Global Warming Commission Could Begin Work Next Month

Last updated Saturday, July 7, 2007 10:59 PM CDT in News

By John Lyon
THE MORNING NEWS

    LITTLE ROCK -- State Rep. Kathy Webb, D-Little Rock, says she feels honored to be one of the first people named to serve on Arkansas' first global warming commission.

    The freshman lawmaker sponsored the legislation creating the commission during this year's regular session. House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, appointed Webb to the global warming commission last month.

    "I think the work that we do is going be some of the most important work that we do in the interim, and I'm so excited about being part of it," Webb said.

    Act 696 creates a 21-member commission to study issues related to global warming and devise a comprehensive plan to address the problem. Seventeen members will be appointed by the governor, two each by the House speaker and two are appointed by the Senate president pro tem.

    As of Friday, three people had been named to the commission -- Webb; Joe Stratman, vice president and general manager of Nucor-Yamato Steel in Blytheville; and former state Sen. Kevin Smith of Stuttgart.

    Senate President Pro-Tem Jack Critcher, D-Batesville, appointed Stratman and Smith in April and May, respectively.

    Webb said she hopes the commission can start meeting in August and get "super busy" in September. Whether that can happen will depend on how quickly the remaining commission members are named.

    Matt DeCample, spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said Beebe is working on his appointments to the commission, but he offered no prediction of when those appointments might be announced.

    Complicating the process is a provision in the law specifying requirements for each of the governor's appointees. For example, they must include three scientists, two people from separate nonprofit environmental organizations, one person from the public energy sector and one person from the agriculture sector.

    "If you just had a group with energy or you just had a group with agriculture or you just had a group with environmentalists, then you're not going to get such an easy buy-in from all the other groups," Webb said. "So it was very specific for that reason."

    Webb said Arkansas is the last state in the nation to create some type of commission or task force on global warming, but she said the statistic is not as bad as it sounds because about a dozen other states did so only late last year or early this year.

    Webb predicted the commission's work would result in 10 or more pieces of legislation being presented in the 2009 legislative session. Asked if what happens in Arkansas can have an impact on the global climate, Webb said it can, especially when it coincides with action in other states.

    "Just like I can do something at my house that makes a difference -- by changing my (type of) light bulbs, by not running as much water, by changing the kind of car I drive or driving more carefully -- everybody, from the individual to the city to the state to the country, everybody needs to participate in this issue," she said.

    Glen Hooks, spokesman for the Sierra Club of Arkansas, applauded the creation of a commission.

    "I think ... that we can look back on in 10 years and say this was an opportunity where we really changed the direction of Arkansas when it comes to the environment," he said.

    Hooks said the group also was pleased with the passage of Act 1026 of 2007, sponsored by Rep. Lindsley Smith, D-Fayetteville. The act amended the Arkansas Renewable Energy Act of 2001 to expand "net metering," the practice of allowing customers to offset their energy consumption by generating energy through renewable means such as wind.

    The Legislature also passed bills encouraging development of alternative fuels and creating a funding mechanism for a recycling program for computers and other electronic equipment.

    Several other bills to promote recycling failed to pass during the session, including a bill by Rep. Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia, to create a statewide container deposit program and a bill by Webb to encourage recycling of Styrofoam.

    A bill by Sen. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, to exempt renewable resource equipment from the state sales tax also failed. Altes owns a recycling company in Fort Smith.

