Is this the legacy we are leaving?

Think about the future we, our children and grandchildren, are facing.  Fairly recent news items chronicle a number of symptoms of our apparent decade-long decline:

• Stalled U.S. economic growth rate
• Higher rates of poverty in most states; children in LGBT families more likely to be poor
• Diminished health outlook due to obesity
• Decline in the earth observation sciences
• Increased government surveillance of citizens, including data captured by Google from Wi-Fi content, as well as increasingly unprotected electronic privacy of cloud Email
• U.S. use of predator drones is now officially reported, targeted for a significant infusion of government funds, and justified by authorities (including allowing targeting of U.S. citizens).

Never before has it been the case that we are leaving our descendants worse off than we were. . . economically and health-wise.  We have a diminished quality of life.  The gap between rich and poor has increased, as have the costs of health care.  The military-industrial complex, as President Eisenhower warned, is in the forefront of powerful influence in our nation.  The earth is on a dangerous path to increased warming.  And we as citizens enjoy less and less constitutional protection.  As a matter of fact, what on earth do we think we are doing?!

"Forward" is the new presidential campaign slogan of the Democrats. We are at the crossroads. If the November elections fail to reelect President Obama, fail to return Democratic control to the U.S. House of Representatives, and to switch various state legislatures, we will continue this sorry legacy.  We need to get back on track as soon as possible.

Climate changes. . .

When one signs on to the concept of global warming (politely called “climate change”), then the episodes of violent weather we experienced recently make perfect sense.

It will soon be hurricane season and we can expect a good number of them this year, in my opinion.  Fewer were reported last year, but huge and horrible tornadoes filled in the damage space across the nation.
North Central Texas was hit recently by a storm system that spawned 12 tornadoes across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.  This comes on the heels of the extraordinarily hot summer of 2011.  Who knows what the summer of 2012 will be like, but you can bet it will be a change from what we are used to in past decades. 
Yes, Virginia, the globe is warming.

Drill versus Spill

There are recent news stories regarding the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill.   They follow, along with further references.

Gulf Oil Spill? What Gulf Oil Spill? From Mother Jones , by Kate Sheppard, Nov. 9, 2011.  Tweet: "Feds leave Gulf spill out of economic impact analysis for new offshore drilling plan: http://t.co/KY1Ihv3Q .  Also, recent RT @thegoodhuman Government officials have decided to let BP end its cleanup efforts http://t.co/bewwpBHT

Disc Spins Its Way to $1-Million Oil Spill Cleanup Prize -- Is there a better way to clean up the next oil spill disaster? FromScientific American , David Biello reports October 16, 2011.

U.S. blames BP for Gulf spill : from Reuters , by Ayesha Rascoe and Anna Driver Sep 14, 2011. - The United States heaped the lion's share of blame for the country's biggest ever offshore oil spill on BP on Wednesday as the government issued its final assessment of last year's Gulf disaster.

Here is a list of my South by Southwest blog posts written when the story was happening last year:

1. More on the Gulf Oil Spill - 7/29/10
2. On living near the Gulf - 6/27/10
3. Skimming reactions to the Oval Office Speech yields little lubrication for Presidential ego. - 6/16/10
4. Updating the energy lexicon - 6/15/10
5. Presidential field trip full of potential - 6/14/10
6. Above and Below - Worlds Far Apart? - 5/21/10
7. Contra catastrophe - 5/19/10

Other references:
Deepwater Oil Spill - McClatchy Newspapers
Deepwater stories, etc. - Huffington Post
Deepwater Horizon oil spill - Wikipedia

Related articles

• BP to end cleanup operations in Gulf oil spill (guardian.co.uk)
• New Documentary Says Gulf Oil Spill Crisis Isn't Over (forbes.com)
• How To Put A Value On Oil Damaged Life In The Gulf (npr.org)
• Gulf Oil Threatens an Underwater 'Rain Forest' (time.com)

My post today is the latest from Propublica's investigation into "fracking."

ProPublica, a nonprofit journalism organization has a number of ongoing investigations. One I have followed is titled "Fracking - Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat." It is about "the promise of abundant natural gas is colliding with fears about water contamination.

Where I live in Texas is one of the most active gas drilling areas around. It adds revenue to our city and county coffers, but takes away from my feelings of environmental safety and protection of citizen interests. The series makes my point. This article is by Nicholas Kusnetz, written August 12, 2011.

Amplify’d from www.propublica.org

Report for Obama Questions Effectiveness of Gas Drilling Regulations

In sharp contrast with gas industry portrayals, the draft report released yesterday by a federal panel on shale gas drilling [1] explicitly acknowledges that current regulations may be insufficient to protect the environment and public health.

For years, the gas industry has said that drilling with hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, into deep shale formations is safe. The federal government has been caught in an awkward position, limited from regulating the industry by exemptions written into federal environmental laws, while also working to promote domestic energy production.

The draft report continues to promote drilling, but it comes down squarely on the side of stronger oversight. It notes serious environmental impacts from shale gas drilling and says it is "far from clear" whether federal and state regulations are protecting the public.

"If effective environmental action is not taken today," the report says, "the potential environmental consequences will grow to a point that the country will be faced (with) a more serious problem."

Many of the panel's recommendations already have been adopted by some states and members of the drilling industry over the last couple of years, including disclosure of chemicals used in fracking and better well construction.

Some go further. The report recommends that companies monitor air quality on drilling sites and publish those results. It also calls for limits on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and the primary component of natural gas.

"I think we're lifting the bar a bit," said John Deutch, chairman of the panel. Deutch is a former CIA director, has worked for the Energy Department and also sits on the board of two energy companies.

Across the board, the panel recommended making more information available to the public in order to create transparency and give a sense that progress is being made, Deutch said.

President Obama commissioned the report in March from Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who later appointed the seven-member panel. The panel was given 90 days

—ending Thursday—to come up with immediate steps that can be taken by regulators and drillers.

The report released yesterday doesn't recommend any specific regulations, leaving that to state and federal agencies. Many recommendations rely on industry cooperation.

"Whether and how these recommendations will be implemented is absolutely the critical question," said Matt Watson, senior energy policy manager at the Environmental Defense Fund. That organization's president, Fred Krupp, was the panel's only member from an environmental group.

The report is notable in part because of the makeup of the panel. Some environmentalists, academics and state lawmakers have criticized the group, saying that six of the seven members have financial ties to oil and gas companies [2]. Watson, who was not among that group of environmentalists, said the members' biographies could make the recommendations carry more weight.

"Some of them are quite bold," he said of the findings, "and it's noteworthy that a group like this panel, which is made up of members with very diverse backgrounds, would come to consensus."

Some aspects of the report are in clear conflict with industry characterizations. For example, the report says that the oft-repeated industry line—that fracking has been performed safely for decades—is insufficient to quell concerns. Instead, it says, the industry must monitor its own activities and make those results public.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America, an industry group, issued a statement calling the report a "useful starting point" for achieving improved safety. The group did not respond to a request for comment.

On the central question in the debate over fracking—whether millions of gallons of fluids injected deep in the earth can migrate through cracks and contaminate aquifers—the panel took a nuanced view. The report says there is a slight chance of that happening, but it does not rule out the possibility, saying "few if any" cases have been confirmed. Deutch said they chose the wording out of caution, not because they are aware of any cases.

"This all depends upon how prudent a person you are," he said. "If you say 'no cases,' one is going to turn up."

Some advocates said the panel's recommendations fell short of what is needed to protect the public. Dusty Horwitt, senior counsel for the Environmental Working Group, said he was disappointed that the report made no mention of the many exemptions for oil and gas companies from major environmental laws like the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act. While he supports many of the recommendations, he said it is unclear how they will translate into better practices.

"The question is, who is going to enforce some of these reforms that the panel is calling for?" he said. "We have laws on the books that could prevent some of the problems that the panel and others are interested in solving, but the panel was silent about those laws."

The report comes amid a robust public relations effort from the industry arguing that drilling and fracking are safe. As concerns have grown, companies have been running full-page spreads in newspapers [3] and putting ads on TV.

ProPublica has been reporting on the safety and environmental risks of gas drilling for three years. Previous investigations have detailed many of the problems addressed in these recommendations, including doubts over the climate benefits of natural gas [4], gaps in the disclosure of fracking chemicals [5] and problems with wastewater disposal [6].

Although many of the panel's recommendations have already been adopted or considered by state governments and the EPA, the report is significant in its acknowledgement of the threats, said Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"What's important here are the underlying findings: that there are problems that need to be fixed, and that they can be fixed."

Two of the most significant recommendations involve water use and air quality. The EPA proposed rules last month that would reduce emissions [7] of smog-forming and toxic air pollutants from many stages of the drilling process. The report calls for a broader approach that would encompass more operations and that would also limit methane emissions.

The panelists also called for a systemic approach to water use that would track every step from withdrawal to disposal. Most states do not track exactly how much of the fluids pumped underground in fracking returns to the surface as waste—as much as 90 percent can remain.

Other recommendations call for the creation of a public database linking to disparate sources of information on fracking and shale gas drilling, and for more research and development from the government (the Energy Department recently announced $10.3 million in grants for shale gas research [8]). Deutch said the proposals call for about $75 million in new federal spending on these initiatives.

The draft will be reviewed by an Energy Department committee next week before being finalized. Over the next 90 days, the panelists will use the recommendations to come up with specific advice for the Department of Interior, which regulates drilling on federal land, and the EPA. It will be up to those agencies to pursue any rulemaking they decide is necessary.

ProPublica Journalism in the public interest. Read more at www.propublica.org

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How hot is it?

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[7/8/11] Where I live - in Fort Worth, Texas  it feels "hotter than Hades."  On any recent afternoon the thermometer - in the shade - on our back porch has been reading 105, 108, or 110 degrees.

