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But 82 Percent Would Still Grab a Brewski With Him

Poll finds growing disenchantment with Bush environmental policy A new poll finds a rise in the number of people who think President Bush is not doing enough to protect the environment — 56 percent, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey, up from 41 percent in 2001. Most want more action on environmental problems, and […]

Break on Through to the Other ‘Cide

EPA proposes ban on two toxic pesticides, limits on use of many others As part of a congressionally mandated 10-year review, the U.S. EPA this week recommended banning two particularly toxic pesticides and putting thousands of restrictions on the use of others. Out of 231 “active ingredients” reviewed by the agency, the two singled out […]

Friedman At Last, Friedman At Last

Federal judge whacks EPA for foot-dragging on toxic air pollution This week, a federal judge administered a well-placed kick to the rear end of the U.S. EPA, blasting the agency for being “grossly delinquent” in regulating air pollutants as required by the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments. While EPA has developed emissions regulations for only […]

Will Evolution Be Next?

Heat waves linked to climate change; even Pat Robertson is convinced Experts agree: damn, it’s hot! And you might as well get used to it. At the rate global temperatures are rising, blistering heat waves like the ones that have recently baked parts of the U.S. and Europe will become more frequent and severe, according […]

YouTube faux-amateur slander from the halls of DCI

An unspeakably stupid video about Al Gore and penguins has been floating around YouTube for a while. Over at The Wall Street Journal, Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey pulled off a crackerjack bit of reporting, tracing the author to an email address, an email address to an IP address, and ...

... the email originated from a computer registered to DCI Group, a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp.

You don't say.

DCI runs Tech Central Station, the notoriously bought and paid for opinion outlet. ("TCS is supported by a small group of sponsors: the American Beverage Association, ExxonMobil, Freddie Mac, General Motors Corporation, Gilead Sciences, McDonalds, Merck and PhRMA.")

Somebody's paying for adolescent, faux-amateur, "viral" smears. Wonder who?

Video below the fold:

Global warming …

... is making it warm.

Peak oil and politics

Last week the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ran part one of a two-part series on how Cuba survived without oil after the fall of the Soviet Union. (Not technically true -- there was oil, just far too little of it.) The next part runs this Sunday and has to do with the redefinition of Cuban medicine in the post-oil world. It's all very fascinating, and it's produced by one of our national treasures, David Suzuki.

Federal judge rips EPA a new one

Over on E&E News (paid subscription only), Darren Samuelsohn reports that a federal judge has applied his boot to the derriere of the U.S. EPA:

A federal judge lashed out at U.S. EPA yesterday for pursuing industry-friendly regulations at the same time it missed statutory deadlines to control toxic air pollution from small industrial plants.

Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia criticized EPA for focusing on other priorities as opposed to issuing regulations that address about a third of toxic air pollution.

"EPA has been grossly delinquent in making serious efforts to comply" with the Clean Air Act, Friedman said in his 28-page opinion (PDF).

And he put some oomph behind it:

Rifkin’s in my head

Wow, this is a fantastic interview with Jeremy Rifkin. I was only peripherally aware of the guy, but damn, he's mirroring my entire worldview (no wonder I like it!). He's got the exact right idea, about sequestration and clean coal, about nuclear, about distributed generation, smart grids, you name it. I kept highlighting parts to excerpt, but I ended up highlighting the whole thing. Here's a bit:

In coal country, mining is destroying cemeteries and faith

James Bowe, a lifelong resident of Whitesville, W.Va., knows the mountains around his home better than he knows himself. He’s seen friends and family buried there, and has devoted countless hours to protecting his loved ones’ resting places and the Indian burial grounds that stand alongside them. So when Bowe pulled up on his four-wheeler […]