A few weeks ago I lauded Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) for promising to halt fundraising activities while he served on the supercommittee. Well…as it happens, Upton only decided to stop scheduling new fundraising events, but continued accepting fundraising dollars. This means that Upton accepted $45,000 from oil companies in the last quarter alone. Add other energy … Continue reading
Representative Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is confident that the proposed new Keystone XL pipeline (2100+ miles long) is safe. SAFE, I tell you! SAFE! Pay no attention to the facts behind the curtain! This latest mishap in Montana (and now North Dakota as well) is an isolated incident! Pass the sweet crude!
Here’s my latest for the Washington Post. Go read it! Excerpt: Without science, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. There’d be no LCD screen or fiber-optic cables or communications satellites or computer software, or…you get the idea. We love science — as long as it makes our lives more comfortable. Also, this video is … Continue reading
Noted climate scientist, ichthyologist, and mercury diet proponent Hank Rohs takes me to task (responding to this column) in today’s Kalamazoo Gazette. I wrote: There are 26 cement plants in the Great Lakes region alone, and they emitted more than 2,100 pounds of mercury in 2007. Rohs responds: It’s not like mercury isn’t regulated, but … Continue reading
Great article by Neela Banerjee on House Representative (and political chameleon) Fred Upton last weekend in the Los Angeles Times. Let me stress that: great story. Read it. Frequent readers won’t find the article surprising (I write on Upton a LOT), but it’s still worth a scan, because it includes analysis from a wide range of … Continue reading
Mike Konczal at Rortybomb tipped me off to an interesting series of posts from David Roberts at Grist (There are four posts in total: One. Two. Three. Four.). Roberts is outlining a new organizing vision to “unite the left’s fractious coalition.” Goes something like this: The bumper sticker version is: great places. Making the places … Continue reading
Saw some new polling data on Representative Fred Upton today from the National Resources Defence Council Action Fund: 62% of Upton’s constituents believe that the EPA “needs to do more to hold polluters accountable and protect the air and water.” Only 33% believe that “EPA does too much and places too many costly restrictions on … Continue reading
Don’t have time to go into this in great detail, but I wanted to point out something that I noticed in yesterday’s Washington Post: In the 2009 Copenhagen climate accord, 21 developed nations and the European Union agreed to provide $30 billion over three years to help poorer nations adapt to climate change and reduce … Continue reading
So it’s been a really terrible few days of news. Terrible. We went from Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump to the IMF and Schwarzenegger fiascos, as if on a holiday bender/hiatus from our very real political and economic challenges. It was as if, in the wake of Osama Bin Laden’s death, no one was quite … Continue reading
