Climate kudos this week go to House and Senate negotiators for cutting out billions of dollars in pork for coal and nuclear from the economic stimulus bill, while managing to protect most of the funding for good, green projects. For once, the legislative sausage-making process did not utterly disappoint.
We’d also like to give a shout-out this week to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for shelving the Bush administration’s plan to poke drill bits into every available orifice. Now that’s change we Ken believe in!
A third green thumbs-up goes to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for inaugurating the People’s Garden on a plot of pavement at USDA headquarters this week, and announcing his goal of creating community gardens at every USDA facility. The gardens are going to “promote ‘going green’ concepts” like landscaping and building design to retain water, roof gardens for energy efficiency, native plantings, and conservation practices. You’re kinda growing on us, Tom ...
... but you’ve still got some work to do. Vilsack also gets the finger for pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to require more ethanol in gasoline, just as a coalition of environmental groups unveiled a report detailing how the U.S. biofuel program “exacerbates global warming.”
Another big honking finger goes to Dick Saslaw, the majority leader of the Virginia state Senate. Saslaw, a Democrat, this week cast the tie-breaking vote against a bill that would have required utilities to invest in energy-efficiency measures. The legislation would have saved Virginians up to $15 billion on their electric bills by the year 2025 and created thousands of jobs in the process, supporters said. Shocker: Saslaw has received $85,000 in campaign contributions from the coal-huggers at Dominion Power since 2004, more than any other legislator.
Got your own thoughts on who should get the climate finger this week? Put ‘em in the comments section below.
Obama administration may (finally) offer greenhouse-gas targets
George Voinovich (R-Ohio) [UPDATED]
Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Comments
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dbaker Posted 3:36 pm
13 Feb 2009
why do you "lump" coal together with nuclear.
they aint even first cousins
because I think what you are doing is very essential for the survival of the planet, and anybody who is hindering that needs to be pushed aside.
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amazingdrx Posted 1:47 am
14 Feb 2009
They both are applied through the old unreliable, easily monopolized central power grid.
They both use huge amounts of water and shut down in drought conditions when heat is often deadly to humans.
Their hidden costs in environmental damage far exceed their obvious costs, which are still higher than wind power. The fuel they use is limited in supply and follows the same bubble price curve that oil has, helped along by insider trading market manipulation.
They both increase GHG in the atmosphere with every dirty kwh produced.
Lump 'em and dump 'em. Coal and nuclear power, twin enenies of the human friendly climate.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
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mwildfire Posted 11:11 am
14 Feb 2009
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