What this means is that our ten year-old Corgi, Scooter, cannot spend any quiet time away from us on the patio.  It means a high water bill merely keeping our mature shrubs alive.  It means wearing a straw hat if the time outside is longer than just a few moments.  If there is any wind it feels like standing near a blast furnace in a steel mill, though I've never personally seen such a furnace.

City folk and country folk alike are in trouble.  If you do not have air conditioning, your life can be at risk. People who work outside mast take care to avoid heat strokes. And our dangerously high temperatures are combined with a severe drought.  Gardens, parks crops, and livestock are suffering.

There seems to be no end in sight.

Technorati tags: heatwave

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My creative website is Making Good Mondays. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Related articles

• I just don't know what to do with myself. (1findingidentity.wordpress.com)

Soon there will be another rover headed to Mars

Though we still have one active Mars rover sending us information, NASA is excited by the next phase of Mars exploration via robotics. The new rover, named Curiosity, will be far ahead of its predecessors in size, capacity and complexity. It has 17 cameras, for example.



I cannot wait to see the outcomes!

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NASA'S Next Mars Rover To Land At Gale Crater

WASHINGTON -- NASA's next Mars rover will land at the foot of a layered mountain inside the planet's Gale crater.

The car-sized Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year and land in August 2012. The target crater spans 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter and holds a mountain rising higher from the crater floor than Mount Rainier rises above Seattle. Gale is about the combined area of Connecticut and Rhode Island. Layering in the mound suggests it is the surviving remnant of an extensive sequence of deposits. The crater is named for Australian astronomer Walter F. Gale.

During a prime mission lasting one Martian year -- nearly two Earth years -- researchers will use the rover's tools to study whether the landing region had favorable environmental conditions for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life ever existed.

In 2006, more than 100 scientists began to consider about 30 potential landing sites during worldwide workshops. Four candidates were selected in 2008.

Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover. Its 10 science instruments include two for ingesting and analyzing samples of powdered rock that the rover's robotic arm collects. A radioisotope power source will provide heat and electric power to the rover. A rocket-powered sky crane suspending Curiosity on tethers will lower the rover directly to the Martian surface. The portion of the crater where Curiosity will land has an alluvial fan likely formed by water-carried sediments. The layers at the base of the mountain contain clays and sulfates, both known to form in water.

Curiosity will go beyond the "follow-the-water" strategy of recent Mars exploration. The rover's science payload can identify other ingredients of life, such as the carbon-based building blocks of biology called organic compounds. Long-term preservation of organic compounds requires special conditions. Certain minerals, including some Curiosity may find in the clay and sulfate-rich layers near the bottom of Gale's mountain, are good at latching onto organic compounds and protecting them from oxidation.

"Gale gives us attractive possibilities for finding organics, but that is still a long shot," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at agency headquarters. "What adds to Gale's appeal is that, organics or not, the site holds a diversity of features and layers for investigating changing environmental conditions, some of which could inform a broader understanding of habitability on ancient Mars." The rover and other spacecraft components are being assembled and undergoing final testing. The mission is targeted to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. To view the landing site and for more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl   Read more at www.nasa.gov

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Good news to begin your week from Ezra Klein - "Wonkbook" at the Washington Post: Government shutdown delayed.

One of my TV pundit favorites is Ezra Klein, a wunderkind bright as a shiny new copper penny. His blog is a roundup of the latest news items that are of particular interest to me, as a Progressive. His site has a good blog-roll and lots of good hot links. Here is a sample of his current work. Enjoy.

Amplify’d from voices.washingtonpost.com

At least for a few weeks. Late on Friday, House GOP leadership unveiled a two-week extension of government funding that cuts $4 billion -- but only goes after programs President Obama targeted for elimination in his budget. For Democrats, that's good enough. Reid spokesman Jon Summers, in a statement that should be taught in political flack school as an example of how to attack your opponent while agreeing with the reasonable compromise measure they've offered, said, "We are encouraged to hear that Republicans are abandoning their demands for extreme measures like cuts to border security, cancer research and food safety inspectors and instead moving closer to Democrats' position that we should cut government spending in a smart, responsible way that targets waste and excess while keeping our economy growing."

And it doesn't bridge the two essential arguments between the Republicans and the Democrats, which are how much spending to cut, and where it should come from. So we can't yet say that disaster is averted. But it is, at the least, delayed.

Events in the Midwest and Middle East could affect the recovery, report Neil Irwin and Michael Fletcher: "Just when the economic recovery seemed to gain momentum, two new threats have emerged that could undermine it. One has flared in the Midwest, the other in the Middle East. The standoff over benefits for public employees in Wisconsin, pitting Gov. Scott Walker (R) against unions and their Democratic allies, presages battles in many state capitals that could lead to hundreds of thousands of public jobs being cut nationwide...Budget cutting is already taking a greater toll than analysts had expected, according to figures released Friday by the Commerce Department...Political turmoil in Libya and other Arab nations, meanwhile, has driven the price of oil up 14 percent this week and is already starting to mean higher prices for American consumers at the gasoline pump. The price spike could buffet global financial markets if the upheaval spreads further."

