Articles by David Roberts

Gas price demagoguery

In Daily Grist today, we did a little mocking:

The American public will take lots of things lying down -- inaction on climate change, ill-conceived wars, erosion of civil liberties -- but expensive gas? Hell no! With oil prices topping $75 a barrel, gas prices sneaking up on $3 a gallon, and some East Coast gas stations running dry, Americans are demanding demagoguery from their lawmakers, and lawmakers are asking "how high?"

Yeah, that was fun to write.

But if you want to see the hare-brained schemes popping up in Congress substantively demolished, check out this post from Robert Rapier over on R-Squared (a blog, by the way, that you should bookmark).

The Clean and Safe Energy Coalition tries to buy some green cred

I didn't really notice this when the big hubbub was going on last week, but did you know that ex-EPA administrator Christie Whitman and long-time anti-environmental zealot (and oh yeah, "Greenpeace co-founder") Patrick Moore are paid shills for the nuclear industry?

Organizers released a list of 58 companies and institutions and 10 people who they said were members of a new Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which Mr. Moore said would engage in "grass-roots advocacy." A spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade association of reactor operators, acknowledged that it was providing all of the financing, but would not say what the budget was.

That sound like "grass-roots" to you?

(More at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and a lot more on Moore on DailyKos. Also, check out the letters to the editor the WaPo received in response to Moore's op-ed, which are utterly devastating to it.)

The global warming dilemma

I've read three separate things in the past couple days that issue similar warnings:

• First, a much-discussed BBC Radio 4 show on "overselling climate change." Before your hackles rise: there were no "skeptics" interviewed for the piece, only experienced climate scientists.
• Second, an also-much-discussed piece by Andy Revkin in the NYT Week in Review, called "Yelling 'Fire' on a Hot Planet."
• Third, a conference call with climate scientist James Hansen, along with some Democratic staffers, environmental groups, and journalists, hosted by the National Environmental Trust. The only place I can find it covered is this execrable piece on the execrable CNS News, but it's got the quote I want.

Hansen was asked about the recent upsurge in media coverage of climate change:

Bush environmental nominations

The New York Times editorial board is not excited about Bush's two latest nominations for important environmental positions: William Wehrum to succeed Jeffrey Holmstead as head of air pollution programs at EPA, and Dirk Kempthorne to succeed Gale Norton as Interior Secretary. Read the editorial for details. I was struck by this passage:

Opposition to [Wehrum's] nomination has been building rapidly in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where the vote could break largely along party lines. If it does, the nomination may hinge on two senators whose views on Mr. Wehrum are not known: James Jeffords, an independent from Vermont and a consistent critic of the administration's clean air policies, and Lincoln Chafee, an environmentally inclined Republican moderate from Rhode Island.

Wow, I hope Chafee sees some political benefit in siding with environmentalists on this one. Ahem.