West Virginia: Wind or MTR Coal?

Photo of Coal River Wind organizers Loreli Scarbro and Rory McIlmoil making a presentation which accompanied an August post on the project at WVBlue.

Just received this news release from Rory McIlmoil over at Coal River Wind. The West Virginia DEP has approved Massey's MTR permit revision. Could you circulate this action alert and press release widely. They need our help from all over the country to once again ask Governor Manchin to do the right thing for the state and for local residents by preventing the wind potential and the opportunity to stabilize and diversify the local economy from being permanently destroyed by Massey's Mountaintop Removal operation on Coal River Mountain.

Call the Governor's office at 1-888-438-2731 and letting him know that you support Clean Wind Power, not Mountaintop Removal coal mining for Coal River Mountain. Visit visit www.coalriverwind.org to learn more and sign the petition, and when you're done, get your friends to do the same. And if, like my friend Denise Clendening in California, you can't get through on the toll-free number, you can also call Governor Manchin's regular number:


(304) 558-2000


After you've called, why not follow up with an email to governor@wvgov.org
or for more weight, you can fax a letter to (304) 342-7025.

for more information, contact Rory McIlmoil at the Coal River Mountain Wind Project
(w): (304) 854-2182
(h): (304) 854-1937
rory@coalriverwind.org
www.coalriverwind.org
www.crmw.net

By the way, Denise also sent me a link to Devilstower's blog over at Kos. He writes eloquently:

Feeling a post election letdown? Looking for another dragon to slay? Buddy, have I got a mean, scaly, ugly one for you.

Coal River Mountain in West Virginia is a beautiful forested area surrounded by communities with long experience with coal mining as been practiced for decades. How long have these folks been settled around the mountain? Many are descendants of those who moved to the area on land grants given soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Now the mountain itself is threatened by coal mining as it's been practiced under the Bush administration -- mountaintop removal.

Just yesterday, a permit to start blasting the top off the mountain was awarded to Massey Energy, headed by Don Blankenship. Who is Don Blankenship? He's the guy who spent millions putting his own man on the West Virginia Supreme Court so he could get out of a lawsuit. Then, when he was caught vacationing in Monaco with that judge, he bought himself another. And another. He spent millions on smear campaigns so he could get his own brand of justice. He's the guy who was named the scariest person in America when it comes to the environment. This is the guy behind the death of miners in the Aracoma mine after hundreds of safety violations.

This is a guy who makes $15 million a year, and spends as much as $9 million of it reshaping West Virginia into a deep red state that supports his strong arm tactics. You think West Virginia has an "Appalachian problem?" No. It has a Don Blankenship problem.

Now Blankenship has Coal River Mountain in his grip, and if he has his way, it will soon join more than a million acres of ancient mountains, towering forests, and free-flowing streams that are turned into the acidic rubble left behind after mountaintop removal mining. And perhaps worst of all, Coal River Mountain has already been studied as a site for a wind farm. This wind farm would produce more energy than the coal that Blankenship will get from blasting down the mountain. It will employ more people. And it will do it cleanly, preserving both the mountain and the surrounding communities.

You can sign the petition in support of the Coal River Wind project, but today that's not enough.

There's only one man that can put the brakes on Blankenship before he starts knocking down Coal River Mountain forever. That man is West Virginia Governor, Joe Manchin. Manchin is a Democrat, and he has good reason to dislike Blankenship. The Massey CEO sued the governor after for violation of his first amendment rights when Manchin said he was going to look more closely at serial-violator Blankenship's operations. Apparently Don Blankenship believes that the first amendment includes not just speech and religion, but also bribery and evasion.

Despite all that, it's not expected that Manchin will step in to stop Massey from taking down Coal River Mountain. Not unless you help. Call Governor Manchin at 1-888-438-2731 and ask him to put a hold on this permit. Now. Like pronto.

The fight didn't end on election day. Get on the phone and let people know that change is coming to West Virginia, and it starts at Coal River Mountain.

Okay, here's the news release:
Governor Manchin sides with Massey Energy Coal Company to allow blasting on Coal River Mountain

Skirting their responsibilities to the public, the West Virginia state government has approved the Bee Tree surface mining permit revision on Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, thereby authorizing the destruction of a portion of the available wind resource that local residents would like to see developed as an alternative. Coal River Mountain Watch and community residents learned yesterday that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had approved Massey Energy's revision of the Bee Tree mining permit for Coal River Mountain, meaning that Massey may begin blasting whenever they are prepared to move forward. Repeated attempts at obtaining public hearings related to the proposed mining have been denied by the DEP, and so community members are again asking Governor Joe Manchin to halt the mountaintop removal operation and act on his commitment to renewable energy and to the citizens of West Virginia. Extensive research has shown that Coal River Mountain has enough wind potential to provide electricity for between 100,000 and 150,000 homes, forever, while creating approximately 50 well-paying, permanent jobs in an area long dependent upon sparse, temporary coal mining jobs. The wind farm would also generate as over ten times more county revenue than the Mountaintop Removal operations would, and in a county with a poverty rate of 18.5%, this additional income would help to stimulate new economic development projects and the creation of new and lasting jobs for the county. Overall, a wind farm stands as a more beneficial land use for Coal River Mountain, but this opportunity depends upon the mountain being left intact. Despite the fact that both the Governor and the DEP have been presented with solid evidence supporting the wind farm option, neither have acted to place a hold on the proposed mining. While Governor Manchin has ignored public opinion in support of a Coal River Mountain wind farm, the DEP has continued to exclude public comment on the mining permits, and now Massey Energy is now set to begin blasting.

Philip Levine: Our Valley

Still from PBS Video of poet Philip Levin, one of my favorites, reading "Belle Isle 1949" for the PBS project, Poetry Everywhere.

