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EPA FolliesBy Kevin Drum Mar 28, 2008 (Political Animal) EPA FOLLIES....Last year the Supreme Court ruled, contrary to the Bush administration's wishes, that greenhouse gases were a pollutant that came under the jurisdiction of the EPA. So the EPA's scientists took a look, and they concluded that, yes, greenhouse gases contributed to global warming and ought to be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The White House, of course, was not happy about this, so on Thursday EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson deep-sixed the scientific findings and opened up a "lengthy public comment period" to give corporate contributors the public a...

A vast ice shelf hanging on by a thin strip looks to be the next chunk to break off from the Antarctic Peninsula, the latest sign of global warming's impact on Earth's southernmost continent. Scientists are shocked by the rapid change of events. Glaciologist Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado was monitoring satellite images of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and spotted a huge iceberg measuring 25 miles by 1.5 miles (41 kilometers by 2.5 kilometers - about 10 times the area of Manhattan) that appeared to have broken away from the shelf. Scambos alerted colleagues at the British Antarctic...

CATASTROPHIC predictions of global warming usually conjure with the notion of a tipping point, a point of no return. Last Monday - on ABC Radio National, of all places - there was a tipping point of a different kind in the debate on climate change. It was a remarkable interview involving the co-host of Counterpoint, Michael Duffy and Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Anyone in public life who takes a position on the greenhouse gas hypothesis will ignore it at their peril. Duffy asked Marohasy: "Is the Earth stillwarming?"...

GORDON DANIELS John Clapp stands in front of his Chesterfield Road home in Northampton that is off the electric grid, relying instead upon solar, propane and wood. The family has been off the grid for almost 10 years. NORTHAMPTON - Harnessing the sun. Dee Boyle-Clapp and her husband, John Clapp, talked about it on their first date, back in October 1987. 'He was most interesting carpenter I'd ever met,' said Dee, a sculptor from Wisconsin who spent many of her formative years protesting nuclear power plants on Lake Michigan. 'He said he wanted the next house he built to be...

WASHINGTON - Governors pushing alternative energy development are not shying from coal, a major culprit in global warming but also a homegrown energy source and an economic lifeline for many states. Leaders of coal-rich states say clean-coal technology is a must. Governors from states without coal want more evidence the technology works. "There's no doubt there's a tension and there's no doubt there is very rapidly growing public opposition to coal," said Gov. Jim Doyle, D-Wis. His state relies heavily on coal for power although Wisconsin is not a coal producer. Energy tops the agenda at the governors' annual winter...

WASHINGTON - The widespread use of ethanol from corn could result in nearly twice the greenhouse gas emissions as the gasoline it would replace because of expected land-use changes, researchers concluded Thursday. The study challenges the rush to biofuels as a response to global warming. The researchers said that past studies showing the benefits of ethanol in combating climate change have not taken into account almost certain changes in land use worldwide if ethanol from corn — and in the future from other feedstocks such as switchgrass — become a prized commodity. "Using good cropland to expand biofuels will probably...

Jail politicians who ignore climate science: Suzuki Didn't mean it literally says scientist's spokesperson David Suzuki has called for political leaders to be thrown in jail for ignoring the science behind climate change. At a Montreal conference last Thursday, the prominent scientist, broadcaster and Order of Canada recipient exhorted a packed house of 600 to hold politicians legally accountable for what he called an intergenerational crime. Though a spokesman said yesterday the call for imprisonment was not meant to be taken literally, Dr. Suzuki reportedly made similar remarks in an address at the University of Toronto last month. The proposal...

Politicians using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a tried-and-true strategy. Paint the idea green and a natural catastrophe became political fodder for former Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.). Kerry appeared on MSNBC on February 6 to discuss storms that have killed at least 50 people throughout the Southeastern United States. So, of course, Kerry used the platform to advance global warming alarmism

DEMOCRATS Hillary Rodham Clinton: Supports California's effort to raise vehicle emission standards. Calls for a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, stronger energy and auto efficiency standards and a significant increase in green research funding. Her 10-year, $150 billion energy program would include a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund – paid for in part by oil companies – to fund investments in alternative energy. Barack Obama: Supports California's effort to raise vehicle emission standards. Wants a market-based cap-and-trade system that would reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Would invest $150 billion over 10 years to develop...

