If Barack Obama accomplishes nothing else in his presidency but this, he will be a hero for generations to come. 

President-elect Obama wants to get rid of daylight saving time in the United States to conserve energy.

Turns out, according to two academics on the NYT Op-Ed page, there is little scientific proof that this reduces energy consumption. It also turns out that this practice could be wasteful, a bit annoying, and a lot of people, including Obama, want to get rid of it.

A study in Indiana, a state that recently started DST, showed an overall increase of 1 percent in residential electricity use with occasional increases of 2 to 4 percent in late spring and early fall. So much for conserving energy.

I hate DST. It throws me and my kids out of whack for a couple of days. I hope Obama gets rid of it. too.

There's just one problem -- there's nothing I could find that indicates that Obama is actually considering or supporting abolishment of DST. The article linked to at the NYT only says (after noting the debunking of DST saving energy):

Eliminating daylight time would thus accord with President-elect Barack Obama’s stated goals of conserving resources, saving money, promoting energy security and reducing climate change. At the very least, we should abandon the notion that we are saving energy while enjoying the extra hour of sunlight on hot summer evenings.

Which is very nice, but really says nothing about Obama actually wanting to eliminate DST, just that it is in accord with his conservation efforts.

That said ... it's a change I could believe in.

Filed under :: Environment :: Politics & Law
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Thank God someone was taking notes.

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.

What kind of stuff? How about the global "gag rule"?

The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it.

Or giving California it's head on anti-global warming efforts?

The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration's decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. "Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer," Obama said in January.

California had sought permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to require that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles be cut by 30 percent between 2009 and 2016, effectively mandating that cars achieve a fuel economy standard of at least 36 miles per gallon within eight years. Seventeen other states had promised to adopt California's rules, representing in total 45 percent of the nation's automobile market. Environmentalists cheered the California initiative because it would stoke innovation that would potentially benefit the entire country.

"An early move by the Obama administration to sign the California waiver would signal the seriousness of intent to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil and build a future for the domestic auto market," said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

And on stem cell research.

Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush's controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson's.

Bush's August 2001 decision pleased religious conservatives who have moral objections to the use of cells from days-old human embryos, which are destroyed in the process.

But Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said that during Obama's final swing through her state in October, she reminded him that because the restrictions were never included in legislation, Obama "can simply reverse them by executive order." Obama, she said, "was very receptive to that." Opponents of the restrictions have already drafted an executive order he could sign.

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Environment :: Politics & Law :: Science
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THINGS THAT MAKE ME SIGH

1. 10/20/08 PHD comic: 'Academic Salaries': Yeah, the argument is that they drive alumni donations. Tough. If academia cannot be idealistic, who can be?
2. Selling used CDs is still legal in America: But the Media Moguls keep hoping they'll get a court ruling in their favor.
3. Is Dennis Kucinich the only person in Congress asking...: I often disagree with Kucinich, and I think his presidential run was quixotic at best, goofy at worst. But sometimes I dream of him as Speaker of the House, and how that might churn up some actual not-bound-by-electoral-considerations debate.
4. TSA didn't keep track of ex-employees' badges and...: I'm feeling more secure, aren't you?
5. Amid Meltdown, N.Y. Prepares For Hard Times : NPR: As much as I have zero pity for all those brokers and such whose bubble-flogging got us to where we are, New York state is facing a serious financial impact from loss of income and capital gains taxes with the disaster in the financial industry.
6. Entire-paper plagiarism: We're not talking about term papers here, but scientific journal papers. As the center of "scientific legitimacy" extends further than the US or the West, these sorts of things are much more prone to slip in.
7. In Soviet Russia, Lake Contaminates You: Rocky Flats, only an order of magnitude (or two or three) worse.
8. The Things He Carried - The Atlantic (November 2008): Yeah! Feeling much more secure!
9. Huzzah! - *Sigh* I actually liked (original formula) Zima. And it will always share a place in my heart (and my VHS collection) for its early Zany Zesty advertiZing on Babylon 5.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME THINK

