This is the 645th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the May 23 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Collique Williams, Mela Miles, and Olivia Nichols write—Post-pandemic, cities must reimagine public transit with safety, access, and racial justice in mind: “Across the U.S., COVID-19 is hitting communities of color the hardest. Here in greater Boston it’s no different. There are high rates of infection in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park—the heart of Black Boston. In fact, Black people account for more than 40% of COVID-19 cases in Boston, but only 25% of the city’s population. Other areas with large immigrant, Latino, and POC communities have also become hot spots, including the neighborhood of East Boston and nearby communities. Chelsea, a Latino-majority city, is the Massachusetts epicenter with an infection rate six times that of the state overall. The pandemic has magnified existing inequalities—already a matter of life and death—putting our communities under an even greater strain. One of the places that strain shows up starkly these days is on public transportation.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
6412093 writes—The Daily Bucket--Frog Court Confidential: Call me Red. Red Woodman. I’m the oldest webfoot on the Frog Police Force. Today I was supposed to retire. I wanted to take it easy all day. But then I could hear my cell phone buzz, over the howl of the ambulances on nearby City streets. “Git over here now, Red,” said Ollie G, my chief homicide detective,” We got a 10-65 on 14 tadpoles.” “Missing tadpoles?” I scoffed,”We get a thousand calls about missing tadpoles every Spring.” “Dis is different,” Ollie’s voice rose,”They’re missing from the Frog Mitigation Area’s biosphere project.” Oh, dear Gawd. I almost broke an ankle bone, hopping over to the Biosphere as fast as I could. Ollie met me at the rim. “There’s one survivor,” he gestured towards a tadpole curled into a fetal position, “But they ain’t talking. Tadpoles never talk. They’re a hardened bunch.” “Plus they lack vocal cords,” I riposted.I looked at the biosphere. It was a seven-gallon rectangular flower pot, full of water and mud.
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - heron and ripples: “Salish Sea. The bay was glassy calm that day, with fish intermittently striking the water surface from below. A juvenile heron stalked them, quietly and deliberately as they do. I knew it would make a strike at some point, lightning fast. Now and then the heron came to a complete stop in the shallow water. That’s when the tiniest of of swells became evident, rolling lightly toward shore. The heron’s thin legs were no obstacle to the series of slight waves as they passed below the big bird — no water was actually moving by. With that glassy surface though, the heron’s reflection rippled randomly. It was mesmerizing to me but I wonder how the fish below perceived it. The bird itself can be absolutely still but it appears to move, as a rippling reflection.”
lostintheozarks—The Daily Bucket - Is That a UFO or Is The Sun Shining? “Douglas County, Missouri. May 23, 2020. I really should be thankful that we personally have not had any serious problems from the storms that have rolled through our area these past few weeks. Up the road a few miles we can see evidence that either a tornado or strong straight line winds came through and destroyed buildings, knocked down trees, tore the roofs off several barns and flooded roads at the low-water crossings all over our area (including Fox Creek down the road from us). I am thankful we have not experienced any damage — but I do miss sunshine! [...] We have had a couple of days, including today, that had at least partial sunshine, so I did get to go for my walk and see what is starting to bloom. After all the rains there are many wildflowers blooming. False Solomon’s Seal, which I see growing on a steep hill going down to a rushing stream, is one of them.”
Kestrel writes—Dawn Chorus: Hiding in Plain Sight: “Whether through their amazing abilities at camouflage, or just their simple ability to blend into the habitat they're in, birds can sometimes be maddeningly difficult to see. How many times has this happened to you? You heard a bird nearby in a tree canopy. You know it's right there. You get closer and closer and start looking. It sings and sings and all but warbles out loud, ‘I'm right here, you idiot, can't you see me?’ You know you're close enough to practically reach out and touch the bird, but you still can't see it. If you're like me, this has happened countless times. I stand there looking up into the branches, craning my head left and right, leaning, moving around and around, and I still can't make out the damn bird. Very frustrating. But the fact is, some birds are very good at hiding in plain sight. I’m going to use this opportunity to share some of them with you and see if you can spot the bird. I’ll start off with an easy one, but be forewarned, they will get harder.”
