LA Weekly

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This morning John Walke from the NRDC gave testimony before a Senate committee proving that Clear Skies was inspired by an industry lobbyist named Quin Shea, working for Edison. The evidence exists in a transcribed talk -- so inside it's barely intelligible -- Shea gave to coal industry execs in April of 2001 detailing the plan. Here's an excerpt:

"We've talked about Kyoto a lot. That's been out there. It's the big boogie man in the last few years. Kyoto is dead. Kyoto is absolutely dead. It's not going to happen. We're taking steps right now to reverse every piece of paper that EPA has put together where they could call CO2 a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. That's going to be nailed down in the next few months . . . Now, having said that, mercury, in my opinion, is very Kyoto-like in its potential impacts. Mercury to me is the issue that scares me the most of the ones that are out there right now."

(On that, we agree. Mercury scares me, too. )

And, a little later:

"Let me put it to you in political terms. The President needs a fig leaf. He's dismantling Kyoto, but he's out there on a limb. He's told his staff, you will come up with something. They're going to do it. Wouldn't you like to be involved in what they put together?"

Oh, yeah, count me in!

There's a competing bill to Clear Skies that's been introduced as well, authored by Jim Jeffords and co-sponsored by Boxer and Feinstein, requiring stricter standards than even existing law requires, and updating rules to control mercury. Might be a good time to write some letters to our senators.

Walke's testimony will be available later in the day.

It's interesting to note that Clear Skies is sponsored by that hateful little twerp, James Inhofe of O-k-l-a-h-o-m-a, who believes that global warming is all our minds. Chris Mooney wrote about it in the American Prospect (link from the Grist blog).

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