CO2 is Green, Say Oil Execs in Ludicrous Ad

Attempts by dirty industries to fight the climate bill just keep getting more and more desperate and ridiculous. Care2 spotted a television ad campaign run by oil execs is actually trying to convince the public that excess CO2 is a good thing.

From The Washington Post, via Care2:

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) may be grappling with health care, but in Montana a new advocacy group opposed to climate legislation called CO2 Is Green is taking aim at the next big battle for Congress.

The group is already running television ads: “This will cost us jobs,” one says. “There is no scientific evidence that CO2 is a pollutant. In fact higher CO2 levels than we have today would help the Earth’s ecosystems.” It urges voters to contact Baucus, who in the past has backed bills to cap emissions and allow companies to trade pollution allowances.

The man behind the latest entry to the climate legislation wars is H. Leighton Steward, a veteran oil industry executive, co-author of the “Sugar Busters!” dieting books, and winner of an Environmental Protection Agency award for a report on damage being done to Mississippi wetlands. Now retired, he says he wants to “get the message out there” that carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court has ruled a pollutant and which most scientists regard as a dangerous greenhouse gas, “is a net benefit for the planet.”

Well, thank the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster that we have oil company bigwigs to steer us in the right direction, not only with these super-intelligent and truthful ads, but by pumping as much CO2 into the atmosphere as humanly possible.

Link [Care2] via [Digg]

Hummer Owners Claim Moral High Ground

Most people who buy Hummers do so out of vanity or to make up for certain physical deficiencies. But, Hummer owners themselves actually believe that they’ve got the moral high ground because they’re – get this – defending America’s frontier lifestyle against anti-American critics.

A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research came to this conclusion after the authors researched attitudes toward owning and driving Hummers. They found that Hummer drivers see themselves as patriotic defenders of the American spirit, framing themselves as “moral protagonists” even as they unapologetically contribute to harming the very country they claim to love so much.

From Eurekalert:

“As we studied American Hummer owners and their ideological beliefs, we found that they consider Hummer driving a highly moral consumption choice,” write the authors. “For Hummer owners it is possible to claim the moral high ground.”

The authors explain that Hummer owners employ the ideology of American foundational myths, such as the “rugged individual,” and the “boundless frontier” to construct themselves as moral protagonists. They often believe they represent a bastion again anti-American discourses evoked by their critics.

“Our analysis of the underlying American identity discourses revealed that being under siege by (moral) critics is an historically established feature of being an American,” write the authors. “The moralistic critique of their consumption choices readily inspired Hummer owners to adopt the role of the moral protagonist who defends American national ideals.”

Amazing, isn’t it? Of course, Hummer owners aren’t the only ones that take this stance – conservatives in general employ similar excuses for their desperate attempts to preserve what they see as “the American lifestyle”. To them, being American is apparently synonymous with being selfish assholes who don’t give a shit about the next generation, only about their own desires.

Fuck you and your H2!

Link [Eurekalert]
Photo credit: FUH2

Bottom of the Barrel: Newsweek’s Least Green Companies

Which of the S&P 500 companies are the least environmentally friendly? Newsweek unveiled its Green Rankings last week and while there has been a lot of discussion about the top 5, there’s another story to be told in the bottom 5.

Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the bottom-ranking companies on the Newsweek list are in the energy industry. Here they are with their green scores (based on environmental impact, green policies and performance, and reputation):

Consol Energy – Basic Materials – Green Score: 28.65
ConAgra Foods – Food and Beverage – Green Score: 27.49
Allegheny Energy – Utilities – Green Score: 25.04
NRG Energy – Utilities – Green Score: 22.75
Peabody Energy – Basic Materials – Green Score: 1.00

Pretty big drop there for the bottom company, Peabody Energy (the world’s largest private-sector coal company). Peabody Energy comes in dead last thanks to its incredibly high toxic emissions and the negative impact that its product has on the environment.

This company is one of the biggest offenders in violating the Clean Water Act, injecting billions of gallons of coal slurry and sludge into the ground in the past 5 years. Pine Ridge, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy, reported to West Virginia officials that 93 percent of the waste it injected into the city of Charleston has illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic, lead, chromium, beryllium and nickel.

