The Fire Below

"Volcano Erupts, Iceland Evacuates Hundreds"

That oft-repeated headline still strikes me as odd. I mean, you'd assume something as dangerous as flowing lava would send tens of thousands fleeing. Not, apparently, in a country of 300,000 people.

If you followed my Clean Skies News series of stories on Iceland's unique means of converting its natural resources into clean energy, you may have inferred that I did indeed fall in love with the country. Well, not quite, but I will confess to a very strong case of Like.

With that in mind, I've been especially fascinated by the recent spate of volcanic activity in Iceland. In fact, today marked the second time in a month the Eyjafjallajokull glacier has erupted. And, for the second time in a month, hundreds of nearby Icelanders left the scene.

My point? Two, actually.

1) The same geothermal blessings that provide Iceland with about 25% of its electricity and most of its heat can also be seen as a curse, to some degree. But, just as they turned to rotted shark meat for sustenance during Arctic winters, Icelanders are remarkably resilient.

2) Iceland features some of the most talented photojournalists I know. The picture above comes courtesy of my friend Ingi Ingason. At the time he was circling the eruption in a Cessna (flown by his father-in-law). More proof of my claim? This is stunning video from Profilm, the Icelandic production team we used for my shoots there back in the Fall.

Praise from the Power Sector

At what price Power?

Current legislative climate proposals mean power sector costs will perhaps rise significantly, technology could possibly be rendered obsolete (or at least excessively expensive), and essentially what the companies call Business As Usual would change forever.

So, naturally, power providers are supporting the idea. Or at least NRG Energy is, a company deep into Natural Gas, Nuclear, and Coal electricity generation.

I talked with Steve Corneli, NRG's Senior VP of Market and Climate Policy, about the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman climate bill. The proposal would, at its essence, put a price on carbon. And the first to pay that price, beginning in 2012, would be utilities and power sector players.

Fair? Well, according to Steve the idea of hitting up the power sector first "makes sense." Here's his take on the bill, from our interview at CleanSkies.com.

Bottom line here? The KGL bill is still very much in flux, but what the power sector thinks/says/does about the proposal will influence Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman going forward.

And "forward" could mean Friday, the final day before Spring Break here on Capitol Hill.

Party on, Lindsey.

An Inside Outline

So we now have an draft outline of a draft bill that has yet to be dropped. And drip-drip-drip goes the Senate's legislative process.

In a closed-door session Wednesday, Senators Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman (from left) shared their rough outline for a climate bill with industry leaders. "Industry" meaning the big guns who would be most affected by a cap on carbon emissions. Here's our coverage from this morning's edition of The Energy Report.

I think CAP's Joe Romm lays out the details pretty well (by way of CQ), given that The Details are very much subject to change. Nonetheless, this is a well-nuanced start of sorts:

• An economy-wide cap on carbon emissions that would begin in 2012, with a target of reducing carbon pollution 17 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

• Separate caps on carbon emissions by the electric utilities and manufacturing sectors, which would have to buy permits to pollute from the federal government.

• A combination for the regulated sectors of a “cap and trade” model, under which polluters could trade pollution permits on an open market, and a “cap and dividend” model, which would return revenue from the sale of permits directly to consumers.

• Sections or titles devoted to oil refining, farming, coal, clean energy innovation, and increasing production of nuclear energy and oil and natural gas drilling.

Virtually the first question that comes to mind is, How long will this version be relevant? John Kerry says the next step, a draft bill following reaction from the aforementioned Industry, could be out as soon as the end of next week.

Lindsey Graham's take? The Health Care morass could endanger Senate legislaiton for the rest of the year.

Private Sector Prose

...or "Reality from The Real World."

No, not that Real World (copyright, MTV Productions). The world that exists outside of esoteric policy and political theory.

It's usually pretty refreshing to get a candid, insightful take from private sector leaders. You know, what policy proposals will mean for the rest of us (also known as "Americans").

These are from my recent conversations with NRG Energy'sDavid Crane (top) and PSE&G's Ralph Izzo (below) at the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum. Here are the links to our interviews: Izzo, Crane.

This year's venue, The Mandarin Oriental. Always a little more inviting to cover a conference at such a lovely venue. Well, swank might be more accurate than just lovely.

Didn't stay to hit the spa, but Ralph Izzo did tell me he was planning to dive into the hotel gym...until his PR guy told him the schedule was too tight.

We took only 15 minutes of his time, though, I promise. Not our fault.

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.