6412093 writes—The Daily Bucket-- The Innocence Project Appeals to Frog Court: “I reached for the grimy tumbler. It was empty. Not even any ice. I reached for the whiskey bottle. It was empty too. This was the night the bottle let me down, and a savagely bright dawn poured through the dirty windows in my Private Investigator’s office. I stared at the torn paper sack on the table in front of me. It was crammed so full of money that the seams were bursting. A Very Generous Bribe. All it took was for me not to lie, but not to say too much in Frog Court this morning. We frogs are natural enemies of the Herons, and the charges against Billy Heron reflected it. Yet while Billy Heron was a rogue, and lived by different rules, he would never lie to you. He would never confess either. He told me once to live outside the law you must be honest. Frogs are in the Bible, for better or worse. So I cannot bear false witness either. A few weeks ago, surveillance photos showed Billy Heron eating a tiny frog. Since the small chorus frogs were in the vicinity, the Court (which was all Bullfrogs in contravention of judicial guidelines) ruled that Billy had preyed on a native species, violating Court Regulation 1538.5.”
lyleoross writes—The Daily Bucket: Houston area Raptors: “This is a story about Raptors. Every picture here was taken within three miles of my home in the middle of Houston. There was a huge influx of white-winged doves into Houston about ten years ago, and along with them came the large raptors. However, as in the introduction, there are numerous smaller raptors in Houston too. The above Kite is a catch them on the wing bug eater. Talk about your take out order. She/he and her husband/wife have chosen a sycamore that is at the end of my block, in which to make a family. [...] What makes this so much fun, besides the proximity, is the fact that the records I find suggest that a mating pair of Mississippi Kites are rare in Texas. Let me mention, that is an out of date reference. That said, It’s all I have.”
The Lipsticked Pig writes—Heron Addendum for Daily Bucketeers: “It was breakfast time in the rookery, about 8 a.m. Parents in two or three nests were flying out and back steadily. One nest, in the middle, seemed particularly demanding. I could not get good shots of the restaurant runs but here’s what I did get. The parents flew mostly to the nearby marsh or wetlands (not sure what it is officially but it has cattails and one or two beaver dams) while at least one parent flew in the other direction to the nearby lake where the fishing is good. The area is this far off the busy highway, a line of trees behind open fields and a house or two. You can see the line of trees housing the rookery in the background across the marshy area and the field; this was taken, as all of them were, from the highway.”
CaptBLI writes—The Daily Bucket - Mississippi, Memorial Day walk: “[The Easter Lily] was the perfect flower, with the wrong name, to bloom on Memorial Day. The good folks I talked to, had planted it two years ago and this was the first time it had displayed. We were all pleased it waited to show it’s beauty. I recorded much during my three hour walk. It seemed the entire world wanted to be seen or heard. The sky was azure with the thickest puffs of white, gathering for rain, but without commitment. Though hot, it was not steamy. So lovely a day for a stroll, that I forgot to get a shot of the sky. [...] I found birds and insects everywhere. I made my way to a series of pastures where I saw the Blue-winged Warbler being harassed by a Mockingbird. Between the squawks and buzzing, it was a noisy exchange. My presence led to an impasse. The duelers parted until I moved on.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Deniers Are Mad Climate Change Kills Some People, And Makes Treating Others Harder: “Last week, researchers from Harvard and the American Cancer Society published a commentary piece in the ACS’s journal about the ways in which cancer and climate change interact. By making extreme weather more intense and frequent, climate change is exposing more people to industrial pollution through floods and wildfires that release otherwise buried or contained carcinogens. Those events also make it harder for people with cancer to get better, as evacuations interrupt treatments and otherwise disrupt medical facilities. And finally, they point out that because burning fossil fuels produces carcinogenic pollution as well as greenhouse gasses, “providers involved in cancer care delivery have compelling reasons to be actively involved in the development of climate policies.’ Meanwhile, a commentary in The Lancet Planetary Health argues that since Australian mortality records underestimate deaths from heat waves, death certificates should be modernized to include additional information, secondary causes, or ‘external factors contributing to death,’ so that ‘the impact of climate change” can be ‘fully appreciated.’ Deniers, of course, were none too thrilled about either set of health experts trying to do their jobs and more precisely and accurately measure how climate change is killing us.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Insurance Companies Understand Climate Risk -- So Why Are They Funding Fox’s Climate Denial? “A new report from Media Matters found a handful of major national insurance companies are “top sponsors” of Fox News, staying loyal to the station’s climate and COVID-19 denial even after many major brands have dropped the channel due to its embrace of white supremacism. As the report points out, the insurance industry has ranked climate as a top risk, has had to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to cover damages from extreme weather disasters, and is in the business of understanding and reducing risk. It’s not exactly a natural fit for Fox’s denial-laden, “risk-your-lives-for-the-economy” infotainment. But apparently insurance companies don’t have an issue with supporting Fox News. In March and April, 43 insurance companies ran an incredible 3,000 ads on Fox. Liberty Mutual alone ran 606 ads. Over half of all the insurance ads, a total of 1,700, were from national companies GEICO, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, Progressive, and USAA. Of those five, only GEICO wasn’t one of the network’s top 10 advertisers. Overall, one in ten ads on Fox News during March and April was from the insurance industry.