In December, I reported that the Kentucky creationism theme park set to open in 2014 will “include dinosaurs.” The park “will feature a 500-foot-long wooden replica of Noah’s Ark containing live animals such as juvenile giraffes.”  It will also include “a replica of the Tower of Babel with exhibits.”

TPM “” the source of this photo illustration — called it the “Park of the Covenant.”

Now the park has been granted $43 million in state tax breaks.  At the same time, “the state has gone through eight rounds of budget cuts over the past three years,” including cuts to “education at all levels” and a pay freeze for all teachers and state workers.

The National Center for Science Education has said of creationism that “students who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level.”

Think Progress has more details on the state support, which raises questions about the separation of church and state:

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Our guest blogger is Kiley Kroh, Associate Director for Ocean Communications at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Earlier this year, Congressional Republicans decided accurate weather forecasting and hurricane tracking were services the American people could live without. The GOP-sponsored 2011 spending bill slashed the budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, slashing $700 million targeted for an overhaul of the nation’s aging environmental satellite system. NOAA scientists have stated unequivocally the existing satellites will fail and if they aren’t replaced, the agency’s ability to provide life-saving information to the American people will be compromised. Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator, told reporters yesterday that the agency’s hurricane outlook last year was “spot-on” and cautioned that “not having satellites and applying their latest capabilities could spell disaster“:

Satellites are a must-have when it comes to detecting and tracking dangerous tropical weather. Not having satellites and their capabilities could spell disaster. NOAA’s satellites underpin hurricane forecasts by providing meteorological data over vast areas where we don’t have other means of information.

Highlighting the critical need for accurate forecasting, yesterday NOAA released their annual hurricane forecast predicting yet another “above-normal” hurricane season. This year, Americans can expect up to 18 named storms and as many as six that could become category five hurricanes. Last year’s hurricane season was one of the busiest on record and that is a trend we can expect to continue. Rising ocean temperatures have been found to increase the frequency and intensity of hurricanes – and this year, ocean temperatures are four degrees higher than normal. These alarming trends aren’t limited to hurricanes – scientists have found that as a result of climate change, killer weather is now the “new normal.”

“Because we have insufficient funds in the ’11 budget, we are likely looking at a period of time a few years down the road where we will not be able to do the severe storm warnings and long-term weather forecasts that people have come to expect today,” Lubchenco said.

Though the GOP got their way this year, the battle over NOAA’s budget is far from over – if funding isn’t restored, the federal government will be limited in its ability to anticipate devastating storms and warn the citizens in harm’s way. Will the GOP be so dismissive of American lives the second time around?

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, like his fellow GOP contenders, supports unlimited coal and oil production and opposes cap-and-trade markets to limit greenhouse pollution. Romney calls cap and trade a “radical feel-good” policy that would have “devastating results for people across the planet.” Last month, he told Fox News that the nation needed to “start drilling for oil” and to “use our coal resources” because “you have to have oil and gas to power America’s economy.”

But according to his standards, Romney himself used to be a “radical” environmentalist who supported clean energy policy and opposed a pollution-backed economy. Back in 2005, Romney told the Boston Globe he was “convinced” that cap and trade was “good business.” It was his administration, in fact, that helped guide the development of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap and trade system in the Northeastern U.S. that has raised $860 million for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.

In 2003, Romney fought to protect public health by supporting environmental controls on a Massachusetts coal plant that was responsible for dozens of premature deaths and 14,400 asthma attacks each year, according the Harvard School of Public Health. Announcing new regulations on the coal pollution, Romney said that he would “not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people”:

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Brazil: Amazon rainforest deforestation rises sharply

New satellite images suggest deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has increased almost sixfold.

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Editorial board warns “It’s possible for a president to so alienate his base that it fails to show up on election day”

In the 2012 campaign, environmentalists don’t matter

That’s the message President Obama is sending as the administration caters to smokestack and other industries

Ouch.  The L.A. Times editorial board has delivered a blistering editorial that everybody in the White House should read.  Here’s the whole thing:

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NREL releases top 10 ‘green power’ utilities of 2010

Can’t invest in your own clean energy system? If you’re a customer of one of the 850 utilities offering Green Power Programs around the U.S., you can just purchase the renewable energy directly from them.

Here’s how to make sure that the clean energy power you buy is

1. from new renewable energy projects
2. is verified by an independent audit
   
3. has not been double-counted (e.g. not also counted toward a state’s renewable energy goal)

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Earlier this week, Think Progress and CP noted that House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) promised oil speculators that Republicans will block financial regulations.  Now TP has the video of Cantor’s admission that the GOP works with speculators to develop financial policy.

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As ThinkProgress has been documenting, a number of GOP lawmakers, when faced with their constituents’ anger over oil subsidies, have outright denied that these special tax breaks and expenditures even exist. Rep. Ben Quayle (R-AZ) and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) both denied the existence of oil subsidies, to the shock of their constituents.

TP has the story of another “oil subsidy denier.”

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