House Republicans arrest journalist at fracking hearing

by: wade norris

Wed Feb 01, 2012 at 14:07:23 PM MST

In a stunning break with First Amendment policy on Capitol Hill, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Republicans also denied the entrance of a credentialed ABC News news team that was attempting to film the event....
Approximately 16 officers entered the hearing room and handcuffed Fox amid audible discussions of "disorderly conduct" charges, according to Democratic sources present at the arrest.

We don't need no stinkin' EPA?

by: Zappatero

Sat Jan 21, 2012 at 17:16:28 PM MST

And if the free market is so virtuous, he could also explain why SUNCOR Energy shouldn't use any of its enormous profits to contain the toxic fluids still leaking into Denver's waterways.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada's largest energy company, said second-quarter profit rose 4.1% as higher oil prices countered a decline in output.

Net income climbed to $562 million, or 36 cents a share, from $540 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier, Calgary-based Suncor said Thursday in a statement.

The Free Market, as defined by Republicans, let's you extract energy at low cost with minimal safety requirements. It gives free license to take the profits of your efforts without taxation and with no further responsibilities to anyone but your shareholders and Board, nevermind the Benzene at 48 times its normal accumulation in you and your family's drinking water.

On Hole Cards, Or, "Drill, Baby, Drill"? Why? Is Canada Out Of Sand?

by: fake consultant

Wed May 25, 2011 at 02:35:04 AM MST

Naturally, this has brought the Sarah Palins of the world back out in public, and once again the mantra of "Drill, Baby, Drill" can be heard all the way from the Florida coast to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But what if those folks have it exactly backwards?

What if, in a world of depleting oil resources, the last thing you want to do is use yours up?

To put it another way: why isn't all our oil part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

USAToday Compares Climate Change Deniers To Birthers

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Tue May 24, 2011 at 06:40:44 AM MST

Is there a pent up wave of sanity ready to overtop the Republican/Teahadist/Fox dam of reality denial? If you are a glass-half-full person like myself, then you might think so. We have seen the utter collapse of the Birther movement since the president released his long form birth certificate. We are seeing a vast majority of the nation rejecting the idea that we need to lower taxes on the wealthy, especially if it means messing with Medicare and Medicaid.

The reality that gay citizens are really no different from any other citizen and should not be singled out for different treatment is gaining strength both in the courts and the public. Recent decisions in courts have demolished, as a finding of fact, most of the arguments against adoption and marriage for gay citizens. In the world of public opinion the issue of marriage equality is polling above 50% for the first time and shows no sign of going the other way.

Today we see another sign that things may be on the change. USAToday has published and editorial that is comparing climate change deniers to Birthers. This is a big step because the denial of climate change has been going into high gear among Republicans and while it is to be expected in that many of the positions of the modern Republican party are flatly contrary to reality, the numbers of them have an affect on public sentiment that allows these kinds of things a legitimacy they do not deserve

On Redistribution, Or, "Afghanistan Peace Dividend Stimulus Lotto? OK!"

by: fake consultant

Thu May 12, 2011 at 06:22:59 AM MST

I mean, we're over here talking about how we're so broke that we have no choice but to cut a couple of billion from heat assistance for the poor, and a billion-and-a-half from the Social Security operations budget, and money from food stamps and childcare assistance and tornado forecasting in Alabama...but every single month, just as regular as clockwork, we seem to be able to find another $10 billion to spend in Afghanistan, even as we have an economy that could badly use another round of truly productive stimulus.

And I don't think y'all even realize just how much money $10 billion really is - but today we're gonna see if we can't fix that with a bit of a thought exercise.

Imagine if we set up a program that took that Afghanistan money and spent it right here at home for a year or two - and it was spent in the form of a lottery, where we stimulate the larger economy, help fix the mortgage crisis, and create a more energy-independent nation, all at the same time.

I got all we need except a catchy name; with that in mind let's move on to the description of how the Happy Super Fun Day Peace Lotto Stimulus Thingy works.  

Supreme Court deals setback for Environmental Activists and Refugees

by: wade norris

Sat Apr 23, 2011 at 12:59:48 PM MST

On September 21, 2009,
the Second Circuit made an important decision on a case known as
Connecticut vs American Electric Power.
Without going into too much detail, this was a case several groups like the Audubon society were trying to stop coal plant emissions because it was harming the value of their land trusts. The lower court ruled as other courts have, that Climate Change was part of the political realm, not the courts.
However, the appellate court overturned this decision on the grounds that the Energy company were causing a public nuisance, and nuisance cases have been heard by courts for decades.

