After 8 years of cronyism–that lead to the neglect and dismantling of a myriad of environmental protections–it’s going to seem weird to Mother Earth to actually feel protected.
I grew up in Massachusetts where the Kennedys—for all intents and purposes—are treated like royalty. I do hold Senator Ted Kennedy in very high regard for all the excellent work he has done in his 46 years in the U.S. Senate. That is why I am especially troubled by the senator’s long-standing opposition to the proposed offshore wind farm in Massachusetts. As news broke late last week that there might be yet another delay in the eight year battle to get Cape Wind approved, I had to wonder if Kennedy’s hand was somehow behind it. And according to reports, that is at least plausible.
As I reported yesterday**, Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar sent a letter to Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen asking for a delay in the Guard’s final recommendations on Cape Wind. Acting as Chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Oberstar’s letter demanded a delay for public comment on the project’s potential impact on marine radar.
Well, apparently it worked.
While the biggest news out of the energy and environmental world this week may have been a competition between the UN conference in Poznan, or perhaps the planned appointments of President-elect Obama’s environmental team or any other relevant news, the funniest news had a hands-down winner. That was, most certainly, the strange and sudden appearance of the ‘Clean Coal Carolers’ - an industry sponsored Flash animation of pieces of coal, dressed in warm hats and scarves, singing adaptations of traditional Christmas tunes. Only these songs were remixed to tout the brilliance and necessity of coal in American life.
On Friday, however, the Clean Coal Carolers ceased to exist. Thanks to an overwhelming voice of discontent with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity’s (ACCCE) marketing ploy, the cute little lumps of coal were retired just about as fast as they popped up. The page once reserved for the carolers (http://www.americaspower.org/carolers) now redirects to a post on the ACCCE blog, lamenting that it was “time for them to head home for the holidays.” From the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC to the pages of environmental blogs across the net, the Clean Coal Carolers were ridiculed into nonexistence.
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In what must have triggered a collective moan of ‘are you kidding me?’ from environmentalists and renewable energy advocates across the country and the world, Minnesota Representative Jim Oberstar, a Democrat, has asked the United States Coast Guard to delay its final recommendations on the proposed Cape Wind project. If built, the project would be the first offshore wind farm in the United States.
Oberstar, Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee sent a letter to Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen this week requesting an extension of at least 60 days to conduct a public comment period to gauge opinion on the wind farm’s potential impact on marine radar and safety.
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Maybe the Big 3 shouldn’t have served up all those SUV’s over the years.
Maybe our Super-Sized/BIGGER-is-better society should’ve called on a little common sense before purchasing 8-seater assualt vehicles that would only ever sit one or two people.
Well, hindsight is 20/20…
Author’s note: Author has (almost) nothing against SUV’s when they spend the majority of their life full of people/cargo/stuff. Some people need them–most simply want them.
House Passes Auto Industry Bailout; Oil Prices Continue to Drop
The Drive to Survive? U.S. auto bailout bill dies in Congress
In the December 1900 issue of Ladies Home Journal, John Elfreth Watkins put together a collection of predictions for the future of the United States and the world by the end of the 20th century. In “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”, Watkins surveyed a group of “the wisest and most careful men in our greatest institutions of science and learning” about “will have been wrought in his own field of investigation before the dawn of 2001.
Some of the predictions are uncannily accurate, yet others are more than a little wide of the mark. We’ve cherry-picked 14 enviro-related predictions and coupled them with a brief analysis of what actually happened. Enjoy.
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Just the announcement that President-elect Obama wants to hear: Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sheikholeslam wants Iran to build more nuclear power plants to provide electricity needs, rather than using oil and natural gas.Iran will have oil for over 100 years but once its energy resources is depleted, nuclear energy will be the only logical substitute
President-elect Barack Obama will soon announce current head of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Steven Chu as his Secretary of Energy. Filling the slot for EPA Administrator will be Lisa Jackson, Carol Browner will serve as Obama’s “climate czar” - much better termed by the job’s official title of Energy and Climate Coordinator, and Nancy Sutley will head the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
On Wednesday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $14 billion government rescue bailout for the automobile industry.This plan would provide emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler; however, Ford has stated it will not seek out federal loans. GM and Chrysler claim they will not be in business much longer without federal assistance. According to GM:
From plants to parks. From dealerships to driveways. From gas stations to grocery stores. What happens in the automotive industry affects each and every one of us. In fact, the collapse of the U.S.-based auto industry wouldn’t just impact the nearly 355,000 Americans directly employed by the Big Three. One out of every 10 people in America is employed in a service that is related to the U.S. auto industry. If a plant closes, so does its suppliers, the local stores, the hot dog vendors, and the local restaurants.
The House passed the American auto industry bailout bill largely along party lines. The final vote was 237 to 170, with 32 Republicans from auto industry states joining 205 Democrats in supporting the rescue package. Senate Republicans have the power to kill the measure, and the White House has failed to gain their support. In an effort to compromise with Republicans, House Democrats agreed to drop a provision in the auto industry bailout that would have forced the automakers to end their lawsuits challenging state emissions standards, such as in California. Read the rest of this entry »
For the last few months I’ve been keeping an eye on an excellent project called On Day One, which seeks to assemble the top user-submitted policy proposals for the next president and help set the agenda for our new fearless leader. Ever since I was approached by Mark Goldberg of OD/1 and UN Dispatch a few months back to participate in a ’salon’ to discuss climate change ideas at Grist, I’ve been hooked. The whole project epitomizes the kind of democratic transformations being ushered in by the new tools of web 2.0.
Now that the team of expert judges (including yours truly) have sorted through heaps of excellent submissions and narrowed them down to a manageable 81, the contest voting has opened up to the general public. And that’s where you come in. Head on over to OD/1, take a gander at the submissions and vote up the ones you like.
The idea with the most votes not only gets presented to the Obama transition team, but the winning submitter also wins a trip to Washington D.C. for January’s presidential inauguration.
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