1. Speed of eating 'key to obesity': And, yes, I am one to wolf down my food. Not sure where I got that habit, but it's probably worth trying to counter.
2. Finding Hidden Tomb Of Genghis Khan Using Non-Invasive Radar...: GK's tomb was intentionally hidden, and has remained such. Modern technology may thwart that.
3. That's What You Get When You Misuse What I Invent,...: (Democracy in Other Countries) .NE. (What Our Democracy Thinks is Correct). I'm a big believer, philosophically, in democracy (pragmatically as well as idealistically), but the idea that just because there's a democracy somewhere (even if we installed it) they'll agree with us is narcissistic.
4. Five Guantanamo Prisoners' Charges Dropped By US: Which sounds like guardedly good news, except that (a) it doesn't mean they're actually being released, and (b) it resets the clock on their "speedy trials" as mandated by federal courts. 
5. Joseph To Be First Black Doctor?: And why the hell not? 
6. 10 Best Mainstream Characters in Geeky Movies: What amazes me is how much those characters resonate with this particular geek.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE

1. Photoshop Disasters on Marie Claire photo: Through a looking-glass, clearly. If you're going to Photoshop your subjects to make them look younger and prettier, be sure and do the same to their reflections on the glass-top table in front of them.
2. New in Labs: Canned Responses: I'm not sure how I'd use this new GMail feature, but it's kind of spiffy. I'm less sanguine about More changes to Gmail contact manager; what I really want is a push-button way to merge Contact entries.
3. The World of CthulhuTech Gets Weirder and Creepier...: Ancient Ones! Mecha! Fight!
4. Vicar of Dibley eases path for women clergy: Huzzah!
5. True nature of science fiction and fantasy books revealed...: The site is BoingBoinged (suspended due to traffic), but the BB page itself is worth the price of clicking.
6. The AT-ATs Look Lovely in This Light: So wrong, yet so right.
7. Insanely intricate pumpkin carvings: Too much work for me to do, but not too much for me to enjoy.
8. Snap! - Some insanely great high-speed photographs.

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I DON'T LIKE THIS

1. Running Out The Clock: Ah, unitary executive power -- is there any law you cannot simply ignore. See, also, We Have One Week to Save the Grand Canyon. Freaking idjits. Expect more last-second-orgy-of-executive-self-indulgence over the next few months. You thought Clinton's flurry of pardons was bad?
2. Bush administration okays religious discrimination...: See above. "Law, shmaw ... who's gonna prosecute us?"
3. Financial Crisis: Who is going to bail out the euro?: A very dark schadenfreude courses through me. 
4. AFA Declares Victory Over McDonald's: Great, another reason not to eat at McDonald's.
5. Homosexuals should carry warning tattoos, says London...: Not My Anglican Church.
6. Best Buy's New Tag: How ... uninspiring.
7. David Sirota: Treasury Blacks Out Key Parts of Private...: Transparency through obscurity?
8. WalMart now says they'll keep the DRM servers on forever: Or at least until there are fewer people to bitch about it.
9. Nonviolent Activists Are Now Terrorists: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
10. TSA Agent Ripped Off Electronics, Sold Them On eBay: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Now, where have I heard that before?
11. Artist Detained: Absolute power corrupts ... hey ...
12. NSA enjoys eavesdropping on US soldiers' phone sex...: Absolute ... oh, never mind. 
13. EA boss on DRM protesters: Half are pirates and the...: Come watch the game industry self-destruct!
14. American Culture Derails Girl Math Whizzes, Study Finds: Actually it finds we don't do well with Math Whizzes of either gender, but particularly with girls. Rrg.
15. Stupid QA tricks: Colossal testing oversights: Okay, no matter how smug I get, I always have to remember my own testing oversights.
16. The New Pepsi Challenge: Guess the Smile: Pepsi's changing its logo and all its branding and labeling stuff so as to combat a loss of market share. As opposed to, um, improving their product?
17. GPS 'Spoofing' Could Threaten National Security : Yet another miracle technology ruined by black hats. 
18. Firefox extension blocks dangerous Web attack:  It also block all sorts of other useful things, like the Note in Reader linklette for Google Reader. 
19. Airport security theater: I feel more secure, yes indeedy!
20. Grenades in your luggage? TSA says that’s A-OK!: Absolutely more secure than ever! You betcha!
21. Airport shoe-scanner device could prevent stupid shoe-removal...: Except we shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
22. Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children!: People terrified by the "bride and bride" license in California. Yumpin' Yimminy, give me a break.
23. Christian Morality and Hell: I confess that I am a Universalist in this instance -- which would label me, ironically, as heading straight to the Fiery Furnace in some folks' account.
24. How's that novel coming along?: *SIGH*

