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A nice little TV clip

Hey, this is cool. Check out a segment from Global TV news hour featuring Jim Hoggan, founder of DeSmogBlog, wherein he talks about the fossil-fuel-funded climate skeptic crowd.

Western ballot measures would gut environmental protections

A couple of weeks ago, while hurrying to a favorite trout stream, I was pulled over for speeding in a small town. I must have been fried from months of research and writing on the so-called "property rights" movement, because it suddenly occurred to me that the current system is backward.

So I said* to the officer: "Listen, if The Man wants me to obey his laws to keep this town safe, then he should pay me for my time."

Now if my reasoning with the cop sounds ridiculous to you,then you may have difficulty grasping the thinking behind the rash of ballot measures spreading across the West like ... well, like a rash.

But there you have it: there's a well-funded and highly ideological campaign with national marching orders. In 2006, they've landed initiatives on the ballot in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Washington. All the initiatives have the same aim: to force communities to pay property owners to obey land-use laws. And if communities can't pay, they must grant waivers from the law.

(Don't live in one of these states? There's one headed your way soon. Live in Europe? You're next.)

Flip flops on ethanol

Today, Charlie Pierce wrote this:

Someone please show me a single act of public political courage undertaken by John McCain since he won the New Hampshire primary in 2000 that he hasn't hedged, trimmed, or walked back completely. The Bush campaign trashed his wife and daughter, and he's spent the years since trying to get a job as the pool boy in Crawford. He gave a brave speech about the danger of political preachers, but he'd walk on his knees across broken glass to get himself blessed by Jerry Falwell's direct-mail people. But yesterday might well be the purest day of opportunistic sycophancy in the history of the Straight Talk Express. First, he jumps on the idiotic controversy du jour, lining up with the usual chickenhawk suspects to trash his "good friend" and fellow veteran John Kerry. But he does so at this thing, an event in support of a man who recently threw the term "cut-and-run" at Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs in Iraq. Ho-ho. Now that's some straight-talkin' for you. Presidential fever produces odd symptoms in people, but none of them as odd as what's happened to McCain. His ambition has made him a coward.

But Pierce forgot something.

We’re giving away two free tickets (and seeking volunteers to help at our booth)

Grist will be at the Green Festival in San Francisco on Nov. 10-12. Wanna come? The Green Festival folks have given us two free tickets to hand out to lucky readers. Email us at emailE=('volunteer@' + 'grist.org') document.write('' + emailE + '') with "pick me!" in the subject line by 5 p.m. PST on Nov. 2 for a chance to win.

Green Festival is the largest sustainability event in the U.S., with speakers, how-to workshops, music, organic eats and drinks, and displays from eco-friendly businesses and nonprofits (including, of course, Grist). Progressive luminaries strutting their stuff onsite will include Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's fame), Amy Goodman, Hunter Lovins, John Robbins, David Suzuki, and Alice Walker. (Check out the full schedule for details.) The whole shebang will be carbon-neutral. About 30,000 people attended last year's Green Festival in San Francisco.

If you aren't one of the ticket winners, we can still get you in free if you volunteer to work a shift at the Grist booth. Email emailE=('volunteer@' + 'grist.org') document.write('' + emailE + '') for more info.

And, if you're going to be in the Bay Area on Nov. 10, be sure to come to our reader party in San Francisco. Organic booze, door prizes, witty banter -- pun will be had by all.

About oil and foreign policy

In his typically understated fashion, Kevin Drum draws attention to remarks from George W. Bush's interview with Rush Limbaugh today. Amidst all the usual BS, there was this:

Give me a second here, Rush, because I want to share something with you. I am deeply concerned about a country, the United States, leaving the Middle East. I am worried that rival forms of extremists will battle for power, obviously creating incredible damage if they do so; that they will topple modern governments, that they will be in a position to use oil as a tool to blackmail the West. People say, "What do you mean by that?" I say, "If they control oil resources, then they pull oil off the market in order to run the price up, and they will do so unless we abandon Israel, for example, or unless we abandon allies.

Speaks for itself, doesn't it?

State boosts renewable standards to 15% by 2025

Yesterday, by a vote of 4-1, the Arizona Corporation Commission voted to expand the state's renewable energy standard to 15% by 2025, with 30% of that to come from distributed generation technologies. We're talking support for up to 2,000 MW of solar.

We'll take that over a sack of tootsie rolls and candy corn any day.

In B.C., a landmark rainforest-protection agreement was just the beginning

It took 10 years of work to protect British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest. Photos: Gregory Dicum The Great Bear Rainforest, stretching from Vancouver Island to the Alaska Panhandle on the wild, rugged coast of British Columbia, is that rarest of things: an unvarnished environmental victory. But as the groundbreaking agreement signed to protect it comes […]

You Can’t Spell Lobotomy Without “EPA”

As feds close EPA libraries, researchers and others protest Gagging didn’t work, so the feds are trying something new. The U.S. EPA has closed four of its research libraries and cut hours at seven more. The agency says materials will still be available digitally, but many worry that the shift will stymie scientists seeking data […]

You Say Tobago, and I Say No Thanks

Island activists battle plans for new aluminum smelters Put on your sixth-grade geography cap, because a battle over aluminum smelters is heating up in, of all places, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Residents of the tiny Caribbean nation have spent nearly two years fighting plans for two new smelters put forth by a Trinidadian […]

The Best Damn Solar Show, Period

U.S. renewable advocates say their power is bigger and better If America has to resort to renewables, we’re gonna do it in butt-kickin’ style. Yesterday, Arizona approved rules that would require a 15 percent renewable-energy mix by 2025, pending certification from its attorney general. “Move over California,” said utility commissioner Kris Mayes. “We are making […]