Still to come: The Senate is taking up patent reform -- and it's proving surprisingly contentious; regulators asre beginning to define what count as 'essential benefits' on the health-care law; governors disagree on how flexible to make health care reform; there is little evidence that public workers are overpaid; the EPA emerges from the short-term spending bill unscathed; and the gritty, live-action Archie movie.

Even Republicans like budget director Jack Lew, reports Lori Montgomery: "At 27, Jacob J. Lew helped save Social Security. At 41, he helped cut a deal to balance the federal budget. During the Clinton administration, he became the only White House budget director in a generation to banish deficit spending. In a city suddenly crawling with would-be deficit-busters, even some Republicans recognize Lew as the real deal. 'You guys did an absolutely magnificent job of managing the nation's fiscal affairs,' Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) gushed when Lew, in his second stint as White House budget director, appeared last week before the House Budget Committee. 'It's true it was a Republican Congress, but give credit where credit is due. You guys did a great job.' Now President Obama has asked Lew to work that magic again."

Texas' education cuts show the cost of austerity, writes Paul Krugman: "In low-tax, low-spending Texas, the kids are not all right. The high school graduation rate, at just 61.3 percent, puts Texas 43rd out of 50 in state rankings. Nationally, the state ranks fifth in child poverty; it leads in the percentage of children without health insurance. And only 78 percent of Texas children are in excellent or very good health, significantly below the national average. But wait -- how can graduation rates be so low when Texas had that education miracle back when former President Bush was governor? Well, a couple of years into his presidency the truth about that miracle came out: Texas school administrators achieved low reported dropout rates the old-fashioned way -- they, ahem, got the numbers wrong."

Regulators are starting to debate what constitutes "essential care", reports Avery Johnson: "Maggie Haslam's five-year-old autistic son, Drew, has undergone intense behavioral, physical and speech therapy that helped him learn to dress himself and communicate such concepts as 'over' and 'under.' The therapy greatly helped Drew, said Ms. Haslam, a public-relations agent in Silver Spring, Md. But was it essential? The next big issue for the federal health law as it moves toward implementation is how regulators will define so-called essential benefits—the basic medical services that health plans must cover under the law. The legislation gives 10 categories of care that plans must provide for customers of the health-insurance exchanges that are launching in 2014. But the law leaves details up to regulators, who are now starting to develop the rules."

More than half of all states want permission to cuts hundreds of thousands from their Medicaid rolls:

Arne Duncan is urging states to avoid education cuts; http://politi.co/eoR5OW

A product safety database could be killed in House cuts, reports Lyndsey Layton: "The first-ever government database of product safety complaints, which is scheduled to go public in two weeks, could be scrapped as a result of a budget amendment offered by a freshman member of the House. As part of the spending bill that passed the House on Feb. 19, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) won support for a measure to withhold money to implement the system, which is set to launch March 11. The database, which was welcomed by consumer advocates, would make public thousands of complaints received by the Consumer Product Safety Commission each year about safety problems with products, from table lamps to baby strollers."

The GOP's short-term spending bill does not target the EPA, reports Andrew Restuccia: "The short-term spending bill released Friday by House Republicans does not include language to block funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate rules or slash the agency’s budget. The continuing resolution (CR) would fund the government for two weeks while lawmakers work out a longer-term spending bill to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year. The Republican proposal would cut current spending by $4 billion. Democrats said Friday they were 'encouraged' by the proposal. The House passed earlier this month a broad continuing resolution that would fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. The measure, which would cut current spending by $61 billion, includes a provision to block funding for EPA climate regulations." Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com

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Congressional conservatives are, again, out of step with public opinion. Winning the House was not this mandate!

Do you remember the story about leopards and spots? It is true. Republicans in the House are showing that they are still against the poor, against women, and against the environment.

The budget cuts they are demanding are pay-back for all the campaign contributions they received to win their seats. Throw in some culture war stuff and there is little left that qualifies as middle ground for cooperation with progressive Democrats.

Amplify’d from www.thedemocraticstrategist.org

TDS Co-Editor Ruy Teixeira: Public, Conservatives at Odds on Cuts

Conservatives are about to launch their full-court press on budget cuts. But their problem is, the cuts they want are the diametrical opposites of the cuts the public supports, --- and vice versa. As TDS Co-Editor Ruy Teixeira explains in his latest 'Public Opinion Snapshot':

...Their proposed cuts leave the military largely untouched while taking a meat axe to nonmilitary discretionary spending--that is, spending on areas such as education, energy, the environment, and poverty. As usual, conservative priorities are backward when compared to public opinion. In a fascinating new survey the Program for Public Consultation conducted, respondents were asked to make their own cuts (or increases) to a projected discretionary budget for the year 2015 with a $625 billion deficit. The top three areas for cuts were defense ($109 billion average cut), intelligence agencies ($13 billion), and Iraq/Afghanistan ($13 billion)--the very areas conservatives are going light on.

It looks like Democrats who hold the line on social spending while cutting the military budget will be on solid ground with their constituents, while conservatives who stand for the reverse will have some explaining to do. Read more at www.thedemocraticstrategist.org

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House Republican Committee chairs will be feeling their oats in 2011, says ProPublica.

Their claim will be that they are acting on "mandates from the American people." Unfortunately they will be misreading any such mandates in the name of political gains of power for themselves. There will be no end of mischief made, attempts to de-legitimize President Obama, and roll back the major legislative gains made this year. We're in for some raw excitement, folks.

Amplify’d from www.propublica.org

Meet the Likely House Committee Chairs—Who Promise to Roll Back ‘Job-Killing’ Regs

by Marian Wang ProPublica, Nov. 4, 2010, 10:11 a.m.

Earlier this week, we highlighted a few ways [1] that midterm elections could affect some of the issues we’ve dogged in the past few months—the foreclosure scandal, financial reform, healthcare reform, among others.

Impending Republican control of the House means there will be new leaders on powerful House committees [2]. Those committees oversee a number of issues we’ve covered, including the investigation of federal agencies, the strength of financial reform, and the future of energy policy.

Here’s a quick introduction—or reintroduction—to some of the lawmakers who will likely win these important chairmanships. Many of them, you’ll note, have stated publicly their opposition to “job-killing” regulation of the financial community and energy industry—in line with the GOP’s Pledge to America [3].

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Remember Darrell Issa, the Republican lawmaker who a New York Times profile nicknamed “Obama’s Annoyer-in-Chief [4]” for his tendency to make a fuss on so-called “nuisance issues”? Assuming he becomes chairman, Issa will have subpoena authority, which means he’ll have the power to launch investigations into many of the suspicions he’s raised about the Obama administration [5].

Following the Republican gains in the House, Issa pushed back against fears that the investigations he initiates will be driven by partisan motivations.

“I want to prove the pundits wrong. My job is not to bring down the president [6]. My job is to make the president a success,” he told reporters. “I’m going to stick to my knitting, which is waste, fraud and abuse, whenever possible.”

Talking Points Memo flagged four likely issues for investigation [7], noting that Issa had more or less laid out his agenda [8] for oversight of the executive branch in an earlier report. That report noted “hearings requested by the Republican Minority but ignored by the Democratic Majority,” including investigations into Fannie and Freddie, failures at the SEC, and inadequate response to BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Issa has since told reporters [9] that he’d likely focus on earmark reform and investigate the President’s use of advisers, or “czars [10],” who don’t have to go through Senate confirmation. He has also said that he will “absolutely” advocate granting subpoena power to the primary 74 inspectors general [11] who serve as watchdogs at various federal agencies. Currently only the Defense Department’s inspector general has that authority.

House Financial Services Committee

With the shift of power to House Republicans, Rep. Barney Frank—whose name is on the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill—will be relinquishing his position as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

His most likely successor is Rep. Spencer Bachus, a Republican from Alabama who has previously issued the following statement [12] pertaining to the financial reform bill:

“The administration will no longer receive a pass when it comes to aggressive oversight of their failed economic policies, and that includes extensive review of all the job-killing provisions in [the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act].”

Some of those “job-killing provisions” include the new rules requiring derivatives [13] to be traded on exchanges and routed through clearinghouses, according to comments made Wednesday [14] by Bachus. Putting derivatives on open exchanges, he told CNBC [15], “is just one example of something that is going to dry up liquidity, that is going to impact the economy, and is going to cost jobs.”

As chairman, he would also be overseeing the overhaul—or, as it might be viewed, the privatization—of government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bachus has said that severing government ties with the mortgage giants is necessary, though the “withdrawal process” may be painful for borrowers [16].

The House Republican Steering Committee has to vote to make Bachus’ chairmanship official. He faces a challenge for the position from Rep. Ed Royce, who announced on Wednesday that he is also vying for it [17].

Royce has posted on his website a recent article by American Banker [18] stating that he is “not looking to repeal outright the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform law” but is likely to “try and clip its wings.”

House Energy and Commerce Committee

Two Republican lawmakers, Reps. Joe Barton and Fred Upton, are facing off over chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to the Houston Chronicle’s FuelFix blog [19].

Rep. Barton, some may recall, is the lawmaker who famously apologized to BP’s then-CEO, Tony Hayward, for what he called a “$20 billion shakedown [20]” of the company by the Obama administration. (Obama had met with BP executives in June to discuss setting aside $20 billion in an escrow account, from which to pay out damages for Gulf residents affected by the spill [21].)

The apology to BP—which Barton retracted that same day [22]—is just one hurdle standing between Barton and the chairmanship. The other hurdle is technical.

Because Barton has served as chairman from 2004 to 2006 and then as ranking Republican, the GOP leadership appears to be interpreting its term-limit rules in such a way that would bar him from leading the committee for another term. The Chronicle explains:

To remain at the helm of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Barton would have to secure a waiver of the term limit rule. And, he would have to convince a GOP steering committee—and then a majority of the Republican party’s incoming House members—that he deserves the post.

Barton’s already started working on this. The Hill reported that he sent a letter to incoming GOP lawmakers [23] on Wednesday, touting his record of opposing cap-and-trade and healthcare reform:

“Over the past four years, as Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, I have led the charge against radical cap-and-trade legislation, fought the new entitlements and mandates that are the rotten core of President Obama’s health care law, and consistently applied free market principles to legislative decisions,” he wrote. “It’s been an uphill battle, and I’m grateful that, thanks to your votes, the cavalry is riding to the rescue.”

If his efforts don’t succeed, Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, is next in line. His positions on energy issues are outlined in this recent op-ed [24] he wrote for the Washington Times. In it, he argues that regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Communications Commission, and other agencies are “smothering the economy.”

“The government cannot buy or regulate its way out of this mess,” Upton wrote. “It's time for a new approach.”

Several other Republicans on the committee are also reportedly eyeing the chairmanship [25] but are not expected to win over Upton. A power company lobbyist, however, told the Chronicle that the committee’s leadership may not matter much—both top contenders “have worked closely with the industry.”

“Whether it’s Mr. Barton or Mr. Upton,” said Scott Segal of Bracewell & Giuliani, “the Energy and Commerce Committee is going to be friendlier to the business community, more attentive to industrial jobs (and) more balanced in its approach to energy policy.” Read more at www.propublica.org

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More on the Gulf Oil Spill

Though things are becoming far better regarding the Gulf oil gusher, There is still a long way to go.  That is because a lot of bad things have happened.  Here, hat tip to my regular contributor - Jon, is a news item roundup of a few things you might have missed:

"Rig's Final Hours Probed#," is from The Wall Street Journal (7/18/10). Summary: Spill Investigators Focus on 20 'Anomalies' Aboard Doomed Deepwater Horizon.

"BP Ran Magazine Article Extolling Relations With Libya As It Secretly Lobbied For Terrorist's Release#," is from Think Progress (7/16/10).  Jon has a question: "I wonder if 'Smoky Joe' Barton would still apologize to BP after knowing this?  If so, than he SUPPORTS TERRORISM!"

"AP IMPACT: Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned wells#," is from Yahoo! News (7/7/10).

"Marine biologist claims US Coast Guard involved in Corexit spraying#," is from The Raw Story (7/5/10).

"Millions of birds set to fly into Gulf oil mess#," is from MSNBC (7/1/10). Summary: 'They won't be safe on their fall passage,' says Audubon official.

CBS: Jindal holds up deployment of National Guard to fight spill is from Daily Kos (6/25/10).

"Reasonably high chance BP files for bankruptcy,# is from The Atlantic. (6/22/10).

"Judge held stock in rig owner#," is from Politico (6/22/10).

"BP burning sea turtles alive#," is from The Raw Story (6/20/10).

"Republican candidate: Obama, BP ‘colluded’ to make oil spill happen#," is from The Raw Story (6/18/10).

"The Environmental Legacy of the Gulf Oil Spill#," is from Newsweek Magazine (6/17/10).

"Texas lawmaker accuses White House of BP shakedown#," is from Yahoo! News (6/16/10). Jon's comment:

Joe Barton is a jack(...). I guess he would have the impacted people to just absorb all the loss themselves. UNBELIEVABLE -- No, I forgot, just SOP for Rethugs. Scumbag Barton needs to be run out of office.

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Get informed; get involved

What is advocacy?  Attorneys are sometimes called advocates.  And just plain old volunteers also do advocacy.  I served on a county Child Welfare Board in the 1970's, for example.  These days I serve on a crime victim's council board.  And I consider myself an online activist.  I write several blogs, I sign online petitions, I telephone U.S. Congressional House and Senate offices, and I try to stay well informed on issues of particular interest to me.  These include national security and civil liberties, the U.S. space program, climate change and the environment. 
To assist with my activism, I get a regular newsletter from Congress.org, whose slogan is "Get informed. Get involved."  Today I clipped one of their articles, "Environmental activists get creative — and they also get some good news." at my AmpLog website. 
Congress.org is a great website for activists and those who would like to help change things in our country.  It publishes news stories about what is happening, ideas for causes with which to get connected.  It is a publication of CQ Roll Call Group.  Here are some of their very handy tools for getting involved.