I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS ONE WAY OR THE OTHER, BUT IT IS KIND OF INTERESTING

1. Fringe cancelled downunder after only 5 episodes: I've taken Fringe off my DVR rotation. I just wasn't looking forward to the next episode.
2. ABC Develops New V: I was only a bit into the original. I suppose there's room for improvement, though I suspect it will simply be grimmer and grittier.
3. Newly released British UFO files debunk some sightings,...: Of course, the real Torchwood kind of stuff wouldn't be in files they'd release, would they?
4. Goodbye Little Penguin: Berke Breathed Retires Opus: Honestly, I haven't cared much about Breathed or Opus since, oh, about two years into Bloom County.
5. 'Fingerprinting' Method Tracks Mercury Emissions From...: ... particular coal mines. Interesting.
6. Turbine to launch a LotRO-focused social networking...: I can see cases where this would be of value to some, though I am post-MMO-social-networking.
7. *HP classic calculator fans* might like the following...: Not that I'm an HP calculator fan, but I recognize a fellow geek tribe.

I DO LIKE THIS

1. RTD Sets New Ridership Record: That's me! That's me!
2. Full Terminator Season Ordered: Cool. 
3. Watchmen Footage Sneaked: Sounds very cool, though Will America Watch Watchmen? makes one dubious about its success. 
4. Associate Email Links With Gmail in Firefox (Natively): Excellent.
5. Gettyland: I so need to plan a trip to the "old" Getty Museum while out in SoCal over the holidays.

6. The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Terrorists: Look! Sane analysis of the terrorist threat! No wonder nobody's listening to it.

7. The official name for Windows 7 will be: “Windows 7"...: Excellent. It's about time.

8. Pirates, the Best Target Audience: Some very nice stuff here. I have at least one of these shirts on my wish list. 
9. Star Wars A to Z: Way too cool.
10. Tim Burton could direct Johnny Depp in Pirates 4: Which might be the only thing that would make me go out of my way to see it.
11. Survival of the fittest Playboy Playmate: No, really, I read it for the scientific implications!
12. London tube map video: Haven't watched the video yet, but I've read enough about the London Tube Map to know it's a fascinating tale of design, informatics, and politics. 
13. What are the Japanese up to right now?: It would be extremely cool to have something like this for the US.
14. Google Says Their Results Will Be RSS-Enabled: Everything is better in RSS.
15. Death by kisses, an unusual tombstone: And let that be a lesson to you!
16. Connecticut Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage: Huzzah!

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THIS STUFF MAKES ME MAD AND/OR SAD

1. Top Maryland cops ordered nonviolent peace activists' names added to anti-terror, drug trafficking databases... - So a bunch of non-violent peace activists get entered into national terrorist databases, just because. Nice. Remember -- don't just look at laws and legal tools based on what their purpose is, but how it can (and, thus, will) be abused.
2. Fundies wail over Hallmark's line of same-sex couple cards... - Includes a nice link to Hallmark's feedback site where you can actually send them a thank-you note.
3. Clickjacking: Web pages can see and hear you - Mutter mutter mutter ....
4. Past 15 months have resulted in a $2 trillion loss in retirement accounts ... - Um ... good thing my retirement is just far enough away to either see the economy finely recover, or to make my comic book collection invaluable for its fire-starting capabilities.
5. Lawmakers steamed over ritzy AIG retreat after bailout... - Crikey. Even if a retreat were a good idea (which it may well have been), you schedule it for the local Holiday Inn and no room service, I mean it, guys!
6. Data-mining sucks: official report - "What? We read all your private information and we still can't definitively tell you're a terrorist! Rats! Back to the drawing board!"
7. "We as Christians, We are Persecuted and Oppressed" - "... because they won't let us preach as state officials in the name of Jesus! That's violating our First Amendment rights!"
8. New religious reality TV show: “The Holy Hookup.” - Or you can watch something a lot more wholesome and uplifting, like "Fear Factor" or "The Bachelor."
9. the stupid, it burns - Now announcing the Global War on Student Pencil Sharpeners. Which is great, unless you're a student caught with one.

