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Climate Capsule: Week of July 28th

(National Wildlife Federation)

SEC Urged To Require Global Warming Risk Disclosure

Investors and legislators are urging the government to adopt a policy that would require publicly traded companies to disclose financial risks associated with global warming.

The Senate Appropriations Committee included language in the Financial Services Appropriations Bill that calls on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue climate change guidance to certain businesses. State treasurers, pension fund managers and institutional investors filed a petition last September urging formal rules on this type of corporate disclosure.

"Climate change has broad implications for the marketplace that could significantly impact companies' future earnings and, if not accurately disclosed, could impair investors' ability to make sound decisions," said Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I.

In the name of ethics and transparency, certain industries which are particularly susceptible to the effects of global warming - such as automakers and insurance companies - should assess and expose their risk to investors.

"Information on climate-related risks that companies are providing is not adequate and at the level investors need to make informed investment decisions," said Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres, a coalition of investors, companies, and nonprofit groups working on corporate environmental disclosure. NWF is a member of the Ceres coalition.

Federal Judge Blocks USDA From Opening More Conservation Reserve Land

A U.S. District judge recently issued a permanent injunction against the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) program allowing widespread haying and grazing on Conservation Reserve Program lands. Damage from these processes could cause harm to wildlife habitats and water quality that lasts for years.

The injunction allows those who have already applied to the program or who have made farming decisions based on it to move forward, but forbids opening additional Conservation Reserve Program lands. The decision reduces the number of acres open to increased haying grazing from 24 million to less than 2 million.

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is America's largest private lands conservation program, covering nearly 35 million acres. Farmers enrolled in the program help provide wildlife habitat, protect wetlands, and keep more than 450 million tons of topsoil, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer out of rivers every year.

"USDA tried to turn one of America's most important conservation programs into a farm subsidy program, putting wildlife at risk throughout the country," said Tom France, Regional Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation's Northern Rockies Natural Resource Center and lead counsel on the case. "[The] ruling sends a clear message to USDA that it must follow the law in reviewing potential harmful impacts to wildlife and habitat before it makes sweeping decisions."

Quote:  "We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing. Not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge... If we are to prosper as a nation, our future lies in a green economy."�

- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa urges deeper partnership between labor and environmentalists.

Big Oil Profits Help CEOs And Investors, But Not Consumers Or The Planet

Giant oil companies continue to enjoy eye-popping quarterly profits, but exactly where exactly does this money go? Most oil profits won't help the frustrated citizen at the gas pump, nor work to expand development of clean energy solutions.

Big oil corporations spend more money on stock buybacks and dividends than they spend on exploration of reserves. Buybacks, when a company purchases shares of its own stock or bonds, essentially decrease available shares and increase stock value to reward the oil company investor.

The five largest international oil companies poured 55 percent of 2007 profits into stock buybacks and dividends last year, up from 30 percent in 2000, according to Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

Even if oil companies spent more of their profits on oil exploration, the finding of new reserves does not guarantee gas prices will fall anytime soon, as it may take several years before a company produces the first barrel from a new field. For example, the Thunder Horse oil field is operated by BP and partly owned by Exxon Mobil. The platform began producing oil and gas in June 2008 - nine years after the field's discovery.

"Letting Big Oil drill for more oil in more of America's lands and waters would only provide a drop in the bucket towards our energy needs while barely making a ripple in prices at the pump," said Adam Kolton, senior director of Congressional and federal affairs for the National Wildlife Federation.

Clean energy solutions are the key to recharging America's economy by breaking our addiction to oil, creating clean energy jobs, and solving global warming. Learn more about the real solutions that would cut our energy bills and ease our addiction to fossil fuels in the National Wildlife Federation's Don't Be Fooled fact sheet.

State-By-State Climate Change Costs Will Be In The Billions, Says Report

A number of U.S. states will incur a cost in the billions of dollars as a result of climate change, according to a series of reports from the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER).

By combining existing data with new analysis, the study projects the long term economic impact of global warming on certain states, with more state data in progress now. For a full report, visit the CIER site.

"Climate change will cost billions in the long run and the bottom line will be red,"� says Matthias Ruth, who coordinated the research and directs the CIER. "Inaction or delayed action will make the ink run redder."

The economic impacts are based on climate changes already underway. In other words, unabated global warming will likely increase these economic effects.

One example of a state with likely high costs includes Colorado, expected to incur more than $1 billion in losses due to impacts on tourism, forestry, water resources and human health from a predicted drier, warmer climate.

House GOP leaders were caught off guard by conservationists who rallied to oppose drilling for oil.

According to news reports, between 130 and 200 activists gathered at the foot of the marble Capitol steps to protest a new Republican energy package that calls for drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Under heavy grey skies, about 70 House Republicans strolled down the steps and were met by members of staff, the press, and numerous environmental groups holding signs and wearing endangered animal costumes. The protest was organized by the League of Conservation Voters, the National Resources Defense Council and other groups.

Drilling on the outer continental shelf and in the Artic will have little, if any, impact on gas prices: in the last eight years, oil and gas drilling on America's public lands has increased by 260 percent while the price of gas has more than doubled. Drilling for more oil is simply not the answer.