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IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: The Democracy of Lobbyists; The forgeries of 'Clean Coal'... PLUS: Will Groucho Marx Republicans kill 'Cash for Clunkers'? ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail, cognitive dissonance? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (links below): Sydney Opera House may be singing the blues with climate change; World's Largest Solar Cooking System Installed in India; Electric Car Maker Expects Market to Heat Up; Unabated use of groundwater threatens Arizona's future ... PLUS: Google Puts Green House Gases on the Map....Literally!

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Becomes a Republican Target (NY Times)
• 'Clunkers' Rebates at Risk Unless Senate Acts (Wall St. Journal)
• Senate GOP Leader to Question 'Clunkers' Extension (Wall St. Journal)
• House GOP: ‘Cash For Clunkers’ Is Wildly Popular, Proving That Government ‘Can’t Run’ Programs (Think Progress)
• HYPOCRISY FLASHBACK: Congress Gives 100% Tax Rebate for Luxury SUVs (Bankrate.com, January, 2005) [emphasis added]:
  
  Under the Jobs and Growth Act of 2003, Congress raised the deduction ceiling for these heavy-class vehicles from $25,000 to $100,000, bumped the "bonus deduction" from 30 percent to 50 percent, and left in place the accelerated five-year depreciation schedule. This, in effect, made virtually all three-ton, business-use SUVs fully deductible in the first year. More than 50 vehicles qualified for the tax break.
  ...
  The tax group estimated that the so-called SUV tax break cost taxpayers between $840 million and $987 million for every 1,000 vehicles sold. Worse, it was robbing the poor to feed the rich.
• Fraudster Bonner’s Client Exposed: ACCCE, King Coal’s Dirty Front Group (Think Progress)
• Forged letters to congressman anger local groups (Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA)
• Coal Industry Group Linked to a Dozen Forged Cap-And-Trade Letters (Greenwire)
• Former Employee: Bonner "Just Got Caught This Time" (Talking Points Memo)
• MoveOn, Sierra Club Call For DOJ Investigation Of Bonner Fraud (Think Progress)
• READ how a fake "grassroots campaign works! From The Hawthorne Group [emphasis added]:
  
  We thought the most fixated of the political and communications "junkies" might find interesting some highlights of a recent grassroots campaign Hawthorn created and managed for the American Coalition of Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).
• ACCCE [The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricty] Hired Firm That Forged Opposition Letters (NRDC)
• FLASHBACK: Hello. I'm calling this evening to mislead you --- A look inside one of Washington's top phony grassroots lobbying firms. (Mother Jones, Nov. 1997)
• Exxon Spends More on Lobbying than Entire Clean Energy Industry Combined (Treehugger.com)
• Exxon Outspends Clean-Energy Industry on Washington Lobbying (Bloomberg News))
• Drug, Energy Firms Buck Lobbying Decline (Wall St. Journal)
• Utility PACs generous to key players in Hill debate (Greenwire)
• Climate debate has some industries spending at record pace (Greenwire) [emphasis added]:
  
  "When legislation is crafted they don't like, that's when they tend to open the wallets a bit to bring on more lobbyists," said Kenneth Green, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "For them to be increasing their spending when they're looking at legislation that has a bigger and bigger impact on their industry makes perfect sense."

  Oil and gas business outspent all other energy competitors...

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report... See below!

• Sydney Opera House Under Threat From Climate Change (Bloomberg News) [emphasis added]:
  
  [Australian] Environment Minister Peter Garrett used the study to press the government’s case for an agreement on emissions cuts before an international conference on the issue in December. “The disintegration of our World Heritage areas would be an irreparable loss,” he said in a statement. “We must act now.”
• World's Largest Solar Cooking System Installed in India (Treehugger.com)
• Electric Car Maker Expects Market to Heat Up (Green Inc.)
• Unabated use of groundwater threatens Arizona's future (Arizona Republic)
• Google Puts Green House Gases on the Map....Literally (Treehugger.com) [emphasis added]:
  
  According to Google's blog, one of the main purposes of putting together the map is to give scientists, decision-makers, media and the general public a new way to access and understand GHG emissions data collected since 1990, and perhaps to the point that it will have an impact on the climate change agreement to be hammered out in Copenhagen at the end of this year.

  You can look at GHGs from different sectors, including energy, industrial and so on, as well as see comparisons of the different gases, categories, and more.

                 

Article Categories: Green News