Communicating with Congress

Write a Letter to Your Local Media

Visiting Capitol Hill

Congressional Staff

The Legislative Process

State Leaders

References -- Links to interesting articles, sent to me by my regular contributor, Jon#, another great activist:"Toyota lashed out at instructor during big recall#," is from Yahoo! News (7/10/10).
"Zimbabweans wash dirty US dollars with soap, water#," is from the AP at Yahoo! News (7/6/10).
"Flying car production rolls forward#," is from CNN (6/30/10).
"Report: Toxins found in whales bode ill for humans#," is from Yahoo! News (6/24/10).
"Are Australian honeybees behind U.S. hive collapse?#," is from Yahoo! News (6/20/10).
-- Post date: 7/11/10
By Carol Gee 
Author of:

• Southwest Postings, a political blog
• Make Good Mondays, a personal blog
• Member of Twitter, a social network
  

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On living near the Gulf

Those of us who reside in Texas also "live on the Gulf," but in a very different way now than the people from our neighboring states to the east.  The state's economy and tourism goes on pretty much the same as before, except for the ancillary spillover effects on Texas' "awl bidness**."  Brown pelicans have been scrubbed and released to what seems to be a "safe" area, the bird sanctuaries in south Texas.

But a storm is brewing in the Caribbean.  Perhaps luckily for the rest of the Gulf, tropical storm Alex may be headed in our direction.  The current forecast predicts that it could become a hurricane that hits northern Mexico, but that it could affect the south Texas area.

People watching what is going on in the fight to quell the BP oil catastrophe, are hoping that it is the case.  Not that our neighbors want bad things to happen to Texas and Mexico.  All of us who live on the Gulf just want the cleanup efforts to intensify and continue unabated by a hurricane.  And we do not want oil blown our way in the western and southern Gulf. 

So maybe the gods will smile on Texas.  It feels so selfish to say that out loud.  It is not that the gods frowned on Lousiana*, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.  It is BP and the proximity and wind/current directions that have been the bane of our neighbors to the east. It is the criminal negligence of those in charge of drilling the well that went wild.

Living in a state that borders on the Gulf of Mexico makes Texans anxious.  But our little worries pale in comparrison to those whose lifetime businesses have been ruined, perhaps for the foreseeable future.  Anxiety over an approaching hurricane is ever so different than the when-will-it-end uncertainty of businesses dependent on tourists and travelers.  However, everyone shares the deep concerns we have for the living things destroyed by millions and millions of gallons of toxic petroleum.  Plants and animals in worrying numbers and amounts are losses that are underestimated and not understood well enough.  These is the same anxiety producing facts for all of us living on the Gulf, as well as all Americans living inland.

 

More reference links from my regular contributor, Jon:

"*CBS: Jindal holds up deployment of National Guard to fight spill" is from Daily Kos (6/25/10).

"Reasonably high chance BP files for bankruptcy,# is from The Atlantic. (6/22/10).

"Judge held stock in rig owner#," is from Politico (6/22/10).

"BP burning sea turtles alive#," is from The Raw Story (6/20/10).

"Republican candidate: Obama, BP ‘colluded’ to make oil spill happen#," is from The Raw Story (6/18/10).

"The Environmental Legacy of the Gulf Oil Spill#," is from Newsweek Magazine (6/17/10).

"**Texas lawmaker accuses White House of BP shakedown#," is from Yahoo! News (6/16/10). Jon's comment:

Joe Barton is a jack(...). I guess he would have the impacted people to just absorb all the loss themselves. UNBELIEVABLE -- No, I forgot, just SOP for Rethugs. Scumbag Barton needs to be run out of office.

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Updating the energy lexicon

There is a subtle but important change in the current "buzz" about the Gulf oil spill.  Those with an ear for such things notice that the words fossil fuels are being substituted for foreign oil in the phrase, "The U.S. must get rid of its dependence on . . ."  Redefining the energy dependence issue as one of the source/type rather than the source/place could be the key to moving forward with energy legislation in the Senate.  President Obama and others started using the new phraseology a few days ago, and it felt like a leap forward into the 21st century. 

We need energy independence now. And either barrier to a thriving energy economy -- foreign oil or fossil fuel -- actually relates to our national security.  Dependence on foreign oil is actually a bit misleading.  All oil is sold on the world market; it all goes into the same pot.  Dependence on fossil fuels is actually the larger problem; only clean, non fossil fuel sources of energy can be a permanent solution. Most sources of clean energy will be domestically produced, though not all.  Questions about the importation of renewable fuels await developments in the world markets. 

Focusing on a clean energy economy is the most logical long term response to the oil spill disaster. We are more likely now than before it happened to be able to look ahead in those more far reaching decisions.  And President Obama must be the one to articulate the vision, lead and fight for it.  It would not be wrong for him to take advantage of the new environmental climate consciousness generated by BP's undersea gusher.  People advocating such an approach use the examples of a Manhattan Project, or putting a man on the moon as models from the past.  We know we can do it.  It is just a matter of making the pivot and then dedicating enough resources and attention to the effort.

