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McCain’s free pass

Great post from Hilzoy over at Obsidian Wings, starting with McCain’s confused statements on climate change, moving out to McCain’s confused statements on other matters of policy, and asking: why is no one in the mainstream media covering this? Why is McCain allowed to get away with it?

Snippets from the news

• How do religious leaders address high gas prices? • Portland and New York City try out no-car zones. • U.S. supermarkets not doing enough to protect fish. • Tory leader David Cameron won’t back off the green. • Brazil environment minister backs Amazon soy ban. • Japan says carbon-emissions goals won’t be made at […]

White House decides to check in on environment

A mere 2,705 days after President George W. Bush was inaugurated, the White House has decided to check in on how the environment is doing. Four federal agencies have been directed to develop environmental indicators that will ostensibly be used to analyze national trends and evaluate policies. The first project, which won’t be released until […]

DOD slows condemning research into its polluting behavior

Back in April, a Government Accountability Office report explained how the White House Office of Management and Budget was holding up the EPA's Integrated Risk Information System assessments. According to GAO, the OMB started requiring an "interagency review" process allowing agencies that might be affected by the IRIS assessments to provide comments on the documents. As a result, some of these outside agencies can effectively block completion of IRIS assessments, which inform federal environmental standards and many environmental protection programs at local, state, and even international levels.

The GAO explained that this interagency review process came about because the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and NASA were upset about how EPA was addressing "controversial" chemicals such as perchlorate, napthalene, and trichlorethylene (TCE). These departments and agencies view these hazardous substances as "integral to their missions." IRIS assessments could lead to regulatory actions that will require lots of protection and clean-up spending by the responsible agencies.

Last week, the House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight held its second hearing on the IRIS process. One witness was particularly vocal about DOD's foot-dragging on TCE.

The all-powerful talk-show host ends her vegan cleanse

Well, Oprah is no longer a caffeine-free, sugar-free, gluten-free vegan. She says her “21-day cleanse” has been “enlightening.” I will forever be a more cautious and conscious eater. That’s my commitment for now. To stay awakened. Hopefully along the way she’s also enlightened some of her million-bajillion faithful followers.

Senate again rejects legislation to extend tax credits for renewables

The Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 this afternoon. The vote was 52-44, well short of the 60 needed to move the legislation forward. This legislation would have extended the investment tax credits (ITC) for solar energy and the production tax credits (PTC) for wind, biomass, […]

Groups sue over federal plan for Northwest salmon

A handful of green groups filed suit Tuesday over the Bush administration’s latest plan to protect salmon in the Northwest’s Columbia Basin. The feds’ proposal “calls for cutting several key salmon protection measures and comes with a price tag of more than half a billion dollars per year,” the groups said in a statement. “While […]

Rebuilding in the wake of ‘extreme weather’

From the standpoint of global climate change, nature's incredible assault on the American heartland this year can be interpreted in one of two ways. Both offer lessons about the challenges of adapting to the climate we have created.

As of June 13, 1,577 tornadoes had been reported in the United States, with 118 fatalities. The season started in January, unusually early, with more than 130 reported tornadoes in the upper Midwest. As if to send voters a reminder to ask the presidential candidates about their positions on climate change, 84 tornadoes broke out the week of Super Tuesday in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee.

As I write this post, record floods are inundating communities in the Mississippi River Valley at a level of intensity that may make the Great Flood of 1993 seem like an "ankle tickler," as riverside residents like to call minor flood events.

On June 9 in Wisconsin, a breach in its dam emptied Lake Delton, a 245-acre man-made lake, into the Wisconsin River. My old stomping grounds in Wisconsin's Kickapoo River Valley suffered record flooding for the second time in a year. Among the inundated communities was Gays Mills, now threatened with extinction due to its repeated damages.

McCain calling for offshore drilling, renewables, and conservation in energy speech

John McCain. John McCain will give a big speech on energy policy this afternoon to a group of oil executives in Houston, Texas. According to his prepared remarks, his address will highlight the need to forge a path to energy independence, calling for expanded domestic oil and gas drilling as well as a move toward […]

Virginia Gov, possible veep, afraid of Big Coal

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine set a new standard for politician mealy-mouthedness with a letter to his Virginia Air Board (tip of the hat to Raising Kaine for digging this one up). Although he asserts that his letter isn't about any particular decision, everyone outside the governor's office knows that the letter is about one thing: The proposed massive coal-fired power plant being planned for Wise County, Virginia. His bureaucratic opacity (PDF) is sure to be taught in government schools around the world regarding how to say nothing through the written word:

My intent in issuing this directive is not to influence the substance of any decision you may make but to assure consistency, certainty, and predictability in the process of issuing decisions. The directive is one of general application and not specific to any particular matter.

The rest of the letter doesn't clear matters up any more -- but the situation is clear to most Virginia watchers: Kaine is terrified of Big Coal, personified (or rather, corporatified) here by Chicago-based Dominion Power (and financed by Citibank). So much so that even though the plant's incredibly high costs are actually projected to drive up electricity bills (PDF) (along with, of course, producing 5.3 million ton of carbon dioxide, more air pollution deaths (PDF), and the destruction of many of Southwest Virginia's remaining mountains), he's unwilling to take a clear stand against it (or, for that matter, for it) -- even though he is on record in favor of federal action on the climate crisis (for which he doesn't have any responsibility).