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Educating Through the End Times: Learning About How Kids Are Learning About Climate Change: “With another school year wrapping up in a profoundly new fashion, now’s a good time to think about climate and education. After all, we know that because kids are particularly persuasive when it comes to making their dismissive or denier parents care about climate, putting denial in the classroom has long been a priority for the fossil fuel industry’s propagandists. Have they been successful? Well, according to an analysis by the Hechinger Report published as part of a series in HuffPo, over two thirds of roughly 30 science textbooks used in California, Florida, Oklahoma or Texas describe humans causing or contributing to climate change. Some downplayed the consensus, a handful didn’t mention it at all, and about half only provided superficial coverage or had errors. About half of them provide detailed explanations of climate impacts, like sea level rise and wildfires. As for those that don’t, some teachers are taking it upon themselves to develop lessons that incorporate up-to-date science, “using scissors to cut out useful information from the books and pasting it together with materials they found from online resources or that they created themselves.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
poopdogcomedy writes—SC, IA & MT-Sen: LCV Wants To Replace Moscow Mitch's Majority With A Pro-Environment Senate: “Received this e-mail today from the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund in support of Jaime Harrison (D. SC), Theresa Greenfield (D. IA) and Steve Bullock’s (D. MT) U.S. Senate campaigns: We have some game-changing new polling to share with you. Extremely competitive races that were once seen as longshots are now opening up for environmental champions to flip the Senate and win big in November. Newly updated polling has made one thing very clear: Voters are tired of Mitch McConnell and his Senate allies prioritizing polluter profits over our health and environment. From the climate crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, senators like Lindsey Graham, Joni Ernst, and Steve Daines have prioritized bailouts for Big Oil and polluters over providing necessary aid to our families and communities suffering the most. Their compliance with the Mitch McConnell anti-environment and anti-science agenda needs to come to an end.”
ENERGY
Fossil Fuels & Emissions Controls
Angmar writes—"Lockdown Co2 rate decline is what would be necessary to achieve goal keeping temps under 1.5 C": “Something interesting is happening to greenhouse gas emissions thanks to the coronavirus pandemic: They are plummeting. The world is seeing the lowest oil demand relative to supply perhaps ever, leading to oil futures contracts selling for negative values at several points. The International Energy Agency estimates that this year world carbon dioxide output will fall by a whopping 8 percent. If that pans out, it would be the largest drop ever recorded — some six times larger than the fall during the 2008 global financial crisis. That rate of decline is also approximately what would be necessary to achieve the goal of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, if maintained for the rest of the decade. Thus the coronavirus lockdown is showing us roughly the scale of what is needed to avoid extreme climate change effects — but an extremely clumsy way of achieving it. The world could have a full employment economy and attack climate change at the same time, if humanity really put its mind to it.”
Dan Bacher writes—Exxon and Shell owned Aera Energy withdraws Cat Canyon Oil project in Santa Barbara County: “In a major victory for environmentalists in their battle to stop the expansion of oil drilling in California, Aera Energy, an oil corporation co-owned by Exxon and Shell, on May 27 announced that they would be withdrawing their Cat Canyon oil project in Santa Barbara. Aera said they were ‘ongoing permit uncertainty with respect to oil and gas projects,” as well as “current global uncertainties in the oil market.’ During the coronavirus pandemic, oil prices have crashed below zero as dozens of oil tankers with no place to go are idling off the California coast. ‘In short, Aera recognized that decision makers, including Sierra Club-endorsed county supervisors who won re-election in March, would not rubber stamp their dangerous project and would be taking into account well-documented impacts to water, air, endangered species and climate, as well as overwhelming community opposition,’ according to a statement from the Sierra Club Los Padres Chapter. The current global oil glut has also makes these projects uneconomic’,”
RustyRobot writes—No More Coal Fired Power Plant Construction in the USA! “Here is a much more detailed article about the death of coal power and some political attempts at life support through subsidies. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-the-u-s-ever-build-another-big-coal-plant/. One thing to remember is that the coal supporters will always imply that government environmental regulations are the main force killing coal. This is a horrible distortion since the low cost of natural gas would kill coal even without any pollution regulations. This is not the first time that coal has been dumped for another fuel source. Buildings, trains, ships and others all once burned coal but switched as soon as something better came along. Coal is a dirty, nasty fuel and anyone who romanticizes it has never had to deal with it. There really hasn’t been any construction proposals for the last five years, other than these two projects, so coal fired power plant construction is dead in the USA. Here’s to a brighter, cleaner future.”
