"The Front Fell Off!"

Our friends at Act Green are covering an enormous oil spill off the coast of Australia. The amount of oil spill covers an area the size of Delaware, and threatens a diverse marine ecosystem and an endangered reef.

And, before anyone makes a false claim of outdated technology, the rig that spilled the oil was was built in 2007.

Depressed? Maybe this classic send-up of Big Oil's attempts to defendspills will cheer you up.

What, John Boehner (And His Tan) Don't Draw a Crowd Anymore?

Today, the anti-clean energy smear machine rolled into Ohio State for an "Energy Summit" that included a long list of characters: GOP Reps. Mike Pence, Bob Latta, Jean Schmidt, Steve Austria and Pat Tiberi, as well as Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Brent Porteus from the Ohio Farm Bureau.

They even brought in R?S? fave House Minority Leader John Boehner.

Well, judging from this photo (courtesy of our friends at Ohio LCV), the speakers themselves could probably have beaten the crowd in a tug-of-war:


We could use this opportunity to re-hash everything we've said about what a sham these events are, but sometimes you've just gotta let a picture speak for itself.

Chamber Reverses, Says Warming Is Real (Subject to Change)

Here's a shocker: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is regretting its decision to repeatedly draw an analogy between its call for a "trial" in which a judge would decide where global warming is real and the 1926 Scopes Trial that challenged the validity of evolution as a legitimate scientific theory.

In a post on the National Journal's energy and environment "Experts Panel" page (insert your own pithy comment on whether the Chamber of Commerce is a source of climate expertise), the Chamber's Bill Kovacs, Vice President for Environment, Technology & Regulatory Affairs, writes:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is not denying or otherwise challenging the science behind global climate change. Many of the news articles on our petition the past few days made that claim. They are not correct.

My “Scopes monkey” analogy was inappropriate and detracted from my ability to effectively convey the Chamber’s position on this important issue.

That's funny, because I could have sworn I recalled Kovacs saying that the Chamber wanted to do exactly that: challenge the science of global warming in court. (Via the Los Angeles Times)

"It would be evolution versus creationism," said William Kovacs, the chamber's senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs. "It would be the science of climate change on trial."

The Huffington Post's Josh Nelson tracked down the responses of others on the Expert Panel, and may we say there's an open invitation to write on this blog. Thanks to the National Wildlife Federation's Larry Schweiger for this gem:

You need a secret decoder ring to unravel Bill Kovacs' illogical pretzel in his National Journal blog, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launches the most ambitious effort in years to undermine scientific progress on climate change while simultaneously claiming to be a believer in that same science.

Schweiger continues:

Here's the secret to understanding the two different faces of the Chamber on global warming: Mr. Kovacs and the Chamber leadership will do anything to stop legislation and regulations that are aimed to rein in runaway greenhouse gas emissions, and they have resorted to an anti-science agenda that is not supported by most of the Chamber’s own business members.

Given Mr. Kovacs's (and his organization's) impressive ability to talk out of both sides of their mouth, may we suggest to our readers that you steer clear of activities like this with the Chamber's duplicitous Vice President.