THIS STUFF MAKES ME THINK

1. Decluttering for Geeks - Just for other people to read. I mean, it's not that that I need help decluttering. No, really, I can stop with the clutter any time I want. No, really. Hey, why is everyone laughing?
2. Ford Announces Family-Friendly Safety Features - Some very spiffy safety features (and teen-control key systems).
3. Do Toddlers Dream of Electronic Pets? - Very cool -- but "real" pets have some features that robo-pets don't, teaching kids about life processes (and its value), the need care for others, and how you can't just turn off everything that bugs you at 3 a.m. (though you can boot it off the bed).
4. The Toll of Coal - Even the "clean" kind.
5. 'Intelligent' computers put to the test - Not your father's Eliza.
6. New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret - This is one of the most bizarre, yet intriguing, ideas to come out of Google Labs in some time. When you try to send an email late at night, it prompts you first with some math problems, to make sure you are thinking clearly (or soberly) enough to be sending an email you might otherwise regret.
7. Some folks substituting toys for candy on Halloween... - I'm okay with candy. Katherine has a ton of it, probably some from last Halloween, because it gets very slowly rationed out. The biggest problem with Halloween candy in our house is that we buy stuff to give away that we actually like. And there are always left-overs.

THIS STUFF MAKES ME HAPPY

1. Justice Delayed, But Justice Nonetheless - A federal judge orders that Gitmo detainees found not to be a threat can't just be held indefinitely because the government isn't sure what to do with them. Jeez, what concept.
2. APOD: 2008 October 5 - Earth at Night - Mary forwards a spiffy satallite image of the world at night. Purty.
3. Peugeot HYmotion3 Compressor concept is high tech,... - A high-efficiency, pretty-safe-looking motorcycle. Oooooooh ...
4. 2008 Ig Nobels honor best, weirdest scientific research - Brilliant!
5. Suburban mom's duet with Sting - A very cool story.
6. Educators Say Art Education Improves Test Scores - But it's not the 3 Rs! It must be cut for more NCLB test prep!
7. PHOTOS: Best Science Images of 2008 Announced - National Geographical glee!
8. Internet Mad Scientist Has Best Personal Library in the World... - Money can't buy happiness? This would make me damned happy every time I walked into it.
9. Replicate Yourself in LEGO ... for just $60K - Okay, this would make me happy, too.
10. Cool Stuff: WETA’s $6000 Steampunk Raygun | /Film - Um ... as would this.

THIS STUFF SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN A POLITICAL POST

1. PANIC! - A remarkable number of conservatives think Tuesday's debate was the death knell of the McCain candidacy.
2. ANALYSIS: What The Primaries Can Tell Us About The Last Month Of The General Election... - An interesting analysis of the primaries, and how the two candidates' experience affected the campaign to date. Ironically, while the bitter-to-the-end Democratic struggle was thought to have harmed Obama, it may have strengthened him against last-man-standing-by-default McCain. After all, there's no accusation they can toss at Obama that he didn't already have to answer to Clinton.
3. This Is How to Write an Endorsement - The New Yorker does a thorough analysis, and writes some very complementary words about Obama.

Filed under :: Big Business :: Cars :: Environment :: Gay Stuff :: Hi-Tech :: Home Improvement :: Homeland Security :: Media - Books :: Media - Music :: Media - TV :: Parenting :: Pets :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Religion :: School Daze :: Science :: Virii :: ZT & PC
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STUFF TO MAKE YOU GRUMBLE

1. Britain will make foreigners carry RFID identity cards... - Cory Doctorow on the slow but steady transmutation of Britain into a controlled society.
2. Countdown to Suspension of U.S. Constitution - And, on a related note, the first army division deployed for internal use in the US since ... well, the Civil War. Ostensibly to help in cases of natural disasters and terrorist attacks and the like (um, wasn't that the National Guard's job?). 
3. Obsession DVD Distributors: Would We Try To Influence the Election?... - Margie and I got two (!) copies of the DVD in the mail (in case, you know, our big Obsession-watching party spilled into the basement). Now, all we need is an intro where Rush Limbaugh claims that Obama is an Arab and a crypto-Muslim, and it will all be perfect.