Renewables, Efficiency, Energy Storage & Conservation
Mokurai writes—Renewable Monday: More Proof that We are Winning Comes Every Day: “I have often said that there is more Good News on Global Warming than I can tell you about, and here is an example—one day's roundup from our friends in the PV Magazine community. Free for all. It was a big week for the German solar industry, after the country’s coalition government reached an agreement on Monday to remove the 52 GW cap from the national renewable energy law. The Bundesnetzagentur separately said it received no wind project bids for last month’s national solar and wind power energy auction, which procured 203.7 MW of solar capacity across 30 projects. Production plans were also unveiled in the form of Solarwelt GmbH’s announcement it will open a 400 MW panel factory in the eastern German region of Thuringia. Production is set to begin in early 2021. Staying in Europe, Spanish company Aurinka is planning to start wafer manufacturing in Castile-La Mancha, this year; while in Italy, the government has essentially made it possible for homeowners to install PV for free via new tax breaks.”
Mokurai writes—Renewable Tuesday: Mexico Reversing Course, Embracing Solar and Wind: “First defeat for Mexican government in its fight against renewables. Twenty-three renewable-energy operators have resumed testing of their installations, just a few weeks after the Mexican government halted grid connections for new solar and wind power projects, pending further notice. Mexico’s National Energy Control Center (Cenace) has faced a series of ‘amparo’ lawsuits since the government introduced the new measures against renewables. According to several Mexican media outlets, the 23 companies had filed ‘amparo’ lawsuits against the grid-connection suspension, which the government had justified as a measure to protect energy security throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Amparo lawsuits are an extraordinary measure in the Mexican justice system, with no equivalent in the common law tradition. They are usually filed to request the protection of an individual’s constitutional rights.”
Mokurai writes—Renewable Wednesday: The Gigawatt Club: “The news is coming thick and fast now. I mentioned some items from the PV Magazine Weekend Roundup recently, including some more countries breaking into the Gigawatt Club this year or next. I covered Myanmar, and here are three more. Croatia also announced provisions to tender 1 GW of solar this year, while further afield, Myanmar (1 GW), Zimbabwe (500 MW) and Nigeria (10 MW) all unveiled tender plans. And how about the US? America Finally Joins the 1 Gigawatt PV Club | Greentech Media. Oct 7, 2011 - Last year, the U.S. solar market managed to consume 887 megawatts of solar panels. This year, the U.S. of A. breaks the one-gigawatt bar for ...”
Mokurai writes—Renewable Thursday: The Biden Platform: “From Matt Iglesias: ‘Biden’s policy agenda does not indulge intellectuals’ desire to overthrow the billionaire oligarchy but *does* feature enormous improvements to the living standards of Americans in the bottom half of the income distribution.’ No, Yglesias, you moron! We don't want to "overthrow" the rich. Communists are irrelevant now, except as lying Republican talking points. We Progressives, even we Democratic Socialists, want them to shoulder their responsibilities. That means accepting regulation of their businesses for the safety of the public and the economy, and actually paying taxes. And not being able to throw billions of dollars around in politics in order to get racists to give them billions of dollars in illegitimate government favors in order to Starve the Beast, that is, to defund all welfare programs. We do, of course, want to claw back some of their recent ill-gotten gains that they are wasting on management bonuses and stock buybacks, rather than investing in any thing of actual use to anybody.”
Mokurai writes—Renewable Friday: Duke Energy Greenwashing: “Duke Energy also hopes to make use of emerging technologies such as advancements in nuclear energy, the use of technology to capture carbon during natural gas production and using hydrogen and other low- or zero-carbon fuels.