Green business expert Joel Makower has a great overview of how the companies were scored and, as he notes, the list isn’t perfect. Since it’s only a list of the S&P 500, far greener companies than the top 5, like Patagonia, are left out. However, it does bring together a lot of data in a way that’s efficient and easy to understand. If only they included a greenwashing factor – each company’s real efforts versus its claims about being green. Maybe next year.

Link [Newsweek] + [Joel Makower]
Photo credit: PeabodyEnergy.com

For Shame: UGA Tailgaters Leave Behind Trash, Sewage

Jerkass fans of the University of Georgia football team descended upon the Athens, Georgia campus last weekend and left a wake of trash, abandoned grills, urine and feces behind when they left. And this is far from the first time it has happened.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that tailgaters left the lawn covered with 70 tons of trash. They peed in doorways and shat in various places that are definitely not toilets. UGA President Michael Adams said he was “appalled” and is asking for help from fans before the next home game to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

From AJC:

“There were tons and tons of trash and lots of inappropriate behavior that most of our fans don’t like or tolerate,” he said.  “It’s not pervasive. I don’t know if it’s 15 or 20 percent, but it is a substantial enough group. But if you’re going to haul all this stuff in for pregame, why not add a recyclable bag or two and either take it with you or put it on the side of the street where the appropriate people can take it away?”

“What happened last week is typical,” said George Stafford, UGA’s associate vice president for auxiliary and administrative services. “It takes 200 to 300 people on Sunday morning to pick up and bag up all the trash, throw it on a truck and haul it out to the landfill. A typical day game produces 35 to 40 tons of trash. A night SEC game like this we have 70 or more tons.”

Stafford said last year’s “Blackout Game” against Alabama produced a record 75 tons of trash on campus.

Are these people Neanderthals or what? Seriously, aren’t college sports fans supposed to have some pride in their schools? Sure, sports crowds can get unruly anywhere in the world, but to walk away at the end of the night and leave this much destruction is just shameful.

Wake up, people: there are these things called trash bags and toilets that keep us from having to live in filth. Party foul x 1000.

Link [AJC]
Photo credit: Tom Ritch

GOP Politicians Parrot False Climate Bill Talking Points

What’s more important – actual facts, or talking points filled with false figures designed to knock down the competition at any cost? To the GOP, it’s clearly the latter. They’ve never been known for fighting fair, but in the past year or so the Republican Party has apparently decided that anything goes, with a series of jaw-droppingly dirty tactics centered upon outright lies and propaganda.

So, it’s not too surprising that eight GOP politicians are continuing to parrot talking points about the supposed costs of climate legislation, despite the fact that they’ve been repeatedly proven false. The $1,761 figure is an inflated estimate of the cost of a bill that was never even considered by Congress.

Hell, in the right-wing sphere, claims made on the news don’t have to have any basis in truth whatsoever. ThinkProgress has a great rundown on the process used to spread these false figures (via The Huffington Post):

STEP ONE: “News” generated by right-wing think tank.

STEP TWO: Right-wing print journalists write “breaking news” story.

STEP THREE: Promoted by Drudge, story repeated endlessly on right-wing blogs, Twitter, and talk radio.

STEP FOUR: Republican politicians, right-wing think tanks, and polluter front groups release statements of shock and outrage.

STEP FIVE: On Fox News, Glenn Beck calls President Obama a liar/socialist/Marxist/communist/fascist/racist.

Josh Nelson of EnviroKnow listed the many politicians who have repeated the false figure including Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. James Inhofe, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Rep. Roy Blunt, Rep. Fred Upton, Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, House Minority Leader John Boehner and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence. Check out the details at The Huffington Post – it’s truly sickening.

The GOP is happy to use any means necessary to protect their wealth and power against any perceived threat, real or imaginary. But who cares about climate change or health care as long as Republicans can keep their Hummers and McMansions?

Link [ThinkProgress] + [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user Ingrid Taylar

Smug Glenn Beck Not Smart Enough to Come Up with Van Jones Attacks

Glenn Beck, idiot wannabe provocateur of Fox News, is undoubtedly more than happy to take the credit for Van Jones’ resignation as green jobs adviser to the Obama administration – but the fact is, he just isn’t doesn’t have the brainpower to be the mastermind behind the attacks.

Beck launched a vicious smear campaign against Jones, accusing him of being a communist and 9/11 truther among other things, on national television. But the campaign was actually orchestrated by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative think-tank that’s also responsible for a vast global warming denial campaign.

From DeSmogBlog:

On Fox News forum AFP’s director of policy, Phil Kerpen brags about how his organization brought down Van Jones:

“I spent the next two weeks researching everything I could find about Jones and the Apollo Alliance (much of which is still to be published, including a forthcoming paper from the Capital Research Center next month), the national umbrella organization for coordinating between the environmentalists, the labor unions, and the social justice street organizers that Jones has served as a board member and a primary national spokesman for.”

This was all then fed to Glenn Beck who gleefully took it to town and hammered away on Van Jones. No kidding, Beck is bent on bringing this administration to its knees and rallying the right-wing fringe players to follow suit. And it won’t stop here, the likes of Kerpen and AFP have found their rallying cry: “Don’t argue clean energy, but instead paint Obama’s policies as a socialist/communist plot to control America.”

There’s no doubt that Jones made a mistake when he signed that 9/11 petition – but he’s not a Truther, nor do any of the other epithets thrown at him recent weeks apply. David Roberts of Grist wrote two excellent articles about the whole debacle that refute the accusations made against Jones (Cleaning Some of the Fox Off Van Jones and Thoughts on Van Jones’ Resignation).

Is it any surprise that Americans for Prosperity has received vast amounts of cash from Exxon in the past? This is an anti-green organization that will do anything to preserve the status quo, and they’re happy to take down anyone in their way. Beck is just their puppet.

Link [DeSmogBlog]

Verizon Wireless Sponsors Big Coal Global Warming Denial Rally

Tsk, tsk. How can Verizon Wireless show intelligence and class by dropping its ads on Glenn Beck’s idiotic Fox show (for his comments about President Obama’s supposed ‘racism’) – and then turn around and give money to another conservative whackjob?

Verizon has become a sponsor for a global warming denial rally organized by none other than Don Blankenship, CEO and President of Massey Energy, which has destroyed far too much of Appalachia with mountaintop removal mining.

From the NRDC:

Who is Don Blankenship?

He has been called “the scariest polluter in America.”  Just last December, my colleauge Pete Altman exposed the videotape from a speech in which Blankenship indulged in his patented version of full-blown climate change denial and also called various pro-environmental elected officials “greeniacs” bent on destroying the American way of life.

His rally next week will feature speeches by prominent global warming denier Lord Christopher Monckton, the Science & Public Policy Institute (global warming skeptics), conservative Fox blowhard Sean Hannity.  Ted Nugent and Hank Williams, Jr. are among those who will provide musical entertainment.

The website for the ‘Friends of America’ rally even offers up a petition against the Waxman-Markey climate bill. The majority of the rally’s sponsors are in the dirty energy and manufacturing industries including Coal-Mac, West Virginia Oil Marketers and Petroleum Products, Inc. Verizon looks pretty damn out of place on that list.

Verizon Wireless spokesman Jim Gerace explained it away by saying, “his company simply paid $1,000 for the right to be able to sell its products at the rally. It’s nothing more than that … and the groups who are trying to make it more than that are misguided. I’m definitely bothered that people are trying to put us in the middle of an argument.”

Aww, poor Verizon. Imagine, people getting angry over their support of complete and total destruction of beautiful mountain ranges and the dumping of toxic waste into waterways. It’s inexplicable!

Jeff Biggers said it best at The Huffington Post:

Can you hear us now, Verizon Wireless? Time to dump Massey Energy with Glenn Beck.

Link [NRDC] + [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user unanimous graphics

Big Oil Refuses to Let American Flags into Astroturf Rally

You’d think that Big Oil would be more than happy to wave a bunch of American flags around while holding their fake grassroots rallies – especially in Texas, of all places. Yet activists bearing the old Stars & Stripes were turned away at the American Petroleum Institute rally in Houston, where oil company employees gathered to hear oil billionaire Drayton McClane Jr. whine about Obama’s clean energy plans.

Check out the video:

Partial transcript from Wonk Room:

ACTIVIST: They said, “We won’t let you have an American flag either.” They said they won’t let you have this, and then the guy touched this, the American flag.

ANOTHER ACTIVIST: I got an email from Freedomworks saying, “Come, it’s free, free food,” doodah doodah. And then I get here and they say, “Well, it’s against fire code to let people in the door.” And then, they let all these people in. Granted, one of the people was Drayton McLane. He’s got more money than God, so, I guess…

Umm, it’s pretty obvious that the uninvited people trying to get into this rally are on the side of Big Oil, so WTF are they worried about? As if the old dude bearing a book called ‘Liberal Facism’ is a spy for the ‘other side’.

Could it be any more clear that this was anything but a grassroots rally? It was one big oil industry whack-a-thon. You would think that these pro-oil citizens (the real ones, not the energy employees) would have caught on by now that the oil industry doesn’t give a shit about them.

Link [Wonk Room]

Drivers on Cell Phones Threaten Safety of Bicyclists

If you’ve ever seen someone yapping away on a cell phone while navigating an SUV full of children on a congested highway, swerving in and out of the lanes, you know how dangerous talking and driving can be. Unless, of course, you’re one of those people who are amazingly adept at multitasking.

And of course you’re one of those people, right? You can totally handle a business transaction with a client or an argument with your boyfriend while simultaneously operating a two-ton hunk of deadly machinery.

Except that you can’t. Nobody can. In fact, talking and driving – even hands-free – has been found to be just as dangerous as drunk driving. That puts us all at risk on the roads – but bicyclists are especially vulnerable, and one NRDC blogger points out the negative impact that could have on the environment.

If our streets aren’t safe and perceived as such, it will only be that much harder to convince people to leave their perceived fortresses-on-wheels and walk or bicycle instead.  Safety is one of the main arguments of the Complete Streets coalition (NRDC is a member) for making roadways more accessible to all types of users, not just drivers (”complete streets improve pedestrian safety” is the first-mentioned reason offered in the Coalition’s FAQs explaining its agenda).

Too true. There is absolutely nothing that anyone could be calling you about that can’t wait for you to at least pull into a parking lot. Do you really want to find out that grandpa kicked the bucket in the middle of rush hour traffic?

Don’t talk and drive – it’s really, really simple.

Link [NRDC]
Photo credit: Flickr user TalkingDC

Oil Industry Planning Town Hall Protests Against Climate Bill

As angry, misinformed mobs take over town halls to scream in people’s faces about health care issues they don’t understand, the oil industry is quietly taking notes – and planning to use similar tactics against the climate bill.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the American Petroleum Institute and other energy groups are funding rallies in 20 states where they will hand out a flier that says things like “Climate change legislation being considered in Washington will cause huge economic pain and produce little environmental gain.”

The flier says the bill passed by the House in June and expected to come to the floor for a vote later in the year, “will cost 2 million American jobs, raise gasoline and diesel prices up to $4,” and threaten both U.S. competition and energy security.

“Let our U.S. senators know they need to ‘get it right’ and not make the same mistakes as the House,” the flier reads. Local organizers fill in the location, date and time slots.

The rallies will be organized in about 20 states, include those whose Democratic Senators aren’t strong supporters of a stringent bill, such as Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Mark Begich of Alaska.

“We’ve all seen those angry folks raising heck about health care,” said Frank O’Donnell, head of the environmental advocacy group, Clean Air Watch. “So I guess it was inevitable a special interest would try the same thing on the climate legislation,” he said in an email.

The ultra-dirty tactics – like outright forgeries – didn’t work, so Big Oil figures that it will merely take advantage of the public’s fear about the economy and their jobs to manufacture an anti-climate movement.