    Reader Comments (6 comment(s))


    The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsibility of their authors. The Morning News does not review comments before their publication, nor do we guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by our comment policy. If you see a comment that violates our policy, please notify the web editor.

    cybertech wrote on Jul 8, 2007 12:27 PM:

    " Question though? Are these persons appointed going to totally focused on the CO2 hype that most of the radical global warming crowd is focused on or are they going to focus on the actual causes such as increases in solar activity, magnetic field disturbances, magnetic pole shift, gamma ray bursts, ect?? Because those that feed on the misinformation from the IPCC and their models are going to be deluding themselves into the falsehood that they can STOP global warming, and that if they dont do anything the earth is going to burn up by 2050. lol People the truth is that CO2, again, is a minor, read that, minor greenhouse gas, a good portion of which occurs naturally and there are several factors involved that has caused a rise in CO2 levels. However CO2 is not a major driving factor in global warming and it has been proven that in past history that warming trends have preceded rises in CO2 by up to 50 years! If you are listening to the IPCC you are not getting all the facts. In fact anyone that understands science and has real common sense knows and understands the real truth. "

    cybertech wrote on Jul 8, 2007 12:37 PM:

    " Cont'd......................Also if you are following and buying into the hype that Al Gore is preaching your are being duped even more so since he is more interested in how money can be made from this then the real and actual science behind it. Look into the real facts for yourself, educate yourself, dont let yourself be duped into believing all the hype about global warming. Yes it is happening, but not all by the means that you are being led to believe, there are many more major factors involved that are not being focused on since focusing on them would not make anyone any money. Being for cleaner air and water and stuff is all cool, but the propaganda being spewed by people like Gore and many others in radical global warming arena is atrocious to say the least. Remember just a short half century ago they were screaming global cooling and ice age, now the coin has flipped, however in the all the global warming hype being spewed today, many important factors are being conveniently overlooked and for those that buy into the propaganda that is "An Inconvenient Truth!" Stop allowing the blind to lead. "

    dpickard wrote on Jul 8, 2007 11:40 PM:

    " Cybertech, you're way off. The evidence does not support your case, and your points are regularly debunked as primary movers of the changes that we're seeing. As for the solution, the fact that the solution makes good economic sense, and is therefore an opportunity for profit, is not a bad thing for America. The worst thing for America is to remain dependent on foreign oil, and consequently to fail to develop the energy technologies that will be in demand on the world market in the future. "

    cybertech wrote on Jul 9, 2007 4:11 AM:

    " dpickard if you think I am way off you may want to do some research of your own. This is not just about dependence on foreign oil, and CO2 is a minor greenhouse gas, as well past warming trends preceded rises in CO2 levels by up to 50 years which means that CO2 levels rose after the warming started therefore CO2 was not the cause and is therefore not driving factor in global warming. Also GW is not man made however man may contribute to it on a smaller scale in many ways than are actually being presented. Gamma ray bursts, increases in solar output, magnetic field shift, polar shift, are all things that have not been debunked as you say, in fact in the current propaganda, such as what Gore and the IPCC is peddling, it has been conveniently left out. Also left out is how unreliable their models are, and all programmers know the adage, trash in, trash out. Do the research and you will find that I am not as far off as you say. Contd "

    cybertech wrote on Jul 9, 2007 4:21 AM:

    " Contd....................In fact had you read the entirety of my posts, you would have seen that I am all for clean air, clean water, even for alternative energy sources. Thing with alternative energy sources is that most of them still need a lot of refining to make them efficient enough and cost effective enough to implement. To rush them into being to fast will be more devastating economically. Also what needs to be considered is the fact that man can not stop global warming, we can help diminish the effects by what we may have contributed thus far, but we can not stop it. Things are not great, but also not as bad as some are making them out to be. Its good to be environmentally conscious, dont get me wrong, but we need to do it wisely, and not rush to fast lest we doom ourselves to failure economically, and socially. There is a lot more to this issue than just energy dependence. Do the research and temper that with common sense as well, and common sense is what seems to be missing in the current propaganda. "

    Boxorox wrote on Jul 23, 2007 3:55 AM:

    " Whatever global warming is taking place is doing so almost entirely out of natural causes. It is obvious that this commission is tasked with creating legislation, imposing limits, regulating lifestyles and other restrictions on the public in order to shame, if not actually punish, the citizenry for conducting their lives. This is wrong. It is totalitarian environmentalism. Notice that not a single scientist of any kind has been mentioned yet as being appointed to this commission "


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