Our guest blogger is Todd Darling, a documentary filmmaker whose film, “A Snow Mobile For George,” is a cross-country look at how deregulation affects individuals and the environment.

For eight years the Bush Administration’s chief domestic priority was to deregulate everything they could get their hands on. In the Bush view, the free market, left unregulated, would solve anything that needed solving; the rich would get richer, and, as Grover Norquist put it, the federal government would shrink down to be “small enough to drown in a bath tub.” So they worked to remove regulations that safeguarded the public’s control over the myriad resources and concerns from the airwaves and energy, to land, water, wildlife, drugs, pesticides, and toxic waste, all the way to the public’s money in the banking and financial system.

Watch one rancher’s story of the effects of the Bush rampage, taken from my documentary, A Snow Mobile For George: Read more

The League of Conservation Voters beat me to punch in trashing Chevron’s recent greenwashing ads, with “I Will Point Out Hypocrisy“:

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Editor’s note: The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson is attending the Los Angeles Auto Show this week. Here is his first dispatch.

In an interview earlier today, Britta Gross, General Motors’ manager of Hydrogen and Electrical Infrastructure Development talks about working with electric utilities to prepare for the widescale deployment of the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt. As she and the other managers of the Volt project discuss the next-generation vehicle they plan to put into production in 2010, GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner flew down to Washington, D.C. to plead for a bailout for his teetering company.

Watch it:

The mood at the auto show is subdued and uncertain, with mixed messages of machismo, affordability, and environmental responsibility. How the industry handles the great challenges of today will determine its future. As Gross said, “These are tough times for automakers, but a very exciting time.”

My occasional series on the conservative movement stagnation continues with Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Government Elimination Tax Reform.

On Monday, the New York Times ran a long story, “Among Republicans, a Debate Over the Party’s Road Map Back to Power,” about the response of leading right-wing thinkers to the question “how can conservatives chart a path back to power after this month’s Republican defeats?”

Norquist offered a strong endorsement for continuing the GOP’s ostrich-like [dinosaur-like?] ignorance on climate change:

… he suggested that some calls to update conservatism — by taking global warming more seriously, for instance — were essentially disguised calls to move the party to the left.

“They will be cheerfully ignored,” Mr. Norquist said.

Denial is bliss.

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Ding Dong the Dingell is gone! Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) will take the gavel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in January.

This is huge for those who’ll want strong action on both climate change and clean energy and energy independence (and health care). Heck, it’s the second best piece of news on global warming this month!

I’m told the vote was 137-122. I will post updates as they come.

UPDATE 1: The NYT piece is now up: “Longtime Head of House Energy Panel Is Ousted.”

UPDATE 2: The E&E Daily piece (subs. req’d) is below:

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I’ve never done this sort of thing before, but I am asking you to nominate Climate Progress your favorite science blog (click here) for a Weblog award. Please read this whole post first, however.

If you go to the site, you’ll see why I am sticking my nose under the camel’s tent of shameless self-promotion beyond a general desire to win, drive traffic to this website, create a groundswell of support for strong climate legislation, and possibly save your children and my 22-month-old daughter from a ruined climate….

Certain websites, who will remain nameless www.climateaudit.org and wattsupwiththat.com, have, shall we say, very enthusiastic supporters … not that there’s anything wrong with that, unless, of course, having Climate Audit be cowinner of the 2007 Best Science blog rubs you the wrong way.

Please note the Rules and FAQs:

• The number of nominations a blog receives is irrelevant. One nomination is enough…
• Rather than add a “me too” nomination for a site you’re encouraged to use the “+” icon to indicate your preference for nominees. The “+” ratings are one extra piece of information the finalist selection panel can use to help generate the finalist slates in each category.
• The nomination period has been extended to Friday, November 21, 2008 [that would be tomorrow].

There will only be 10-15 finalists, so please do act now (click here). Thank you for your support.

Okay, I made up the last two, but the Washington Post reports today:

For the first time, a federal advisory board has approved criteria that clear the way for farmed fish to be labeled “organic,” a move that pleased aquaculture producers even as it angered environmentalists and consumer advocates.

You can put lipstick on a pig…. No, wrong aphorism. You can call a dog a horse, but it is still a dog … though some conservatives will no doubt try to ride it.

OK, maybe there isn’t a good aphorism, but this last minute frenzy of destruction is getting absurd (see “Bush makes final push to worsen warming, make our children dumber, and sicken all Americans“). The story offers several reasons why this latest assault on our language and environment is a bad idea:

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Part 1 looked at some of the climate actions Obama should take in his first hundred days. This post looks at some of the tough questions that are posed by the climate and energy dilemmas.

To lead America into a post-carbon economy, President Obama and the 111th Congress will have to revolutionize the biggest and most heavily lobbied of the government’s programs. That means taking on the armies of the status quo, who have money and inertia on their side.

It’s a battle that must be fought and won. Today, our public policy is riddled with crisis-inducing, self-defeating contradictions. The next Congress will have to resolve some tough questions that past Congresses avoided. For example:

1. What action will Congress take to prove to the world that the United States is serious about addressing climate action?

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