STUFF TO MAKE YOU NOD

1. Open source could fix e-voting flaws, California secretary of state says - LinuxWorld - Proprietary voting machine companies play on security fears (even while denying they are insecure). But the best way to know something is secure (and safe) is for many eyes to be able to see into it, not to try to hide it away, which makes open source not only economically superior, but better. Besides which, as we've seen, controlling physical access to voting machines is more useful than trying to keep their innards secret.
2. OhPleaseOhPleaseOh - Conservative preachers planning on going toe-to-toe with the IRS by openly advocating for a particular candidate from the pulpit. They are certainly welcome to do so -- if they don't mind losing their non-profit status.
3. Old Growth Forest Must No Longer Be Ignored In Carbon... - Given the tremendous carbon sinks of old growth forests, future carbon treaties should count securing of those forest lands in their calculatoins.
4. Science, PR, and Human Nature [Built on Facts] - I want my robot car!

STUFF TO MAKE YOU SMILE

1. New European Record Efficiency For Solar Cells Achieved:... - Excellent. Solar cell efficiency continues to make breakthrough improvements, which can only be a good thing.
2. Has Anyone Noticed the Current Issue of NATURE?? [Living... - Ha! Yes, that is amusing.
3. Donate to Planned Parenthood, send a thank you note to Sarah Pallin... - Any donation to PP done "in tribute" to Sarah Palin will get a nice, hand-written thank you note sent to McCain Campaign Headquarters.

Filed under :: Cars :: Elections 2008 :: Environment :: Geopolitical Brouhaha :: Health :: Hi-Tech :: Homeland Security :: Media :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Religion :: Science
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POLITICAL

1. Obama’s Likes and Dislikes - Hold the Mayo - NYTimes.com - He dislikes mayonnaise. He must be our next president.
2. Sound familiar? - So why are the pundits not calling Ahnold a looney-tune for his ding-bat fuel economy suggestions? 
3. Limbaugh Falsely Claims America Is A ‘Conservative Nation' - Actually, I know some liberals who would argue the same thing. In my opinion, the nation, as a whole, is "conservative" in values, but progressive/liberal in desires and aspirations. The GOP keeps playing the values card, with healthy dollops of fear-mongering, and paper over the rest with promises of tax cuts (or accusations of tax increases).
4. Video of attendees at AT&T's "thank you for letting... - Which serves as a reminder that money knows no political party, and politicians are politicians no matter which party they hang their hat on.
5. Will McCain Poke The Right in the Eye? - I actually think Lieberman is the most likely pick, and that the conservative Right's posturing about whether or not they will back McCain is just that, posturing. They will no more stay home than the Clinton supporters will.
6. Being a Former POW is No Excuse - Amen, sister.
7. Why I Will Not Vote for John McCain - And amen, brother. Can we please put this "He's a POW, thus he is instantly gifted with whatever insight we wish to give him and immune to any sort of criticism for anything he says" rhetoric away? Please?
8. Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins tasked with ‘causing... - "Fair and Balanced," right?
9. Alan Fein: On The Amtrak To Wilmington With Joe Biden - Worth a read.
10. Military Draft Required To Catch Bin Laden? - Is that really what McCain thinks? Or was it just another one of those off-the-cuff gaffes he seems to make on a regular basis? In either case ... is that what we want from a president?

APOLITICAL

1. Google's File-Not-Found Helper Widget - Marking for future reference for my own custom 404 pages.
2. USB Office Showdown: Tiny USB Office vs. Portable... - I've never had much need for living off a USB drive ... but if I did, this would be a useful article.
3. Adding reCAPTCHA to Movable Type - Marking for future reference. I like TinyTuring, but the concept behind reCAPTCHA is so incredibly cool, I can't stand it.
4. “A Free Thinker is Satan’s Slave” - And that is precisely why Christians are looked at askance by so many people.

Filed under :: Blogging - Technical :: Elections 2008 :: Environment :: Food & Drink :: Fourth Estate :: Hi-Tech :: Homeland Security :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Religion
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Here's your Food Quiz Question of the Day: What is the main reason some Australian scientists recommending that people shift from eating beef to eating kangaroo?

A. Farm raised kangaroos only require malt extract, rather than land-expensive feeds like lot-raised cattle.

B. Kangaroo depredations of Australian landscape are leading to near-Dust Bowl conditions, impacting the ecological balance of the continent.

