E&E News PM (subs. req’d) reports:

House Democratic leaders will bring energy legislation to the floor this week that expands offshore drilling, repeals oil industry tax and royalty incentives, and seeks to boost renewable energy use, lawmakers and aides say.

The good news is that for the first time that I’ve seen, the House Democratic bill is reported to include extending the renewable energy credits. Although the plan isn’t final, Dems said the bill may include:

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Denial lives on in the Land o’ Lakes. My brother’s amazing interview of Minneapolis GOP congressional candidate Barb “global warming is a scam … Let’s push it on Africa” White finally got a response from the candidate, sort of. Scienceblogs’ Sheril R. Kirshenbaum reprinted the interview (here), and White’s media/communications director, Don Allen, replied there, three times.

[Existential question of the day: Should I be happy or sad that the PR person for a global warming denier doesn't read my blog.]

Allen’s first reply was, in its entirety:

Question… Do you know what the temp will be on Monday?

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Global Warming is and has always been a scam – I am open minded, give me proof.

Well, game, set, and match to Barb White and Don Allen. And if that’s his idea of “open minded,” I’d hate to see what he’s close minded about. Sheril was equally snarky:

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Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) is being touted on the national stage as an “energy expert” by conservatives because she hails from a petro-state:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): “She understands the energy issues better than anybody I know in Washington, D.C.” [AP, 9/3/08]

Rep. Don Young (R-AK): “Governor Palin’s knowledge of energy issues will be critical as she and Sen. McCain begin their path toward the White House.” [Juneau Empire, 8/31/08]

George Pataki (R-NY): “Governor Palin is, I think, an energy expert.” [ThinkProgress, 9/1/08]

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS): “She’s a bonafide expert on one of the major issues of this campaign, and that’s energy.” [FOX News, 9/1/08]

Larry Kudlow, CNBC: “Coming from the natural-resource rich state of Alaska, Palin is an experienced energy expert. She knows more about the economics of energy than senators McCain, Obama, or Biden.” [National Review, 9/3/08]

John McCormack, Weekly Standard: “Palin’s energy expertise could be a huge boon for McCain politically.” [Weekly Standard, 9/3/08]

Maria Bartiromo, CNBC: “I think the biggest value she brings to the ticket is her expertise in energy.” [Meet the Press, 8/31/08]

Let’s set the record straight. Following Frank Luntz’s advice, the right wing is deliberately confusing “energy” with “oil.” Alaska — like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Nigeria — is a state whose economy is almost entirely dependent on its oil and gas industry. Like foreign petrostates, Alaska is awash with corruption, dependent on federal subsidies and payments from Big Oil to pay for public services. Palin only has experience with oil and gas production. The right wing’s drill-drill-drill obsession makes sense for BP and its employees, like Palin’s husband, but not for America. As Matt Yglesias described:

What for most of the world is the “problem” of sky-high energy prices is the solution for places like Alaska and Russia that don’t have real economies but are seeing prosperity anyway thanks to skyrocketing oil and gas prices.

Palin’s real expertise, as Joe Romm noted, is in delivering the pork, with a “staggering $4000 per person in federal earmarks to her tiny town in a span of four years as mayor.”

The world is in a state of crisis because of what happens next. The burning of fossil fuels is destabilizing our planet, economically, militarily, and environmentally. But Palin has granted absolution to man for this planetary destruction, saying of global warming:

I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.

Gov. Palin is not an energy expert — she only knows about oil and gas production. She’s not an expert on renewable energy, energy efficiency, or even coal or nuclear power. But she doesn’t even understand oil. Like other Exxon-Bush conservatives and oil-fueled fundamentalists, she evidently doesn’t care what happens after the land is drilled, the wildlife killed, and Big Oil’s coffers are filled.

Digg It!

When George Bush declared that the United States is addicted to oil, it may have been the most insightful moment of his presidency. It is a cruel but apt analogy, and that’s why the big push for more domestic oil production is so disturbing.

John McCain has created the “Drill Here, Drill Now” mantra, as though he wants to sink a well wherever he’s standing at the moment. When vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave her coming-out address at the Republican National Convention, the crowd started changing “Drill, Baby, Drill.” McCain’s selection of Palin was a concession to conservatives in many ways, including those who think climate change is liberal mythology and fossil energy is the fuel of the future.

But what would life be like for an America still addicted to oil?

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E&E Daily (subs. req’d) reports today that “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to bring three competing energy packages to the floor next week that include wider offshore oil and gas drilling.”

I think the key is that any proposal brought up must marry “opt in” offshore drilling with a serious extension of renewable energy tax credits (plus incentives for plug ins). It should partly pay for itself by closing oil industry loopholes. That, of course, is what the Gang-of-10 bill does, and Reid said that will be brought up.

Reid should not allow a vote on just more drilling. It would be criminal to let the renewable tax credits expire this year — especially given the Gang-of-10 bill already signed off on the 5-year extensions. Here are excerpts from the article:

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Today, the Center for American Progress released Green Recovery, a new report by Dr. Robert Pollin and University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute economists. This report demonstrates how a new Green Recovery program that invests $100 billion over two years would create 2 million new jobs, with a significant proportion in the struggling construction and manufacturing sectors. It is clear from this research that a strategy to invest in the greening of our economy will create more jobs, and better jobs, compared to continuing to pursue a path of inaction marked by rising dependence on fossil fuel billionaires.

To create 2 million new jobs within two years, the overall level of fiscal expansion will need to be around $100 billion, or roughly the same as the portion of the April 2008 stimulus program that was targeted at expanding household consumption. This green economic recovery program will create more jobs and better paying jobs. If Congress were to decide as part of a domestic oil production and gas price reduction effort to spend $100 billion on new oil and gas subsidies and subsidizing gasoline and oil prices, only a quarter as many jobs would be created:

The plan calls for most of the stimulus to go directly to the private sector, with $50 billion for tax credits and $4 billion for federal loan guarantees. $46 billion in direct government spending would support public building retrofits, the expansion of mass transit, freight rail, and smart electrical grid systems, and new investments. This $100 billion investment is targeted at six key sectors in building a green economy today: Read more

All you need to know about McCain’s core beliefs on climate change:

1. The 72-year-old McCain named a global warming denying, Big Oil Super-Shill as his Vice President
2. His much anticipated acceptance speech never once mentioned the gravest threat facing the health and well-being of the nation and the world.
3. After walking away from a mandatory cap-and-trade system, he is now running an ad that appears to attack the very idea of cap-and-trade.

I have long argued McCain isn’t the candidate to stop global warming. Every recent speech and action makes clear he does not understand the dire nature of the problem (see McCain climate plan = Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic) or the clean energy solution (see The real, Luddite McCain: “The truly clean technologies don’t work”).

In his first major decision, he chose exactly the wrong person to succeed him in the not-unlikely event he dies in office (see “The moral implications of the Palin pick?“). Amazingly, on MSNBC Monday, McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker cited McCain’s position on “climate change” as evidence he had broken with his party, as Think Progress noted. When Andrea Mitchell pointed out that B.O.S.S. Palin disagrees with McCain on this issue, Hazelbaker replied “Andrea, Andrea. You don’t expect the running mates to agree on every single issue.” No. Just the ones the candidate think are important.

In the single most important speech of his career, when the whole world was watching to hear his priorities, the words “global warming” or “climate change” never passed his lips. His words were identical to a dozen Bush speeches.

And then we have this McCain ad, which is a staggering abandonment of principle:

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