Articles by David Roberts

More Marburger

I'd highly recommend this public presentation by and interview with White House science advisor John Marburger. Roger Pielke Jr.'s got some excerpts. Marburger's a bit of an enigma to me -- the interview is alternately thoughtful, thought-provoking, and maddening. Here's one excerpt:

Upcoming mercury policy

When the history of the Bush administration environmental record is written, there will be plenty of dark chapters. With the exception of its inaction on climate change, however, none will be so dark as its treatment of mercury.

We know that its handmaidens in Congress have distorted the science on mercury emissions. But there has also been a steady trickle of stories about its attempts to bias the policy-making process in favor of industry. In short: the Bushies favor a weak cap-and-trade program over the more traditional "maximum achievable control technology" approach. In endeavoring to justify this preference -- that is, to give it some justification other than "industry contributors favor it" -- they have done economic assessments that both the GAO and the EPA's own inspector general have found wanting.

Chris Mooney sums up the sordid episode. Go read it.

Let's be clear about what's happening. Later this week the Bush administration will announce a new cap-and-trade program to limit mercury emissions. That program will be based on economic analyses that have been publicly exposed as fraudulent. Power plants will save some money in the short-term; the economy as a whole will lose money in the long-term.

But more to the point: children will suffer unnecessarily.

So tell me -- I don't want to be "alarmist" -- what is the "reasonable" thing to say about this?

The argument

How did Dave Pollard get in my dome?

Oh yes, he’ll be back

Cali Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (whose name, bizarrely, I now know how to spell from memory) has his first challenger in the 2006 gubernatorial race.

This is so naive it's cute:

But some political observers say the question of whether Angelides, or any Democrat, can unseat Schwarzenegger in 2006 will turn on the events of the rest of this year.

Yes, if there's one thing the 2004 election showed, it's that "events" make or break a candidate!

First 2006 political prediction: Arnold is a lock.