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A final wrap-up

Yeah, so, I spent several days last week blogging about the State of the Union speech. I know you're all sick of it -- probably were before I even started -- so this will be the last one I promise think.

I knew going in that political speeches are generally empty rhetoric, particularly Bushian speeches, but even I didn't anticipate the utter vacuity of Bush's pronouncements on energy independence.

So, forthwith, here's a final wrapup post on The Unbearable Pointlessness of Being ... interested in political speeches:

Evon Peter, director of Native Movement, answers questions

Evon Peter. What work do you do? I am the executive director of Native Movement. What does your organization do? Native Movement is a collective of around 15 organizers who […]

Conned Air

EPA chief twisted particulate pollution advice, say scientists U.S. EPA chief Stephen Johnson “twisted” and “misrepresented” recommendations on regulating soot and dust pollution from the agency’s own air-quality experts, according […]

Super Bowl suckage

Grist's own Seattle Seahawks were screwed out of a Super Bowl victory last night by awful officiating -- some of the worst officiating in Super Bowl history.

And the commercials sucked. And so did the Rolling Corpses Stones.

Grumble.

And just to pretend this is about environmentalism, read Sustainablog's post about how green the stadium is.

Famed naturalist and herpetologist dies

Great wildlife biologists are foremost great animal enthusiasts, people who get off on encountering cranes or mountain lions or, in John Behler's case, snakes and frogs and turtles. The few I've known have held on to a capacity to be delighted by nature, not just the exotic but also the ordinary beauties and surprises that come close to home. John Behler -- the curator of herpetology for the Wildlife Conservation Society, who died last week at age 62 -- was responsible for great conservation victories in Madagascar and Southeast Asia, and he co-wrote The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles & Amphibians. But he studied spotted turtles for years in a county park a short drive from his home, and he could be as enthusiastic as a kid -- albeit a well-educated kid -- when he made a discovery in his neighborhood.

GarbageScout

Freegans and Freecycle fans might enjoy the latest Google mashup: GarbageScout. Think Google maps, mobile phones, and free stuff in the garbage.

Here's the skinny:

New York City's streets are full of interesting and potentially useful things that have been thrown out.

If you see something good, snap a picture of it with your camera phone, and email it to GarbageScout. It will go up on the home page and others can go and get it.

This will reduce landfill, save people money, and clean up the streets.

(Via WC)

Kristof for plug-in hybrids

Nicholas Kristof -- with whom I've taken issue in the past -- advocates on behalf of plug-in hybrids in his latest New York Times column.

I must say, it's passing strange to see issues once confined to greenie outposts suddenly flooding the mainstream press.

(via After Gutenberg)

He doesn’t want the Saudis getting all confused, you know

Well, it looks like administration backpedaling away from Bush's SOTU pronouncements on energy has gone into overdrive. As noted, the day after the speech the energy secretary and national economic advisor told journalists he didn't really mean it.

Now the Vice President has been activated and launched from his underground coffin bunker to ease the fears of conservatives and oil companies. This is from Maureen Dowd's latest column (yes, I know you can't read it -- sorry):

Conservatives were so gobsmacked by W.'s promise to have the government drum up nonpetroleum energy options -- Robert Novak huffed that it not only violated G.O.P. free-market philosophy, but it also had "a lengthy pedigree of failure" -- that the vice president had to swiftly lumber onto conservative radio shows to praise drilling and gas guzzling.

Asked by Rush Limbaugh if drilling in Alaska was now out, Mr. Cheney said: "No, it's not off the table by any means. We'll keep pushing it because we think it makes eminent good sense."

Asked by Laura Ingraham if he agreed with Tom Friedman that the administration should impart pain with a gas tax, Mr. Cheney demurred, "Well, I don't agree with that." He said that he and W. are "big believers" in the market and letting the market work, and that people "make decisions for themselves in terms of what kind of vehicle they want to drive, and how often they want to fill up the tank, and from the perspective of individual American citizens, this notion that we have to 'impose pain,' some kind of government mandate, I think we would resist."

Here's the full Ingraham interview. Below the fold, I've excerpted the relevant Q&A:

Hint: he’s from Alabama

Kevin Drum says:

I don't know if George Bush loves switchgrass because he got a visit from the switchgrass lobby or because someone just whispered the word in his ear, but who cares?

Well, if you happen to care, you may be interested in what David Bransby, professor of energy crops at Auburn University, said Wednesday on NPR's All Things Considered. He has called and emailed regularly with the office of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). One of the last emails claimed, in Bransby's words, that switchgrass "was a last minute inclusion in the speech, and it was Senator Sessions that helped get it into there." Sessions' spokesflack later confirmed that Sessions had a heart-to-heart with Al Hubbard, the chairman of Bush's National Economic Council, last Friday.

This AP story has Sessions reacting enthusiastically:

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions praised the president's plans for energy reform, saying his goal to replace more than 75 percent of the country's oil imports from the Middle East by 2025 is a "big challenge" but one that Alabama could play a role in accomplishing.

"He really made some big commitments concerning bio fuels," Sessions, R-Mobile, said. "He talked about using wood chips and switch grass (in ethanol production) and Alabama's got great potential for that."

Sessions said he's supported research at Auburn University involving switch grass for the past several years, and "it looks like we're at a point where 'swithcraft' could help."

Why might Sessions be so psyched about switchgrass?

New batteries make a plug-in hybrid commercially viable

Announcements of technological breakthroughs that are going to save the planet are a dime a dozen. The true test is commercial success on the free market. By "free market" I mean no tax money to support its continued existence, and by "save the planet" I mean something that does not feed the planet to our cars. We are going to see a commercial application of this new technology in just a few months. You can find more details here.

I promised on my last post to look into plug-in electric car design from an engineer's perspective. City government's promising to use our tax dollars to buy plug-in electric cars as an incentive to mass produce them would be pointless if the technology needed to produce a viable car did not exist.

I will summarize my findings by showing what new battery technology would do to the General Motors EV-1, the subject of the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?