Latest Articles
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Knot So Fast
Feds propose speed limit to protect right whales Hoping to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, the U.S. government has proposed making large vessels in the North Atlantic obey an ocean speed limit of 10 knots — about 11.5 mph — during the times of the year when whales are in the area. (If they […]
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‘Cause I’m the Waxman
House Democrat introduces climate bill that would actually help climate For all the buzz about global warming in the U.S. popular press of late, the few pieces of legislation that have made their way to the halls of Congress have been woefully inadequate (of course, even those have failed to pass). But last week, to […]
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More on Inhofe press release
Via Josh Marshall, we find more background on the loopy press release from Inhofe's office yesterday:
Good Catch! Until a couple months ago, the press release writer, Marc Marono, worked for CNSnews.com where he distinguished himself by using disgraced NASA crony George Deutsch to attack NASA scientist James Hansen. Deutsch, you'll remember, was the young Bush campaign flack who was sent over to NASA to censor scientific publications, made a splash when he instructed NASA scientists not to discuss the Big Bang without considering the topic from a religious perspective and then got bounced when it emerged that he'd lied about having a college degree. Earlier, Marono wrote this beaut questioning whether Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) may have faked the wounds for which he received two Purple Hearts.
It's all one seamless web of fruitcakery.
Update [2006-6-28 8:43:38 by David Roberts]: ThinkProgress does the yeoman's work of refuting the claims in the release. For my part, I'm sick of knocking down the same zombie falsehoods again and again. The folks advancing these claims can no longer claim to be acting in good faith, so they won't get good faith responses from me. From now on, they get what they deserve: disdain and mockery. Wo0t!
Update [2006-6-28 12:26:24 by David Roberts]: And still more detailed debunking from Tim Lambert. But will the debunking stop this thing from spreading like wildfire throughout the crankosphere? I doubt it.
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Second major oceans protection announcement
Two weeks ago, environmentalists' collective jaw dropped as President Bush designated 140,000 square miles in the Hawaii Islands a national monument. Not to be upstaged, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries countered today with an announcement it was protecting more than 370,000 square miles of seafloor in Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
NOAA's decision establishes the largest protected area in U.S. waters, and the third largest such area in the world. This designation is the result of five years of intense work by Oceana and others to stop destructive trawling.
Now, the question remains: Can President Bush beat 370,000 square miles?
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Umbra on moving
Dear Umbra, Is there such a thing as “green movers”? I want to transport furniture from L.A. to Seattle and wonder if any movers use biodiesel vehicles or something like that. Andy Luk Seattle, Wash. Dearest Andy, You know, we’re moving too. What a coincidence! Crate expectations. Photo: iStockphoto. But we’re not moving far — […]
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Link dump
As always, I regret having to do this sort of post, but there's only so much stuff one man can write about (and still make time for his quest to view the entire Gilmore Girls corpus over the course of a single summer).
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Inhofe responds to AP with flurry of BS
Look, I know that politicians aren't anything like they were portrayed on The West Wing (see Ezra Klein and Gene Healy on the matter). I know they're not all dignified and statesmanlike. But c'mon.
Mere hours after the appearance of an Associated Press story about scientists verifying the accuracy of Al Gore's movie, the office of Sen. James Inhofe has cranked out a press release that reads like a parody of a frothing rightwing blogger (if that's even possible any more).
Have a look:
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Rep. Henry Waxman’s Safe Climate Act
For weeks now, I've had an open tab in Firefox with Rep. Henry Waxman's Safe Climate Act languishing in it, waiting for my loving bloggy ministrations.
Today, I finally had a look, and Ana's right -- this is a more powerful and more sensible plan that the one Kerry described yesterday. The main reason, in my view, is not so much the stronger ultimate target (80% vs. 65% below 2000 emissions by the year 2050) but the incrementalism -- precisely the problem ffletcher identified. Here's the capsule version of the plan:
- Science tells us that we face a grave risk of irreversible and devastating global warming if global temperatures increase by more than 3.6°F.
- The bill sets greenhouse gas emissions targets that aim to keep temperatures below the danger point. The level of emissions is frozen in 2010 and then gradually reduced each year through 2050.
- The bill achieves these targets through a flexible economy-wide cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions, along with measures to advance technology and reduce emissions through renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cleaner cars.
Here's how the targets will work:
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Nuclear plant licensed
ALBUQUERQUE -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its first license for a major commercial nuclear facility in 30 years, allowing an international consortium to build what will be the nation's first private fuel source for commercial nuclear power plants.
Construction of the $1.5 billion National Enrichment Facility, under review for the past 2 1/2 years, could begin in August, and the plant could be ready to sell enriched uranium by early 2009, said James Ferland, president of the consortium of nuclear companies, Louisiana Energy Services.This is laughable:
