Big Oil Goes Green for Real

So blares the Onion Newsweek headline.

Forget that Big Oil’s product is a principal cause of the gravest environmental threat to the health and well-being of humanity (see “Intro to global warming impacts: Hell and High Water“).  Certainly forget all the other environmental impacts of oil.

Forget that Big Oil is a principal funder of disinformation aimed at blocking action on global warming — see “Leaked Memo:  Big Oil is manufacturing ‘Energy Citizen’ rallies to oppose clean energy reform and “Even fantasy-filled American Petroleum Institute study finds no significant impact of climate bill on US refining.”

Newsweek says we should focus on the truly small stuff:

So how should we take the spate of new green announcements from the world’s major oil firms?

Uhh, not BP:  “BP stand for ‘back to petroleum’ “” oil giant shuts clean energy HQ, slashes renewables budget up to $900 million this year, dives into tar sands.”

And not Shell:  “Shell shocker: Once ‘green’ oil company guts renewables effort.”

And not everyone else:  “Big oil made $600 billion under Bush, but invested bupkis in clean energy, Part 2: Details on BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Shell and ExxonMobil.”

Here is the basis of Newsweek‘s nonsensical spin:

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This post, written by Brad Johnson and Daniel J. Weiss, a Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, was first posted here.  See also “EIA analysis of climate bill finds 23 cents a day cost to families, massive retirement of dirty coal plants and 119 GW of new renewables by 2030 “” plus a million barrels a day oil savings.”

As Politifact wrote Friday, the numbers that conservatives like Beck are using are “false” — “Nowhere in the documents does the Treasury Department cite the $1,761 figure,” explains the fact-checking website.

Last night, Glenn Beck accused President Obama of “outright lies,” engaging in a “coverup” of the cost of his green economic agenda. Beck claimed that “buried” Treasury documents from March show that the cost of a cap-and-trade carbon market to regulate global warming pollution is $1,761 per household per year, despite the president’s assurance to the American public in June that “the price to the average American will be about the same as a postage stamp per day“:

I have a question. Did the President of the United States tell the people in Congress about this? Facts are stubborn. Don’t they suck? It is always the coverup that gets you. March 9. June 25. Mr. President, did you tell Congress about prior estimates? That, you know, that you knew about? Or did you just kind of keep it secret and hide it away from them and those pesky American people? I want to show you something that I said a few weeks ago. I was talking directly to the Democrats. I was telling them wake up. “Democrats in Congress, wake up! You are being played and you’re being bypassed.”

Watch it:

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Our guest blogger is Sheilah Goodman, co-founder of Cedarbrook Farms, a diversified organic farm located near Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Sheilah can be found every Thursday until the end of October 2009 at the Cedarbrook Farm stall at the FreshFarm Market near the White House, and on Sundays throughout the year in Dupont Circle.

Michael Pollan wrote “An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief” in October 2008 arguing that food policy will and must play a central role because it affects so many other national priorities: energy, health care, climate change, and even national security. Pollan advised the yet-to-be-elected president that one way to bring about the needed changes — local sustainable farming instead of subsidized agribusiness — would be to use the power of the White House as example. Pollan said the president would be wise to choose a White House chef who was “committed to cooking simply from fresh local ingredients”:

Besides feeding you and your family exceptionally well, such a chef would demonstrate how it is possible even in Washington to eat locally for much of the year, and that good food needn’t be fussy or complicated but does depend on good farming.

This week a new FreshFarm Market opened by the White House. Every Thursday afternoon through the end of October there will be 18 vendors just steps from the White House offering milk, cheese, flowers, meats, baked goods, and even yarn. As with all FreshFarm Markets, the vendors must produce what they are selling from the land that they farm and they must be local—no more than 150 miles from downtown Washington, D.C.

Our farm, Cedarbrook, is one of the vendors at the new market. Starting any new market is exciting, but this one is even more so. This market has a high profile, and it can help hasten the demise of the old model of conventional, subsidized industrialized food production by showcasing local, sustainable agriculture. Hopefully the market’s visibility will help create a new generation farmers. The challenges of operating a small sustainable farm are numerous, but a little creativity and perseverance will take them a long way. Here’s a primer to help them get started: Read more

Okay, so that is a New York Times story on the “uphill battle” to pass health care reform:

Senate Democratic leaders have begun to make another argument to lawmakers. They are pressing colleagues to vote with the party on procedural matters related to health care legislation and against any filibuster “” a 60-vote issue “” even if they intend to oppose the measure in the end when simple majority rules.

But the point is we should have the same exact strategy on the clean air, clean water, clean energy jobs bill.  After all, two key swing senators have already said they would vote for cloture on that bill:

• Arlen Specter (D-PA): “No doubt about” voting for cloture on the climate bill
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH) says he won’t filibuster climate bill

And, according to the NYT, there is at least a glimmer that this strategy might work for some on health care:

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From the 9/14 New Yorker.