We stripped in the first warm spring night
and ran down into the Detroit River
to baptize ourselves in the brine
of car parts, dead fish, stolen bicycles,
melted snow. I remember going under
hand in hand with a Polish highschool girl
I'd never seen before, and the cries
our breath made caught at the same time
on the cold, and rising through the layers
of darkness into the final moonless atmosphere
that was this world, the girl breaking
the surface after me and swimming out
on the starless waters towards the lights
of Jefferson Ave. and the stacks
of the old stove factory unwinking.
Turning at last to see no island at all
but a perfect calm dark as far
as there was sight, and then a light
and another riding low out ahead
to bring us home, ore boats maybe, or smokers
walking alone. Back panting
to the gray coarse beach we didn't dare
fall on, the damp piles of clothes,
and dressing side by side in silence
to go back where we came from.

Here's Levine's page from the Academy of American Poets and a poem from the November 2008 Poetry:


Our Valley

We don't see the ocean, not ever, but in July and August
when the worst heat seems to rise from the hard clay
of this valley, you could be walking through a fig orchard
when suddenly the wind cools and for a moment
you get a whiff of salt, and in that moment you can almost
believe something is waiting beyond the Pacheco Pass,
something massive, irrational, and so powerful even
the mountains that rise east of here have no word for it.

You probably think I'm nuts saying the mountains
have no word for ocean, but if you live here
you begin to believe they know everything.
They maintain that huge silence we think of as divine,
a silence that grows in autumn when snow falls
slowly between the pines and the wind dies
to less than a whisper and you can barely catch
your breath because you're thrilled and terrified.

You have to remember this isn't your land.
It belongs to no one, like the sea you once lived beside
and thought was yours. Remember the small boats
that bobbed out as the waves rode in, and the men
who carved a living from it only to find themselves
carved down to nothing. Now you say this is home,
so go ahead, worship the mountains as they dissolve in dust,
wait on the wind, catch a scent of salt, call it our life.

Philip Levine

Appaloosa

Photo by Loney Sebastion at Warner Bros. accompanied A. O. Scott's NYT review of Appaloosa, directed (and written in part) by Ed Harris.

Based on Robert Parker's 2005 novel of the same name, this film is at it's heart a sly (offscreen) sex farce with the real love between Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) and Virgil Cole (Ed Harris.) Also starring Jeremy Irons as the villian Bragg and Rene Zellweger as the Widow French.
Peter Travers's review and Roger Ebert's are worth reading.

Was Terry Gross Playing Gotcha with William Ayers

Lest anyone doubt the Williams Ayers has a respected place in the field of education despite the right's reckoning him an "unrepentent terrorist," this photo is from his 2006 keynoting of staid Roanoke College's Covenhaven Insitute for teachers.

Dave Winer has a thoughtful piece at his site on Terry Gross. He writes,

In the end she asked Ayers if he wanted to apologize for what he did, if he would be willing to take the "unrepentent" part off the label "unrepentent terrorist," and he refused, and I'm glad he did.

These are complicated issues, and to deal with it in a balanced way would require probably a few books, written from different perspectives. We don't today have a balanced view of the struggle in the US over Vietnam. Not when one person is singled out this way, when so many others are responsible for so much more death and destruction.

Since the Ayers interview she's returned to her original style....But I can't help but wonder if each of these people has something to answer for too, and she's not asking about any of that.

I definitely sympathize with Ayers, I probably wouldn't have minded if she probed John McCain this way about his involvement in Vietnam. I'm sure he killed a lot more people than Ayers did. And that led me to the other, larger reason I'm unhappy with the interview -- she might not want someday to have someone say she "palled around" with an unrepentent terrorist who attacked his own country. In other words, she may be using us to protect herself. If that's the reason she drove Ayers so hard, I would much rather she had skipped the interview altogether.

.... Either she adopts the gotcha style and goes after everyone, from clowns to reporters, and I'll tune out for the same reasons I don't listen to other reporters who use that style; or she stays with the softball style I like, but I'll never be able to stop thinking of her as a hypocrite for being so gutless with Ayers.

Unlike Winer, I've tripped over Gross's clay feet before. Although it was a fluff, do you remember Gene Simmons? (Audio from Erim Foster.) Or in the political realm, Bill O'Reilly?

Lannan Literary Awards

Photograph of poet Mark Doty from the LA Times whi won the National book award for Fire to Fire, his new and selected poems from Harper Collins (2008.)

Mountain Advocates Meet in Charleston, WV

Representatives from twenty-five groups from Appalachia and beyond met south of Charleston, WV to discuss how to garner national support to end mountaintop removal.

Below are the contacts who attended the meeting:

1. 1 Sky Liz Butler --Field and Outreach Director liz@1Sky.org 301-270-4550x 226
2. 350.org Phil Aroneanu -- Co-coordinator x , phil@350.org
3. Alliance for Climate Protection Maisha Everhart-- Partnerships Manager Office: 650.543.7351Maisha.Everhart@ClimateProtect.org
   
4. Appalachian Voices, 828 262 1500 Sandra Diaz, Outreach Coordinator, Sandra@appvoices.org, Lenny Kohm, lenny@appvoices.org
   
5. Black Mesa Water Coalition Enei Begaye Executive Director eneibegaye@mac.com, (928) 213-5909
6. Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Ted Glick-- Policy Director indpol@igc.org 240-396-2155/ 973-460-1458
7. Citizen's Coal Council (CCC) Aimee Erickson 724-222-5602 ccc@citizenscoalcouncil.org
8. CLEAN Carrie Traud-- Southern Coordinator carrie@theCLEAN.org 859-801-2871
9. Coal River Mountain Watch Matt Noerpel-- Environmental Specialist matt@crmw.net Vernon Haltom, co-Director, Vernon@crmw.net 304 854-2182
10. Dakota Resource Council Mark Trechok, Staff Director 701-483-2851 mark@drcinfo.com
11. Energy Action Coalition-- Madeline Gardner, madeline@energyaction.net (612) 807-0981
12. GreenPeace Matt Leonard, Actions Campaigner 619-246-0325 matt.leonard@greenpeace.org
13. Heartwood Andy Mahler – Network Coordinator www.heartwood.org andy@blueriver.net 812.723.2430
14. Indigenous Environmental Network Jihan Gearon Native Energy Organizer (928) 214-8301 ienenergy@igc.org
15. Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) www.kftc.org Burt Lauderdale—burt@kftc.org, 606 878 2161, Kevin Pentz-- Organizer kevin@kftc.org 606-335-0764 Teri Blanton teri@kftc.org, 859 986 1277
16. Middlebury VT Sierra Murdoch sierra.murdoch@gmail.com 518.817.3222 Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
17. Mountain Justice Eric Blevins ericblev@hotmail.com,
18. Blue Ridge Earth First! Kim Kirkbride kkirkbride17@gmail.com 571 262 1843
19. Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition(OHVEC) vivian@ohvec.org 304-360-1979 janet.ovec@gmail.com
20. Rainforest Action Network (RAN) Scott Parkin -- Grassroots campaign sparkin@ran.org 415-235-0596
21. Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS) Kathy Selvage 276-565-1083 samsva@gmail.comx
    
