Articles by David Roberts
David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
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RNC chooses as new leader the author of 'drill, baby, drill'
After a contentious and somewhat clownish leadership battle, the Republican National Committee has finally (after six ballots) chosen its next leader: Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele.
Which gives me an excuse to share a little-known factoid: it was actually Steele -- not Sarah Palin, not Newt Gingrich, not Rudy Giuliani -- who coined the slogan "drill, baby, drill," which is likely to go down in history as the apotheosis of Republican intellectual achievement in the early 21st century.
I was there -- it was the third day of the RNC in St. Paul; Steele was one of the introductory speakers. Prior to this the slogan was "drill here, drill now, pay less," which works for a bumper sticker but is too long and complex for the right's base. It was Steele who freestyled the somewhat more digestible and catchy version.
It obviously caught Palin's ear, because she repeated it in her speech, and then it took off.
Congratulations, GOP. You've chosen well. Or at least appropriately.
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Email of the day
This just hit my inbox, from Gary T. Strasburg, DAF Civ, Chief, Environmental Public Affairs, US Air Force:
After a thorough review of project requirements and information submitted by a team of functional experts, the Air Force has determined proposals received for a coal-to-liquid synthetic fuel plant on Malmstrom AFB, Mont., are not viable and will no longer pursue possible development of a plant at the installation.
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Significant turning points in the rise of the domestic wind industry
"The wind industry now employs more people than coal mining in the United States," reports Todd Woody.
Jerome a Paris notes another portentous development:
For the fourth consecutive year, the US set records in 2008 for the construction of new wind farms, with more than 8,300MW installed in the year, making the country the leader for both yearly installations and, for the first time in many years, overall installed capacity (nudging out Germany which has long been the world leader).
(Despite that, he thinks 2009 will be a rough year for wind, thanks to the late renewal of the PTC and the credit crisis. He recommends a few ways the feds could support wind over the speed bump and help its long-term growth, namely stable, predictable federal rules, preferably a feed-in tariff.)
And finally, in Salon, Jeff Biggers writes about the battle over Coal River Mountain -- the cosmically evil Massey mining subsidiary that wants to blow the mountain up to get at coal vs. the scrappy grassroots coalition that wants to build a wind farm instead. Could this be another turning point in the making?
