writeaboutwarming

April 17, 2020 Under cover of an historic pandemic, the EPA has announced it will suspend enforcement of environmental laws. You read that right. The agency is hoping we're all so distracted that no one will notice. Why would they do this, you ask. It will come as no surprise that a number of industries, including oil, have asked for the suspension. In the words of EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler: EPA "recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID 19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements." Critics of the hiatus concede exceptions to regulations could be made on a case-by-case basis, for example, if companies are short-staffed because employees are working from home. But those industries deemed essential and continuing to operate should be expected to comply with the law. In fact, because COVID 19 is exacerbated by air pollution, leading to higher death rates, pol...

February 28, 2011 – All the talking heads to whom I normally look for information and inspiration are just kind of blathering away these days. The news on the climate change front is uniformly bad and getting worse; the news from the peak oil sector is nothing if not redundant. Everybody’s waiting for a shoe to drop, and until it does, there’s just not a whole lot to say. The major news right now – governments in the Middle East toppling, workers in the US finding their collective voice – is only tangentially the stuff that usually occupies me. I’d intended to bring my copy of The Joy of Cooking with me, so I could tell you why I think ALL transitioners need to make it their business to own a copy. That will need to wait until next week, however. All the aforesaid being the case, I’m going to wander a little bit from my established path and talk about Julian Assange today. He’s been set up, and that deserves talking about. Our government seems never to take its eyes from the pat...