Brad Blog

The good news: When the largest voting jurisdiction in the nation gets its new voting system, perhaps as early as 2015, it will not including Internet Voting, according to Dean Logan, Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk of Los Angeles. The bad news: It will very likely include touch-screen computers and, with them, 100% unverifiable voting.

I interviewed Logan last week on my KPFK/Pacifica Radio show [full audio interview is at the bottom of this article], and we had a very informative discussion about what voters in Los Angeles may have to look forward to in the coming years, as well as many of you in the rest of the country, since the new system is being designed with an eye towards selling it to other counties in California as well as in the rest of the country.

So this is not just a local L.A. story. It's likely to affect the way that votes are cast and tallied in much of the nation. It's well worth paying attention to, even if, unlike me, you don't live here.

Los Angeles County alone "has more voters than 42 of the 50 states," according to Logan's office. It features nearly 5,000 precincts. Well over 3 million votes were cast in this one county alone during the November 6, 2012 Presidential Election. When Logan took over the job of Registrar after our previous one resigned, suddenly, just months before the 2008 President Election, he had a monster of a job to take over. It's still a monster. And it may soon get even more gargantuan as he attempts to re-work, re-design and, indeed, re-think how voters vote here, and as we move from our current publicly-owned voting system to our next publicly-owned voting system. (L.A. is one of the very few jurisdictions in the nation which owns, maintains and designs its own system. Most similar systems in the rest of the state and nation are proprietary, owned by the private companies which make them, and don't allow even the election officials in those jurisdictions access to their "trade-secret" software and source code.)

While, happily, Logan offered me some assurance that we won't be casting votes over the Internet with his new system --- an assurance that should bring some measure of relief to both Election Integrity advocates as well as the consensus of computer science and security experts who are also experts in voting systems --- there is still much cause for concern, as this still-unknown voting system begins to take shape...

OUT WITH THE OLD?

Logan began the process of finding a new voting system back in 2009. At the time he said he was open to any and all types of voting and tabulation systems, and wanted to find out what it was that voters of L.A. wanted from such a system. He formed the Voting System Assessment Project (VSAP) to work with "stakeholders" of all sorts, hold discussion forums, survey voters, establish focus groups, review various ideas and even open up the process to design ideas submitted from the Internet.

I was invited to participate in some of the early meetings of the VSAP, but I asked him during our conversation on last week's show why he felt our current system --- known as InkaVote Plus, a variation of the old punchcard system, now modified to use inked bubbles instead of punched chads, producing ballots which are then optically-scanned by a computer tabulator --- needed to be replaced. He described the system and its software as "outdated."

"Similar to the parts on the physical equipment, it's hard to find people with the skill level or the background to make modifications to that software if and when it's necessary," he explained. "So, we end up being in a situation where we're really one regulatory or legislative change away from being obsolete."

"We came close to that when California switched to a 'top-two' primary system," he told me, referring to the 2010 state-wide ballot initiative which did away with our partisan primaries. All party candidates run in the same race now in our primaries, and the "top-two" vote-getters of any party end up going on to compete head-to-head in the general election. (The new system, sometimes referred to as a "Cajun Primary", has a number of undemocratic features that can adversely affect Democrats, Republicans and third-parties to boot, as The BRAD BLOG has detailed in past articles. None of those failings, however, are Logan's fault, of course.)

That change, he said, "required some modification to the system in order for the votes to be tabulated correctly. We almost were unable to accommodate that on the current voting system."

Nonetheless, the county was able to modify the source code on the system in order to accommodate the mandated change after all, because L.A. owns its own hardware and software. "It's one of the unique things about L.A. County," he said. "It's one of the things that important to us."

If a bill proposed by state Senator Alex Padilla (SB 360) now pending in the state Senate is adopted this year, it would remove California's long-time restriction against contracting and testing new voting systems before they are federally tested and certified. That would allow L.A. County to create its own system again. No federal testing would be required for it at all. But more on that in a moment.

