Take All the Crazy Oil Drilling Risks You Want

If you do trigger an oil disaster, no problem - just direct your staff to destroy the evidence. As long as you work for Halliburton, you'll only get a tap on the wrist from the judge, who’ll then praise you.

Polar Vortex II: Arctic Boogaloo?

It looks like the polar vortex may make another drunken run at the East Coast later this month. I am sure Fox will have an explanation for why the swing from 50 to -5 and back again is totally normal.

So why is the polar vortex suddenly showing up on our doorstep so often? Does climate change play a role? Here's the explanation from White House science adviser and physicist John Holdren:

 

Why Congress Will Miss Rep. Jim Moran

I'm sorry to hear Rep. Jim Moran is retiring, a hard-working, underrated fighter for progressive values, especially for our environment & public health.

My favorite Jim Moran moment: I was leading one of my first Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment stream cleanups at Four Mile Run and was told to expect Rep. Moran to attend. I expected him to show up in a suit, make some brief remarks, hold up a few pieces of pre-collected trash for the camera, and be off to his next event.

Instead, Rep. Moran showed up in hip waders, grabbed a trash bag, and took off down the rocks into the stream. Within minutes he was downstream & out of sight around a bend. Moran didn't return until he'd filled the bag with trash & was dragging a bigger piece of junk that wouldn't fit in. As he left, he apologized profusely that he had to leave before others had finished.

The more you work with members of Congress, the more you respect politicians who genuinely care passionately about solving problems, as opposed to those who just know what they're supposed to say. (Bizarrely, it's the latter who are more hailed as "moderate" heroes by the Beltway media.) Rep. Moran has a fire for the solutions he truly believes will improve the lives of average citizens, and that's sorely lacking in Congress these days.

Inhofe Admits He Only Denies Climate Science Because He Doesn't Like the Solutions

Capitol Hill's Denier in Chief, Sen. Jim Inhofe, slipped up and admitted the real reason why he pretends climate change doesn't exist:

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) told WABC-AM that he was initially intrigued when former Vice President Al Gore began warning about human-induced climate change but became skeptical after discovering that environmental regulations might prove costly to business.

Climate science deniers don't like the solutions, so they attack the science. The reasons why they don't like the solutions may vary - they most often represent an oil or coal state like Sen. Inhofe does, or it may simply conflict with their anti-regulatory ideology in general as in the case of someone like Sean Hannity or Scott Brown.

It's no different than when cigarette companies rejected science connecting smoking with cancer: Their real objection was to the implications, not to the methods. Science denial almost always has nothing to do with science.

Because once you accept the science and admit there's a problem, you then have to discuss to how to solve it. Frank Luntz and his fellow Republicans recognized this years ago and planted their heels in the ground on debating the science on an endless loop.

More than a decade later, the US media is still allowing deniers to play that same ignorant game, pretending the actual truth can never be discerned. Reporters even go to great lengths to portray deniers as interested in science, even when those same deniers say otherwise.

Reporters then pretend they don't understand why trust in the media has plummeted.

Why Do Climate Science Deniers STILL Hate Al Gore So Much?

I can't understand the ongoing hatred of Al Gore by climate science deniers. It made some sense when An Inconvenient Truthcame out, but that was seven years ago. Gore stepped back from a leadership role in the climate action movement around the time of his divorce in 2010 and is now semi-retired, rarely making public appearances.

But far-right conservatives apparently still hate Gore with the fury of a thousand global warming-fueled wildfires. What's weird is they simultaneously try to portray Gore as this big fat pathetic loser AND as this wealthy jet-setting holier-than-thou asshole.

Are they still trying to prove he didn't win that election that he would've won via a full recount if the Republican-controlled Supreme Court hadn't ordered it shut down? Or that while George W. Bush's disastrous presidency destroyed the Republican brand, Gore is in many ways MORE respected than he was in 2000?

Gore went through something that would've left most people angry at the world. Just look at how much John McCain hates Barack Obama and opposes everything they once agreed on from climate action to immigration reform - and McCain lost fair & square.

Yet Gore went on Saturday Night Live to laugh about the experience and never stopped fighting for what he believes in. Is that what grates Fox News types the most - that they haven't been able to break Gore's spirit and make him shut up & go away?

I Survived the 2014 SouthCoast Earthquake. Where's My Commemorative T-Shirt?

I happened to be doing some work in our ground-level utility room here in Fairhaven, MA and felt the 1.9 magnitude earthquake that rumbled through the greater New Bedford area today. It wasn't nearly as strong as the 2010 DC area quake that woke me up or the 2011 Virginia quake that swayed the chandelier over my head in Vermont, but I definitely felt a brief rumble.

What's weird is that I'd never experienced an earthquake in my first 33 years. Now I've felt three in the last three years.

HGTV: Always Choose Sprawl

Every show on HGTV has the same advice: If you can't afford your dream home, just move further out!

Realtors are all about the instant gratification of finding your dream house. Sure, they hope you're happy long term, but let's be honest: Whether you end up with a nightmare commute or sleepy social life doesn't impact their commission.

