Articles by David Roberts

BLM’s Erick Campbell on creative editing

You may recall a story from last week about a BLM environmental impact statement on public-lands grazing that was, uh, "edited" in a way that made it much more sympathetic to the practice.

Well, one of the guys who wrote the original report -- recently retired BLM scientist Erick Campbell -- shared his thoughts on the matter in a guest post over on the Al Franken Show blog. It's a pretty close analysis of the original report and how it was changed, but the conclusion is not complicated:

In my 30 years with the federal government, this is without question the most heavy handed and disingenuous administration I have witnessed.

The power of ideas, or rather, the lack thereof

In The New Republic, Jonathan Chait has one of the best essays on politics I've read this year. Sadly, it's a cover story, available only to TNR subscribers.

(Bugmenot will give you a working name and password, but that's ethically questionable, so of course I'd never advocate it.)

Chait is responding to the notion, which has become conventional wisdom lately, that Republicans are ascendant because they are the "party of new ideas" and the Dems are on the rocks because they're bereft of new ideas.

It is flattering to elected officials, campaign consultants, policy wonks, and political junkies to think that ideas and policy proposals are the driving forces in American political life. But it's wrong. Campaign tactics, candidates' personal charisma, and outside circumstances are what drive elections.

I'll put some juicy excerpts below the fold, but if you're interested in politics, it really is worth doing whatever you can -- even subscribing to TNR -- to read the piece.

Gas saver

I return today from a week spent reuniting with family at a state park in Middle Tennessee, where I was raised (the state, I mean, not the state park). I didn't spot any hybrids, but this scrappy, rusting gem -- sitting in a patch of grass off the highway, next to a sunken old garage I believe doubles as a used car dealership and quite possibly a residence -- shows that even in rural America, they know the value of fuel efficiency.

Happy Independence Day, y'all.

Carbon confusion

Joel Makower has a must-read post on the intricacies of so-called climate neutrality.

Say Company X manufactures a material; one day, it figures out how to manufacture the material more efficiently, or make it lighter, or some such.

The material is used by Company Y to make a product. With X's more-efficient, lighter material, Y is able to make its product lighter and more efficient, and thus reduce the product's CO2 emissions.

Who gets credit for the carbon reduction? A or B?

Now that CO2 emissions credits are a tradable commodity -- that is, worth money -- this is not an academic question. Figuring out just how credits are allocated is going to become a more and more pressing matter in coming years.

And, as Joel's post illustrates, it's going to be anything but a simple undertaking.