I have received the text of an Alice-in-Wonderland memo (below) that House Republican leaders will circulate Tuesday on legislation they plan to offer. It claims:

To increase the supply American-made energy in environmentally sound ways, the legislation will:
* Open our deep water ocean resources, which will provide an additional 3 million barrels of oil per day;
* Open the Arctic coastal plain, which will provide an additional 1 million barrels of oil per day; and
* Allow development of our nation’s shale oil resources, which could provide an additional 2.5 million barrels of oil per day

First off, we opened the vast majority of our deep water ocean resources to drilling two years ago and oil prices doubled (see “Offshore drilling raises oil prices*“).

Second, according to the Bush administration’s own energy analysts ending the federal moratorium on coastal drilling would add perhaps 150,000 barrels of oil per day in the 2020s and have no impact on prices through 2030, unless, as seems likely, California blocks drilling off its coast, in which case it would add well under 100,000 barrels of oil per day in the 2020s (see “The cruel offshore-drilling hoax“).

Third, opening up the “Arctic coastal plain” (GOP-speak for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) would also have no impact on prices, according to the Bush administration’s own energy analysts (see “Opening ANWR cuts gas prices TWO cents in 2025“).

Fourth, you can’t develop U.S. shale in environmentally sound ways (see Senate GOP: “balance” = climate-destroying shale, RNC: “balance” = “a climate in crisis”).

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The Think Progress mothership reports that Glenn Beck “will guest-host CNN’s Larry King Live tonight,” the same time his 7 PM CNN Headline News show repeats. This means:

In inviting Beck to host Larry King, CNN is granting Beck a monopoly over its programming for a full prime-time hour. Counting scheduled replays of both programs, Beck will be on air for a total of eight hours between 7 PM tonight and 7 AM tomorrow morning — a full third of the two networks’ combined airtime.

Beck is one of the most notorious Big Oil apologists and global warming deniers in mainstream media today, famed for his bizarre anti-polar-bear fetish.

More substantively, in just the past few months Beck has:

– Falsely claimed that “global warming now looks like it’s going to be on hold for ten years.”

– Described the disastrous coal-to-liquid gasoline technology as “good for the nation.”

– Told America to “Be thankful for big oil.”

– Promoted false smears against former Vice President Al Gore.

Beck’s ranting against reality is consistent with his right-wing worldview. Check out Think Progress to review Beck’s sorry history of racist, sexist, and bigoted remarks.

[This is the first in an occasional series on reframing the energy and climate debate. I welcome all ideas on how we can improve our language in what is now the central front in the war to protect the health and well-being of American families and all future generations.]

The phrase “renewable energy” is often used by the media and conservatives to give lip service to clean energy sources — by lumping them all together in order to trivialize them or diminish their individual potential. For instance, the “bunch of bland old guys” had just one bullet for renewables (and one for efficiency), thereby making them equivalent to expanded domestic oil and gas production, expanded nuclear production, and “clean coal”.

Progressives, I think, should stop using the phrase “renewable energy” entirely. It is lazy and fits into the conservative frame of renewable energy sources as individually insignificant. We should go out of our way to specify them, since several of them have come of age.

Take concentrated solar thermal power. No, I’m not thrilled with the name — how about baseload solar thermal? [Yes, I realize that solar thermal with storage isn't so much baseload as it is load following (peaking during midday), but, heck, that is even better than baseload. In any case, conservatives keep dismissing renewables as non-baseload, and the phrase is certainly more accurate than "clean coal." Yes, not all solar thermal has storage, but it is the stuff with storage that has the big upside. And while nobody knows what baseload solar thermal is, based on my media interviews, few people know what concentrated solar power is either, so you're going to have to explain it either way.]

Baseload solar thermal is almost certainly going to provide more power every year this century than “clean coal” does (see “Concentrated solar thermal power — a core climate solution).”

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Explain this away, Deniers [this means you, TVMOB]!

[pro-player]http://climateprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/MoreGlobalWarmingProof.flv[/pro-player]

I find this even more compelling than “Revealing Evidence Proves Global Warming.”

Our guest bloggers are Daniel J. Weiss, a Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and Sam Schiller.

Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) plans to visit Kennebunkport, Maine to raise campaign cash. While visiting President and Mrs. George H. W. Bush, he will be approximately 62 nautical miles from Georges Bank, one of the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world, due to the nutrient-laden Atlantic currents and ample sunlight feeding its waters.

This precious area is now threatened by President George W. Bush and Sen. McCain’s proposal to lift the Congressional moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, first signed into law by President Reagan in 1981. The current President Bush just ended the presidential moratorium on drilling in the OCS first established by his father.

Georges Bank is in the Gulf of Maine, and is an area the size of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island combined. It is rich with marine life. It also plays a critical role in Maine’s economy. Even with the decline of the cod population, Georges Bank still supported 26,000 jobs and had an $860 million dollar impact on the state’s economy in 2001. Landed fish were worth $363 million in 2007.

Other Maine industries also depend on a healthy, clean Georges Bank. Beach visits brought up to $323 million to Maine’s economy in 2005. Recreational fishing brought up to $297 million that same year. Tourism and recreation employed 86,000 people.

In 1987, a House of Representatives investigation concluded that drilling there made no sense due to the “ecological sensitivity of Georges Bank and the extraordinary productivity of the Georges Bank fishery.”

It has long been a target of big oil since it contains an estimated 8 percent of the United States’ offshore oil and gas reserves. Drilling could occur there if Sen. McCain prevails and the Congressional OCS Moratorium is lifted.

This move is opposed by Maine Governor John Baldacci and its entire Congressional delegation. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — a McCain ally — said that drilling in Georges Bank “would harm our fishing industry, which is already struggling.” Read more

In his “Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress” before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, last week, chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke explained why oil prices are so high and are likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future:

The spot price of West Texas intermediate crude oil soared about 60 percent in 2007 and, thus far this year, has climbed an additional 50 percent or so. The price of oil currently stands at about five times its level toward the beginning of this decade. Our best judgment is that this surge in prices has been driven predominantly by strong growth in underlying demand and tight supply conditions in global oil markets. Over the past several years, the world economy has expanded at its fastest pace in decades, leading to substantial increases in the demand for oil. Moreover, growth has been concentrated in developing and emerging market economies, where energy consumption has been further stimulated by rapid industrialization and by government subsidies that hold down the price of energy faced by ultimate users.

On the supply side, despite sharp increases in prices, the production of oil has risen only slightly in the past few years.

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