Obama Lied: Used Katrina Myth To Claim Offshore Drilling Safe

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Wednesday April 28, 2010 · 6:14 PM PDT

2010/04/28 · 18:14

The Obama administration has leapt into action to respond to the growing crisis of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, which killed 11 workers and left a West-Virginia-sized oil spill in the Gulf Coast. But in the weeks before the calamity, President Barack Obama promoted his initiative to expand offshore drilling as "not risky" and repeated the conservative myth that Hurricane Katrina did not cause any oil rig spills. At a town hall meeting in South Carolina on April 2, the president was challenged that his "decision to allow offshore drilling could have the effect of chilling investment into alternate sources of energy." While recognizing that "energy efficiency and renewable, clean energy" is his "biggest priority," Obama also defended offshore drilling:

The Cunctator

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Wednesday February 24, 2010 · 5:47 AM PST

2010/02/24 · 05:47

From the Wonk Room.

Green jobs leader Van Jones is returning to the Center for American Progress as a Senior Fellow and leader of the new Green Opportunity Initiative. Van Jones, the founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Green for All, resigned from the White House last summer under a storm of fossil-fueled right-wing accusations that he was a "communist-anarchist radical" infiltrating the government, based on misrepresentations of Jones' past activism.

The Cunctator

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Thursday January 28, 2010 · 11:45 AM PST

2010/01/28 · 11:45

Speaking at the 2010 Clean Energy, Jobs and Security Forum yesterday, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) invoked the anger of conservative tea partiers in his advice to advocates of climate legislation. His comments came following the shocking election of Scott Brown, who rode a wave of anti-incumbent anger to win the seat previously held by Sen. Kennedy. Kerry told the assembled crowd that if "the Tea Party folks can go out there and get angry because they think their taxes are too high," then even more people "ought to get angry about the fact that they're being killed and our planet is being injured" by fossil fuel pollution:

I want you to go out there and start knocking on doors and talking to people and telling people this has to happen. You know, if the Tea Party folks can go out there and get angry because they think their taxes are too high, for God's sake, a lot of citizens ought to get angry about the fact that they're being killed and our planet is being injured by what's happening on a daily basis by the way we provide our power and our fuel and the old practices that we have. That's something worth getting angry about.

The Cunctator

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Wednesday December 16, 2009 · 2:34 PM PST

2009/12/16 · 14:34

Negotiations continue behind closed doors and the shape of a final agreement is coming together, as the political stakes are raised in Copenhagen by the arrival of 119 heads of state and leaders like Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). And youth from around the world -- from China to the United States, from Kenya to Norway -- have sat down in the middle of these negotiations with a simple message: "We will stay until you reach a fair, ambitious, and legally binding agreement."

Updates from the live blog!

The Cunctator

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Wednesday December 09, 2009 · 1:51 PM PST

2009/12/09 · 13:51

The Wonk Room is reporting on the scene from Copenhagen during the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The Tuvalu Protocol

At this morning's plenary session of the Copenhagen climate negotiations, the tiny island nation of Tuvalu called for strengthening the Kyoto Protocol to limit warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, rather than the current standard of 2 ° C. Their proposal to amend the Kyoto Protocol with a new, legally binding agreement to set a target of 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere fractured the session, as Tuvalu was supported by other small island states and poor nations in Africa, but was opposed by fifteen richer developing nations, including Saudi Arabia, China, and India.

The Cunctator

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Tuesday November 24, 2009 · 3:45 PM PST

2009/11/24 · 15:45

From the Wonk Room.

Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of SuperFreakonomics, has embraced charges by the right wing that a handful of illegally obtained private emails means that the scientific consensus on climate change is actually a dangerous conspiracy. Dubner lent credence to the fevered "ClimateGate" ravings of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and other global warming deniers in an interview with Fox Business Network host David Asman. Dubner purports that the hacked University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit emails reveal that the supposed "consensus" on global warming is because "everybody's scared to be an outlier, everybody's scared to be a skeptic." After Asman compared climate scientists to Stalin and Hitler -- I'm not kidding -- Dubner jumped in to accuse "potent" scientists of "colluding" to "tell Al Gore what to say," and "distorting evidence" to "make their findings be right for their position":

The Cunctator

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Thursday November 05, 2009 · 11:30 AM PST

2009/11/05 · 11:30

Many conservative Democrats have questioned President Obama's clean energy agenda. Now, a Republican is breaking with his party to talk sense. In a press conference yesterday with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the author of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Graham rebuked senators unwilling to address carbon pollution. Saying that he has "seen the effects of a warming planet," Graham called for the United States to "lead the world rather than follow the world on carbon pollution":

The green economy is coming. We can either follow or lead. And those countries who follow will pay a price. Those nations who lead in creating the new green economy for the world will make money.