 

Bonus links to other articles (HT to my regular contributor, Jon):

"‘Be Grateful for President Obama’#," is from Failure Magazine (6/2010).

"Scientists begin 520-day Mars mission simulation#," is from Yahoo! News (6/3/10).

"Camp Costly#," is from The Washington Post (6/7/10). At least $500 million has been spent since 9/11 on renovating Guantanamo Bay.

 

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An armchair traveler hits bumps in the road

My friend Jon sends me links to interesting and offbeat news items from Yahoo! .  Today's post is a small digest of his most recent finds.

Because I am a "space junkie," I keep up with anything having to do with our NASA program.  This headline, "World's Largest Airship Inflated to Create Monster 'Stratellite' ," caught my eye because it is such an interesting concept.  It was innovative enough to attract NASA.  Quoting from the story:

A huge inflatable vehicle as long as a 23-floor skyscraper is tall has become the world's largest airship in its bid to serve as a stratospheric satellite, or "stratellite," according to its developers.

The 235-foot (72 m) long airship, known as the http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=stratell...">Bullet 580 , has a top speed of 80 mph (129 km/h) and can serve as a high-flying sentinel that stays aloft for long periods of time.

. . . Military and civilian versions of the airship might take on roles for http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090701-tw-military-airships.html">battlefield surveillance , missile defense warning, electronic countermeasures , weapons platforms, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) services, weather monitoring, broadcast communications and communications relays.

A maiden flight scheduled for later this year would carry an experimental payload jointly developed by NASA and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. The agricultural and geophysical experiment is designed to measure moisture content in the soil.

If NASA is to survive and prosper it must become more relevant to the day to day lives of Americans and to people around the world.  Crops cannot be successfully grown on parched soil with no water source.  The conflicts of the future will surely be about scarce water, and scarce food.  And we are becoming more aware that such conflicts are upon us.

Those of us who are seafood lovers should not allow "the ocean's pirate fishermen " to catch our meals.  They are operating beyond the reach of the United Nations ineffective and anemic regulation regime, "the Port State Measurement Agreement (PSMA), which requires countries to close their ports to ships involved in illegal or unregulated fishing."  This story reveals that, to quote:

The oceans are being emptied of fish. A forthcoming United Nations report lays out the stark numbers: only around 25% of commercial stocks are in a healthy or even reasonably healthy state. Some 30% of fish stocks are considered collapsed, and 90% of large predatory fish - like the bluefin tuna so prized by sushi aficionados - have disappeared since the middle of the 20th century. More than 60% of assessed fish stocks are in need of rebuilding, and some researchers estimate that if current trends hold, virtually all commercial fisheries will have collapsed by mid century.

. . . as much damage as the legal, commercial fishing trade has wrought on the oceans, it's the illegal trade that could spell their doom. Legal fishermen - the everyday farmers of the seas - have licenses they must protect and laws they must obey. But illegal fishing - often done on the high seas where regulations are lax and catch limits can be exceeded with impunity, or in the coastal waters of developing nations, which lack the ability to fight back - abides by rules of its own.

. . . But there's also a major problem with overcapacity - or the simple excess of fishermen - thanks to the $27 billion in subsidies given to the worldwide fishing industry each year. Those subsidies - especially the billions that go to cheap diesel fuel that makes factory fishing on the high seas possible at all--have created an industry bigger than the oceans can support.

In light of what the oceans can support, it is abundantly clear with the Gulf oil spill crisis that the oceans cannot support deep sea drilling.  Foreign and domestic companies, the multinational petroleum industry, have been allowed to ignore the oceans' precious natural treasures in pursuit of the exploitation of fossil fuels.  Drilling expeditions have gone beyond where we know how to handle the catastrophic consequences of industrial accidents.  The Gulf's natural resources are being plundered in the name of shortsighted energy policy and corporate profits.

In the past foreign nations sent expeditions into Egypt that discovered and exploited the precious antiquities of ancient Egypt.  That is, happily, no longer the case.  The current discoveries were made by the Egyptians themselves:   There were "57 tombs with mummies unearthed in Egypt ." Here's the story:

Archeologists have unearthed 57 ancient Egyptian tombs , most of which hold an ornately painted wooden sarcophagus with a mummy inside, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Sunday. The oldest tombs date back to around 2750 B.C. during the period of Egypt 's first and second dynasties, the council said in a statement.

. . . Abdel Rahman El-Aydi, head of the archaeological mission that made the discovery, said some of the tombs are decorated with religious texts that ancient Egyptians believed would help the deceased to cross through the underworld.

. . . The council said the findings were unearthed at Lahoun, in Fayoum , some 70 miles (100 kilometers) south of Cairo .  Last year, some 53 stone tombs dating back to various ancient periods were found in the area.

Today's trip into the wider world brought some good news and some bad news, actually more bad than good.  Unfortunately the truth of fisheries and environmental degradation cannot be glossed over.  We must deal with the losses and try to do better in the future.

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