Climate Politics

So a Priest Walks Into an Environmental Protest …

Brazilian priest on hunger strike to stop water-diversion scheme Roman Catholic bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio has been fasting for 10 days in a modest chapel 600 feet from Brazil’s Sao Francisco River, aiming to halt a massive water-diversion project. The $1.8 billion government plan involves building hundreds of miles of canals and other infrastructure to […]

Hall and Votes

Choice to head FWS has iffy record on endangered species Dale Hall, a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will probably be confirmed today as the agency’s director by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. A full Senate vote on the confirmation is expected soon. Hall’s tenure at FWS seems notable […]

An interview with green evangelical leader Richard Cizik

Polluters will have to answer to God, not just government, according to Richard Cizik. Vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, Cizik is a pro-Bush Bible-brandishing reverend zealously opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and embryonic stem-cell research. He is also on a mission to convert tens of millions of Americans to […]

Porcine of the Times

Bush administration launches cartoon conservation campaign With gas prices already skyrocketing and home heating costs expected to follow, the Bush administration yesterday unveiled a long-term clean-energy and conservation program. Oh, wait, did we say “long-term clean-energy and conservation program”? What we meant was “cartoon character.” Yes, yesterday the Department of Energy (working with consumer group […]

The Drill of the Chase

Offshore and Arctic Refuge drilling out of House bill — for now House Republican efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and U.S. coastal waters to oil drilling are dead for now, but are likely to return, zombie-like, from the grave. Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) had offered legislation, intended as part of a larger […]

NYC cops crack down on bike event; media misunderstands it

Critical Mass, the monthly parade/protest/ride/celebration/cycling phenomenon has for years been billed as "bicycling's defiant celebration," but recently in NYC, it's been getting more defiant and less celebratory.

Ever since last year's truly huge Critical Mass ride during the Republican National Convention -- which attracted thousands and thousands of cyclists and worldwide media attention -- snarled traffic and resulted in 250 arrests and scores of bicycle seizures, NYC cops have been increasingly arrest-happy at NYC Critical Mass events, throwing over 500 cyclists in the slammer in just one year.

At issue (aside from the flaws of the whole government apparatus and its endemic biases, of course) are permits. Critical Mass, being essentially a spontaneous (though roughly scheduled) event, is also simply a bunch of people on bikes riding around at the same time. The cops still insist it requires a permit. No permit results in arrests and scads of no-fun bike seizures.

As the Village Voice recently reported:

Assistant Chief Bruce H. Smolka, head of NYPD's South Manhattan Borough Command, has declared in court that he regards seven cyclists or more as a 'procession,' requiring a special permit.

So watch out, road racers: you and six friends make a ride; you and seven friends are going to need a permit.

America’s Coast Wanted

House bill would open coasts, other areas to drilling Recent hurricane-related disruptions to Gulf Coast oil infrastructure may get the oil industry something it’s been after for years: a chance to drill off the U.S. coasts. Legislation sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) and approved last week by the House Resources Committee he chairs would […]

He’s Got His Head up His Act

House passes Pombo bill to overhaul Endangered Species Act On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would overhaul — critics say gut — the Endangered Species Act. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), passed on a 229 to 193 vote that didn’t break down along traditional party lines: 34 Republicans […]

Next Up: Jerry Bruckheimer on Defense Policy

Novelist Michael Crichton testifies before Senate on climate change As part of his ongoing attempts to defy parody, Senate Environment Committee chair James Inhofe (R-Okla.) convened a hearing yesterday on climate science, featuring as an “expert” witness … a novelist. Yup, it was Michael Crichton, whose latest thriller State of Fear casts global warming as […]

You’ve Got Gale

Interior Secretary urges more energy extraction on public lands According to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the current vicious hurricane season has taught the Bush administration a lesson, namely: Keep doing the same stuff. She says that Katrina and Rita show the folly of concentrating the nation’s fossil-fuel infrastructure in one geographic area, and that the […]