What’s really scary is how easily people are manipulated. If millions of people are willing to swallow outrageous lies about health care reform (i.e. Sarah Palin’s “death panel” comment), there’s no telling what else they’ll believe.

Link [The Wall Street Journal] via [Treehugger]
Photo credit: The Huffington Post

New Zealand Prime Minister to Green Actress: Don’t Quit Your Day Job

A New Zealand actress best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in ‘Whale Rider’ has been publicly mocked by the country’s Prime Minister for her involvement in a Greenpeace campaign. Keisha Castle-Hughes is one of the celebrity faces of the ‘Sign On’ campaign, which is urging the New Zealand government to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2020.

PM John Key told a crowd of 500 at a business gathering, “My advice to Keisha is this: stick to acting.”

New Zealand’s Labour department is asking the Prime Minister to apologize for the remark.

From The National Business Review, via Ecorazzi:

In Parliament, Acting Prime Minister Bill English was questioned about the remark.

Labour’s Charles Chauvel asked: “Does the Prime Minister agree with Keisha Castle-Hughes that telling her to `stick to acting’ is really odd, given that he had previouslyencouraged her to make a submission to the Minister for Climate Change Issues on New Zealand’s pollution reduction target?”

[English] said an ad campaign did not replace serious analysis and a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 would seriously hurt the economy and people’s livelihoods.

In a later statement Mr Chauvel said Mr Key should apologise.

“Young New Zealanders, whatever their profession, should never be discouraged from taking a stand on issues they feel passionately about and the Prime Minister’s decision to criticise the Kiwi actress for doing so to an overseas audience was a bad call.”

Castle-Hughes’ classy response was to offer to meet Mr. Key to discuss her concerns, saying that she knows a lot more about the issue than he realizes. Key has since agreed to a meeting.

The subject of celebrities speaking out about important issues is a tricky one. Obviously, no one is going to take Paris Hilton seriously if she suddenly makes demands about, say, food safety laws. But there are those celebrities who are passionate and knowledgeable about certain causes, and many an organization and campaign has received more funds and more exposure due to the participation of famous faces.

“If I’m going to put my name to a campaign as I’ve done with the Greenpeace Sign On campaign, I want to do more than read brochures and fact sheets. I want to see first-hand what I’m fighting for,” said Castle-Hughes. “I haven’t come out of the trip with the knowledge of a scientist, nor have I come out with all the answers on how to solve climate change, but I do have a stronger passion than ever before to see New Zealand do its fair share in this global crisis.”

Link [National Business Review] via [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Sign On Campaign

More Climate Bill Forgery: Big Oil Lobbyists Fake Public Opposition

You can smell the desperation of the dirty energy industry from a mile away. It’s the smell of a slow death, a filthy, oozing, gangrenous smell that emits from Big Oil and Big Coal as they attempt to lie, cheat and steal their way to maintaining the status quo.

Last month, lobbyists working for a coal industry front group were caught red-handed forging anti-climate-bill letters to a member of Congress. Now, it’s been revealed that the American Energy Alliance (the unholy spawn of the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute) is faking broad public opposition to the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

From the NRDC:

According to the AEA’s round-up release:  “In Newspapers Coast-to-Coast, Energy Rationing Bill Continues to Get Exposed for What it is: A Job Killer.” And how do our oily friends reach that conclusion?  In a move that is unlikely to represent a threat to the future of scientific polling, AEA bases its claims on eight letters to the editor and one op-ed.

What do the selected editorial page items tell us?  First, AEA is apparently endorsing flat-out, wild-eyed howling-at-the-moon denial of global warming science.   Take this “op-ed” found in the Springfield (MO) News Leader:

“I told you in my column on July 10 that global warming was a hoax. Just when I thought the cap and trade lunatics could not be any more ignorant, along comes the Democrat-controlled Congress with the Waxman-Markey bill on climate change. Cap and tax or con and tax are all better names for this abhorrent bill.”

Message: AEA appears to be 100 percent comfortable in embracing this full-throated, know-nothing approach to trashing the consensus view on global warming science.

