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New FOX show pins its plot on clean energy

So I've been watching this show on FOX called Prison Break. It's quite good -- not, you know, Deadwood good, or The Wire good, but fast-paced, fun, and surprisingly cerebral. It's like 24 but not horrible, stilted, and mean-spirited. Oh man, I genuinely hate that show, but don't worry, I won't make you listen to a rant about it. Wait, where was I?

Anyhoo. The plot revolves around this guy who gets himself thrown into prison in order to escape with his brother, who's on death row. His brother is accused of killing the vice president's brother, but supposedly was set up by the Secret Service.

Who really wanted the VP's brother dead? Well, apparently the VP's bro was a big environmentalist and advocate for clean energy. Matter of fact, his company, EcoField, had recently developed a "prototype electric engine." "Sixty dollar barrels of oil would be obsolete if this thing ever made it to the mainstream," says one character. She and a fellow investigator speculate about who might want him out of the way -- oil companies, or perhaps the government of an oil-based economy. "Like the United States," says fellow investigator darkly.

Indeeed ...

Find solar

Via TH, the launch of the very cool FindSolar.com, a site where you can punch in your zip code to find solar installation professionals near you, and find out how much such an installation will cost. Mainstreaming solar: love it.

An interview with green evangelical leader Richard Cizik

Polluters will have to answer to God, not just government, according to Richard Cizik. Vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, Cizik is a pro-Bush Bible-brandishing reverend zealously opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and embryonic stem-cell research. He is also on a mission to convert tens of millions of Americans to […]

The Sound and the … Eh

Fisheries Service offers mild plan to preserve Puget Sound orcas The much-beloved and much-beleaguered orcas of Puget Sound in Washington state are the focus of a tepid new National Marine Fisheries Service conservation plan. It emphasizes cleaning up the sound, preventing oil spills, and trying to boost the salmon population — pretty much what the […]

Stan in the Place Where You Live

Mexico and Central America reel under latest gulf hurricane The name “Stan” does not typically inspire fear (even if it’s better than “Stanley”), but a hurricane with that moniker has been wreaking havoc down south. In what is sure to be another blow to North America’s hobbled energy supply, all three of Mexico’s crude-oil loading […]

Sport Futility Vehicles

SUV sales take a dive as gas prices ascend It seems America is suffering from some shrinkage. SUV sales plummeted in September, compared to the same period last year. Ford Motor Co. reported a 55 percent-plus freefall in sales of mega-SUVs like the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator; sales of its F-series pickup trucks also dove […]

The best idea George Bush never had

Today the feds unveiled a new conservation campaign, complete with energy hog cartoon mascot. Although the New York Times reported this as a shift in energy policy, it seems more like a ... pause.

We came across this transcript of a telephone call between President Bush and Energy Secretary Sam Bodman (who told the Times that "new supplies were still essential but that they were a long-term solution").

Bush: Sam, hey. It's George.

Bodman: Hi George.

Bush: Great. Listen, I been thinking, we need some kinda mascot around this whole energy thing. Some kinda ... bear or something. That mascot thing worked real well when I was at the Rangers. People love to hug. They'd love to hug a bear. They would.

Bodman: A mascot, sir?

Ride the white crony

Speaking of TIME, and of more pressing short-term threats to our environmental health: Check out "How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?" It is, as you might suspect from the title, an investigation into how many other important government agencies are now headed by Bush administration cronies with no qualifications and no principles aside from their loyalty to Bush.

Scary, scary stuff. And it doesn't even touch on the EPA and FWS and other eco-related agencies, which as we all know are led by and increasingly (as long-timers leave in disgust) staffed with ex-industry lobbyists.

This kind of rot and incompetence at the core of our government is one of those dire threats that environmentalists pay insufficient heed to, what with it not being "environmental." Heed should be paid.

(Anybody get that title reference?)

Hurricanes and global warming, part 548,389

I'm sure everybody's sick of reading about it by now, but if not, TIME has a cover story on whether global warming is responsible for the recent hurricane damage.

After going on and on about how mixed and controversial and ambiguous the science is, it concludes:

In Washington successive administrations have ignored greenhouse warnings, piling up environmental debt the way we have been piling up fiscal debt. The problem is, when it comes to the atmosphere, there's no such thing as creative accounting. If we don't bring our climate ledgers back into balance, the climate will surely do it for us.

This is certainly a valid perspective, but it seems basically unconnected to what came before it. Global warming may do many bad things over the long haul, but raising average hurricane wind speeds from 100mph to 105mph doesn't really seem like one that's well-suited for the kind of rabble-rousing everyone is trying to use it for.

McMansions on the wane?

This NYT article on the alleged leveling off of new home sizes is a rather mild ray of hope given where we need to get, but it's worth reading. I found this bit particularly amusing:

In less populous areas, builders of large houses are derided for despoiling the natural environment. Arthur Spiegel, who is retired from the import-export business, is building a 10,000-square-foot house in Lake Placid, N.Y., in the Adirondacks. The hilltop house has brought protests from the Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, and construction has been halted by local building authorities.

Mr. Spiegel said that the house "is only 6,500 square feet, unless you count the basement," and that it's the right size for his extended family to gather in for ski vacations.