22. Sierra Club Environmental Justice organizers Bill Price--Bill.Price@sierraclub.org
23. Southern Energy Network Liz Veazey-Executive Director – liz@climateaction.net 865.637.6055 x17
24. Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) Ann League-Vice President Alex Moir alex@socm.org 865.426.9455 XT 16
25. SouthWings Meredith Dowling , Operations Assistant meredith@southwings.org Office: 828-225-5949

Waxman lands Chairmanship

Cartoon by Dr. Zaius at his June 27, 2006 blog post.

"Dingell’s Defeat Part of a Pattern of Growing California Clout" by CQ's Jonathan Allen, provides an interesting background on the shift of power to Henry Waxman. See memorandum.

New story recommendation of the day:
Five detainees ordered released "forthwith" after seven years at Guantanamo (Glenn Greenwald)


Site recommendations of the day:
http://2009transition.org/liberty-security/
http://lostintransition.nationaljournal.com/

What I did today in addition to blogging:

thankspotgivingluck (week before Thanksgiving potluck at Jason and Kim's.) The instructions:

please come over Thursday night at 7PM with a smile and your favorite thanksgiving dish. we'd like to request no turkeys though, unless they are alive and don't mind the company of cats.

I made an apple/cranberry/peach compote. There were several apple pies, an onion tart, several sweet potato dishes, mashed potatoes, stuffed squash, chili, a kidney bean stir fry, several homemade breads, Liam's almond ice cream and more. Yum. There was another light dusting of snow as I left, but no accumulation.

Who is reading my blog today:

• Mr. Unitary Executive's FY2009 Budget Bypasses Congress--+3 pages--user unknown.
• Someone at FEMA was reading NIRS Critiques Lieberman-Warner Climate Change Bill

Edward Sorel's illustration for "President Tom’s Cabin: Jefferson, Hemings, and a disclaimed lineage," Jill Lepore's review of Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008) a biography of three generations of a slave family owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Gordon-Reed, , won the National Book Award for nonfiction this evening for her book. A professor of law at New York Law School and a professor of history at Rutgers University, she is alos the author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy.



Cover art for Gordon-Reed's book.

Update: Read UMD Law school prof Sherrilyn Ifill's (yes, Gwen's cousin) comments on the book from November 21 here.

Holder looks to support civil liberties

Photo of Eric Holder Jr., Obama's choice for AG and an assistant AG under Clinton, web page of the Homeland Security Institute.

No matter your critique, Holder looks like a refreshing change from Mukasey and Gonzalez before him. While Gonzalez was lining up taxpayer underwriting for his defense in the AG firing trial, Holder has been addressing (video) the The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) National Convention attendees Friday evening, saying the US must reverse “the disastrous course” set by the Bush administration and

• close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay
• declare without qualification that the U.S. does not torture people
  
• end extaordinary renditions and
  
• stop warrantless domestic surveillance.

He said,

Our needlessly abusive and unlawful practices in the ‘War on Terror' have diminished our standing in the world community and made us less, rather than more, safe...For the sake of our safety and security, and because it is the right thing to do, the next president must move immediately to reclaim America's standing in the world as a nation that cherishes and protects individual freedom and basic human rights.

ACS, founded in 2001, defines itself as

a network of lawyers, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers and other concerned individuals. Our mission is to ensure that fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, and access to justice enjoy their rightful, central place in American law.

Lieberman

Photo by Damon Winter accompanied Carl Hulse's September 9, 2008 NYT story, "Democrats Give Lieberman Cool Reception as Senate Returns."

In German, "Lieber means "dear" or as they say in French, "cher" or in Italian "caro" or in Spanish "querido." One wondered which Democrat could call this man "lieber" after he displaced the duly nominated candidate from his former party with the help of Republicans, told a talk radio host that Obama was far to the left of the country and then then spoke against Obama at this summer's Repub convention, saying

eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times

and

In the Senate, he has not reached across party lines to get anything significant done, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party.

And there's more here.

So, will he lose his Chairmanship? I predict no. No matter that Leahy told Vermont Public radio he should be kicked to the curb

I’m one who does not feel that somebody should be rewarded with a major chairmanship after doing what he did. … I felt that some of the attacks that he was involved in against Sen. Obama, whom I did support — I was one of the first in the Congress to support him — I thought they went way beyond the pale. I thought that they were not fair. I thought they were not legitimate. I thought that they perpetuated some of these horrible myths that were being run about Sen. Obama.

I would feel that, had I done something similar, I would not be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress.

No matter that Dorgan told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that

As a chairman of one of our significant committees in the Senate, not just going off and supporting a presidential candidate of the other side but also criticizing the candidate on our side, and also involving himself in a couple of senate races on the other side. The question is, is that acceptable? The answer is no.

The Dems have shown there invertebrate tendencies and now there's the implication that Obama has signaled his support.


Update: November 18, 2008 1:58 PM Jim Oliphant in The Swamp, writes,

Move over James Bond. There's a new indestructible action hero: Joe Lieberman.

Bread and Spread

Photograph by Pete Ryan (email) of his Deli-style rye bread, from a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books (2007, ISBN 978-0312362911)

Jason, Sally and I shared three loaves of bread and took samples home. Jason and Sally had both made a rye bread (Jason made Pete's) and I made a wheat-oat molasses loaf. Toppings included butter and a garlic spread.