"Nowhere in their complaints do plaintiffs ask the court to fashion a comprehensive and far-reaching solution to global climate change, a task that arguably falls within the purview of the political branches. Instead, they seek to limit emissions from six domestic coal-fired electricity plants on the ground that such emissions constitute a public nuisance that they allege has caused, is causing and will continue to cause them injury."

Unfortunately, as of April 20th, 2011, it seems that even the 'liberal' judges on the Supreme court are going to side with the Utilities :

   Justice Elena Kagan also questioned the scope of the case, refuting Underwood's argument that public nuisance pollution suit was like any other pollution suit. "All those other pollution suits that you've been talking about are much more localized affairs. One factory emitting discharge into one stream-they don't involve these kinds of national/international policy issues ... I mean, there's a huge gap, a chasm between the precedents you have and this case, isn't there?"

   Justice Ruth Ginsburg, meanwhile, questioned the court's jurisdiction in setting standards for emissions. "Asking a court to set standards for emissions sounds like the kind of thing that EPA does," she said. "The relief you're seeking seems to me to set up a district judge, who does not have the resources, the expertise, as a kind of super-EPA."

Natural Gas Better Than Nuclear? Um, Not Really

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 06:43:15 AM MST

When a system is constrained to bad choices, there is a tendency to bounce from solution to solution, as the drawbacks of each crappy choice become public and the cry goes out for a change. This is where we find ourselves in regards to electric power generation in the United States.

Coal is very, very dirty in terms of carbon, in terms of disposal of ash (fun fact, coal ash is mildly radioactive due to the fact that there is some Carbon-14 in almost all coal) in terms of lives and health lost in acquiring it. Though there is a huge amount of it and it is relatively cheap (as long as you don't worry about miners lives).

Oil has all the same problems but it is more expensive and we have nowhere near enough of it to make it cheap in any way, shape or form.

Nuclear has been being pushed (side note: as a technophile I love nuclear power, but really something this dangerous should not be as widely used as it is in a country that allows big industry to lobby away safety regulations), but for obvious reasons that is going to have a lot of resistance in the future.  

On Being A Titan, Part One, Or, See It, Say It, Sue It

by: fake consultant

Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 04:20:29 AM MST

Two local activists in particular have drawn the ire of Titan Cement, the Grecian corporation who seeks to build the plant-and because the Company doesn't like what the activists have been saying about what the impact of that plant will likely be or how the deal's going down...they're suing Kayne Darrell and Dr. David Hill, residents of North Carolina's New Hanover County, and the two folks who are doing the complaining the Company dislikes the most.

The Company further claims that they were slandered and defamed by the damaging statements that were uttered by the two at a county commissioners' meeting and that they have lost goodwill and the chance to do business with certain parties as a result of these statements.

But what if everything the Defendants said was not only true...but provably so-and the Company was, maybe...just looking to shut people up by sending teams of lawyers after them?

As I said, it's a simple story today-but it's a good one.

On Why Voting Matters, Or, Could You Outrun The Toxic Red Flood?

by: fake consultant

Wed Oct 06, 2010 at 21:52:53 PM MST

Now I could give you a bunch of "what ifs" to make my point, or I could remind you how we spent all summer watching oil gush into the Gulf, and how that came to be...but, instead, it's "Even More Current Event Day", and we're going to visit Hungary for a extremely real-world reminder of what can go wrong when the environmental cops are considered just too much of a burden by the environmental robbers-and if today's story doesn't scare you to death, I don't know what will.

It ain't Texas, but we will surely visit a Red River Valley...and you surely won't like what you're gonna see.

Colorado GOP to EPA: Keep your noses out of our fracking fluid

by: ArgusFest

Wed Jul 28, 2010 at 01:10:40 AM MST

Eighteen Republican members of the Colorado State Legislature Monday sent a letter (pdf) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) demanding the federal agency refrain from regulating the natural gas drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," no matter what a two-year EPA study of the process reveals.