The NRDC asks, “Couldn’t we just do the same thing by collating positive letters to the editor from across the nation?” and then proceeds to quote from seven such supportive letters – which actually appear in major publications, not BFE pennysavers.

Scruples: lobbyists do not haz dem.

Link [NRDC]
Photo credit: I Can Has Cheezburger?

Lobbyist Group Forges Anti-Climate-Bill Letters, Then Lies About It

A couple weeks ago, The Huffington Post warned readers to be on the lookout for dirty tricks orchestrated by right-wing groups attempting to derail the climate bill. Sure enough, a Washington D.C. based lobbyist group got caught sending five forged letters purportedly from Hispanic voters and the NAACP to a congressman in the hopes that it would sway his vote.

It didn’t work. Congressman Tom Perriello of West Virginia voted in favor of the Waxman-Markey climate bill, and lobbyist group Bonner & Associates is taking the heat for its abhorrent tactics.

Congressman Ed Markey announced that he would hold an official House hearing into the forgeries, saying:

“This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress.  This is an appalling abuse, and Congressman Tom Perriello deserves great credit for seeing through it and casting a vote that will create clean energy jobs in Virginia and throughout the United States. I encourage all Members of Congress to be on the lookout for other suspicious and illegal materials. My Select Committee will immediately begin an investigation of the extent and scope of this activity.”

Not that Bonner & Associates are actually admitting any wrongdoing. The group blames a ‘temporary employee’ who supposedly sent out the letters unbeknownst to the rest of the firm.

Nice try, says The Huffington Post – Bonner has a history of tricking people into supporting their causes. HuffPo found a 2002 story by the Baltimore Sun, which called out another forgery in the group’s past:

Donna J. Stanley, director of Associated Black Charities, was ready to mobilize for political battle after she received a fax marked “urgent” this week.

The fax told her she needed to sign an attached petition “today” to prevent 600,000 of Maryland’s poor and disabled from losing access to affordable prescription drugs. The fax, sent to dozens of community leaders, had the markings of a grass-roots effort, including grammatical errors and a handwritten cover letter.

But the appeal was actually generated by a sophisticated Washington lobbying firm trying to defeat several bills before the General Assembly supported by advocates for the poor.

So, how’d they explain that one away? Jack Bonner said it was “a great exercise in the First Amendment”. Bonner & Associates had allied itself with a puppet group for the pharmaceutical industry, using the organization’s letterhead to fool legislators into thinking they were hearing legitimate concerns from voters.

Abolishing the practice of lobbying lawmakers, and imposing strict term limits on all politicians – wouldn’t that go a long way toward cleaning up our government? Lobbyists clearly have no scruples when it comes to getting favors for Big Oil, Big Pharma and other corporate entities intent on putting greed before the good of the earth and its people.

Link [The Huffington Post]

Glenn Beck: The Only Animals Worth Saving Carry Guns

We hereby nominate rabid Faux News talking head Glenn Beck the Biggest Jerkass of 2009. Sure, there are five months left in the year, but if anyone surpasses him, we’ll be totally amazed. Not that Glenn Beck going on a vein-bulging, semi-coherent rant is anything new, but his latest takes his dumbassery to a whole new level.

Beck has some major beef with a recent House vote to protect turtles and otters, noting that if they carried guns and protected our country, maybe he’d approve. Apparently he’s a fan of America’s current #1 movie.

Sigh. He totally wins Jon Stewart’s ‘So You Think You Can Douche’. That’s quite an accomplishment when you’re up against Sean Hannity.

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Encyclopedia Dramatica

Cancer Patient Fined for Cleaning Up Litter

All Paul McCarthy of the Greenfield area of Pittsburgh wanted to do was help his neighborhood live up to its name. The 62-year-old former city electrician began cleaning up litter and overgrowth along a section of town called ‘The Run’, piling it along the sidewalk for Public Works to pick up. Only they didn’t, and those piles have led to legal troubles for McCarthy, who’s currently being treated for cancer.

