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Oh snap!

Readers of the Dallas Morning News were treated to a Texas-sized smackdown yesterday morning.

The backstory: TXU is trying to build 11 new ginormous coal-fired power plants in the state, and Gov. Perry is doing his damndest to jam them through in advance of carbon-capping legislation. The hurry is fueled by knowledge that any existing sources will have their emissions grandfathered into new legislation, at enormous competitive advantage.

That was the thinking, anyway. In an op-ed, Senators Boxer and Bingaman put those dreams of cashing in on carbon credits at the expense of the earth's future to rest, and did so in a way that can only be described as ... well, I'll let you choose the best adjective. But it rhymes with itchslap.

As the new Senate committee chairs engaged in the fight against global warming, we think it is important for investors to understand that there is little chance that the majority of such allowances will be allocated without cost and exclusively to large emitters of greenhouse gases.

In fact, companies that appear to be inflating their emissions right before legislation is passed are likely to find themselves in a position of having to make even larger emissions reductions than companies that do not attempt this strategy.

And in case TXU was still unclear on the message:

Any company planning to spend billions of dollars on new coal-fired power plants, and any investor in such a company, should think carefully about how to spend their funds so as to be part of the solution to climate change, not a part of the problem.

Read the whole thing. It just made my weekend.

Grim

… from Andy Revkin.

You may be surprised

I have been reading negative reports about Prius mileage and cost effectiveness for years. Here is one called "The Hybrid Hoax," written about a year ago. The author propagates misinformation by referring us to another article written in 2004 by a USA Today reporter (Kiley) who drove a Jetta diesel from Detroit to Washington, D.C., and a Prius back from Washington, D.C. to Detroit:

Kiley had to stop to refill the Prius, which ended up averaging 38 miles per gallon, compared with 44 miles per gallon for the Jetta

The high school yearbook photo!

This, via Kos via Pushing String, is the greatest thing ever: See the Pushing String post for an explanation of what the “choom gang” is. Effing sweet.

Oooh. Ahhh.

Have I mentioned that Utah is absolutely beautiful? I grew up in the lowlands of New Jersey, where the closest thing we had to a mountain was a gravel pile out back:

Top ten student teams duke it out for cash, concert

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Alaska’s Ted Stevens gets desperate for ANWR

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Opening night film relives 1960s activism, but who even cares anymore?

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An NY chef’s searing op-ed on the Farm Bill

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Good on him

Via Treehugger, I just stumbled on this column from Reason magazine’s science writer Ronald Bailey from back in September. To summarize, he says: I was wrong about global warming, but I wasn’t paid to be wrong. It would be easy to lampoon the column, or jump down Bailey’s throat. The commenters over at TH seem […]