- Nuclear: No. Just no. It costs multiples what renewables do, if it can get built at all, years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
- Carbon Capture: A lie, plain and simple, at best.
- Energy from carbon capture during natural gas production? What are they even talking about?
- Hydrogen: OK. No, wait. Hydrogen from using excess renewable electricity to crack water, yes; hydrogen from coal gasification—Where's my pitchfork?
- Other low-or zero-carbon fuels.”
mettle fatigue writes—Hydrogen Energy Generated from Waste Paper & Plastics in Lancaster, California: “•An energy developer is planning to build a "green hydrogen" facility in Southern California, that can convert waste material into hydrogen. • The plant will process 40,000 tons of waste every year, and have the capacity to produce up to 3.8 million kilograms of hydrogen per year, the company, SGH2 Energy, announced Wednesday. It intends to sell the output to owners of hydrogen refueling stations in the state. • Clean hydrogen is likely to play a big role in deep decarbonization, Rachel Fakhry, policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate and clean energy program, told Utility Dive. "It's important that state policy-makers start valuing that potential role, and thinking about the right policies to get us there to scale up the industry," she added.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENS
Laura Clawson writes—Local health officials shy away from confronting the meat industry over COVID-19 outbreaks: “The meatpacking industry seems to be following Donald Trump’s approach to coronavirus statistics: if people don’t know how bad it is, they can’t blame you. Oh, the meatpacking companies say their insistence on secrecy is about privacy, but: “Alerting a community about the number of cases in a particular place is a standard public health response,” Boston University public health expert Nicole Huberfeld told The New York Times.The Washington Post estimates there are more than 11,000 infections at meatpacking plants across the country. The Food and Environment Reporting Network estimates more than 17,000. But estimates are all we have because of the industry’s secrecy and the reluctance of local public health officials to stand up to some of the largest employers in their communities.”
Womanthinker writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blog, Vol. 16.22: A Tribute to the Trees: “Good morning, gardeners. The pandemic has given us the chance to go for regular walks in our neighborhood and, when we do so, we pay special attention to the trees. Sometimes we even make sketches of them in our drawing pads or journals. Trees captivate our hearts. [...] Trees have inspired people to create millions of fascinating artworks, poems and stories. They capture our imagination and encourage us to meditate and contemplate their silent wisdom. [...] The mysteries of trees continue to be unleashed as scientists make astounding discoveries about their secret life. In his book, “The Hidden Life of Trees,” Peter Wohlleben explains how trees support other trees of the same species through their roots. Like a herd of elephants, trees help their sick and weak. Trees thrive on cooperation, not competition.”
SemperEducandis writes—Gardening and weather and relaxation later: “There has been so much rain in the last month that we're having problems getting into the back to actually get anything done. Mud-boots are us. Squish. I finally got the new raised bed finished, filled with really good soil, and all edged with concrete blocks and most of the holes in the blocks filled with soil and a seed or plant in each one. Loads of tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and squash and melons and such. It's looking very good so far. The bugs seem to be under control at the moment, the deer haven't jumped the fence in awhile, and there has been plenty of water. My wife has been expanding her flower beds enormously. I spade up a section, and she rolls over on her garden stool and gets all the roots and weeds out, then we do it again. Once we get to an edge or border, she decides what she wants to plant in there and we seed or set plants, and then go onto the next section. Shortly (couple more years, it's a process - not an immediate-gratification thing) there will be VERY LITTLE grass needing to be mowed, and it will all be butterfly and bee and hummingbird habitat.”
gmoke writes—City Agriculture - May 27, 2020: “ ‘Tree-like’ vertical farms for Brooklyn? https://www.framlab.com/glasir. Underground parking lot to organic mushroom farm in Paris (the ONLY organic farm in the city - so far). https://lacaverne.co/en/cavern-urban-farm/. How urban trees and hedges help cut air pollution. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1352231018308938. Can local food feed an urban world?, Green Concept House—a zero-waste, 100% self-sustaining home, including growing food.
https://www.archdaily.com/934277/green-house-yang-design”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTION
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—James Enstrom: How Big Tobacco’s Favorite Researcher Weaseled His Work Into the EPA: “There are only a handful of credentialed deniers still alive and generating nominally peer-reviewed papers to support their fundamentally anti-regulatory agenda. Over at InsideClimateNews, Marianne Lavelle recently dove into the long, downward slide of the scientific career of James Enstrom, once a respectable up-and-coming physicist before diving into the world of tobacco-funded anti-regulatory pseudoscience. His story largely tracks the ‘Cold Warrior’ framing outlined in Merchants of Doubt, in which politically conservative scientists, often aligned with the military-industrial complex, turned to tobacco, fossil fuel or other industries for funding and a sense of purpose: fighting the liberal-environmentalists-public health scientific community (which is secretly full of communists.)”