Republicans Attack George W. Bush's Only Environmental Legacy

If Congressional Republicans succeed in repealing light bulb efficiency standards, George W. Bush's only remaining environmental legacy will be pardoning the turkeys.

Tell your members of Congress to leave light bulb efficiency standards in place and maybe find something more productive to do.

The Day After Tomorrow: Thunderstorms with Chance of Polar Vortex

It was -6 this morning here in Fairhaven, MA but it's forecast to rise through the day ... then through the night, hitting the high at midnight. Then up to 50 with possible thunderstorms Monday. Then down to 16 Monday night, but it will be even colder 400 miles south in Washington, DC thanks to a huge chunk if the polar vortex going rogue and making a break for the US.

All totally normal, according to Fox.

"Climate Scientists Have a Technical Term for This Phenomenon: It's Called Winter"

Watch climate scientist Michael Mann talk to MSNBC's Chris Hayes on "All In" about how snow at Fox headquarters doesn't mean climate change isn't happening:

How Climate Science Deniers Exploit Corporate Newspaper Shrinkage

How are the gatekeepers of truth in public discourse supposed to function when they're being laid off by the hundreds in the name of higher profits? While a few newspapers like the Los Angeles Times are taking a stand against opinion pieces that get the facts wrong on climate science, smaller newspapers across the country are getting overrun by climate science deniers.

This week's example: Steve DiMarzo Jr.'s climate science-denying op-ed in the New Bedford Standard-Times. It's not just that it's filled with easily-disproved lies. It's filled with quotes that aren't attributed to any source at all. Who said them? Is DiMarzo just making up quotes as he goes? Readers are left hanging.

That's such an egregious miss, I can't believe an editor even read the piece before printing it. The Standard-Times has been hammered by round after round of layoffs with the latest hitting just two months ago. Nationwide, a Pew Research Center report shows newspaper editorial employment has fallen by a third in just the last 15 years.

But here's the thing: The Standard-Times isn't losing money - it's profitable. It just wasn't making enough money for its corporate owners, so the layoff ax swung. Remaining staffers are being asked to do the jobs of several people and subscribers are being asked to pay the same price for a product of lesser quality. No wonder CareerCast.com ranked newspaper reporter last out of 200 career fields, below dishwasher, oil rig worker and lumberjack.

A similar story is playing out at the nearby Providence Journal. As Dean Starkman has documented, the paper's corporate owners have been laying off newsroom staff to fund huge executive bonuses. Its op-ed page has turned into a haven of climate science denial and I've heard the editorial page editor tells people that's by design, that playing to the lowest common controversy makes for good reading.

Declining newspaper readership rates are often covered as proof of the declining literacy among the American public. But readers know when they're being sold an inferior product. Why spend $20 a month to read climate science denial in the local paper when it's already available for free on Drudge Report or Rush Limbaugh?

Just check the reader comments on the DiMarzo op-ed. When your customers are openly asking the equivalent of "what is this shit?" maybe it's time to reinvest in the product.

Top 5 Posts of 2013 & 3 Conservation Stories to Watch in 2014

The Green Miles & fiancee on top of Mt. Washington

As I head into my ninth year of writing here at The Green Miles, here were the top 5 posts of 2013 at The Green Miles:

1. Cod Fishermen Are Even More Screwed Than You Thought
2. Massachusetts Voters Keep Rejecting Wind Turbine Restrictions
3. What If Your Street Belonged To Kids On Saturdays?
4. Worcester Official Unleashes Epic Clean Water Whine
5. Dominion Sale Shows Old Coal Power Plants Are Nearly Worthless

Both my number of posts and overall traffic were at historic lows. Some major life events (getting engaged, preparing to become a first-time dad, buying a home) distracted me from my usual laser-like focus on important things like green deodorant. But it's not just me who's seeing traffic decline - as I wrote this year, it's getting hard out here for a free-range blogger.

So what's on tap for 2014?

• Will Obama say no to dirty energy? President Obama has shown signs of shaking his previous Yes Man persona by rolling out his climate action plan. But will his administration write strong industrial carbon pollution limits, or let big polluters off the hook? And will he say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline? 
• Can Congress do anything but cut on conservation? The December budget deal showed signs of promise by loosening the budgetary noose that Congress has put on programs that protect our wildlife, clean air and water and public lands.
• Immigration reform. It doesn't seem like a conservation issue at first glance. But poll after poll shows Latinos are strong supporters of clean air and water, including climate action. The possibility of millions of undocumented immigrants becoming American citizens and gaining voting rights would nudge the electorate even further towards climate action than it already is. 

Thanks for reading and please keep in touch in the comments section, feedback looking back on 2013 or ahead to 2014 is always appreciated.

Who's Paying Marc Brown to Attack Cape Wind?

Who is Marc Brown, how did he create the "New England Ratepayers Association" out of thin air, and why is he attacking Cape Wind? Check out my new op-ed for the National Wildlife Federation in the Providence Journal.

Signs You Should Stop Thinking About Smart Growth & Enjoy Your Egg Nog

When you see your future mother-in-law's holiday village and think, "Needs more height & density near the train station."