'TRANSPARENCY, SECURITY, ACCURACY, VERIFIABILITY'

Logan explained that the principles for his new system were developed after focus groups, surveys and stake-holders described what was most important to them in a voting system. He says it has been a "user-driven project."

"We wanted to know what voters thought, rather than just what we thought," he said, explaining that they have now hired a design firm, IDEO, to help implement the ideas. He describes the firm as "a human-centered design firm which has done some incredible work in both the public and private sector."

IDEO will work to build a system based on the input received via the VSAP to date. That input includes the main principles Logan says voters, and his own office, were most concerned about: "Transparency, security, accuracy, verifiability. All of the things that those of who care about the integrity of elections value highly."

In a recent piece by KPCC on Logan's new system, the idea of voting with smartphones was said to be a popular idea among those submitting ideas to an open "design challenge" process that was part of the VSAP.

The idea may send shudders down the spines of those who understand the inherent insecurities of casting votes by the Internet, as well as Election Integrity advocates who understand the necessity of all citizens being able to oversee and authenticate the recording and tabulation of ballots.

So what is Logan beginning to see as the basis for this new voting system? I asked if it will involve computers and/or cellphones. Mostly, I wanted to know if we were talking about a computer-based system of some sort, since, depending on how such systems are designed, it can be very difficult and frequently impossible to verify if even a single vote has been cast and tabulated as per any voter's intent on such systems.

"I think there certainly will be computer-based or electronic-based components of the system," he told me. "Now what that looks like and where that plays into the final output of the ballot and how the ballot is tabulated, I think, remains to be seen."

"When it comes time to build the machine," he said, "it's gonna have to meet those standards" of "transparency, security, accuracy and verifiability".

Well, that sounds good, at least.

NO INTERNET VOTING FOR L.A.

We have long detailed the madness of Internet Voting. Among our coverage, we've documented a number of disastrous attempts at Internet Voting systems and the many dangers they pose to security and oversight, as well as the warnings against them by computer science and security experts, and Election Integrity experts.

One need only look back to Washington D.C.'s disastrous experiment in Internet Voting, which almost went live in 2010 for overseas and military voters. The plans to use the system were scrapped at the last minute after it was hacked and completely taken over by "white hat hackers" (University of Michigan computer students and their professor), who had gained such total command of the system in mere hours that they were not only able to change every vote already cast on it during a mock election, but inserted a script into the system to change all future votes invisibly as well. They even modified all of the system's main passwords to thwart similar attempts to hack the system that they discovered to be ongoing by computers from both Iran and China.

There have been many other disasters in Internet Voting --- from a 2012 online Canadian election attacked by some 10,000 computers, to a 2012 CA State University student body election that was hacked by one of the candidates in order to gain control of an annual salary and the student government's $300,000 budget, to this year's embarrassment by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which attempted to use Internet Voting for the first time this year, to disturbing and questionable effect.

The non-partisan election integrity group, VerifiedVoting.org posted a "Statement on the Dangers of Internet Voting in Public Elections," signed by nearly a dozen top computer science and security experts with backgrounds in electronic voting systems. The letter explains that "Cyber security experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Homeland Security have warned that current Internet voting technologies should not be deployed in public elections," as they "cannot be properly protected and may be subject to undetectable alteration."

"We conclude that the evidence does not exist to support casting ballots online in public elections," the scientists note. "There are too many unsolved security challenges that have yet to be overcome. In fact securing networks from cyber attack is a major national security concern that is as yet unresolved. Financial institutions, the FBI, the White House, the Department of Defense have all been breached. Major corporations like Lockheed Martin, Sony, Google, Adobe, Microsoft, and Northrop Grumman have also been breached. It is unreasonable to assume that any Internet voting system vendor today can repel a well funded partisan operative or nation state determined to manipulate, disrupt, or violate voter privacy in an online public election."

After the infamous Washington D.C. hack, the scientists who testified about it to a D.C. Elections Committee unanimously agreed that the technology simply doesn't exist at this time --- and likely will not for a decade or more --- to even consider voting over the Internet.

J. