BERLIN: The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Tuesday announced an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse emissions by up to 40 percent by 2020, an initiative welcomed by environmentalists but harshly criticized by the energy industry, a powerful lobby.

Merkel also ruled out any change to the governments nuclear policy before the next election, scheduled for 2009, that calls for the industry to be phased out in the next 12 years. As part of the emissions-cutting plan, Merkel said she intended to require energy producers to increase efficiency by 3 percent each year and improve conservation.

“This is about putting in place a long-term energy policy until 2020 for the environment that includes energy efficiency and energy security,” Merkel said after an energy summit meeting attended by the biggest electricity, natural gas and coal companies in Germany.

Merkel has made the reduction of greenhouse gases one of the hallmarks of her domestic and foreign policy, and conservation is a central theme in her partys program, which was published Monday. The policy is part of Merkels efforts to shed the image of the Christian Democratic Union party as uninterested in green issues and to project a modern and centrist image more palatable to an environmentally conscious younger generation normally aligned with the Greens.

Sigmar Gabriel, the environment minister and a Social Democrat, said the current strong economic growth in Germany should allow the companies to invest in more energy efficiency equipment that could save consumers as much as \50 billion, or $68 billion, a year. Consumers in Germany pay among the highest energy costs in the European Union, according to the Federation of German Consumer Organizations.

Annette Schavan, the technology minister and a conservative, said the state would provide at least \1.5 billion for research and development projects to expand renewable energy.

The renewable energy sector praised Merkel for confronting the energy companies, which have been reluctant to introduce efficiency measures.

“We welcome the decisions made today,” said Ulf Gerder, a spokesman for Germanys renewable energy association. Renewable energy, which includes solar and wind power and is state subsidized, accounts for 9 percent of the countrys energy needs.

Over the years, the German energy industry has developed vertical structures that stretch from production and distribution to transportation and retailing, making it difficult for small producers to enter the market.

Merkel said she wanted to “unbundle,” or break these arrangements to allow more competition. The European Commission has been pursuing the same policy for several years but has repeatedly met resistance from the German companies. The liberalization of EU energy markets, which began on Monday, has had little effect in Germany.

“This shows a clear commitment by the government to energy efficiency,” Gerder added. “The nuclear energy

plants do not have to be prolonged. Renewable energy, also in the form of combined heat and power plants, can compensate for the nuclear power plants.”

Merkel dashed the hopes of the energy lobby - led by E.ON, Vattenfall

Europe, RWE and Energie Baden-Wьrttemberg - to prolong nuclear power.

Under an agreement made in 2000 by the former Social Democrat and Green coalition led by Gerhard Schrцder, Germanys 17 nuclear energy plants would be gradually decommissioned by 2021.

After Merkel, a conservative, was appointed chancellor in November 2005, the lobby went on an ultimately unsuccessful offensive to reverse the decision. But Merkel on Tuesday stuck to her coalitions policy of phasing out the plants.

The energy industry, however, criticized Merkels plan as unworkable and likely to lead to higher rates for consumers.

In a bid to win over the government and public opinion, RWE, one of Germanys largest energy groups, published a four-page paid supplement in several newspapers Tuesday in which its chief executive, Harry Roels, appealed to the government to reconsider its nuclear energy policies. He said the decision to phase out nuclear power was made “when climate protection was not as high in the public imagination as it is today.”

Foreign energy companies also criticized Merkels environmental policies. Vattenfall of Sweden, which recently invested in Germanys lucrative energy sector, said “the governments energy policy is an anti-energy policy.”

Over the next few weeks, government, industry and environmental groups will decide how to implement the policy, which could be finalized during a special policy meeting of the cabinet next month. This cabinet session will map out the remaining legislative period of the coalition government whose term, officially at least, expires in 2009. “We hope to have a decision on the road map next month,” Merkel said.

NEW YORK: In what may be a sign of things to come, the lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr. last month invoked the rarely used courtroom tactic: the “bloggers can be mean” defense.

The issue was whether to release the more than 150 letters written to Judge Reggie Walton of U.S. District Court in Washington, nearly all in support of Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Libby was convicted in March of lying in investigations into the leak of the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame Wilson. Last week, Walton sentenced Libby to 30 months in prison.

As the judge considered the appropriate punishment, he received testimonials to Libbys character from luminaries like former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, and Paul Wolfowitz, who was pressured to resign the Word Bank presidency amid charges that he engaged in favoritism in the employment of his girlfriend.

When representatives of the news media asked that the letters be released, Libbys lawyers argued against that, saying it “needlessly risks undermining the fair administration of justice.”

Then, alluding to the sometimes combative world of online media, they added there was “the real possibility that these letters, once released, would be published on the Internet and their authors discussed, even mocked, by bloggers.”

The judge rejected these arguments May 31, though, saying that “the court must strive to be as transparent as possible without compromising the fairness of the system or the ability of the court to acquire information relevant and helpful to the sentencing process.”

The letters were released Tuesday - with some personal details covered in black ink - and were readily available online. The Washington Post organized them alphabetically by letter writer, and the Smoking Gun, a Web site, quickly had 30 pages ready for easy perusal.

As Libbys lawyers feared, the bloggers came to mock. The Libby trial has been a favorite of liberal blogs.

One blogger, Rick Perlstein, writing at commonsense.ourfuture.org, belittled Boltons letter in support of Libby: “So there it is: yes, maybe he perjured himself. But only because he was so busy protecting us. Dont you, dear judge, want us protected from Armageddon?”

Kagro X, writing at the site the Next Hurrah, took on Kenneth Adelmans letter by recalling his prediction about the war in Iraq being a “cakewalk.” As Adelman, Kagro wrote: “Im a great judge of character, Your Honor. Trust me! Sentencing is gonna be a cakewalk!”

Asked about the amount of mocking he had seen online, Bill Moore, a lawyer who contributes to the blog Watching Those We Chose (proctoringcongress.blogspot.com), said: “There is some, sure - not an undue amount. Some of the stuff that goes on needs to be mocked.”

The principle was more important, said Moore, who personally wrote a brief to the court asking that the letters be made public.

“If the powerful in our government are asking for someone to be spared, we ought to know,” he said. “The purpose of the letters is to influence the judge on sentencing, and if there is influence that ought to be transparent.”

Marcy Wheeler, one of the bloggers who helped cover the trial for Firedoglake, said the argument concerning mockery indicated that the Libby legal team “may be frustrated by the amount of attention paid on this trial that otherwise wouldnt have been paid.”

The New York Times

June 10, 2007 — Folks in the two lowest tax brackets - who pay 10 and 15 percent to Uncle Sam - sitting on appreciated stock should hold off selling the shares, if possible, until next year.

On Jan. 1, capital gains taxes for these two tax brackets will drop to zero - saving these taxpayers hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The tax cut, which will stay in effect through 2011, was part of the Bush Tax Cuts Act of 2003, parts of which were extended by a then-lower-tax-minded Congress in 2006.

The current 10 percent Bracket comprises folks with taxable income up to $7,825 for singles and up to $15,650 for married filing jointly (and surviving spouses).

In addition, instead of adding equity investments to retirement accounts this year (or thereafter), place them in non-retirement stocks and mutual funds accounts; gains and dividends will qualify for the zero- or low-cap-gain tax rates.