‘Green News Report’ – May 14, 2009

IN TODAY’S AUDIO REPORT: Zombie lies that just won’t die (if the rightwing media can help it); EPA bans pesticide in U.S. (sorry, kids in developing countries!); Just whose side is God on in the climate legislation debate?; PLUS: Glenn Beck explains it all for you!…. All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail, Jesus sprinkles of climate-y goodness? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (links below): Dirty Tricks and Toxic Waste in Ivory Coast (BBC); Will New Rules for ethanol and biodiesel hurt the alternative fuels industry?; Eco-Marathon racer gets 8,000 mpg; How do you get a Republican to buy a hybrid?; Fighting Texas fire ants with brain-eating flies…seriously…See below for more!

Info/links on stuff we talked about on today’s episode, plus MORE green news, all follows below…

• PR Battle Over Cap-and-Trade Reaches a Fevered Pitch
• Climate Pollution Cash Shaping Fate Of Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Legislation
  
• How the ‘OMB memo’ non-story happened
  Now that the “White House memo” hoopla is over—except insofar as it will live on forever as a zombie Republican talking point— it’s worth pausing to review what happened. It’s a remarkable, real-time example of how the polluter/Republican/media nexus works.
• OMB Blog: Statement from White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, “Clearing the Air”:
  Media reports today are suggesting that OMB has found fault with EPA’s proposed finding that emissions of greenhouse gases from motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that endangers public health and welfare….The bottom line is that OMB would have not concluded review, which allows the finding to move forward, if we had concerns about whether EPA’s finding was consistent with either the law or the underlying science. The press reports to the contrary are simply false.
• Glenn Beck Exhales And States: ‘Look How Much Pollution I Just Put Out!’

On his Fox News show today, comedian Glenn Beck interviewed Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) to mock the danger of global warming. In what he billed as an “Inconvenient Segment,” Beck argued that a “smoking gun” memo proves that the proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finding on the threat of global warming pollution is based on politics instead of science.
• Illinois Rep. Shimkus (R) Reads Bible at House Hearing to Prove Global Warming Doesn’t Exist:
  
• American Values Network.org:
  “Light into Darkness”:
  

  “Redemption” (Airing in 8 States):
  

• “Creation Care” Organizations:
  • SustainLane.org
  • Renewal.org: Students Caring for Creation
  • Evangelical Environmental Network and Creation Care Magazine
  • Wonder Of Creation
• Waxman predicts committee passage as details emerge on climate, energy bill
  Even as Waxman said he could pass the bill out of his committee, at least a half-dozen moderate and conservative Democrats held back in declaring their support for the climate bill, including Reps. Rick Boucher of Virginia, Bobby Rush of Illinois, Diana DeGette of Colorado, John Barrow of Georgia, Baron Hill of Indiana and Melancon.
• Barack Obama’s key climate bill hit by $45m PR campaign: Surge in oil, gas and coal industry lobbying against Democratic leadership on ‘cap and trade’ legislation
• We get letters:
  From: obeytobesaved@xxxxx.com
  To: GreenNews@BradBlog.com
  Subject: John 3.19-20
  …explains the Greenies and the Pinkies and the Reddies(red is left; not right)and the Brownies and the Blackies, and the Lavenderites. The topic is morality and the colors are symbolic.

  Y’all are EVIL. So y’all love evil and hate good. The glue that binds y’all together is a commitment to sin, ie, rebellion against the will of God.

  The cure for your eternal malaise is Heb.5.9, obedience to Jesus Christ. But y’all don’t want to hear that. Lots of luck!

  Al Sowin

• RedState Proves the GOP Isn’t ‘Anti-Science’ – By Promoting Creationism

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’: More green news not covered in today’s audio report… See below!

• BBC: Dirty Tricks and Toxic Waste in Ivory Coast
  It is the biggest toxic dumping scandal of the 21st century, the type of environmental vandalism that international treaties are supposed to prevent. Now Newsnight can reveal the truth about the waste that was illegally tipped on Ivory Coast’s biggest city, Abidjan. A giant multinational is being sued in London’s High Court by thousands of Africans who claim they were injured as a result.
• Papers prove Trafigura ship dumped toxic waste in Ivory Coast
• Climate change is biggest health threat of 21st century, claims report into global warming
  If the world fails to act, future historians will view the current generation with ‘similar moral outrage to how we today look back on those who brought in and did nothing to stop slavery’, the authors said.

  The report – commissioned by the Lancet medical journal and University College London – calls on doctors and health experts to take the threat of climate change more seriously.

• A Biodiesel Maker’s Tale of Woe
• Biodiesel Makers Lash Out at E.P.A. Rule
• European Shell Eco Marathon Europe 2009: more than 8000 mpg!
• How do you get a Republican to buy a hybrid?
• Parasitic flies turn fire ants into zombies