All Snow, No Blow

You can see the snow on the ground. Hey, that's what you expect in wintertime Canada, right?

What you can't see is all the ice. On the blades of that wind turbine. The one that isn't spinning or generating electricity because it's frozen. (we hit this on The Energy Report, this morning)

This is the Caribou Wind Park in New Brunswick, Canada. 33 turbines, open and online now for only three months. But Canadian Broadcasting says that GDF Suez North America park has already lost 20-days of operation because of blade icing.

Maybe it's not surprising that another wind farm in Minnesota has had a similar problem recently. But, curiously, the site manager at Caribou says colder temperatures would have actually helped the turbines. His point? All the precipitation would have been snow, not ice.

For now, the park is a total lime Fla-Vor-Ice...clean, green, and frozen.

Inhofe's Igloo (or, A Worthless Whiteout?)

I think you can just make out the sign here: "Al Gore's New Home." You know, you let Capitol Hill staffers out into the free world and this is what you get.

Actually, this "igloo" isn't officially the work of Jim Inhofe's Senate staff members. But either way, the point is clear. The recent deluge of snow in Washington is now giving fuel to the fire, if you will, for Global Warming Deniers. And here on The Hill that invariably translates into Conservatives, partisanship being what it is today.

Regardless of whether the push by Inhofe, the American Energy Alliance, and some Virginia Republicans is really just hot air (here's the Clean Skies News story), we're seeing a genuine defensive effort from the Left/Enviros to validate climate change. And, interestingly, they're pointing to the very same weather phenomenon as the Deniers.

On a day DC and the Federal Gov were shut down, buried under the latest 18", The Center for American Progress pulled together a press call with CAP climate blogger Joe Romm and a meteorologist from the Weather Underground. Their main points?

1. The definition of "climate" goes well beyond any individual/anecdotal weather.
2. Global Warming doesn't mean uniformly less snow or colder temperatures.
3. Climate Change results in more frequent extreme weather events.

Without taking sides here I will say that, as a DC-native, two snowstorms in one week that pour 3' of snow on top of Washington in February qualify as an extreme weather event.

Breaking News: The Nuclear Bridge

Are these the happiest guys on The Hill? Co-sponsor Lindsey Graham and longtime nuclear energy advocate John McCain may get just what they want from the long-promised Senate climate legislation.

No time for any pop culture references today. Just received a copy of the Senate climate bill's working draft nuclear title. In short, this is the stuff that just might bridge the gap between Democrats and Republicans on climate legislation.

The info comes from an energy policy strategist closely involved in the closed-door Senate climate discussions. Among the critical components of the nuclear portion of the draft...

• Language emphasizing the importance of commercial nuclear energy as a source of "clean" baseload power. (Something that could clear the way for nuclear inclusion in a "Clean Energy Electricity Standard", or something similar to an R-E-S)
• Investment tax credits to create parity with the benefits enjoyed by wind and solar power. (Both renewable sources received long-term extensions of their tax credits last year)
• $38 billion in loan guarantee authority to be made available for nuclear projects. (unclear if this is comparable to the $54.5 billion in the White House FY 2011 budget proposal)
• Recognition of "the need to minimize the byproducts of nuclear power creation by investing in the research and development of processes to recycle spent waste." (supporting the work of the newly-named Blue Ribbon Commission on waste)

As for another of the bills co-sponsors, John Kerry's office tells me, "The entire bill, including the nuclear component, is under constant negotiation and continues to evolve."

Enough for 60 votes on a clean energy bill? Probably. Enough for 60 votes on a climate bill that includes a cap-and-trade system? Probably not.