The Cunctator

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Tuesday September 29, 2009 · 6:18 AM PDT

2009/09/29 · 06:18

From the Wonk Room.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), the influential chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, opposes efforts to add coal and nuclear subsidies to win votes for climate legislation. In an interview with Grist, Bingaman disagreed with Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) strategy to make the Senate version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act "more attractive to Republicans and conservative Democrats" by "including greater funding for coal and nuclear energy," saying that instead climate leaders should put forward "a proposal people are confident will work":

The Cunctator

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Thursday September 03, 2009 · 1:14 PM PDT

2009/09/03 · 13:14

On Tuesday night, Glenn Beck invoked the red-baiting of a bygone age, making the claim that there are "Communists in the United States government." Beck's McCarthyite rampage came during an extended screed attacking White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs Van Jones, the co-founder of Green for All, an environmental-entrepeneurial organization. After renouncing his "rowdy black nationalism" in 2000, Van Jones "has emerged as the perhaps the nation's chief proponent of using business-based solutions to create jobs and clean up the environment." However, Glenn Beck is convinced that Van Jones is a Communist sleeper agent in the White House:

I know there are good decent people, left and right, Democrats and Republicans that watch this program! How much more evidence do you need that we have radicals in the White House? Oh, we haven't even begun. If you think you need more -- We need to at least start having the necessary conversation of: Do we really want Communists in the United States government as special advisors to the president?

The Cunctator

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Thursday August 20, 2009 · 8:29 AM PDT

2009/08/20 · 08:29

From the Wonk Room.

U.S. Senators are attacking the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act as threatening farmers even though America is suffering from the ravages of a climate out of control -- heat waves, floods, storms, droughts, and seasonal shifts. Scientific studies show global warming has already hurt American agriculture, and that the damages will grow catastrophic if action is not taken. In a new video, the Center for American Progress Action Fund argues that passage of a strong climate bill is imperative, and senators should stop filibustering our farmers' future. Watch it:

The Cunctator

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Friday August 07, 2009 · 2:38 PM PDT

2009/08/07 · 14:38

Originally posted at ThinkProgress.

The coal industry lobbying outfit American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is pressing forward with an aggressive astroturfing campaign run by a notorious GOP voter fraud company targeting senators at town hall meetings -- despite the recent revelation that it was responsible for forged "grassroots" letters to lawmakers that attacked the American Clean Energy and Security Act:

Paid staff will both call people already on the group's list and talk to other people at public events, asking them if they want information or T-shirts or would be interested in asking a question at a town hall meeting. "This is the purest form of grassroots," Lucas said. "It's facilitating constituents to talk one-on-one with members of Congress.

The Cunctator

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Friday July 03, 2009 · 8:20 AM PDT

2009/07/03 · 08:20

Cross-posted from the ThinkProgress Wonk Room.

From 1998 to 2005, ExxonMobil directed almost $16 million to a group of 43 lobby groups in an effort to confuse Americans about global warming. After being criticized by the Royal Society in 2006, Exxon promised to end funding to groups questioning climate change. In May 2008, Exxon again issued a public mea culpa and pledged to cut funding to groups that "divert attention" from the need to develop and invest in clean energy. Yet, in 2008, while cutting contributions to the most extreme groups, Exxon still funded the National Center for Policy Analysis, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, all groups which publicly question or deny global warming:

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Obama Lied: Used Katrina Myth To Claim Offshore Drilling Safe

'American Treasure' Van Jones Rejoins Center For American Progress To Build Green Opportunity

Kerry Asks: Will We Get As Angry As The Teabaggers?

UPDATE: Global Youth Sit Down In Copenhagen For A Real Deal HOUR SEVEN

Copenhagen Day Three: Tuvalu, Sarah Palin, And 'Crazed Hitler Youth'

SuperFreak Dubner Embraces ClimateGate Conspiracy Theories: 'Everybody's Scared To Be A Skeptic'

Will ConservaDems Follow Lindsey's Lead on Climate?

Bingaman Rejects Lieberman Plan To Add Polluter Subsidies To ACES

Stung By Boycott, Beck Channels McCarthy: There Are 'Communists' Advising The President

GreenRoots: Filibustering Our Farmers' Future

Dirty Coal Using Voter Fraud Corp To Teabag Town Halls

DK GreenRoots: ExxonMobil Is Still Funding Global Warming Denial Groups!