Merry Christmas, everybody.

Real America's Salads Have Been Dead for Months

My fiancee & I got a gift card to Applebee's for Christmas, so I went to America's #1 casual dining restaurant for the first time. We're trying to watch what we eat between holiday gorge-fests, so we both got salads, which was of course a mistake because you don't go to Applebee's for salad, you go there for the cheese dip & pretzel sticks, which is both incredibly delicious and blow-your-hair-back salty.

It was amazing how Applebee's manages to assemble salads with no actual fresh vegetables - bagged greens, dried cranberries, canned red pepper, mandarin orange and corn. In Real America, even if you order a salad, you're getting meat, fried noodles and cheese in heavy sauce - and that meat spent just as long in the freezer as the vegetables were locked in the can.

Hottest November Ever

Just in from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center: November was the hottest on record and January-November 2013 has been the fourth-hottest ever, more than a full degree above the 20th century average.

Graphic: Wind Turbine Syndrome is Bizarro Snake Oil

Ketan Joshi just shared this graphic of just 87 of the 216 symptoms that wind turbine opponents attribute to "wind turbine syndrome." Like bizarro snake oil, it's the cause of whatever ails you:

Via Grist via Donald Trump who cannot be bothered reading what he tweets

Northeast Climate Change Compact Keeps Proving Carbon Cap and Trade Works Really Well

The U.S. Senate Republican minority used the filibuster to block the majority from passing a carbon cap and trade program in 2010, because FREEDOM, or something. So a group of Northeast states went ahead with it anyway and it continues to prove cap and trade works really, really well:

Massachusetts and eight other states – Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont – are part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is the nation’s first “cap-and-trade” program. Power plants in the RGGI states must purchase “allowances” that allow them to emit carbon dioxide. The states auction off these allowances and use the proceeds for public purposes, especially investments in energy efficiency, which create jobs and keep energy spending local.

The revisions to the Commonwealth’s RGGI program, as well as similar changes in the other eight states, will lower the existing “cap” on power plant emissions in the RGGI states from the current level of 165 million tons per year to 91 million tons per year starting in 2014. The cap will then be lowered by 2.5 percent each year thereafter until 2020. This reduction will ensure that in 2020, power plant emissions from these nine states will be half of what they were in 2005, when RGGI was initiated.

The lower cap is also expected to generate an estimated $350 million in additional revenue for the Commonwealth by 2020. These revenues will be invested primarily in programs to improve energy efficiency in Massachusetts’ municipalities, businesses and residences, which will, in turn, reduce energy costs and lower carbon dioxide emissions.

$350 million in revenue for Massachusetts alone? I wonder how much his state would be raking in if Gov. Chris Christie hadn't pulled New Jersey out of the program. What's the opposite of fiscal conservatism? Christie's pander to the Tea Party was that.

But cap and trade is supposed to bankrupt families and leave children shivering in the dark ... uh, right?

Before making these revisions, the RGGI states conducted extensive modeling on the impacts of these changes on consumers. The modeling shows that the impacts of the reduced emissions cap will be very modest, less than one percent in consumer bills. The average Massachusetts residential customer’s monthly electric bill of $72 will rise by 39 cents; the average commercial customer’s monthly bill of $455 will rise by $3.89; and the average industrial customer’s monthly bill of $6,659 will rise by $83.

A little over a penny a day to curb superstorms like Sandy and make sure we pass on a stable climate to our children and grandchildren? Seems like the biggest doorbuster bargain of the holiday season.

Philly's Free Parking Problem

Philadelphia only charges residents $35 a year for one unlimited on-street parking sticker - just 10 cents a day.

In a related story, Philadelphia has no money for schools.

Privatized Oil Profit and Socialized Risk, As Explained by Pipeline Safety Official

Want to know why oil companies can turn billion dollar profits and leave taxpayers at risk of oil spills? Listen to what Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) official Bill Lowery told DeSmogBlog's Julie Dermansky, keeping in mind he's supposed to be one of the good guys:

At a Public Safety Trust conference on Nov. 21, Lowery was asked, "Knowing what you know about the problems in the Keystone XL's construction, what would you do if your house was in its path?"

His answer: "Here is what I did when I bought my house — I looked on all the maps, I looked for all the well holes. I found there is nothing around me but dry holes and no pipelines. And it's not because I'm afraid of pipelines, it's not because I think something will happen. It's because something could happen. ... You're always better off, if you have a choice...."

He trailed off before finishing his sentence, but added that, "If I was building a house, I wouldn't build it on a refinery, ... I wouldn't build it on a pipeline, because they're all industrial facilities. That's just the reality."

Again, this is a federal pipeline safety official saying he wouldn't let his family live next to an industrial oil facility - yet the agency he works for permits those same facilities near residential areas like an over-eager third base coach waving runners home. This is how the deck gets stacked in favor of Big Oil and against the average citizen.

As I often ask, where's the Tea Party outrage? If the Tea Party is really about looking out for the little guy against Big Government Tyranny, shouldn't they be furious that pipeline safety agencies are letting oil companies build facilities in our communities that they wouldn't accept in their own backyard?