Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1228

Liz Cheney sticks up for Halliburton: 'I don't know what planet you live on'

Sunday on ABC's This Week had a must-see slugfest.  In one corner was Arianna Huffington of our very own planet Earth, laying out the case for Cheney's Katrina.  In the other corner was Liz Cheney of the Bizarro World, Htrae, a planet where her father and her father's former company are champions of the environment and public safety.  In this repost, ThinkProgress has the blow-by-blow.

On ABC's This Week, Arianna Huffington brought up the role the Bush administration played in creating a...

Liz Cheney sticks up for Halliburton: 'I don't now what planet you live on'

Sunday on ABC's This Week had a must-see slugfest.  In one corner was Arianna Huffington of our very own planet Earth, laying out the case for Cheney's Katrina.  In the other corner was Liz Cheney of the Bizarro World, Htrae, a planet where her father and her father's former company are champions of the environment and public safety.  In this repost, ThinkProgress has the blow-by-blow.

On ABC's This Week, Arianna Huffington brought up the role the Bush administration played in creating a...

Arctic death spiral: Naval Postgrad School's Maslowski "projects ice-free* fall by 2016 (+/- 3 yrs)" - But in the land of make-believe, Watts and Goddard say: "Arctic ice extent and thickness nearly identical to what it was 10 years ago."

One of the country's leading experts on the Arctic projects it will be essentially ice-free (in the fall) decades ahead of the projections of the climate models used in the 2007 IPCC report.  And that has quite dire implications and consequences for the likely future rate of climate change compared to those models.

The following chart is from Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School in a presentation at the March State of the Arctic Meeting (click to enlarge):

*This projection is...

BP buys oil-related search terms to make its official site show up first in search engines - If only they had been so clever in their operations or response

As BP's oil disaster continues to ravage the Gulf Coast, the company is ramping up its public relations and legal operations to try to salvage its reputation and protect itself from lawsuits. Now, ABC News is reporting that one such tactic BP is using is purchasing search items that have the word "oil" in them on various search engines to ensure that the first results that appear link directly to BP's official website:

BP, the very company responsible for the oil spill that is already the...

Video: Thad Allen rebukes BP for being 'very pleased' about efforts to contain disaster - Turns out BP is very easily pleased.

National Incident Commander Thad Allen has rebuked BP for being "very pleased" about the company's failed efforts to contain the disaster he described as an "insidious enemy" that is "holding the gulf hostage."  In this repost, WE's Brad Johnson has the story and videos:

On Saturday, BP Senior Vice President Bob Fryar said "the company funneled about 250,000 gallons of oil in the first 24 hours from a containment cap installed on the well" to a drilling ship on the ocean surface. "That...

Life after the BP oil disaster - Why we need a Gulf Recovery Fund

The condition of the Gulf region today is the result of hundreds of business and economic development decisions made by the states, the federal government, and the oil and gas industries over many decades. It calls for a long-term solution that involves all those players alongside the communities that have been most affected by generations of compromises made in favor of short-term economic gain over long-term sustainable growth. It is time to face and address our addiction to oil.

In...

Dirty energy lobbyist-turned-Governor Barbour skips second meeting with Obama on Gulf Coast oil spill

Yesterday, President Obama met with the governors of Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama in Kenner, LA, to discuss the oil spill clean-up effort. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) — who has repeatedly tried to downplay the disaster — was the only no show, making it the second meeting with Obama he's skipped, as TP explains in this repost:

Barbour spokeswoman Laura Hipp said the governor is in New York, meeting with bond rating agencies about the state's finances and to attend the annual...

The dumbing down of Carly Fiorina - Apparently, you have to pretend to be ignorant of science to win a Republican primary these days

Perhaps the most embarrassingly anti-scientific ad you'll ever see for a statewide race in a 'blue state' comes from a woman who once ran one of the top science-based companies in the world:

As David Corn writes, "It only took half a minute for Fiorina to demonstrate she is not a responsible adult."  My Salon piece on this inane ad, "The dumbing down of Carly Fiorina," is below.

Presumably, the former CEO of one of America's leading technology companies knows the difference between...

BP CEO Hayward says he's tough: "So far I'm unscathed…. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." - And yet he steps aside from daily cleanup oversight, gets his old life back: "I don't work weekends.… And I take all my hol

BP is to hive off its Gulf of Mexico oil spill operation to a separate in-house business to be run by an American in a bid to isolate the "toxic" side of the company and dilute some of the anti-British feeling aimed at chief executive Tony Hayward, the company said today.

The surprise announcement was made during a teleconference with City and Wall Street analysts….

Ah, but the UK's Guardian says cut-and-run Hayward thinks he is a tough guy –  assuming tough guys actually talk like...

BP CEO Hayward says he's tough: "So far I'm unscathed…. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." - And yet he steps aside from daily cleanup oversight, gets his old life back: "I don't work weekends.… And I take all my hol

BP is to hive off its Gulf of Mexico oil spill operation to a separate in-house business to be run by an American in a bid to isolate the "toxic" side of the company and dilute some of the anti-British feeling aimed at chief executive Tony Hayward, the company said today.

The surprise announcement was made during a teleconference with City and Wall Street analysts….

Ah, but the UK's Guardian says cut-and-run Hayward thinks he is a tough guy –  assuming tough guys actually talk like...