dumbassery

Dem Disease claims another victim

Beware Dem Disease.Joseph Aldy worked for a while as a top energy aide in Obama’s White House. Apparently, while he was there he caught Dem Disease. Dem Disease is an affliction that causes sufferers to prioritize being viewed as reasonable over securing reasonable policy. The primary symptom is a Tourette’s-like inability to keep from revealing […]

House committee votes to deny climate change

Click for a larger version [PDF].Written with guest blogger Kristen Bartoloni, Researcher for Progress Central. Today, Republicans in the House energy committee voted not once, not twice, but three times [all PDFs], against amendments recognizing that climate change is real, despite the broad scientific consensus that “climate change is happening and human beings are a major reason for it.” They […]

Fred Upton pursues EPA down the rabbit hole

In what will mark the first vote on Republican efforts to prevent EPA from reducing climate pollution, a House Energy subcommittee is expected today to take up legislation from Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.). [See update at the bottom of post.] Their bill would amend the Clean Air Act to forbid […]

Is climate denialism postmodern?

Jack Handey has nothing on his deep thoughts.Photo: Satyakam KhadikarA few months ago, in a post about the larger significance of the right’s climate denialism, I said this: “Here we are hip-deep in postmodernism and it came from the right, not the left academics they hate.” In a New York Times Magazine piece last weekend, […]

What's behind Newt Gingrich's proposal to abolish the EPA?

Everyone on the internets is busy mocking Newt Gingrich's call to abolish the EPA. And that is as it should be -- I would never ask anyone to stop mocking Newt Gingrich. Rarely has the universe mixed pomposity and dimwittery into such an exquisitely mockworthy package. I do want to note, however, that what Gingrich is trying to pull off is not just old-fashioned Republican-style "leave corporate polluters alooooone!" Don't get me wrong: Newt wants to remove constraints on polluters! But he knows (unlike his buddies in Congress) that such a baldly retrograde position will not be popular with the public, which actually likes clean air. So he needs some kind of alternative. That's why he's proposing to replace the EPA with something called the Environmental Solutions Agency.

Clean energy grants extended for a year; still a dumb way to do things

It looks like a one-year extension of the renewable-energy grant program has made it into the tax bill now brewing in Congress. It's much, much better than the alternative, but it's also no way to run a country.

The only thing 'green' about NASCAR's switch to corn ethanol is the cash

Using an energy-hogging fuel to gas up cars circling a track is absurd. NASCAR might want to ask its fans whether they'd rather watch races -- or be able to fish in clean water or hunt in abundant habitat.

Ignorance, intensity, and climate politics

The New York Times editorial board had a nice piece this Sunday condemning GOP obscurantism on climate change. It reminds me that I want to double down on my contention that telling the truth about climate change will prove to be good long-term politics for the left.

Stupid goes viral: Climate Zombies of Oregon, Hawaii, Minnesota, and northern Rocky Mountains

I finish up all states west of the Rockies, throw in Minnesota, and find not one, but two Republican incumbents who admit the reality of climate change