insanity

Rejecting and renouncing

Hillary Clinton has been pushing Congresscritters to take a stand on her gas tax gimmick. Now a group of 28 members of the House of Representatives have issued a statement in which they “unequivocally” reject the notion of a gas tax holiday.

McCain and Clinton: job killers

According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, the gas tax holiday proposed by John McCain and Hillary Clinton would destroy 23,107 jobs in California alone. UPDATE: Steve’s got a point. The ARTBA report only criticizes McCain’s proposal, because McCain proposes no replacement for the lost revenue. I should have looked more closely at […]

Clinton vows to take down OPEC

Now Clinton’s going to dissolve OPEC: “We’re going to go right at OPEC,” she said. “They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get together once every couple of months in some conference room in some plush place in the world, they decide how much oil they’re going to produce and what price […]

A gas tax holiday would be cynical and indefensible

(I write this post with some sadness. I would not have expected a major progressive politician who obviously cares about global warming to propose a gas tax holiday, which has no public benefits whatsoever and at the same time undermines the entire rationale behind a national climate strategy that includes, as it must, a pricing mechanism for greenhouse gases. Kudos to Sen. Obama for opposing this absurd proposal -- double kudos because it might cost him a few votes.)

The gas tax holiday proposed by McCain and Clinton is indefensible. That, of course, is why just about every independent observer has criticized it. The Washington Post and, separately, Huffington Post have catalogued an impressive list of serious critiques, starting with the rather obvious point that in a demand-driven price shock, a gas tax holiday probably won't even save consumers a penny -- it will just enrich the poor, suffering oil companies:

Brand cites Grist

Stewart Brand just stood up and used Grist (and Treehugger, and Worldchanging) as an example of how young environmentalists are coming around to support nuclear power. Huh?

Notable quotable

“I think some people have overlooked the major news that the President made yesterday, which was committing a national economy-wide goal to halt carbon emissions.” — White House spokesflack Tony Fratto, confusing a policy that would allow unrestrained growth of carbon emissions for the next 17 years for one that would “halt” carbon emissions

Yes, according to a new ‘artisanal’ restaurant in Atlanta

A press release heralding a new restaurant in Atlanta crossed my email inbox recently. Everything seemed pretty standard at first: Holeman and Finch Public House, opening April 14, intends to serve “food and drink … with unrivaled quality and care.” The chef evidently revels in “whole-animal preparations” and plans to make his own “charcuterie such […]

MoJo uncovers the eco-spies

Mother Jones has a blockbuster scoop today on the private security firm that spied on green groups on behalf of corporate clients: A private security company organized and managed by former Secret Service officers spied on Greenpeace and other environmental organizations from the late 1990s through at least 2000, pilfering documents from trash bins, attempting […]

Notable quotable

“I wouldn’t want anyone taking those medicines and having to make decisions in a safety-sensitive position.” — Dr. Robert Bourgeois on the pills, “including lorazepam, an antianxiety medicine; Imitrex for migraines; Provigil to increase wakefulness; and Darvon Compound-65 for pain” being taken by Capt. John Cota, pilot of the container ship that plowed into the […]