ClimateProgress was down for several minutes about an hour ago. Sorry about that.

I unexpectedly received a large surge in traffic when people really started Digging this post: The truth-telling ad ABC won’t let you see — and what you can do about it.

But my excellent IT folks got right on the case and quickly told me they “dropped a ‘cache’ in front of the site so that every user isn’t reloading the page every time they view it, which appears to have resolved the problem.”

I guess this proves that you can have too much of a good thing.

By the way, if you haven’t joined Digg yet, and haven’t Dugg one of my posts yet, this would be the time to do it. It is a great site for quickly finding the best, most popular posts on the web. Just click here.

A contest to explain something that isn’t true — what a novelty. If I were running a contest, it would be, “What is a carbon cap and why should it not cover the transportation sector?” But I digress.

So I get an e-mail from the Environmental Defense Fund asking me to direct my readers to this video/graphics competition:

Explain to America how a carbon cap will solve our oil addiction

Many scientists, economists, environmentalists and business leaders agree that a cap on carbon emissions is the best way to cure our addiction to oil. But, quickly and vividly explaining how a cap will solve our energy problems is a challenge.

We need your help conveying this concept to the American people in a clear, brief, convincing and memorable way to stick in the public’s consciousness-like the well-known shot of an egg frying that depicted “your-brain-on-drugs.”

Actually, I don’t really know any scientists, economists, environmentalists, and business leaders who think a carbon cap is the best way to cure our addiction to oil. It is possible I hang out with the wrong crowd. But I think it is more likely that they all understand something I’ve written about on my blog many times — a carbon price is a lousy way to drive oil savings.

In fact, it is all but inconceivable that a carbon cap will solve our oil addiction (see “Peter Barnes’ Cap & Dividend plan is fatally incomplete“):

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That remarkable headline comes from a story in Zhang Qi (China Daily):

With just two exceptions, China has officially halted all of its coal-to-liquids (CTL) projects due to environmental and economic concerns.

In a notice posted on its website on September 4, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that, apart from two projects operated by the Shenhua Group, none could go ahead before receiving official approval, because CTL is “a technology-, talent- and capital-intensive project at an experimental stage with high business risks.”

The Chinese have been exceedingly erratic on their plans for liquid coal (see, for instance, “China sells its soul for liquid coal” and “China reins in liquid coal“). Let’s hope this current cessation is not just due to the sharp drop in oil prices, which is certainly only a short-term phenomenon.

More highlights from the article:

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Since September, Al Gore’s We Campaign has been running their Repower America advertisement that criticizes the “hundreds of millions of dollars” that big oil spends on lobbyists and ads to keep Americans “stuck with dirty and expensive energy.” Coverage of the presidential race by the corporate media has been fueled by this dirty money — CNN is sponsored by the coal industry, and CBS by Exxon Mobil. And following Tuesday’s presidential debate, ABC aired one of Chevron’s greenwashing “Human Energy” ads. But ABC refused to air “Repower America.”

A spokesperson for the Alliance for Climate Protection, the We Campaign’s parent organization, sent the Wonk Room ABC’s excuse:

Per our Guidelines, national buildings may be used in advertising provided the depictions are incidental to the advertiser’s promotion of the product or service. Given the messages and themes of this commercial, the image of the Capital building is not incidental to this advertising. Please replace the image with one that is not of another national building or monument. Thank you.

Here’s the offending image, on screen for one second:

While running ads calling for conservation and depicting happy children and unspoiled nature, Chevron was simultaneously expanding its operations in the tar sands of Alberta, Canada and oil fields of the Niger Delta, and lobbying to lift the offshore drilling moratorium.

Cathy Zoi, CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection, sent the following message to the 1.6 million members of the We Campaign:

I sent a letter asking ABC to reconsider their decision and put our ad on the air, but still we haven’t heard back more than a week later. I think they need to hear from all of us. Can you help? Please send a message to ABC and tell them to air the Repower America ad this Friday on 20/20. Just click here:

http://www.wecansolveit.org/ABC

We’re working to get 100,000 public comments to ABC before 20/20′s next airing.

Our Repower America ad has a clear and simple message — that massive spending by oil and coal companies on advertising is a key reason our nation hasn’t switched to clean and renewable sources for our energy.

UPDATE 10/10/08: Cathy Zoi writes:

In just 24 hours, more than 100,000 folks sent messages to ABC in support of airing our Repower America ad. But we still haven’t heard from ABC.

As the old Paul Simon song says, “Still crazy after all these years.”

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) had a televised debate yesterday. He was asked about his 2005 comment that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” and about whether John McCain is a “victim” of the hoax or a “perpetrator.” Inhofe’s amazing answer on McCain:

People are afraid of some of the environmentalists out there because they pour all the money into campaigns and, consequently, we have a lot of people who fall in that category, and some of them are Republicans.

Yeah, McCain is afraid of environmentalists — that’s why he has a voting record on clean energy and the environmental that is indistinguishable from Inhofe’s! (see “The greenwasher from Arizona has a record as dirty as the denier from Oklahoma“). And that’s why McCain flip-flopped on off-shore drilling — to get all that environmentalist money for his campaign (see “Why did McCain sell out to Big Oil? Ask Charles Keating“).

You can watch Inhofe’s full reply here:

Yes, Inhofe still stands by the hoax comment and loves to push the well-debunked global cooling myth:

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The current Consumer Reports has a quiz to help educate readers about those benign-sounding industry-funded front groups. As CR writes, “You think Americans for Balanced Energy Choices tout solar power? Nope.”

Match the groupswith their mission (click to enlarge, answers below):

Even better, CR has set up a website with the Center for Media and Democracy, Full Frontal Scrutiny:

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So ABC will take millions of dollars from oil companies to run misleading energy ads, but they refuse to run one truthful ad from the Alliance for Climate Protection’s Repower America:

Oil company ads — check. Ads from Republicans filled with lies about drilling — check. Some of the most outrageous and lascivious TV shows on prime time — check. Truth-telling ad — too risky. Here are the words too shocking for the American public to hear:

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