Last night saw a glitering celebrity gala, headlined by Jay Leno, at The Phoenician as one of THE events of the Super Bowl social circuit. It was a $1000 a seat and attended by Howie Long, Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Bart Starr, Gale Sayers and many others. During the proceeding NFL Commisioner Roger Goodell boasted that 900 Million would watch Sunday's game. Frankly I think he is blowing smoke - even if the entire nation watches (which it won't) that would only be 300, million, and you won't get another 600 million to watch worldwide, the interest in American Football...

Former President Bill Clinton was in Denver, Colorado, stumping for his wife yesterday. In a long, and interesting speech, he characterized what the U.S. and other industrialized nations need to do to combat global warming this way: "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren." At a time that the nation is worried about a recession is that really the characterization his wife would want him making? "Slow down our economy"? I don't really think there's much debate that, at least initially, a...

THE US will commit $US2 billion ($2.27 billion) over the next three years for a new international fund to promote clean energy technologies and fight climate change, President George W. Bush will tell Congress today in his annual State of the Union speech.

PARIS (AFP) - A powerful volcano erupted under the icesheet of West Antarctica around 2,000 years ago and it might still be active today, a finding that prompts questions about ice loss from the white continent, British scientists report on Sunday. The explosive event -- rated "severe" to "cataclysmic" on an international scale of volcanic force -- punched a massive breach in the icesheet and spat out a plume some 12,000 metres (eight miles) into the sky, they calculate. Most of Antarctica is seismically stable. But its western part lies on a rift in Earth's crust that gives rise to...

Feeling guilty about the amount of carbon dioxide your upcoming flight will pump into the atmosphere? Soon you might be able to fork over some extra cash at Denver International Airport to invest in projects intended to help negate your share of the environmental damage caused by air travel. DIA is looking to become one of the first airports in the nation to offer passengers the ability to buy carbon offsets in its concourses. The offsets would pay for renewable energy and power-saving projects that help cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. The airport is soliciting proposals from companies interested...

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 10 (OneWorld) - Coastal residents and students from all over South Carolina are planning to picket this evening's Republican Party Presidential Candidates Debate. "We just want to emphasize how important the issue of climate change is to the future of South Carolina," said Gretta Kruesi of the state's Coastal Conservation League. "Climate change will affect the strength and number of hurricanes, beach erosion, and tourism, which is the backbone of our economy. We want to make sure the candidates address this issue and invite them to respond." Sporting surfwear and bathing suits, attendees plan to hold aquamarine...

QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano is poised for a major eruption, a volcanologist said Wednesday. Authorities last week evacuated 10 villages from its western slopes as a precaution. Patricia Mothes, a U.S. expert on volcanoes, said the 16,575-foot volcano, located 80 miles southeast of Quito, "is preparing to generate, in days or weeks, a great eruption." She said that could mean pyroclastic flows — blasts of volcanic material "that descend at high speeds and burn everything in their way." Tungurahua, which has been active since 1999, has been freeing a high level of energy since Dec. 22, Mothes told...

Br-r-r! Where did global warming go?By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist THE STARK headline appeared just over a year ago. “2007 to be ‘warmest on record,’ ” BBC News reported on Jan. 4, 2007. Citing experts in the British government’s Meteorological Office, the story announced that “the world is likely to experience the warmest year on record in 2007,” surpassing the all-time high reached in 1998.But a funny thing happened on the way to the planetary hot flash: Much of the planet grew bitterly cold.In South America, for example, the start of winter last year was one of the coldest ever...

For months, NewsBusters has jokingly referred to global warming as the liberal bogeyman. In a recently released horror film entitled "The Last Winter," this tongue-in-cheek reference became reality as the evil apparition embodied by man's insatiable lust for fossil fuels actually comes to life to kill oil workers in Alaska.

I am a heretic in the new religion. I reject the Church of Global Warming and it’s High Priest Al Gore. This has results in more than one disciple telling me that I should, well, die. I can accept that. Here are the first five of just ten reasons why I can’t accept anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

I am a heretic in the new religion. I reject the Church of Global Warming and it’s High Priest Al Gore. This has resulted in more than one disciple telling me that I should, well, die. I can accept that. Here are the first five of just ten reasons why I can’t accept anthropogenic global warming (AGW).