Landowners and environmentalists around the country are increasingly concerned about instances in which they claim fracking has contaminated streams and drinking water sources. Oil and gas industry officials mostly resist attempts to further regulate the process, which was granted an exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act during the Bush administration.

"The EPA shouldn't stick its nose into the regulation of fracking or other oil and gas industry practices in states," state Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, said in a release. "Once the EPA completes its study, states should maintain jurisdiction over oil and gas operations."

While the letter was addressed to the EPA, the matter is actually up to Congress, where U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, and Jared Polis, D-Boulder, introduced the FRAC (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals) Act in 2009. The bill requires full public disclosure of the chemicals used in the fracking process, which industry officials say amount to trade secrets.

Still, a growing number of companies are offering up some form of disclosure in order to head off looming federal regulation.

"Oil and gas employers have already been barraged by new regulations in Colorado, making it harder for them to do business in the state, particularly during these tough economic times," Renfroe added, referring to amended drilling rules that went into effect last year and provide higher levels of public safety and environmental protection. "The last thing we need are further industry-crushing regulations out of Washington, D.C., that will cause even more lost jobs in Colorado."

Proponents of those new regulations say the industry has actually gained greater regulatory certainty through the new drilling regs and that other states are all moving toward models similar to Colorado's.

Republican state Rep. Randy Baumgardner, whose House District 57 includes heavily drilled Garfield County, also signed Monday's letter.

More Nails in the Coffins of the Climate Change Deniers

by: Lowell Feld NRDC Action Fund

Wed Jul 07, 2010 at 09:42:09 AM MST

As if we needed any more evidence demonstrating that anthropogenic climate change is real, that it is occurring right now, and that it poses a major threat to the planet's environment, we now have it -- in spades. Let's begin with the assessment by a Penn State University investigation, which completely exonerated climate scientist Michael Mann from any wrongdoing in the ridiculous, trumped-up, never-any-truth-to-it, pseudo-"scandal" known as "climate-gate." In reaction to this report, former House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) -- full disclosure, Boehlert's on the NRDC Action Fund board -- issued a statement which read:

This exoneration should close the book on the absurd episode in which climate scientists were unjustly attacked when in fact they have been providing a great public service. The attacks on scientists were a manufactured distraction, and today's report is a welcome return to common sense. While scientists can now focus on their work, policy makers need to address the very real problem of climate change.

Well said, Congressman, and keep up the great work, Professor Mann!

Next, just to pound the final nails into the coffins of the climate change deniers, a major, independent review by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency was released on July 5. The report's main conclusions were crystal clear:

• "no errors that would undermine the main conclusions in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on possible future regional impacts of climate change"
• "the summary conclusions are considered well founded, none have been found to contain any significant errors"
• "ample observational evidence of regional climate change impacts, which have been projected to pose substantial risks to most parts of the world, under increasing temperatures"

In fairness, the Dutch report leveled several criticisms of the IPCC report: 1) even the few, minor errors shouldn't have been allowed to slip by; 2) the report's summary statement should have been written to provide a higher amount of transparency regarding its sources and methods; and 3) the report tended to focus solely on the adverse consequences of climate change, not on potentially positive impacts. These are non-trivial issues that need to be addressed. Having said that, as Joe Romm points out, "the overwhelming majority of research since the IPCC has found that the IPCC has consistently underestimated many key current and future impacts, particularly sea level rise (and carbon-cycle feedbacks)."

In the end, the bottom line from these reports is clear: the science behind human-induced climate change has emerged from this entire, ridiculous, episode overwhelmingly intact -- if not strengthened. The only real question now is, what are we going to do about it?

On The Smartest Investment Ever, Or, Wanna Restart The Economy?

by: fake consultant

Wed Jul 07, 2010 at 04:44:08 AM MST

We need to have another one of those conversations today; this time the circumstances are a lot more positive-in fact, if the Administration follows my suggestions here, we have a real chance to put the Democrats on the road to victory, not just this November, but also in 2012.

What I'm proposing will create hundreds of thousands, if not millions of jobs, and it will stimulate millions more as we create a national source of discount electrical power that can be used by business and consumers alike.

Here's the best part: it's no "pie in the sky" promotion I'm offering here; we've already done the same thing before, it's been working out well for almost three quarters of a century...and even better than all that...my idea first pays for itself, and then...it actually makes the Federal Government a profit, forever after.