POPULATION, EXTINCTION, SUSTAINABILITY
Mark Sumner writes—One million species may go extinct, and one nation may be the cause: “Preserving the diversity of life on Earth is going to take more than just setting aside the most bleak and uninhabitable pieces of the planet for wildlife. Yes, there are animals adapted to the high arctic and the deepest reaches of the ocean, but they represent only a few notes out of the symphony. It is going to take even more ambitious plans—including the setting aside of areas that would make perfectly fine subdivisions or factories—to provide the diversity of environment that a rich ecosystem requires. That’s not a new idea. Nine years ago, the United Nations set forward a series of conservation goals known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. These targets include setting aside at least 17% of land in all nations for the support of wildlife, turning the target from something that could happen “over there” to something that happens everywhere. The Aichi Targets may not get the press that the Paris Agreement on climate change has received, but they have something very much in common. In both cases, more than 190 nations have agreed. It’s just the United States that stands in the way. The United States is the only country that has not ratified the Aichi Targets. If you’re looking for something new to ask a candidate for president, or the House, or the Senate … ask them about that.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
FleekDoggPPLH writes—Public Transit in Baltimore Part 1: A Pre-Pandemic Critique: “Baltimore, and many inner suburbs such as Towson and Catonsville, used to be adequately covered by a streetcar system (map can be seen at linked blog), including the first commercially operated electrically powered streetcar that opened in 1885. As in many cities, however, the streetcar closed in the 1960’s as the system was dismantled and it was replaced by a bus system that would later be reorganized into the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA Maryland — to differentiate it from the MTA in New York). This major shift occurred at around around the same time as flare ups in the city’s underlying racial tensions. These are the same tensions that flared up again in 2015 with the riots after Freddie Gray had his fatal interaction with the police, and they are worth a diary of their own (here’s a relavant diary that I found). Ironically, Freddie Gray was arrested in Sandtown-Winchester, which is not too far from a station on the sole subway line in the city (the CVS Pharmacy that infamously made headlines is right next to the escalators down to the tubes). This subway was the first attempt to rectify the destruction of the streetcars, and a metropolitan wide plan similar to today’s Washington DC Metro was planned. [...] You can be the judge of the legacy of this Northwest metro line (a more objective history is here and a commentary that morbidly uses the term “doomed” is here).”
Mokurai writes—EV Tuesday: Tesla Police Cars: “Eat your heart out, Sen. Inhofe. And VP Pence. And the rest of the Usual Gang of Idiots. Mayor of Tulsa says the city will buy Cybertrucks to use as police cars if Elon Musk picks it for Tesla's new factory. Bargersville chief turns heads in Indiana's first Tesla police car: Bargersville Police Chief Todd Bertram may never get used to the attention he draws in his new patrol car. But that is what happens when you drive a Tesla. ‘I got a guy for speeding on (Ind.) 37 and all he wanted to talk about was the Tesla,’ Bertram said. ‘During that same traffic stop, somebody honks and a guy's hanging out of his window with a phone taking video’."
MISCELLANY
MaryAEnglish writes—What Was, nay, IS Michael Moore Thinking? “I’m not going to use this page to debunk the film — that has already been done quite handily by multiple sources. But just to summarize, the director, Jeff Gibbs, uses out of date information and video footage (from decades ago!) to back up his message that renewable energy is just as bad as burning fossil fuels. It’s ludicrous. But what I would ask Moore if I had the face-to-face opportunity, would be why? Why did you produce a film—an activist documentary no less, something you know a little about—that is so blatantly inaccurate? It’s such poor journalism and concerns a topic that you have championed—climate change. This is a topic that is absolutely critical we get right. As one of the film’s key critics, Naomi Klein, has said: ‘There are important critiques of an environmentalism that refuses to reckon with unlimited consumption and growth. But this film ain’t it.’ Agreed, Naomi.”