Articles by David Roberts

Saline solutions

Last October, in a Gristmill guest essay, Lloyd G. Carter described attempts by agribiz interests in California's powerful Westlands Water District to suck more subsidized water out of California's rivers.  Now the District is locked in another battle -- this one over toxic soil -- that could end up costing taxpayers $1 billion. Bill Walker, west coast VP of the Environmental Working Group, explains.

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In a repeat of a scheme that led to one of the worst wildlife disasters in the nation's history, federal water bureaucrats are on the brink of a decision that could kill thousands of migratory birds in California's San Joaquin Valley each year -- and will cost taxpayers $1 billion.

No Onion, but it’ll do

Dave Letterman's Top Ten Dumb Guy Ideas For Lowering Gas Prices:

10. Make all roads downhill.
9. Cheaper self-service price if you pump the oil and refine it yourself.
8. Gas comes from dinosaurs, so all we need are more dinosaurs.
7. Invade Iraq.
6. Give Cheney a sawed-off shotgun and have him stick up an Exxon.
5. Tax cuts for the rich.
4. Get Bush and the Middle East to straighten everything out on Oprah.
3. Jet packs for everyone.
2. Gas only costs 12 cents a gallon in Venezuela; drive to Venezuela for gas.
1. Get tubby genius Al Gore to figure it out.

(via Sierra Club blog)

Michaels wants the balance balanced

Oh man, this is too hilarious:

It seems that [notorious climate skeptic Pat] Michaels called [CNN Friday's Peter] Dykstra to complain that the network doesn't do enough to bring out the side of those who question the thesis that human industrial and transportation activity is warming the globe. Dykstra politely disagreed, but he was curious. So he took the time to look up all of the network's pieces on the topic.

The expert CNN quoted most? Dr. Patrick Michaels. By a factor of two.

A dash of persecution complex really gives the ignorance a nice flavor, doesn't it?

Locking in global warming

What do you call it when a society knowingly cripples itself? I'm not sure. But historians studying our strange slow-motion self-immolation will find much to ponder in articles like this:

Top executives at many utility companies have reluctantly accepted that coal-fired power plants contribute to global warming, and they have begun planning for a more restrictive future.

Then there is C. John Wilder, chief executive of TXU Corp. The Dallas-based utility company is racing to build 11 big power plants in Texas that will burn pulverized coal. That process releases substantial amounts of carbon dioxide, the most worrisome of several heat-trapping gases widely blamed for global warming.

TXU contends Texas needs a lot more power, and it wants to be the company to provide it. Critics of its $11 billion construction program see another motivation: The federal government may slap limits on carbon-dioxide emissions. If it does, plants completed sooner may have a distinct advantage. That's because the government may dole out "allowances" to release carbon dioxide, and plants up and running when regulations go into effect may qualify for more of them than those built at a later date.

Obscene enough. But then, get this: