quotables

Thirteen years ago

"There's a strong possibility that Barack will pursue a career in politics, although it's not very clear yet."

-- Michelle Obama, in a 1996 interview with Le Monde (which also included her husband) that's just been published in English for the first time

Bush on Kyoto, on his way out the door

"I listened, I've told people, 'Yes, you can try to be popular.' In certain quarters in Europe, you can be popular by blaming every Middle Eastern problem on Israel. Or you can be popular by joining the International Criminal Court. I guess I could have been popular by accepting Kyoto, which I felt was a flawed treaty, and proposed something different and more constructive."

-- President George W. Bush at his final press conference

Black lung is back!

"After a couple of years, something changed. I began to see the type of disease that was only in the textbooks -- this massive fibrosis, where the lung is basically destroyed. It's nothing but black scar tissue. I was incredulous. And it was young people. It wasn't the older miners. I thought, something is wrong here. We decided we'd better do some research."

-- Dr. Edward L. Petsonk, head of the black lung program for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, on the recent resurgence of the disease, once a scourge among coal miners but virtually eliminated in the 1970s

On the challenge of cellulosic ethanol

"There is only one problem: the United States is not producing any second-generation non-corn ethanol in significant quantities at the moment. So a whole new industry will have to be brought into existence within less than four years and become one of the largest industries in the United States within the next 10 years."

-- Reuters columnist John Kemp, "Obama's Biofuel Challenge"

Will the McMansion ever die?

"The McMansion has almost become embarrassing to some people. They're listening not just to their wallet but their conscience."

-- Illinois builder Scott Van Duzor on the slowing of the McMansion trend (forgive us if we're skeptical -- we've heard this one before)

Prehistory called, it wants its worldview back …

“Environmental issues are a luxury good. Now we have to tighten our belt and to cut the luxury.” — Czech President Vaclav Klaus, criticizing the newly signed E.U. climate deal

Chu on the enemy of the human race

“Coal is my worst nightmare.” — Steven Chu, Obama’s nominee for energy secretary, a Nobel laureate, and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in a speech earlier this year on his lab’s renewable energy projects

You haven’t heard the last of me, you meddling kids!

“What they don’t know is, I’m going to go back and kick their ass.” — Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), on his plan for revenge against his colleagues on the Natural Resources Committee, who just forced him out with the threat of a no-confidence vote

Carter to Obama: Don’t chip a tooth!

“It was like gnawing on a rock.” — Former president Jimmy Carter, on his efforts to change America’s energy habits