BTW, Hertzberg and François have a site with recipes and tips. They held a contest on how one came to bake bread and my entry is here. The prize is a copy of the book. Hope I win.

Toss the Possum

Photo from Amanda's post on the Possums from her Virgin Island blog. Like the Zisettes, she's a member of the LDS church. She says that Jane told her that Greensboro contra dancing was

square dancing with lots of twirls and smelly mountain hippie people.

Tonight the Possums will be at the CEC in Blacksburg. That's

• Robbie Zisette on fiddle
• Janse Zisette on flute and whistle
• Chas Zisette on bass
  
• mom Laura Zisette on piano
• dad Charlie doing sound and dancing (with me, hopefully on his card.)

They play a hot combination of southern tunes, old time, Celtic, jazz and folk. According to the Birthplace of Country music, where they played in May,

The name Toss the Possum was inspired by a possum who found itself trapped under a spare dresser drawer in the family’s garage. Chas, upon seeing the upside down drawer moving mysteriously of its own volition around the garage floor, yelled for everyone to come and see.

Here's what was written about the background of the band members:

Rob Zisette, age 15, is the fiddler for Toss the Possum. After playing violin for a year and a half, he entered the fiddle contest sponsored by the Festival of the American West at age 10. He won first prize and has been fiddling ever since. Rob also likes to compose and is a percussionist in the Radford High School Band. Occasionally he’ll pick up the drumsticks at a dance. Chas, age 17, taught himself to play bass as soon as he realized the family band was forming without him. Sometimes he plays his sax with the band. Chas’ claim to fame is that he can play ‘Ode to Joy’ on 16 different instruments. Jane, age 19, began playing flute when she was 12. Soon after, she heard Joannie Madsen play her whistles with Cherish the Ladies and decided to add the Irish whistle to her repertoire. Jane plays on Patrick Riordan whistles. Jane also sings with the band. She has been accepted as a flute performance major at BYU Idaho. Laura (mom) taught Piano at Utah State University until she moved to Virginia. In Utah she played with Barnstorm and Leaping Lulu. Now she’s hanging on for the ride with Toss the Possum. Charlie, (dad) of course, is the most important member of the band. Not only has he picked up sound engineering and springs for food after the gigs, but the kids have dubbed him the ‘instrument Sherpa".

Hm-m-m. Smelly mountain hippie people? Wonder if that includes us?

Good Vibrations

Cover to the Beach Boys 1966 Capitol Records single, "Good Vibrations." (lyrics)

Good good good good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
Shes giving me excitations
(oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(oom bop bop)
Shes giving me excitations
(oom bop bop excitations)

Joyful music and reduce stress, according to Science Friday, which opened today with strains from the Beach Boys hit (or by a trick of memory was it something else and I've just substituted?) Guests included Michael Miller,Director of Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

As I emailed Jill Card from the C'ville, "

we contra dancers should be most able to deal with stress--seeing as we're also getting cardio exercise as we listen. (Especially if we eat dark chocolate during the breaks.)

See also:

• Reuters: Music to your ears? Music for your heart, too
• LA TImes: Music that touches the heart -- vessels, that is

New story recommendation of the day
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-lead-14nov14,0,4744216.story

Site recommendation of the day

http://www.knightpulse.org/projects

What I did today in addition to blogging

Volunteered over at NewsTrust. Sigh. This last because I wonder if they will hire me again if I'm working so much for free. NewsTrust and 34 sites are contending for the We Media Game Changers awards.

Who is reading my blog today

Among others, someone from Prince Georges County, MD, wanted to know about Bush's last minute regulations. And although the election was over 10 days ago, someone in Södertälje, Sweden(! native city of Bjorn Borg and journalist Jan Guillou) wants to know where the losing candidate, John McCain, stands on issues of war and peace. And someone from LA found my blog from a google image search that yielded Mark Fiori's terrific cartoon on the unitary executive.

Apollo Alliance on Obama and energy

Logo for the Apollo Alliance's monthly conference call series, which is only open to those who will ante up a thou. The next 45 minute conference call will take place December 8 with Jay Inslee (D-WA) at 11:00 a.m. PST, 2:00 p.m. EST on the $700 billion rescue plan which includes renewables and energy efficiency. Taking part in the national conversation doesn't come cheap.

The Alliance is a

coalition of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution in America to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, cut the carbon emissions that are destabilizing our climate, and expand opportunities for American businesses and workers.

But if you don't have that kind of spare change, you can still check out two posts on suggestions from 100 members on what Obama should do first about energy. Both are by Keith Schneider, Communications Director (email) for the Alliance.

• Apollo Feedback: What Comes First For New President? Green-Collar Jobs, Economy, Clean Energy, Says Apollo Nation
• Apollo Feedback: What Obama Should Do First, Part Two
  

Congressional Review Act could reverse Bush's lame duck deregulation

It looks like I scooped MSNbc's Rachel Madow by months with" New FBI Guidelines: More COINTELPRO?"Although many of Bush's new regulations have to do with energy and the environment, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow noted (video) on Tuesday that there's also

one that'll kick opponents of the Patriot Act right in the teeth....would allow state and local law enforcement agencies to collect intelligence on individuals and organizations even if the information is unrelated to any criminal matter...Even if they weren't already watching you -- they soon could be.

According to Al Giordano, Obama-Biden Transition Co-Chair John Podesta told a "pad and pen only" press conference call that

Every Executive Order by Bush is Under Review: Those that Obama promised during the campaign to rescind, will be eliminated immediately.

I'm not sure exactly what the promised list included and Giordano doesn't seem to have asked. After all, after making promises to the contrary, our president-elect voted for retroactive telecom immunity.

Interestly, in "Dems eye midnight regulations reversal" by Erika Lovely and Ryan Grim (update by Grim) reports that the Bush administration plan to require that Obama take years to undo climate rules finalized more than 60 days before January 20 failed to take into account the Congressional Review Act of 1996:

Any regulation finalized within 60 legislative days of congressional adjournment is considered to have been legally finalized on the 15th legislative day of the new Congress, likely sometime in February. Congress then has 60 days to review it and reverse it with a joint resolution that can’t be filibustered in the Senate.

