Per Matt Yglesias’s note that the “male-dominated nature of Wall Street is a source of dysfunction,” meet the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth:

Left to right, top to bottom: David N. Parker, Ed Hamberger Jr., Evan R. Gaddis, Rich Nolan, Jay Timmons, Marv Fertel, Erik Heilman, John S. Shaw, R. Bruce Josten, Thomas R. Kuhn, Mark Maslyn, Jack Gerard, James C. May, Dave McCurdy.

These fourteen men are the representatives of the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth (AEEG) who are meeting with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Sen. Lindsey Graham to negotiate the terms of comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation. The AEEG is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce-managed working group of the trade associations representing America’s carbon-pollution industries, founded in 2001. Five of these AEEG representatives sit on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Association Committee of 100, helping shape the organization’s policy.

Five of the groups are suing to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific finding that greenhouse gases are harmful pollutants — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Portland Cement Association, and the American Farm Bureau Federation. The American Petroleum Institute ran an astroturf campaign against the House climate legislation last year, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for a “Scopes monkey trial” on the science of climate change.

The least conservative of the industry lobbyists are Dave McCurdy of the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers, a former New Democrat congressman from Oklahoma (and Wonk Room guest blogger), and former general Evan Gaddis of the National Electric Manufacturers Association. Seven of the lobbyists were George W. Bush contributors, and two others — Erik Heilman and Rich Nolan — were Republican staffers. The overall political contributions of these fourteen men is whoppingly Republican, either as a direct contribution or funneled through conservative industry political action committees. They’ve donated $326,497 to Republican candidates compared to $100,346 to Democrats, more than a three-to-one ratio:

The Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth representatives meeting with Sen. Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman: Read more

Especially the poorly worded ones

First, of course, please vote in yet another Economist online poll with biased wording, “This house believes that innovation works best when government does least.”

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Laser Guidance Adds Power to Wind Turbines

The wind industry may soon be dependent on a different kind of environmental awareness that has more to do with lasers than ecology.

A new laser system that can be mounted on wind turbines allows them to prepare for the wind rushing toward their blades.

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In a new video, the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment asks a critical question: “Have we pushed Earth past the tipping point?” Humanity developed civilization within a small zone of environmental conditions, but in the last century we have begun reshaping our planet, accelerating the process in recent years:

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