fiscal cliff and into recession. I won’t allow the [National Rifle Association] to obstruct an assault weapons ban yet again. I will not sit back and allow oil and coal industry lobbyists to thwart our clean energy future or extremists to restrict women’s rights and health care.” Markey is perhaps best known for co-authoring a cap-and-trade bill with Energy and Commerce Committee colleague Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) in 2009 that narrowly passed the House but ultimately died in the Senate. He spent 36 years in the lower chamber and was ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee.

ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT

The World Bank will limit the financial support it gives to fund coal-fired power plants in developing nations, Reuters reported this week. Citing a leaked strategy document, the wire service said the global financial body plans to only provide support for coal projects “in the rare circumstances where there are no feasible alternatives available to meet basic energy needs and other sources of financing are absent.” The news came a day after President Barack Obama announced his comprehensive plan to limit climate change using executive-level actions that do not require Congressional approval. During a June 25 speech at Georgetown University, the President said the U.S. would stop investing in coal projects abroad unless they deploy carbon capture and storage technology and called on others to do the same.