In other words, any regulation finalized in the last half-year of the Bush administration could be wiped out with a simple party-line vote in the Democrat-controlled Congress.

An unnamed senior aide on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), acknowledged to Politico that her committee is considering the option. Eben Burnham-Snyder, spokesman for House Global Warming Committee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA), went on record:

On egregious rule-makings that would have a detrimental effect on energy and environmental policy, [the CRA] speeds up the process for rescinding the bad rule...It’s something Markey is seriously looking into.

According Politico, Congress last used the CRA in 2001 to overturn a Clinton administration rule that set new requirements for ergonomic work spaces. CRA targets may include:

• a rule to allow federal agencies to determine on their own whether their policies will threaten endangered species, rather than requiring them to go through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approval
• regulations opening land in the West to oil shale development

and best of all,

• elimination of the stream barrier rule that eases mountaintop removal

In case you're wondering where to find the law, it passed as part of H.R.3136, the Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996 passed on March 28, 1996. This act amended Title 5, United States Code, by adding an eighth chapter, "Congressional Review of Agency Rulemaking." Here's the explanation of the bill from the Congressional record of April 16, 1996 from Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), and former Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Don Nickles (R-OK)

In the 104th Congress, four slightly different versions of this legislation passed
the Senate and two different versions passed the House. Yet, no formal legislative history document was prepared to explain the legislation or the reasons for changes in the final language negotiated between the House and
Senate. This joint statement of the authors on the congressional review subtitle is intended to cure this deficiency....

As more and more of Congress’ legislative functions have been delegated to federal regulatory agencies, many have complained that Congress has effectively abdicated its constitutional role as the national legislature in allowing federal agencies so much latitude in implementing and interpreting congressional enactments. In many cases, this criticism is well founded.

Readers of this blog know about Stevens. Nickles retired in 2005 and now runs a pr firm, The Nickles Group.)

Want more information. Read Disapproval of Regulations by Congress: Procedure Under the Congressional Review Act issued October 10, 2001 by Richard S. Beth, Specialist in the Legislative Process for the Government and Finance Division of the Congressional Research Service. See also the CRS Congressional Oversight Manual Updated May 1, 2007.

In other interesting news, see the AP story: "Obama team expected to broker subpoena deal: President-elect seen as getting at least some information from Bush aides."

UPDATE: November 24, the CRS issued a new report, Midnight Rulemaking: Considerations for Congress and a New Administration by Curtis W. Copeland, Specialist in American National Government of the Government and Finance Division.

Drezner: Public Intellectuals 2.0

Photo of Dan Drezner from the BBC.

Daniel W. Drezner (web site, email) associate professor of International Politics at Tufts University, has an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the effect of the internet on intellectuals in public life, positing that

...critics fail to recognize how the growth of blogs and other forms of online writing has partially reversed a trend that many cultural critics have decried — what Russell Jacoby called the "professionalization and academization" of public intellectuals. In fact, the growth of the blogosphere breaks down — or at least erodes — the barriers erected by a professionalized academy.

In checking his blog, he actually gave this as a paper back in May and has some dialogue there with those who interacted with him at the time. His blog makes interesting reading. I'll be adding him to my list.

Thank you Doctor Dean

Photo by Flickr's "Zanti Misfit" of Dean on campus in NH on October 13.

The WaPo's Chris Cillizza reports in "Dean to Step Down as DNC Chair,"

Grassroots -- and netroots -- activists, who propelled Dean's presidential bid and then helped get him elected as chair of the party in early 2004, love the former Vermont governor and credit his chairmanship of the DNC with the rebirth of the Democrats as a national party. (Dean's pioneering accomplishment during his four years in office is the 50-state strategy, a plan that put Democratic staff and organizations on the ground in every state...

This is breaking news on a reporter's blog and as such demands a further story in greater depth. See Memorandum's record of other coverage.

What I like, though, is that Cillizza credits the reporter at a new media source, The HuffPo, with breaking the story and provides links to other sources on background, such as the 50 state strategy, the strategic disagreements between Dean and Rahm Emanual, Bill Clinton's eventual acceptance of Dean's stategy, etc. I would have liked a bit on what's happening on the Republican side, and have thus linked to the Atlantic piece which covers both parties, but without much depth. I also have a link below to the Huff Po piece which broke the story, but is too unsupported in its speculations to win my recommendation and reads somewhat like a tribute to Governor Dean, rather than straight news. I also linked to the WaPo's earlier story on the Emanuel-Dean rift and to a Nat'l Journal piece on Clinton's support. The horse race stuff for Dean's replacement is too brief to be of much value, as more than a list, and I'm wondering why David Plouffe is not even there among those considered. There's no mention in this story of other possible roles for Dean in the party. Maybe that will come later. Curiously, only Fox news cites a source for an interview on Dean's resignation, DNC Secretary Alice Germond.

Dean has been willing to stand up to the party insiders. Obama would be well served to appoint someone who will continue to do likewise. The contest for his position, of course, was made possible by the fact that the Dems lost the 2004 presidential race. With a win, it will be interesting to see who Obama recommends for this position. If the Dems were taking advice from an independent, I'd recommend someone not eligible to run as a governor and not already in Congress/with a good shot to win a position. By the way, for those to whom Alice Germond's last name seems familiar, here's a piece of journalism history: her husband Jack is a retired political reporter for the defunct-since-1981 Washington Evening Star, at one time, the WaPo's competitor. Haynes Johnson, who won a Pulitzer for his reporting on the civil rights movement there, is now a journo prof at U of MD. )

• Democrats Are Fractured Over Strategy, Funds
  Washington Post - May. 10, 2006
  
  
• Dean Prepares To Step Down As DNC Chair
  Huffington Post - Nov. 10, 2008
  
  
• Hotline On Call: Bill Clinton's A Convert To Dean's 50-State Project
  National Journal - Nov. 10, 2008
  
  
  
  
  
• New Leadership In Both Parties By February
  Atlantic Monthly - Nov. 10, 2008

Republican Meltdown?

