LA Weekly

Grist's Amanda Griscom Little has a fine column today on enviromentalists embrace of George Lakoff -- and his evident waning interest in them. Because I regard the Lakoff panacea as a distraction from the real requirements of political victory -- like, uh, cultivating the guts to stand for something -- I'm always looking for evidence that Lakoff isn't the genius Howard Dean thinks he is. Now it seems he's not even that reliable. Although Lakoff's Rockridge Institute signed a contract for $350,00
with the Green Group for a project to "reframe" environmental issues, the project has "foundered," Griscom reports, since Lakoff didn't show up for a January meeting.

Leaving aside any questions about Lakoff's capacities as the left's savior, it's hardly clear that environmentalism needs to be reframed the way Frank Luntz framed Bush's assault on the middle-class as acting in their interests. As Griscom writes:

"[S]ome in the environmental community argue that true political power-building requires a more pragmatic strategy. 'We need to wrap our minds around a fundamental fact: We lack electoral and political power. We don't have 51 committed environmental votes in the Senate,' said Mark Longabaugh, the recently departed senior vice president for political affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. 'We didn't lose the vote on drilling in the Alaskan wilderness two weeks ago; we lost it last November. To make real and sustained legislative progress, we don't need framing. We need to rededicate ourselves to the hard political work of winning elections.'"

Here, here.

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Check out the Solar Death Ray.

(I'm particularly fond of the Hootie and the Blowfish tape episode.)

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Senator Mel Martinez of Florida voted not to remove the ANWR drilling provision from the budget only after he made Bush and Gale Norton promise not to lift the moratorium on drilling on Florida's west coast.

Martinez was under pressure from home state environmentalists to oppose opening ANWR on the grounds that it would set a precedent that could be used against Florida. "No Florida senator should side with the drillers," said a Miami Herald editorial on Wednesday.

Here's Martinez in the Miami Herald, before the vote:

'''Sen. Martinez is looking for proper assurances from the administration that the Florida coasts are strongly protected and that drilling in [Alaska] will not result in a slippery slope in Florida,' said Kerry Feehery, a spokeswoman for Martinez."

And after:

'''Before I made my final decision on [the] Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, I wanted to be confident that my vote would strengthen -- not weaken -- Florida's moratorium on offshore drilling,'' Martinez said in a statement. 'I know that a "slippery slope" is of great concern to all Floridians.'"

Florida's Senator Bill Nelson voted to protect the refuge.

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Exactly 51 Senators today rejected an amendment to strike from the federal budget resolution 2.4 billion in oil leasing and drilling revenues from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ArcticRefuge.org has the update.

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I just got an email from my favorite spammer, Senator John Kerry, warning that in 24-48 hours the Senate might have to decide the fate of the last five percent of protected coast in Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That's because Senate Republicans (one Judd Gregg in particular, from New Hampshire) have slipped an ANWR drilling provision into the annual budget, which, unlike an ordinary bill, can't be filibustered. -- the Budget Act of 1974 limits debate to a mere 20 hours. So 51 votes does it. Sneaky.

Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington State, is offering an amendment to kill the ANWR provision, but in a Senate with 55 Republicans, it has very little chance of success.

Around the same time, I was reading EDIE's case study on Epson UK -- how they installed monitors so employees could see in real-time exactly how much energy the company was sinking.

Energy consumption in the country office declined by 21 percent.

If the 500 largest companies in the United States reduced their energy needs by 21 percent, would we still need the paltry supplies of oil under ANWR? What if a thousand did? What about just those 53 Fortune 500 companies in California (the most in any state)?

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Fifteen years behind Berkeley, the City of Malibu banned the use of polystyrene food containers this week.

Food retailers looking for alternatives might try take-out containers made of compostable bagasse, a sugar-cane fiber, corn-based PLA
or starch-based PPM100, which handles hot foods, too. The last one sounds all serious and toxic, but in fact it's fully compostable.

And don't worry, this won't put Dow out of business. Polystyrene has many other uses.

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"The change in attitude at EPA in recent years, including the naming of [Steve] Johnson as deputy administrator, led the CropLife America Political Action Committee, the political arm of the organization representing crop protection chemical manufacturers, to make its first ever endorsement in a presidential election - in favor of the Bush-Chaney ticket - this year."

From the Delta Farm Press last November. Weird article. It starts out with a long story about how Johnson accidentally walked out of a store with four stereos when he only paid for two, and the store security guard tried to stop him from returning the extra two. The security guard then becomes a metaphor for the "old" EPA. (I wonder: Does chronic exposure to RoundUp affect one's spelling?)

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Howard Gross, California desert program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association., writes:

The National Park Centennial Act was introduced into Congress today with 22 co-sponsors (11 Rs and 11 Ds). This Act would make the National Park System fiscally sound by the 100th birthday of the National Park Service in 2016. It addresses the myriad funding needs of the parks, repair of campgrounds, trails, and roads, preservation of historic buildings and museum artifacts, and the natural resource management and protection.

The totally bipartisan Centennial Act is meant to address the multi-billion dollar "maintenance backlog' in the National Park System, a lingering problem that has meant park managers over the years have had to wait until buildings and facilities deteriorate completely before replacing them -- obviously not the best business strategy.

If you wonder why national parks need buildings and facilities at all, just think, for instance, about what would happen if those 3.5 million annual visitors to Yosemite, many of them set up in the park's developed campgrounds, could relieve themselves wherever they chose. Not everyone carries a little shovel on every car-camping trip.

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And I don't mean Arnold -- although there's good news from him on the solar front -- see stories here and here. (Let a million solar roofs bloom!)

I'm talking about William G. Myers, the Idaho pro-development lobbyist with no judicial experience rated "unqualified" by the ABA whom Bush nominated last July to the 9th Circuit and renominated last week. Myers' nomination went down in filibuster last summer, but the administration isn't giving up. They want the 9th circuit, and they want it bad. Here's what he said in a speech last summer:

Cheney: Recently, Democrats used their obstructionist tactics to keep the Senate from voting on four of the sensible, mainstream nominees the President sent forward. One of them was Bill Myers - (applause) - a fine man, a good friend of Senator Simpson's and mine. He has widespread bipartisan support for his personal integrity, his judicial temperament, and his legal experience. If Bill Myers had made it to the floor for an up-or-down vote, he would have been confirmed to the Ninth Circuit, which, as you know all too well - Audience: Booo! Cheney: The Ninth Circuit is the one that decided we should not be able to say "under God" when we pledge allegiance to the flag. Audience: Booo! Cheney: Sounds to me like they could use some new judges on the Ninth Circuit.

(From the Arizona Daily Star.)

Even more recently, the 9th Circuit reversed a U.S. District Court decision on the BLM's plans to harvest Oregon's timber. I'll bet that bugged Cheney even more.

Yes, I'm even recycling my own post on the subject: What to expect, part I (I always meant to do a part II).

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