McCarthy’s efforts have led to fines because, according to the city, he didn’t do enough. While the ill man toiled over trimming weeds along sidewalks and gathering debris, he wasn’t bagging the waste or coordinating his efforts with Public Works. But McCarthy had repeatedly called the city’s help line when he noticed the trash, and got no response.

From the Post-Gazette:

To Rob Kaczorowski, city Public Works Department’s deputy director of operations, fighting litter is all about communication and coordination — something Mr. McCarthy’s vigilante clean-up push lacked.

“We’re all for volunteer efforts, but it has to be coordinated,” Mr. Kaczorowski said. “Some of the stuff he does, I think he does to aggravate us.”

Bill Smith, executive director of the Greenfield Organization, said his group does mass clean-ups with city help, but added that there’s a place for Mr. McCarthy’s approach.

“From my perspective, this is the kind of thing the city wants people to do,” he said. Public works staff “are put out because this is creating a little more work for them.”

McCarthy got citations twice. The Department of Public Works had concluded that it was the only way to stop him, and it worked: McCarthy is no longer bothering to clean anything up. The Post-Gazette reports that new bags and cups have started to accumulate.

A 62-year-old cancer patient wants to help make the city he lives in more beautiful, and gets fined for it. Awesome. Great job, Pittsburgh Public Works.

Link [Post-Gazette]

Tennessee: We’ll Take Tourism Over Blowing Up Our Mountains

Tennessee has effectively told coal miners boycotting the state because of its anti-mountaintop removal stance not to let the door hit their asses on the way out. The coal industry had its panties in a wad because Tennessee lawmakers supported legislation that would protect the state’s beautiful mountains from being destroyed, and asked its employees not to vacation there in protest.

Ultimately, limited tourism dollars from mining industry employees don’t stack up against the revenue generated by visitors who come to see the state’s mountains. In fact, the mining industry isn’t worth going to any trouble over at all.

NRDC rounded up some facts:

There are fewer than 6,000 miners in Tennessee whereas the tourism industry employs more than 177,000

Tennessee’s tourism contributes roughly $14 billion to the state’s economy every year

Kentucky spends an estimated $115 million more public money to support and subsidize the coal industry than it receives in state revenues from the industry

The coal industry actually ends up costing the Appalachian region roughly $42 billion (in terms of the value of premature deaths attributable to the mining industry across the coalfields)

The NRDC currently has a campaign urging senators all over America to pass the Appalachian Restoration Act, and end mountaintop removal mining – ask your state’s senators to vote yes on this important act. And better yet, show Tennessee how much you appreciate their bravery and stewardship with your own tourism dollars – the Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the nation’s most beautiful.

Link [NRDC]
Photo credit: Flickr user busymommy

Right-Wing Pundit Freak Out Over ‘Madoff-Waxman-Markey’ Bill

The climate bill that many environmentalists have decried as weak and ineffectual is being touted by right-wing pundits as a vast conspiracy to take their money (shocking, eh?). The usual suspects – Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin – are frothing at the mouth and waving pitchforks over the prospect of the bill being passed in the Senate.

From the NRDC Switchboard:

Among the most unhinged of the commentators has been the venerable Rush Limbaugh.  According to this host, the Waxman-Markey legislation should be called “Madoff-Waxman-Markey” because “this bill is a con game.”  You can see the Dittohead in Chief bloviate here courtesy of our friends at Media Matters.

In case you think Rush was alone in being off his rocker in comparing some of America’s most visionary lawmakers with the nation’s most notorious financial crook, check out Mr. Sensitivity, Glenn Beck’s rantings.

Beck suggests that lawmakers and the mainstream media have somehow colluded to use the death of Michael Jackson (!) to keep the public’s attention off climate change.   I promise you that we are not making this up:

“… it pays for everyone to be extra-vigilant.  Who stands to benefit from cap and trade? Why do we need to do it now? What does a ‘green banking center’ have to do with cooling the Earth?  And, most importantly, is there still a chance to stop this insanity in the Senate or will our politicians there simply wait for the next celebrity death before once again convening in the middle of the night to sell America out to highest bidder?”

Even worse is Michelle Malkin’s witch hunt, complete with wanted poster, of the eight GOP senators who have dared to support a cap-and-trade solution to climate change.

The NRDC goes on to question the legality/morality of shady campaigns by the Fox News-fueled “Tea Party Patriots” – be sure to give it a read.

But, when it comes down to it, the motivations of each side are telling. For what purpose, ultimately, would people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin raise hell over a climate bill that doesn’t even measure up to the standards of environmentalists? Simple – getting attention, so they can make more money.

On the other hand, we dastardly environmentalists act out of the greedy desire to prevent humans from making the world uninhabitable for our own kind (as well as millions of other species). We’re so evil, aren’t we?

Link [NRDC Switchboard]

Coal Company Urges Boycott of Mountaintop Removal-Unfriendly Tennessee

Coal-Mac, a subsidiary of a coal company that has tried in the past to convince people that mountaintop removal mining is “the right thing to do”, has now resorted to urging its employees to cancel vacations to Tennessee because of the state’s anti-mountaintop removal stance. Tennessee, home to the beautiful Smoky Mountains National Park, has endorsed bi-partisan federal legislation that would effectively ban mountaintop removal in a bill called the Appalachian Restoration Act.

From the NRDC Switchboard:

In a letter to local Chambers of Commerce, the company warns: “[I]f you want our industry’s business, we suggest you let your representatives know that the industry they are trying to destroy is a major source of your tourism money.”

The letter also notes that two other out-of-state Arch subsidiarues have cancelled their annual company picnics to Dollywood this year.  Apparently, a pro-MTR group called Citizens for Coal is joining in by asking all of its members to also boycott Tennessee travel.

“We’re trying to say to our employees and to other coal miners, that let’s hit them in the wallet with their tourism,” explained Coal-Mac official Richie Phillips.  “Tourism is how they make a living and coal mining is how we make a living.”

Right, because blowing up the mountains that tourists come to see in the first place will really increase revenue for the state. Mr. Phillips’ logic is so brilliant, it takes my breath away.

I’m sure that residents and lawmakers in the mountainous eastern region of Tennessee are so devastated to lose the business of a handful of jackass coal execs, and keep their beautiful views instead.

Link [NRDC Switchboard]
Photo credit: MountainAction.org

Climate Bill Will Cost Consumers Way Less than Republicans Claim

Republicans have spent the last couple months circulating false claims about how much the House climate change bill would cost consumers, with estimates skyrocketing into the ridiculous. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann recently claimed that the cost of climate action would be between $3,128 and $4,000 per household, and called for “armed and dangerous” opposition against climate action.

The Congressional Budget Office has put an end to all of the partisan speculation, confirming that climate change legislation would cost the average household a mere $175 a year by 2020, with the poorest 20% of households actually netting $40 annually.

From The Washington Post:

The costs would result from higher prices for carbon-based fuels, offset by a complex series of tax breaks and free allowances, new technologies and behavioral changes, and impacts on corporations and their profits.

The CBO, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, said it did not take into account any indirect benefits of slowing climate change, which are substantial but difficult to quantify.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman  Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said the CBO report shows that his bill is “effective and affordable.”  Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the bill’s lead co-sponsor, said it showed that the cost would be about the same as a postage stamp a day for the average household.

But Michael Steel, a spokesman for House  Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said that the CBO analysts “got an unrealistically low number for cost per family because they didn’t factor in the millions of American jobs that will move overseas if the United States imposes this tax and our foreign competitors, like China and India, do not. I don’t know what color the sky is in a world where that won’t happen, but I’m sure you can ask the unicorns.”

Boehner’s office is hardly known for responsible and accurate number crunching. It was Boehner who initially claimed the $3,128 – $4,000 figure, citing some math done using a study by an MIT professor on a two-year-old cap and trade bill. But John Reilly, who conducted the study, says Boehner inflated the cost 10-fold by ignoring the offsetting benefits.

Eh, you know how it is. You can smell the desperation of Republican lawmakers from a mile away. They’ll do anything to con Americans into siding with them.

Link [The Washington Post]
Photo credit: [Jezebel] + [Esquire]

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