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House moderates: Little, late

Lest you start feeling twinges of fondness for Republican moderates thanks to their recent move to save the Arctic Refuge, remember that a) they've been totally passive in the face of five years of monstrosities, and b) the very legislation they've stripped refuge drilling out of itself remains a monstrosity. Sam Rosenfeld puts it well:

The House leadership's decision to rescind the ANWR drilling measure from the reconciliation bill is being spun as a sign of the new power of the erstwhile pitiful Republican moderates. There's a tiny bit of truth to that. But really, the fact that enough of them are now saying explicitly that removing that provision is sufficient to ensure the bill's passage is more pathetic than impressive. The ANWR provision is in the Senate version of the spending bill; leadership assurances to the House moderates that the measure won't return in a conference report should be taken with a grain of salt. Much more importantly, the rest of the bill is nearly unchanged, and is loaded with atrocities that moderate Republicans have spent plenty of time wringing their hands over but show little inclination to take action against.

This is another example of what I was talking about yesterday: For some reason it's become safe or convenient for righties to start making concessions or taking stands on the environment. But this budget reconciliation bill still contains drastic spending cuts for kids and poor people. Do greens stand down now that they got what they wanted? Or do they continue to fight on behalf of other elements of the progressive coalition?

Editorial hope springs eternal

What's with the editorial writers at the New York Times and the Washington Post? What does it take for political reality to sink in?

An unsigned NYT editorial bashing Bush on global warming -- particularly for his opposition to mandatory emissions limits -- says this:

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush's staunch and patient friend, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, has once again - this time in The Observer - appealed to the president to join in a global effort to limit greenhouse gases.

Well, not exactly. Blair's Observer editorial is notable precisely because it marks his rather conspicuous break from the Kyoto (read: mandatory emission limits) crowd. He's pleading with Bush to join a worldwide effort to develop clean-energy technology. His "staunch and patient" friendship continues to consist entirely of him attempting to accommodate Bush in exchange for ... nothing.

The WaPo editorial board thinks, well gosh, here's the chance Bush has been looking for to abandon his retrograde position on climate change and hop aboard the multilateral train:

What is clear is that Mr. Blair's initiative offers an excellent opening for Mr. Bush. The president, who has benefited from Mr. Blair's support, should say he supports the prime minister's initiative, wants to leave the Kyoto dispute behind and is ready to address climate change issues, actively and enthusiastically, in an international forum once again.

They argue earnestly that this is the right thing to do, because climate science has made it indisputable that warming is a problem.

Bush should reciprocate Blair's friendship. He should join a multilateral agreement. He should admit he's been wrong about climate change.

Meanwhile, back on planet earth ...

UCS presents interactive animation about auto lobbyists and fuel economy

From Umbra's heartthrob, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a funny little interactive animated thingamajig making a point about the sway auto lobbyists hold over fuel-economy standards. It compares potential mpg, air pollution, and gas prices. And at the end there are hairy men in a hot tub. Does it get any better than that?

My two cents: I'm in the camp that high gas prices are a good thing, because then people presumably don't drive as much, which is less wearing on the environment than even the most eco-friendly vehicle. Obviously. But I don't currently have a car. If I did, I'm sure that concern for my pocketbook would bring me down off my high-and-mighty hill.

Side note: Isn't "pocketbook" a bit outdated? Who has a pocketbook anymore?

Meet the eco-agents cleaning up after the nation’s latest addiction

Much has been made of the effects of methamphetamine on users, from crumbling teeth to erratic behavior to heart inflammation to death. It’s a painful story that the media has been only too eager to tell, as an estimated 346,000 people in the United States have become part of the meth-addiction “epidemic,” with a million […]

King Coal’s beheading of Appalachia

I keep meaning to say something about this excellent NYT op-ed on mountaintop-removal mining, but I never seem to have time, so ... just go read it.

Marsh Madness

Gloomy prospects for Louisiana’s wetlands, says a new report Louisiana’s coastal marshes are screwed. That’s the cheery news from an expert panel convened last year by the National Academy of Sciences. In a report released yesterday, the panel assessed a 10-year wetlands-restoration plan developed by the Army Corps of Engineers, concluding that the four credible […]

The Great Blight North

Canadians’ bodies polluted with over three dozen toxic chemicals O, Canada: great big land of maple syrup, socialized health care, and … toxic bodies. According to a new report, average Canadians may be packed with more than 40 human-made carcinogens, hormone disruptors, and substances that mess with reproduction and fetal development. Researchers tested 11 volunteers […]

Kabuki

It is amusing to watch Republican senators trapped between their two main constituencies: the oil industry and, uh, their constituents. Voters are pissed about high gas prices and home-heating costs, and they can't help but notice that oil companies are swimming in huge piles of cash. Of course Republicans aren't going to do anything that might offend the oil industry, but they need to look like they're doing something.

What's the answer? A hearing!

So they drag five oil executives to Congress. The results defy parody. Virtually every paragraph of this Reuters story is a masterpiece of black humor. It begins:

Under fire for high fuel prices, five major oil companies on Wednesday warned the U.S. Senate against levying a windfall profits tax and showed little interest in donating money to help poor Americans pay winter heating bills.

Well, that should set voters' minds at ease! But it immediately gets even better:

Courtesy of the Sierra Club

Even though you have haven't visited, you probably know where the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is located. You may be proud of the fact that you can point to area 1002 on the map and trace the migration of the Porcupine caribou herd. But what about your friends, neighbors, and inlaws?

There is still hope for them. You can direct them to the Sierra Club's thoughtfully prepared collection of maps of the Arctic Refuge using Google Earth. They're offering six maps in total:

1. The whole thing
2. Refuge boundaries
3. The "1002" area
4. Native American villages
5. Drilling across Alaska
6. The Porcupine Herd and other wildlife

(Via Boing Boing)

And in other Google Earth news: Fans of the game Risk can play by way of Google maps.

House moderates beat back Arctic Refuge drilling

Plans to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were dropped from the House budget reconcilation bill tonight. Credit goes to GOP Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire and 24 fellow Republicans who threatened to vote against the bill unless the drilling provisions was dropped.

It's not the end of the battle -- efforts are surely underway already to get the language back in -- but it's a surprising show of strength by refuge defenders. And yet another blow to poor, beleaguered Bush.