TX Oil Companies Try to Kill CA Clean Energy Legislation

by: NRDC Action Fund

Thu Jun 24, 2010 at 11:38:17 AM MST

Why should you care?  Let us count the ways.

Republicans Intervene In Traffic Accident, Call Settlement "Shakedown"

by: fake consultant

Thu Jun 24, 2010 at 04:34:03 AM MST

The intervening attorneys claim the settlement reached between the two parties to the accident is a "shakedown" because the plaintiff had not yet exhausted all possible legal remedies when the agreement was finalized, and because the agreement was executed in the presence of the plaintiff's brother, a well-known local attorney.

They hope Judge Bryan will decline to approve the settlement in today's hearing, and that he will order the parties to move forward to trial.

"What we have is government transferring property from one party, an admittedly unattractive one, to others, not based on preexisting laws but on decisions by one man, a car czar", said Crush Mimbaugh, attorney for the RSG, "and we are here today to protect all Americans from this legally sanctioned rape of an innocent driver."

Methane at 1 million times above normal in Gulf

by: wade norris

Wed Jun 23, 2010 at 12:29:22 PM MST

As much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

At Black Tie Ceremony, Feith Passes Torch To Barton

by: fake consultant

Mon Jun 21, 2010 at 03:46:33 AM MST

Well, I had one Saturday night, which is how I came to be in the Colonnade Room of the Fairmount Hotel, Washington DC with about 250 of my closest friends, in a classic shawl-collar tuxedo, attending one of the most exclusive "passing of the torch" ceremonies in recent Washington memory.

And when it was all over, Douglas Feith was a happy man.

On Prioritizing, Or, Senate Democrats: Regulating Climate Change, Or Not So Much?

by: fake consultant

Thu Jun 17, 2010 at 06:04:41 AM MST

Today's topic: climate change.

As you know, there is a lot of legislation floating around Capitol Hill that would begin to use some sort of market-based mechanism to reduce the amount of carbon we emit.

None of it will move unless it moves through the Senate, and today, that's what we'll be talking about.

Matter of fact, they will be too.  

On Poor Management, Or, Did You Know There Was Another Deepwater?

by: fake consultant

Tue Jun 15, 2010 at 21:52:03 PM MST

While BP is the legally responsible party, out on the water it will be up to the Coast Guard to manage the Federal response, and to determine that BP is running things in a way that gets the work done not only correctly and safely, but, in a world of limited resources, efficiently.

Which brings us to the obvious question: can the Coast Guard manage such a complex undertaking?

While we hope they can, you need to know that the Coast Guard has been trying to manage the replacement of their fleet of ships and aircraft for about a decade now...and the results have been so stunningly bad that you and I are now the proud owners of a small flotilla of ships that can never be used, because if they go to sea, they might literally break into pieces.

It's an awful story, and before we're done you'll understand why Deepwater was already an ugly word around Headquarters, years before that oil rig blew up.  

On Setting Things Straight, Or, An Open Letter To The United Kingdom

by: fake consultant

Sun Jun 13, 2010 at 20:52:46 PM MST

I just wanted to take a minute to say hello and to see how things have been for you lately, and to maybe bring you up to date on a bit of news from here.

Well, right off the bat, we hear you have a new Conservative Prime Minister and that his Party and Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems are in partnership, which I'm sure will be interesting; you probably heard that us Colonials are again having Tea Parties, which has also been very interesting.

I have a Godson who's getting married this September, so we're all talking about that, and I hear Graham Norton was even better than last year at hosting Eurovision, despite the fact that it's...frankly, it's Eurovision.

Oh, yeah...we also had a bit of an oil spill recently that you may have heard about-and hoo, boy; you should see how the Company that spilled the oil has been acting.

On Responding To Oil, Or, "Disaster, Or Emergency, Or Neither?"

by: fake consultant

Sat Jun 05, 2010 at 10:52:55 AM MST

There have been suggestions that the Administration should take action to essentially push BP out of the way and take over the work itself, particularly as it relates to the cleanup.

It may have even occurred to you that an official declaration of some sort might be needed, in order to bring the full power of the Feds into play.

That's some good thinking, but before we go jumping right into declaring things we better understand the law, because if we don't, we could actually make things worse.