Today's Weather Forecast

I know Dubya hates Al Gore, but I didn’t know Pope Benny did also.

But before I get to the Vatican, I want to note this New York Times story today that tells us that Bushco has decided to “mess around under the hood” with a bill that passed the House and is pending in the Senate that would regulate auto emissions and fuel economy.

Here’s the rub…

Primary regulation of mileage standards has historically fallen to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an arm of the Transportation Department. But vehicle tailpipe emissions are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and a Supreme Court ruling this year affirmed the E.P.A.’s authority to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from passenger vehicles, which basically would mean regulating their fuel use.

The White House, echoing a position taken by auto manufacturers and a coalition of industry groups, is asking that the energy legislation be changed to specify the highway safety administration as the primary enforcer of fuel efficiency standards, with the E.P.A. in only an advisory role. Democratic leaders in Congress have rejected that position as a “nonstarter” and indicated their intent to move the bill with the current language intact.

(I can just picture another long-winded, whiny objection and filibuster threat on this from Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, can’t you?)

To me, it sounds like Bushco want to remove any possibility of enforcing vehicle emission standards through this bill (and of course, blame the Dems for passing weak legislation next year, no doubt – a typically cagey maneuver trying to make the new fuel efficiency standard and vehicle tailpipe emissions separate issues, though how could you reduce one without the other?).

Well, to find an example of a Republican doing the right thing on this issue, we need look no further than Kaa-Lee-Fourrr-Nee-Aahh and Governor Arnold, who (all kidding aside) looks positively like a visionary leader on this, as noted here…

The state of California today sued to force the Environmental Protection Agency to rule whether the state can put its strict vehicle tailpipe emissions standards into effect.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state would "sue again and sue again and sue again" in order to get approval to put in place tough new fuel economy regulations.

"It's all common sense," the governor said of the regulation, saying it was necessary to force new clean technology.

Indeed. But (undaunted, unfortunately), the Times story also tells us (about the bill facing yet another veto from George W. Milhous Bush)…

The White House and many polluting industries consider this a critical battle because similar conflicts are likely to arise as the nation tries to slow and then reverse the production of the greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet. Late last week, representatives of a variety of industries, including petrochemicals, mining, refineries, manufacturers and paper products, also wrote to Congressional leaders asking them to settle the regulatory uncertainty in the auto mileage bill. They said greenhouse gases from manufacturers would be regulated by the Energy Department, the Commerce Department, the E.P.A. and other agencies, “but current law provides little guidance on how they are to coordinate their responsibilities.”

What the hell does that mean? Why should these industries care about how these agencies “coordinate their responsibilities”?

I don’t know about you, but I smell a rat here (or, more precisely, a well-coordinated campaign by affected industries that previously “sat on the sidelines” while this played out but decided to jump into the process at the last minute to try and scuttle everything).

And as if all of this wasn’t bad enough, His Holiness chimes in with this, courtesy of D-Mac at Philadelphia Will Do…

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology. The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

Well Benny, you should get a load of this, then…

WASHINGTON - The dramatic decline of Arctic ice in recent summers greatly accelerated this year, a sign that some alarmed scientists worry could mean global warming is picking up speed.

Greenland's ice sheet shrank far below what scientists had previously seen, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at summer's end was half what was recorded four years earlier, according to new NASA satellite data.

"The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colo.

What a shame that neither Benny nor Dubya will listen, apparently (God, am I sick of posting on this no-brainer of a subject, having said much of this already about two years ago here).

And I know I ranted on “Straight Talk McCain” yesterday since he picked another idiotic fight with MoveOn.org, but kudos to him for being the only Repug to acknowledge this issue (time for your nap, Grandpa Fred; I’ll make sure and let Margaret know).

Update: And speaking of Dubya and Gore, today marks the infamous seventh anniversary of this decision – as Jake Tapper recounted in this book, December 12th was an arbitrary date for completing the Florida hand recount that head Gore lawyer David Boies basically manufactured out of thin air.