C. Kangaroo farts have much less methane than cow farts, so this would reduce a dangerous greenhouse gas.

D. Kangaroos, being marsupials, are subject to neither Mad Cow Disease nor Hoof-and-Mouth Disease.

Results below the fold.

According to the BBC, the answer would be (C). Sheep and cattle currently account for 11% of Australia's carbon footprint, largely due to their methane-rich burps and farts. 

Though I kind of liked the "malt extract" answer.

Filed under :: Environment :: Food & Drink
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A bit of this and that.

1. A Government Of Laws And Not Of Men - After being told by no less a body that the Supreme Court, over a year ago, that the EPA had to either step up with identify greenhouse gasses as harmful to human health and welfare, or else provide an explanation of why not, the EPA has decided ... to ask for more public comment over the next several months. I mean, heaven forbid that this Administration actually have to obey anyone.
2. OMG! Gawker Q&A with Joss Whedon! [Interview] - There is pretty close to zero actual information in this interview with Joss, but it's tremendous fun to read nevertheless.
3. Carafes like antlers - Guaranteed to be uncleanable without being broken -- but very cool tose.
4. RJ Eskow: Have We Missed the Key to Obama's Leadership... - I mistrust armchair psychoanalysis of people, but this identification of Obama's leadership style with Japanese management techniques -- seeking consensus and stability -- is kind of interesting.
5. Aldrin Slams SF's Effect On Space - I think Aldrin is way offbase. How many folks even in Aldrin's era of NASA credited pulp SF and movies as an inspiration for getting into space science? Instead, I suggest that it's more of a prosperous instant gratification society that has had an effect on people being willing to put up with a slow, careful space exploration program.
6. "I am Not Paid Enough to Deal with This Lying Bullshit" - Ah, yelling punditry, is there anyone whom you cannot disgust with the whole system?
7. Battlestar Galactica DVD news: Release Date for Battlestar... - I really, really, really wish the 4.0 season was going to be out before December, if only because I am tired of having to stick my fingers in my ears whenever anyone talks about it.

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Environment :: Fourth Estate :: Media - TV :: Media Moguls :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Science
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What do you do when you don't want to read the bad news? You refuse to read it. And if you're really ballsy, you tell people you won't read it.

The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.

The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said.

This week, more than six months later, the E.P.A. is set to respond to that order by releasing a watered-down version of the original proposal that offers no conclusion. Instead, the document reviews the legal and economic issues presented by declaring greenhouse gases a pollutant.

Nice. Can the Administration be fined for Contempt of Court? (I mean, legal contempt, not the obvious contempt they already hold.) I suppose they could be -- if such fines didn't have to be carried out by (drum roll) the Administration itself.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, refused to comment on discussions between the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency. Asked about changes in the original report, Mr. Fratto said, “It’s the E.P.A. that determines what analysis it wants to make available” in its documents.

Fascinating that when it comes to requests to review communications, the Adminstration claims Executive Privilege and that it is a "unitary executive" that acts as a single, unregulatable agency. But when it comes to this sort of thing, the White House fobs it all off on the EPA. Again, nice. And, to illustrate:

Simultaneously, Mr. Waxman’s committee is weighing its response to the White House’s refusal to turn over subpoenaed documents relating to the E.P.A.’s handling of recent climate-change and air-pollution decisions. The White House, which has turned over other material to the committee, last week asserted a claim of executive privilege over the remaining documents.

In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Fratto, the White House spokesman, said the committee chairmen did not understand the legal precedent underlying executive privilege. “There is a long legal history supporting the principle that the president should have the candid advice of his advisers,” Mr. Fratto said.

In other words, "If we don't want to take the blame, it's those other guys. But if you want to talk to those other guys -- you can't, because they're really us."

White House pressure to ignore or edit the E.P.A.’s climate-change findings led to the resignation of one agency official earlier this month: Jason Burnett, the associate deputy administrator. Mr. Burnett, a political appointee with broad authority over climate-change regulations, said in an interview that he had resigned because “no more constructive work could be done” on the agency’s response to the Supreme Court.

He added, “The next administration will have to face what this one did not.”

(hat tip to Margie for the post title)

Filed under :: Environment :: Politics & Law
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