Latest Articles
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Gore is transforming into fiery climate evangelist
Al Gore. Photo: The House Policy Committee. Al Gore, once derided by the right as a stiff, wooden Ozone Man, is now recasting himself as the fiery, headstrong Climate Avenger — a blunt and passionate spokesperson about what he calls “a collision between our civilization and the earth.” He is currently in negotiations to play […]
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Nothing to See Here, Folks
White House defends revisions of scientific reports on climate change The White House scrambled into damage-control mode after The New York Times revealed yesterday that a former oil lobbyist had revised scientific government reports on climate change to enhance the appearance of uncertainty. Pushed in a press briefing to respond to charges that the edits […]
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Tender Loving Scare
Babies in intensive care endangered by hormone-altering plastics Infants in hospital intensive care units have much higher levels of a hormone-altering chemical in their bodies than other newborns, according to a new study. The chemical, a phthalate called DEHP, is often added to vinyl — including some medical devices commonly used in natal intensive care […]
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The Swamp Bling
Bushies sought to overpay GOP supporters for Everglades mineral rights The Bush administration agreed to grossly overpay Florida’s family-owned Collier Resources Co. for oil and gas rights on 400,000 acres in the Everglades, according to Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney. In 2002, Interior Secretary Gale Norton triumphantly announced the deal as “a win for […]
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Acres and Pains
Senate panel recommends tighter regulation of land conservancies A two-year investigation by the Senate Finance Committee may lead to big changes in federal regulation of America’s land conservancies. The panel’s report recommends that the IRS “consider revoking the tax-exempt status of a conservation organization that regularly and continuously fails to monitor and enforce conservation easements” […]
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McClellan has his feet held to the climate change fire
The New York Times article yesterday detailing Philip Cooney's creative writing skills has been bouncing around the world as well as the blogosphere. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan had his feet held to the fire yesterday at the press briefing. One of his more interesting assertions:
Q: In every example that we have seen, and Mr. Cooney's emendations and deletions from these reports have been to the effect of making them less critical, less stringent, less apparently in need of immediate action. In other words, he's done everything in the examples we've seen to pull back from worst-case scenario. He is not a scientist.
It seemed the press corps sensed that McClellan was on the ropes with this topic, which led to zingers such as this one:MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's your opinion, and I think your opinion is wrong.
MR. McCLELLAN: Like I said, there are policy people and scientists who are involved in this process, in the interagency review process. And he's one of the policy people involved in that process, and someone who's very familiar with the issues relating to climate change and the environment.
It's fun to read; even better to watch [RealPlayer]. Fun in a depressing, upsetting kind of way.Q Because of his work lobbying for the oil industry?
Yesterday's press briefing was also the most time spent on an environmental topic in a White House press briefing in a long time.
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Umbra on clotheslines
Dear Umbra, We would like to install a clothesline this summer to take advantage of the few months of sun that we get here in Oregon. Any advice on the best kind, and how to keep air-dried clothes from feeling like cardboard? German WhitleyPhilomath, Ore. Dearest German, Excellent. If your power supplier is, as I […]
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A link dump.
Is there some sort of news and commentary deluge this week? It's enough to overwhelm a blogger, I tell you.
Anyway, since there are 50 new things to blog about, I'll leave the subject of peak oil behind for a while, with a final round-up of links.
- Despite my critique of his positive proposals, Kevin Drum really did do a public service with his peak oil series. Read it.
- Also worth reading -- though much of the material overlaps -- is Drum's review of Twilight in the Desert, by Matthew Simmons, wherein he makes the following points: a) most of the reasonably optimistic forecasts of our oil future rest on Saudi Arabia's spare capacity; b) Saudi Arabia doesn't actually have much spare capacity (the subject of Simmons' book), and thus, c)
... it's likely that we're now in a permanent state of near zero spare capacity, which in turn will lead to an increasingly unstable world. As we enter an era in which even Saudi Arabia has no spare capacity to smooth out supply disruptions elsewhere in the world, any blip in supply, whether from political unrest, terrorism, or merely unforeseen natural events, will cause prices to carom wildly. A world with $100 per barrel oil is bad enough, but a world in which a single pipeline meltdown could cause prices to skyrocket to $300 per barrel for a few months and then back down is far worse.
- Speaking of Simmons, The Agonist has an excellent three-part interview with him. Simmons says: "The current model is not sustainable. It is not sustainable but it is insatiable."
- Speaking of Drum (ha ha), The Oil Drum has an excellent rundown of the many ways that cheap oil undergirds our food production system.
- There's not much new in this E Magazine piece, but, well, there it is.
- And in the Macon, GA, Daily of all places, James Kunstler does that thing he does.
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Oil industry compares fuel prices to liquor.
Methinks the oil barons might be getting desperate. Either that, or they're doing their brainstorming in, uh, new locations. A new industry "study" makes the following startling announcement: Gas is cheaper than booze!
Here's what the study said: "On a per-barrel basis, gasoline is America's bargain liquid: 10 percent cheaper than bottled water, a third the cost of milk, a fifth the cost of beer, and less than 2 percent the cost of a bottle of Jack Daniels."
I guess that whole "you're only paying half as much as they do in Europe" argument didn't work. Thanks, guys, for bringing it to a level we can all comprehend.
