TOP STORY

Climate and Economy: Still Hand in Hand

Since taking office, the Obama administration has stuck to a very clear and direct message: action on climate change and the economy go hand in hand.  Everyone from the media, a Republican congress, heads of the fossil fuel industry, and even members of their own party have perpetuated the false environment-economy dichotomy, but the White House hasn't wavered.  Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said yesterday, "The carbon price signal created by a cap-and-trade system will encourage energy efficiency, the low-hanging fruit of greenhouse gas emissions reductions...More importantly, it will also encourage the development and deployment of the clean-energy technologies that will be critical to address climate change, enhance energy security and create jobs that can't be outsourced."  [Greenwire-NY Times]

QUOTATIOUS

"The new evidence — including satellite data showing that the average multiyear wintertime sea ice cover in the Arctic in 2005 and 2006 was nine feet thick, a significant decline from the 1980s — contradicts data cited in widely circulated reports by Washington Post columnist George F. Will that sea ice in the Arctic has not significantly declined since 1979."  - Juliet Eilperin and Mary Beth Sheridan, overtly dimissing the widely-debunked columns by Washington Post colleague George Will.  [Washington Post]

FUNNIES

Wow.  WaPo staff are really getting after their colleague.  Tom Toles piles on:

[Washington Post]

RECOMMENDED READING

Cap and Dividend

Peter Barnes has been pushing for a "cap and dividend" system of carbon regulation for a couple of years now.  "The idea is simple: Make companies pay for greenhouse gas emissions by auctioning off allowances -- then send Americans equal checks for their share of the amount collected."  Now is his moment of reckoning, as Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) just introduced a "cap and dividend" bill.  [Washington Post]

Toxic Dry Cleaning 

Perc (or tetrachloroethylene, or perchloroethylene) is the solvent used in most commerical dry cleaning processes.  It's also very likely to be a human carcinogen.  The E.P.A. is taking a closer look at a Bush administration decision to give dry cleaners until 2010 to phase it out.  [Green, Inc.- NY Times]

POPULAR DEMAND

Everybody's talking about this GM-Segway two seater people moving pod, or Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (PUMA) vehicle.  While it seems more than likely to wind up in the trash heap of "Big Ideas That Would Supposedly Have Changed the World" (like, um, the Segway), since all the environmental blogosphere is caught up in the meme, here's a video: