I reported last month that Australian climate scientists have been facing death threats and cyberbullying.  Sadly, the video makes clear that this now extends to visiting scientists.

Climate change has hit Australia harder than almost anywhere else, first with the decade long Big Dry and then the once-in-500-year deluges of the past year.  Hell and High Water.

But many climate science deniers are so entrenched in their anti-government, anti-scientist ideology that they are simply impervious to reality.  So they actually threaten the scientists who are trying to warn everybody about the looming catastrophe (see “UK Guardian slams Morano for cyber-bullying and for urging violence against climate scientists“).

The Australian reports on the latest incident:

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In a small victory for the clean energy economy, the House of Representatives narrowly approved the restoration of $90 million in clean energy research out of $2.3 billion cut in the FY 2012 budget. The House energy and water appropriations bill up for consideration today had eviscerated the Department of Energy’s energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE/RE) budget by $1.9 billion and the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) budget by $450 million from the president’s request.

Two Democratic amendments were approved today, restoring four percent of the cuts. By a 214-213 vote, the House approved an amendment by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to shift $79,640,000 from the DOE administrative budget back into ARPA-E. Then, by a 212-210 vote, the House approved a Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) amendment to shift $10 million from the DOE administrative budget to the EE/RE budget.

These largely symbolic votes for clean energy will pare down the DOE administrative budget to the bone, slashing the presidential request of $305 million to around $170 million, a 50 percent cut from 2011 levels. The amendments passed with the support of a small number of Republican representatives, who now risk the wrath of the fossil fuel industry for only pushing the polluter agenda 96 percent of the way:

Kaptur Amendment: $10 Million For EE/RE, Approved 212-210.

33 GOP AYES: Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Charlie Bass (NH), Brian Bilbray (CA), Gus Bilirakis (FL), Diane Black (TN), Mary Bono Mack (CA), Dave Camp (MI), Bill Cassidy (LA), Charlie Dent (PA), Mike Fitzpatrick (PA), Jeff Fortenberry (NE), Jim Gerlach (PA), Chris Gibson (NY), Louie Gohmert (TX), Paul Gosar (AZ), Mike Hanna (NY), Andy Harris (MD), Joe Heck (NV), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA), Tim Johnson (IL), Walter Jones (NC), Leonard Lance (NJ), Bob Latta (OH), Frank LoBiondo (NJ), Michael McCaul (TX), Tom Petri (WI), Todd Platts (PA), Dave Reichert (WA), Jean Schmidt (OH), David Schweikert (AZ), Chris Smith (NJ), Steve Stivers (OH), Fred Upton (MI)

7 DEM NOES: Dan Boren (OK), Jim Costa (CA), Steny Hoyer (MD), Jim Matheson (UT), Mike McIntyre (NC), Collin Peterson (MN), Pete Visclosky (IN)

Schiff Amendment: $80 Million For ARPA-E, Approved 214-213.

34 GOP AYES: Bartlett, Bass, Dan Benishek (MI), Howard Coble (NC), Scott DesJarlais (TN), Bob Dold (IL), John Duncan Jr. (TN), Stephen Fincher (TN), Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, Gibson, Bob Goodlatte (VA), Griffith (VA), Harris, Heck, Johnson, Jones, Adam Kinzinger (IL), Lance, Steven LaTourette (OH), LoBiondo, Dan Lungren (CA), Don Manzullo (IL), Tom Marino (PA), McCaul, John Mica (FL), Petri, Platts, Reichert, Austin Scott (GA), Lamar Smith (TX), Allen West (FL), Rob Woodall (GA)

8 DEM NOES: Norm Dicks (WA), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX), Ed Pastor (AZ), José Serrano (NY), Edolphus Towns (NY), Nydia Velázquez (NY), Visclosky, Henry Waxman (CA)

The 15 Republicans who voted for both amendments were Bartlett, Bass, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, Gibson, Harris, Heck, Johnson, Jones, Lance, LoBiondo, McCaul, Petri, Platts, and Reichert.

Tea Party efforts to deny the United States the ability to fight global warming pollution include a new assault by Rep. Steve Austria (R-OH). On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2012 Interior and Environment budget, which slashed the Environmental Protection Agency back to 1990s levels. In the markup, the committee approved an amendment by Austria to blow up the EPA’s carefully crafted tailpipe greenhouse standards, which were developed pursuant to the Supreme Court decision that greenhouse emissions are pollution:

The amendment, from Ohio Republican Steve Austria, would prohibit the agency from regulating carbon dioxide emissions from new motor vehicles or their engines after model year 2016. The proposal leaves intact a carefully negotiated agreement between the Obama administration and automakers to reduce greenhouse gases from vehicles. However, the amendment would prevent state and local authorities from setting standards for subsequent model years.

The committee adopted the amendment on a 27-20 vote, with former panel chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) joining Democrats in dissent.

Austria’s top campaign contributors include coal-fired electric utility American Electric Power, which has given the two-term politician $31,450 over his career. He has also received over $32,000 each from the automotive and oil and gas industries, and has strong ties to the National Association of Manufacturers, a major right-wing climate denier lobby group.

Minnesota temperatures next week will be “extreme out-of-the-ordinary” — just like Bachmann and Pawlenty

National Weather Service:  “The stage is being set for a massive heat wave to develop into next week as a large area of high pressure is anticipated to circulate hot and humid air over much of the central and eastern U.S. Maximum heat index values of at least 100°F are likely across much of this area by the middle of next week, with heat index values in excess of 110°F possible over portions of these areas.”

Extremist climate science deniers like Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty are campaigning tirelessly to give their state the climate of Texas.  That is what would happen if the nation and the world continues to follow in their preferred path of doing absolutely nothing to reduce emissions of planet-warming  greenhouse gases.

I know it is just a coincidence, but Minnesota is going to get a taste over the next several days of a Tea Party future (as will much of the rest of the country).  CNN reports today:

Extreme heat indices — how the air feels, with heat and humidity — are expected to reach up to 116 degrees in Minneapolis next week.

“These are extreme out-of-the-ordinary temperatures for Minnesota,” CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said.

Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington and other areas in Texas experienced afternoon heat indices of 105 degrees or more through Thursday.

The month of June was the hottest recorded for Texas since 1895, according to the National Weather Service.

But since Bachmann and Pawlenty are working to turn Minnesota into Texas, it is worth remembering that the ‘adaptation’ strategy of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has been to designate 3 “days of prayer for rain” while cutting the budget of agency battling record wildfires.

It would seem no one is actually listening to Perry’s prayers because the only alternative would be to believe that whoever is listening is doing the exact opposite of what Perry has prayed for.  As the latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows, the Texas drought is considerably worse than when Perry issued an “official proclamation drawing on his constitutional authority designating three days as Days of Prayer for Rain” back in April:

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A round-up of climate and energy news. Please post other stories below.

U.S. startup in Denmark to show how electric car owners can get payback

Critics of electric cars often point to their high-priced batteries and limited range. An American startup thinks it can turn this equation on its head with technology that would generate an income stream for the buyers of such vehicles. It has set up a project in Denmark to show how they can cash in.

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By a voice vote, the House just passed a “light bulb ban” amendment to the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act (HR 2354). The amendment, offered by climate denier Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), prohibits spending to enforce the incandescent lighting efficiency standards in the 2007 energy law signed by President George W. Bush:

An amendment numbered 70 printed in the Congressional Record to prohibit the use of funds to be used to implement or enforce section 430.32(x) of title 10, Code of Federal Regulations or to implement or enforce the standards established by the tables contained in section 325(i)(1)(B) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act with respect to BPAR incandescent reflector lamps, BR incandescent reflector lamps, and ER incandescent reflector lamps.

These standards have already spurred the lighting industry to create innovative new incandescent bulbs that are dramatically more efficient than the century-old design the Tea Party is bent on defending. This amendment will hurt jobs, hurt manufacturing, and hurt the environment — helping only coal-powered electricity producers who depend on wasteful use of energy.

The House will also vote on the following assaults on clean energy investment:

– Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL) amendment to prohibit federal websites that teach children about energy efficiency

– Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) amendment to prohibit the Department of Energy from granting loan guarantees to support carbon capture and sequestration practices and technologies, including agricultural and forestry practices that store and sequester carbon (Energy Policy Act of 2005 Sec. 1703(b)(5))

– Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) amendment to prohibit spending on international program activities (except for Israel) at the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the Department of Energy

– Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) amendment to kill implementation of the Weatherization Assistance Program (Recovery Act of 2009 Sec. 407)

– Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) amendment to kill funding for Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy

– Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) amendment to kill funding for the Advanced Technology Vehicles program of the Department of Energy (Energy Policy Act of 2005 Sec. 505)

– Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) amendment to kill funding for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account under the Department of Energy

Yesterday, the House adopted by voice vote Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) amendment to nullify Section 526, which prevents the federal government from buying high-carbon fuels like tar sands oil or coal-to-liquids.

In short, the House of Representatives is run by radical extremists with an Oil Above All agenda, willing to destroy any chance of a prosperous and healthy future for the United States of America just to serve their fossil-fuel paymasters.

A rapidly expanding universe of citizens’ groups, researchers, and environmental organizations are making use of social media and smart phone applications to document changes in the natural world and to mobilize support for taking action.

– Caroline Fraser, in a Yale360 re-post

Last year, the spectacle of 80 million people flocking to the faux greenery of FarmVille, a social networking game on Facebook, held particular irony for environmentalists who have ritually bemoaned low levels of public interest in biodiversity. Every traditional method and media has been tapped to penetrate this elephantine indifference, from documentaries to dire predictions. Rarely a week goes by without reports on crashing ecosystems or mass extinction, a blizzard of bad news inspiring little more than hand-wringing.

But in the spirit of joining rather than beating, conservationists have begun embracing the enemy, the very force that alienated people from nature in the first place: technology.

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The Environmental Protection Agency [last] Thursday issued a welcome and overdue rule compelling power plants in 27 states and the District of Columbia to reduce smokestack emissions that pollute the air and poison forests, lakes and streams across the eastern United States. The regulation reflects the E.P.A.’s determination to carry out its mandates under the Clean Air Act despite fierce Congressional opposition, and bodes well for progress on a host of other regulatory challenges the agency faces.

That’s the good news from a NY Times editorial this week.  The good EPA move on clean air, however, was matched by a bad  Congressional move on clean water, as another NYT editorial explains:

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