Cartoon from 11/07 by Mike Keefe, The Denver Post (web site, email)

In "Party Building," News For Real's Steve Pizzo writes,

We should all be well versed by now on the does and don’t of nation building. You help the moderates in the country, even if you don’t like them, in order to empower them and isolate the radical elements. Easily said. Hard to do. Democrats are now faced with the need for some serious party-building – isolating the radicals in the party by embracing the more levelheaded moderates in the party.

He's talking about reacing out to Republicans. Some at NewsTrust read this as advice the R's and found fault with the taxonomy errors.

I, on the other hand, took it as advice to the D's and while the family tree may be mislabeled, I think Pizzo makes a valid point that more and more of the moderating forces in the Republican party have been thrown out by voters and this will make it harder for Democrats. ( To this, I would add that many have retired voluntarily--while Lincoln Chaffee was voted out, Tom Davis and John Warner of VA retired.)

James Joyner points to a George Will column (both linked below)

After the 1936 election, when the Republican nominee against FDR, Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, carried only two states, both in New England (hence the jest, “As Maine goes, so goes Vermont”), there were 29 congressional seats in New England and Republicans still held 15. With Tuesday’s defeat of Connecticut Republican Chris Shays, Democrats hold all 22 New England seats. As recently as 1996, when New York had 31 House seats, Republicans held 14; after Tuesday, they have just three of 29. With the loss of the seat on Staten Island, Republicans will hold at most one urban seat.

Both Joyner and Will are conservative Republicans and thus qualified to offer advice to their party, except according to the judgment of those who want to exile anyone who expressed doubt about McCain/Palin--see Douthat in The Atlantic). That meltdown makes me wonder what happened to Reagan's Eleventh Commandment:

Thou shall speak no evil of a fellow Republican?

It harkens back to the time here in Virginia when I observed whippersnappers being rude to mountain Valley Republican and former cabinent member Rod Layman for refusing to support Ollie North.

And of course, even some New England R's think they need an even firmer message. See Peyser.

Palin Last Nail in Republican Coffin? Outside the Beltway - by James Joyner - Nov. 6, 2008

What Would Goldwater Do? Washington Post - by George Will -Nov. 5, 2008

Why The Grassroots Needs Elites - Ross Douthat Atlantic Monthly - Nov. 10, 2008

Republicans rebrandedBoston Globe - by James Peyser - Nov. 9, 2008

The Recount in MN

Cartoon by Steve Sack (email), The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Hat tip to Blatherwatch.


Franken or Coleman for the Senator from MN? We still don't know and won't for some time. The race ended November 4 in a virtual tie:

• Republican NORM COLEMAN--1,211,590 (41.99%)
• Democratic-Farmer-Labor AL FRANKEN--1,211,375 (41.98)
  

Substantial votes went to Indpendent Dean Barkley (437,404--15.16%) who served as temporary appointment to fill Wellstone's seat after his death. It was a crowded field with other contenders failing to gain much support:

• Libertarian CHARLES ALDRICH 13916 0.48
• Constitution JAMES NIEMACKL 8905 0.31
• Write-Ins 2340 0.08
  

The WaPo's Mary Pat Flaherty reports in "Minn. Senate Race Far From Over: Incumbent Coleman Is Just 239 Votes Ahead of Al Franken" on November 8:

The recount in that election will not be completed until mid-December, and even then, a candidate or voter can challenge the outcome, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said. Sen. Norm Coleman (R) held a 239-vote lead over Democrat Al Franken as of late yesterday. That margin of less than 0.5 percentage points triggers an automatic recount under Minnesota law.

Ritchie said he would hope to finish the recount by Dec. 19. But that process cannot begin until the election results are certified Tuesday.

Franken said on Minnesota Public Radio that he will not waive the recount.

This is the closest race in Minnesota history, the closest Senate race and the closest race anywhere in the country. This is just part of the process to make sure every vote is counted," he said, adding: "Candidates don't get to decide when an election's over -- voters do.

Minnesota voters use paper ballots. They will be reviewed first at the local level, with an elections official and an observer for each candidate on hand, if the candidate chooses. Any ballot challenged by an observer will be sealed and sent to the state canvassing board consisting of two state Supreme Court justices, two district court judges and chaired by the secretary of state. The board certifies the general-election results some time after Decenber 16.

According to MN Public Radio, Coleman is already in court challenging the canvassing.

To keep up with the recount, I recommend Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com.

Things are up in the air in two additional races. Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss will have a run-off against Democrat Jim Martin, since Chambliss fell a bit shy the 50 percent he needed to win election in Georgia. We also are waiting to find out the results of the Alaska race between incumbent Ted Stevens (R), against Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D). Stevens ran despite his felony conviction last month for his failure to report gifts.

And BTW, Silver had an interesting post November 5, What In The Hell Happened in Alaska? about the oddly shrinking electorate there.

Alejandro Escovedo

Photo by Mick Rock from Escovedo's website, which also includes clips.

I ushered at the Lyric tonight and heard Escovedo's concert in support of his new album, Real Animal, including "Always a Friend."

Wasn't I always a friend to you
Wasn't I always a friend to you
Do you a wanna be my friend
Do you a wanna be my friend
Every once in a while, honey let your love show
Every once in a while, honey let yourself go
Nobody gets hurt, no
Nobody gets hurt

We came here as two, we laid down as one
I don't care if I'm not your only one
What I see in you, you see in me
But if I be wrong, smoke my smoke, drink my wine
Bury my snakeskin boots somewhere I'll never find
Still be your lover baby

Uh oh, Uh oh
Uh oh

Wasn't I always a friend to you (x2)
Do you wanna be my friend (x2)
Every once in a while, honey let yourself go
Every once in a while, honey let your love show
Nobody gets hurt, no
Nobody gets hurt

Well I could be an astronaut on the wrong side of the moon
Or wrapped up like a baby on a bus
Where ever I go you'll be with me
But if I be wrong take 'em out to sea, I'll take the floor
You sleep in late get your rest, I'll catch up on mine
Still be your lover baby

Uh oh, Uh oh

Wasn't I always a friend to you
Wasn't I always a friend to you
Every once in a while, honey let your love show
Every once in a while, honey let yourself go
Yea! Nobody gets hurt, it's only love
Uh oh Uh oh
Uh oh

To hear him, here's an NPR show live in concert from WXPN and Wiggins Park in Philadelphia on July 11, 2008.

