Red, Green, and Blue

The report was requested by Reps. John Dingell (D-MI), the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation.

In a statement released by Dingell’s office, the GAO report was said to have found “shortcomings in the measures used by the Environmental Protection Agency to report the effectiveness of its civil and criminal enforcement programs to Congress and the public.”

The report says the EPA overstated it enforcement of environmental violations by including fines that may never be paid when tallying its penalties.

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Again questions science behind an endangered species listing

The beluga whales of Alaska’s Cook Inlet are endangered and require additional protection to survive, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Friday. The ruling contradicts Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s administration who has questioned the science showing a decline in the distinctive white species.

It was the second wildlife-themed rebuke Gov. Palin received from Washington this year. The governor had previously asked federal courts to overturn an Interior Department decision declaring polar bears threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

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Senator Barack Obama has been questioned over and over again by the McCain campaign about his affiliation with ACORN, or The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. The FBI is currently investigating any activity that would point to ACORN’s fradulent voter registration processes for less fortunate citizens. However, Senator McCain believes that the activity is even more nefarious than it seems.

“We all know that Barack Obama has some shady ties,” says McCain, “but this one–this one breaks all the rules of human decency. We have enough evidence to assume that Obama has fraternized with an enemy that will terrorize you neighborhood. I only have two words: Trained Squirrels.

“We believe that Obama is exchanging premium-grade acorns for underground political intelligence. They sit by your windows at dinner time, hearing your discussions like fuzzy flies on the walls. They seem innocent enough–you might even want to throw them a cheez doodle–but know beneath that fuzzy outfit lies the heart of a Pinko rat!

“Mud slinging is a heavenly ordained act between a man and another man. Squirrels should never be provided the right to break the First Amendment through covert spying. They are not, and shall never be, mentioned in the Patriot Act.

“If you are a real American, you will not include acorns in your Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations. In fact, no tree nuts or dried Indian corn should be included. Only Freedom Fruits.”

Obama declined to comment.

Writing Tuesday in the Huffington Post, Sierra Club president Carl Pope laid down a challenge to his readers to “catch McCain/Palin getting it right”.

Pope refers specifically to the ticket’s statements and record on energy and the environment. Pope is apparently frustrated enough with John McCain and Sarah Palin getting basic facts about these issues “wrong so consistently” that he’s offered a signed copy of his new book Strategic Ignorance to the first person that submits at least one “consequential energy or environmental statement that McCain and Palin have gotten right.”

To McCain and Palin’s credit, Pope identifies one accurate statement (and so this doesn’t count in the challenge): The Republican ticket is correct in asserting that John McCain stood up to the Senate’s GOP leadership, sponsoring, with Joe Lieberman, the Climate Stewardship Act that calls for a cap and trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s it?  Surely they’ve said something else about energy or the environment that isn’t wrong?

Find one statement and get a free book!

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Leaders of some EU countries may use the global financial crisis as an excuse to back out of climate change commitments, according to sources close to the ongoing energy negotiations The Guardian reports that the EU council, which meets next week, will propose dropping the previous commitment to an automatic increase in emissions cuts if the world gets a major climate change agreement next year in Copenhagen - which is a big “if.”

The current EU target of a 20% reduction in emissions by 2020 is set to automatically increase to 30% if a global deal is signed. But apparently, EU is seeking a completely new legislative process if the EU target is to go over 20%. Read the rest of this entry »

The San Jose (Calif.) City Council has unanimously approved Tesla Motors’ new electric car manufacturing plant. The plant will produce the $60,000 electric sedan that the 5-year-old company currently has in development.

Tesla plans to move the company’s headquarters to the new site as well, which will ultimately employ about 1,000 people when it opens in 2010.

>>More on Tesla Motors at Green Options Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Navy and the Bush Administration are taking on the almighty creatures of the ocean.

The Supreme Court today began hearing a case that questions who (or what creatures) get dibs on the ocean waters off the coast of California, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Read the rest of this entry »

Few people have been able to inspire the kind of critical thinking and political action considered a necessary component of “success” in the modern environmental movement. But if you were to make a list of those few, Van Jones would definitely be on it.

The environmental movement has never spoken with one voice and that will likely remain the case for the foreseeable future. That said, the environmental movement shouldn’t speak with one voice, it should speak with a diversity of them, and Van Jones’ new book, The Green Collar Economy—published by Harper One and released on October 7—does just that. Read the rest of this entry »

[Editor's Note: On the heels of our first RG&B debate poll conducted to gauge public opinion on the first and only vice-presidential debate, we've decided to follow up with a poll for the top of the ticket.]

John McCain and Barack Obama squared off in the second of three Presidential Debates this election season. Tell us who won and why?

Click Here to Answer the RG&B Poll Question: Who Won Tuesday Night’s Presidential Debate?

Federal declaration will bring economic aid to struggling crabbers

The harvest of soft shell and peeler blue crabs in Chesapeake Bay has been declared a commercial fishery failure by the U.S. Government. The federal declaration is an important step in providing economic assistance to the communities reliant upon crab production.

The governors of Maryland and Virginia requested that the Secretary of Commerce determine a disaster in the blue crab fishery and applied for more than $15 million to offset the economic impact of new limits on the bay’s crab harvest. The harvest value of soft shell crabs in Maryland and Virginia has declined by 41 percent from the late 1990s, according to NOAA’s Fisheries Service.

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