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Arrested development

Interesting. I quit playing in the dirt with my toy trucks when I was... oh, about 6 years old.

A few weeks ago, the Forest Service announced a plan to control the proliferation of illegal trails created by off-road enthusiasts. Personally, as I said in an earlier post, I wish the government would just get out of the recreation business. I think it should be illegal to drive motorized vehicles off road on any public land. You can't dump garbage on public lands, why are you allowed to churn it into a mud hole with your 4x4? These people do a lot more tangible, direct damage to natural habitats than urban Hummer drivers. Most people are not aware of it because they do all of this damage off the beaten track.

Let the enthusiasts pay the market price for tearing up the planet. There are plenty of entrepreneurs out there who would love to charge them to use their property -- assuming, of course, that the government would create a level playing field by enforcing laws that protect wetlands and streams on these properties. You might even see a throttling of this growing industry by free market user fees, which could be quite steep, depending on competition, supply, and demand.

Nailing Connole because of his politics was the whole point

So how about this stuff with Josh Connole?

For those who haven't been following: In 2003, about 125 SUVs at SoCal car dealerships were burned and vandalized. Slogans like "Fat Lazy Americans" and "ELF" were left behind.

Of course, as we all know this is not mere property destruction, not mere crime, but "eco-terrorism."

So the FBI was brought in and they starting looking for likely suspects. They found a vegan, commune-living, Iraq-war protesting, electric-car driving, fossil-fuel hating activist, and arrested him. Except, oops:

"So they immediately started following him around and then when they arrested him they said, 'You've got some red paint on your pants and we think it matches (the paint used in the attacks)," [Connole attorney John] Burton said. "So they took his pants and flew them back to FBI headquarters for analysis, where it turned out to be catsup."

In the meantime, Burton said, Connole spent four days in jail, often chained to the floor and repeatedly urged by FBI agents to confess.

Meanwhile, the guy who really did it wrote a letter to the L.A. Times, mocking the feds for getting the wrong guy.

Now, from the tone of the coverage, I think the idea is that we're all supposed to be upset that the feds are surveilling people based on their political activity -- and in fact, that Connole was arrested based purely on his politics.

But that slightly misses the point.

Oil execs and lying to Congress

Well goodness, there's lots of news afoot today. Unfortunately, this blogger is a) only working half-time, and b) deathly ill, recalling fondly when breathing through the nose was an option. So I doubt I'll get to all of it.

But let's start with the oil-exec/energy-task-force mini-scandal.

The revelation here is not that Cheney's task force included oil execs -- did anyone ever doubt that? -- or that Bush administration energy policy is grossly skewed in favor of fossil fuels. The proof is in the pudding on that score.

The notable things here are three:

1. As Adam wisely notes: Why would they lie? It wasn't illegal to meet with Cheney's task force, or even improper -- they were invited, after all. Cheney has battled for the executive branch's right not to reveal who was there, but there's no reason the participants themselves can't reveal they were there. Why lie about it? Unless, of course, you feel guilty. Unless you feel like you rigged national energy policy in your favor, and don't want the nation to find out about it.

2. As both Sam and Matt wonder, why is lying to Congress such a casual thing these days? It used to be kind of a big deal. Now oil execs apparently think nothing of it. It's unlikely this will even rise above the current din of scandal.

3. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) made a point of not swearing in the executives (although it's still a crime to lie to Congress, under 18 USC 1001). Did he know beforehand they were planning on lying about this? His stated rationale -- not embarrassing them -- is pretty flimsy.

Apparently Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) -- into whose face the execs lied -- aren't going to let this die quietly:

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) will lead Senate Democrats TODAY in demanding that oil company executives return to Congress and testify under oath in light of ongoing concerns of gas price-gouging by oil companies at the expense of hard-working American families. They will also call on the Justice Department to investigate into the alleged false statements made at a joint Senate Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing last week.

Stay tuned.

(See also this post from Carl Pope, about his surreal Potemkin visit to the White House in 2001.)

Mostly promise, some peril

Every year, approximately 2 million new houses are built in the U.S. Should these homes be built so as to generate their own electricity cleanly and renewably? Or should these homes require new grid and dirty-power plant investments, paid for by all ratepayers?

Installing solar systems when homes are built makes sense for several reasons:

• Installation is cheaper when building a new home than retrofitting an old one;
• the cost can be wrapped into the mortgage -- the best kind of financing;
• it's easier to integrate into building components -- with the potential for better aesthetics;
• if solar were incorporated at a large scale, utilities could make the appropriate adjustments to the grid, saving all ratepayers some money.

Which is why the announcement that the City of Roseville is requiring solar on 10-20% of new housing starts is such good news.

Just Joshin’

Electric-car driver was not an eco-terrorist, FBI admits The FBI will issue a rare “letter of regret” and pay environmentalist Josh Connole $100,000 after mistakenly arresting him for domestic terrorism. Agents followed Connole for several days in 2003, after arson-vandalism attacks at four Southern California car dealerships in which gas-guzzlers were spray-painted with phrases like […]

Don’t Just Lie There

Oil industry execs caught fibbing; may lose tax break; still filthy rich Last week, while testifying at a Senate hearing, oil industry executives were asked point blank: “Did your company or any representatives of your companies participate in Vice President Cheney’s energy task force in 2001?” The answers? Three No’s, an “I don’t know,” and […]

Bush was right!

Okay, this has nothing at all to do with the environment, but it would just be cruel to deny our readers the pleasure:

Head over to Think Progress and listen to a clip from the new song "Bush Was Right" by The Right Brothers, soon to be in regular rotation on MTV -- unless dastardly liberal bias prevents it!

(Seriously, listen to the sound clip. It will make your day. Possibly your year. Perhaps your life.)

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Bush admin takes unexpected step to save Washington state’s orcas Yesterday, the National Marine Fisheries Service surprised conservationists, cetacean lovers, and most other sentient beings, really, by declaring the orcas of Washington state’s Puget Sound endangered. The move mandates a recovery plan and critical-habitat designations, and comes after years of debate over just how much […]

What to expect from the U.N. climate-change negotiations in Montreal

“Conference of Parties” sounds like a contradiction in terms: conferences are dull talkfests punctuated by free booze, and parties are free boozefests punctuated by dull moments of trying to talk over loud music. More of the former than the latter is likely to go on later this month in Montreal, during the Conference of Parties […]

A refresher on the basics of climate conferences and Kyoto

Later this month, a mess of world leaders will be gathering in Montreal to discuss climate change. The conference is a rendezvous — we must use French words when speaking of Quebec — of COP 11 and MOP 1. And it has to do with the Kyoto Protocol! Isn’t that mysterious and intriguing? One of […]