National Media writes about Coal Protest Months Later...

Photo of from Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards of the earlier attempts at legal protest --presenting a mile-long petition against the Wise County Coal plant-- before BREF and others tried non-violent civil disobedience.

In "Taking On King Coal," Time's Bryan Walsh reports for the first time November 6 on the protest against Dominion on September 15:

Nothing could sway the Dominion 11 from their mission--not the cops and certainly not the prospect of free food. Early on the morning of Sept. 15, activists from a range of environmental groups formed a human barrier to block access to a coal plant being built by Dominion in rural Wise County, Virginia. As acts of civil disobedience go, this wasn't exactly Bloody Sunday. The police took a hands-off approach and even offered to buy the protesters breakfast ...

Nothing deep here, but it's nice to see the coverage.

Prop 8 in CA Rescinds Gays' Marriage Rights

Poster whose providence I could not i.d. Sure looks like Matt Groening, but who knows?

In "Losing California," The Volokh Conspiracy's Dale Carpenter, a U of MN civil rights professor, combines heart and fact in an effective way.

Mostly, my heart breaks for the gay couples and their children who had a five-month window in which their families could celebrate the ultimate expression of commitment and love our culture knows. There was nothing academic about any of this for them....They want their families and communities to understand how much their relationships mean and how fiercely they will fight to protect the children they love....

For those who advocate civil union or domestic partnerships for gays and lesbians, the precedent that "separate is inherently unequal" would require states to sanction marriage for no one or anyone. In the former case, the marriage would be left religion. Politically, though, current lack of support in the general public means that insistence on marriage, rather than domestic partnership, may be a case of the perfect being the enemy of the good. Familiarity breeds comfort, not contempt. The problem, of course, is that when law goes beyond the conventional comfort zone, there is a long period before emotion catches up to the law. And those who disagree with such changes, play to hatred and fear, to maintain the now illegal status quo.

Andrew Sullivan reflects on the topic in "Oh, No, You Don't"

See also:

• What Will Happen to California Same-Sex Marriages? by Eugene Volokh, also from The Volokh Conspiracy on November 5, 2008
• An answer to Proposition 8: Repealing DOMA by Glenn Greenwald in the November 6
  Salon
  

Obama Wins, Goode May Be Gone, Mitch Not Ditched

Mike Keefe (website, email) The Denver Post on what Obama has inherited (from 11/14/2008). Most of the immediate images were of Lincoln being happy.

When I voted at the Newport Rec Center this morning, it look like the Dems had conceded Giles County. They had no poll watchers as compared to two for McCain, although they did have a smattering of yard signs. BREF was writing in Matt Hepler against incumbent dem Rick Boucher for the 9th Distric Congressional seat. I got an email from Wise County the the teachers there were writing in the Green candidate. Both because of Boucher's stalwalt support of handouts for the coal industry and refusing to support roadblocks to MTR such as the Clean Water Protection Act.

Watched the election results tonight over at the Spanish House on a variety of sources. After two elections where it looked like Bush would lose, the networks were being cautious in projecting a win for Obama. CNN called PA for Obama at 7:40 p.m. despite the last minute attempt to portray Obama as wanting to bankrupt the coal industry, but that only gave Obama 102 electoral votes to McCain's 49. About an hour later, at 8:34 CNN called Ohio for Obama. He had already won Michigan and Minnesota. Ky went for McCain--no surprise, but the insipid candidate the dem party hacks put forward against Mitch McConnel failed to unseat him. (more on that later, after I check in with Betsy, who lives there. It looks like Virginia will go for Obama and at 10:00 CNN suddenly (it seems) projects Virginia the winner. To tell you the truth, we are a subdued group. Happy, but no ecstasy here. We leave and, ever the news junky, I go elsewhere to watch the McCain gracious concession speech (amid boos), Obama's victory speech and Comedy Central's take.

It looks like Tom Perriello may have ousted Virgil Goode. And the Franken-Coleman race is too close to call. Other interesting reading for election day: Nate Silver on the problem with exit polls. How Tim Robbins had trouble voting in NYC. The Fox meme on the Panthers plot to disrupt voting. Lieberman's further diffection from his former party. Forensicon's news release that a security firm lining up vendors to assist the Republican National Committee with consulting related to potential allegations of computerized voter fraud had contacted the Chicago computer forensics company last Thursday.

Where Do McCain and Obama Stand on Energy?

Cartoon by Nitrozac and Snaggy--the last panel of which was used to illustrate a blog post I wrote for the Daily Yonder, commissioned on the recommendation of Betsy Taylor. Nitrozaz is a.k.a. Liza Schmalcel (interview) and Snaggy is a.k.a. Bruce Evans.

The piece appeared 11/3/08 under the title, "How will Obama or McCain Power the Nation." I had the pleasure of the help of July Ardery (email) as my editor, who also selected the illustrations. Thanks also to my friend from NewsTrust, Chris Finnie, of Finnie communications, who gave me feedback on the rough draft and submitted and reviewed it at NewsTrust. Here's what I wrote...

*

Energy. Jobs. The environment. As Michael A. Livermore, Executive Director of NYU Law School's Institute for Policy Integrity, has written, "The challenge for the next administration is to find policies that produce simultaneous economic, environmental, and energy benefits, rather than force these policy goals to fight each other in a lose-lose battle."

Like other Americans, folks in rural areas are examining senators Barack Obama and John McCain in the light of fears about a faltering economy and with high gas prices a recent memory. Many worry that the U.S. has been delaying action on climate change, with possible dire effects on agriculture and forestry. And beyond the general concern about the carbon footprint of coal-fired electric plants, those of us in Appalachia face increasing destruction of our home places from mining as companies use mountaintop-removal to raze the mountains for coal -- what has been called “strip mining on steroids.”

During his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on August 28, Obama explicitly linked energy, climate change and jobs, declaring his goal to "end our dependence on oil from the Middle East" in ten years:

"Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.

"Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.

"As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced."

McCain, in his acceptance of the Republican nomination on September 5, did not make so specific a linkage between energy and jobs. Sen. McCain emphasized that he favors fuel economy and increased use of wind and solar energy but differentiated himself from Obama by supporting increased drilling and nuclear power.

"We'll attack the [energy] problem on every front. We'll produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells off-shore, and we'll drill them now."

"...We'll build more nuclear power plants. We'll develop clean-coal technology. We'll increase the use of wind, tide, solar, and natural gas. We'll encourage the development and use of flex-fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles.

"Senator Obama thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power. But Americans know better than that.

"We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to rescue our economy from the damage caused by rising oil prices and restore the health of our planet."

In the rural U.S., federal energy policy has special consequences, so let's look at where McCain and Obama stand on several key energy issues.

stated his opposition to the Yucca Mountain Repository (for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste), which McCain supports.

On June 25, McCain highlighted his plans for nuclear energy when he announced his "Lexington Project," “[n]amed for the town where Americans asserted their independence once before.” McCain described his plan "to achieve strategic independence" from imported oil supplies by 2025, calling for 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 with the ultimate goal of 100 new plants.

Offshore drilling: Sen. McCain strongly supports increasing offshore drilling for domestic oil. Obama had opposed offshore drilling, but in August modified his position, saying he would consider permitting new drilling operations in order to reach a compromise on energy legislation. (The 27-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling expired September 30, after no such compromise was reached.) Despite government assessments that have concluded that such drilling would not affect gasoline prices significantly "before 2030," recent polls have shown public support for drilling.

Coal technology: Both candidates say that they support "clean coal" technology, including carbon capture and storage, although the economic viability of such technology has not been demonstrated. Both candidates support “cap and trade ” to reduce carbon emissions contributing to climate change. Under this system, companies would be bound by emissions limits and also receive carbon credits; to exceed their emissions limits, companies would have to buy credits from other operations that have brought their pollution below federally mandated levels. Obama's plan would charge for all carbon credits, while McCain would give an unspecified number of free credits to companies. Some experts have criticized “cap and trade” saying that this system has failed in Europe and that a carbon tax would be more effective.

Wind and Solar: Both candidates support increased use of wind and solar power, although development of both technologies has been hindered by tight credit and falling prices for coal and natural gas. According to the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, McCain has missed eight votes on tax credits for wind and solar while campaigning, thus allowing the credits to expire in December. Obama also has missed votes on this issue but according to Friedman voted for the credits on three occasions.

The next president, alone, will not be responsible for U.S. energy policy. Energy issues were contentious during the passage of the 2007 bill and nothing of significance has passed in 2008. And, as the Washington Post noted on October 31, the Bush administration is pushing to promulgate additional regulations before leaving office, which may tie the hands of the next president.

To explore further the candidates' positions on energy and climate change see "The Candidates and Climate Change: A Guide to Key Policy Positions," by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. The New York Times also has a good comparison of the candidates' energy policies, as does the Apollo Alliance.

The Right Latches Onto Obama and Coal

This dreck from the Stentorian, who says that Obama is powered by hate? (No, I am not going to boost his technorati score by linking.) Magarac was a mythic steelworking Paul Bunyan, whose story was recorded by the New Christy Minstrels on their 1964 Columbia Records release Land of Giants:

We're gonna build a railroad down to Frisco and back, and way down to Mexico. Who's gonna make the steel for that track? It's Joe... Magarac.

The top meme today started with claims of "hidden audio" at the SF Chronicle in which Obama said that his clean air regulation would bankrupt coal. Of course the audio was hiding in plain hearing. The coal industry weighed in that they were displeased.


Ben Smith at Politico has this excerpt in his post, "Bankrupting Coal?" which was not available at the paper's site (there was an audio tape and a video and partial transcripts on the rightward blogs that cherry-picked Obama's remarks.)

Barack Obama: I voted against the Clear Skies Bill. In fact, I was the deciding vote. Despite the fact that I’m a coal state. And that half my state thought that I had thoroughly betrayed them. Because I think clean air is critical and global warming is critical. But this notion of no coal, I think, is an illusion. Because the fact of the matter is is that right now we are getting a lot of our energy from coal. And China is building a coal-powered plant once a week. So what we have to do then is figure out how can we use coal without emitting greenhouse gases and carbon. And how can we sequester that carbon and capture it. If we can’t, then we’re gonna still be working on alternatives. But...let me sort of describe my overall policy. What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade policy in place that is as aggressive if not more aggressive than anyone out there. I was the first call for 100% auction on the cap and trade system. Which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases that was emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants are being built, they would have to meet the rigors of that market. And the ratcheted down caps that are imposed every year. So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted. That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel, and other alternative energy approaches. The only thing that I’ve said with respect to coal--I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter, as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it. That I think is the right approach. The same with respect to nuclear. Right now, we don’t know how to store nuclear waste wisely and we don’t know how to deal with some of the safety issues that remain. And so it’s wildly expensive to pursue nuclear energy. But I tell you what, if we could figure out how to store it safely, then I think most of us would say that might be a pretty good deal. The point is, if we set rigorous standards for the allowable emissions, then we can allow the market to determine and technology and entrepreneurs to pursue, what the best approach is to take, as opposed to us saying at the outset, here are the winners that we’re picking and maybe we pick wrong and maybe we pick right.

Jake Tapper over at ABC posted the same excerpt a bit later with his post, "Republicans to Try Burning Obama on Coal." He also reports on a robocall, giving a link to listen to the call. He explains the context of Obama's statement which provides valuable background for readers, as the noise over Obama's interview rises on the web. Tapper does not put Obama's position in context, however, nor write about how it compares with McCain's position.

And over at ThinkProgress, while he writes from the left, Brad Johnson lays out the facts behind his observation that both candidates have supported cap and trade in "McCain And Obama Criticize New Coal Plants — Right Wing Goes Insane."

On a different topic related to the election, in covering a Biden speech, Glenn Greenwald writes on the perversion of the meaning of Commander-in-Chief in "The Single Worst Expression in American Politics."