Green Car Congress has a good breakdown of energy spending in Bush's budget -- think nuclear and fossil fuels -- and Geoff Hand has more.

Honda joined in the lawsuit against California, trying to stop the state from instituting its own fuel-economy regs. To make it up to enviros, the company just asked the feds to tighten fuel-economy regulations. It doesn't object to regs, it says, just different regs in different states. If fuel-economy regs are really harmful to the economy, harmful to automakers, as the Bush admin. says, Honda's behavior seems awfully peculiar. Why, it's almost like they know something Bush doesn't!

Political junkies (hi) may want to check out this Democracy Corps poll and strategy memo (PDF), called "Toward a Democratic Purpose." There's a lot in there to chew on, but one salient fact for our purposes : The public is very clear on the fact that Democrats are the party that protects the environment. They are also very clear on the fact the Republicans protect the interests of corporations and the rich. What does this mean? Well, for one thing, you're not going to get much electoral traction by pounding on those two facts. People already know. Again, all you …

Let's be honest. Global warming is a dreary subject. Even for those of us -- and by "us" I mean "just about everyone in the world except for the U.S. executive branch and a few industry-funded skeptics" -- who take it seriously. Nonetheless, new evidence about climate change trickles out every day. It can be hard to keep track, especially 'cause of the dreariness. So Tom Engelhardt has done a real public service by gathering all that evidence into one essay. He also addresses, toward the end of the essay, why it is that most Americans seem so unwilling to …

In the Daily Grist today, we cover a story about the farm subsidy cuts in Bush's new budget. Due to the nature of that venue -- just the fact, ma'am! -- we don't express any skepticism about the news. So let me do it here: It's bullshit. Nobody in their right friggin' mind thinks agricultural subsidies -- which Bush raised in his first term -- are going to get cut in his second. This is a circus sideshow, meant to distract attention from the grossly regressive cuts elsewhere in the budget. The most dastardly way of reading the much-ballyhooed cuts …

Glenn Scherer's much-cited piece "The Godly Must Be Crazy," which argued that far-right Christian evangelicals are hostile to environmental protection, is apparently not the end of the story. The Washington Post's Blaine Harden finds evidence that evangelicals are going green. Joel Makower discusses the issue, as does the Progressive Blog Alliance. Sustainablog also points us to more info at Harvard's Forum on Religion and the Environment and Rev. Larry Rice's essay "As the Giant Sleeps ... Creation Suffers." This strikes me as a subject in dire need of some empirical -- as opposed to anecdotal -- research. Just how many …

Ex-EPA administrator (and N.J. governor) Christie Todd Whitman is somewhat of a mystery to progressives. She talks like a moderate, and even dares criticize the Bush junta, but she was complicit in the very hard right policies she now disavows -- and, conspicuously, didn't disavow them at the time. The question in the mind of many pundits is, "naive dupe or dishonest hack?" After reading Whitman's op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle today arguing that we need "a new debate on the environment," I'm leaning toward hack.I can't argue with this: America needs a new paradigm for the environment, one …

INdTV -- the new independent cable TV network being started by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt -- is seeking submissions. Are any Gristmill readers out there aspiring (and/or experienced) TV producers? Got a video camera? Think it might be nice to see some real environmental coverage on television for once? Send them something. (Via Treehugger.)

As always, Worldchanging's week in sustainable vehicles from Mike Millikin and week in sustainable business from Gil Friend are worth reading.

The big Exeter, U.K., conference on global warming ended last week. You can read a slightly hysterical wrap-up in The Independent and a slightly wonkier, link-filled wrap-up on Worldchanging. Update [2005-2-7 20:53:35 by Dave Roberts]:Ah, how could I forget the Indispensible RealClimate?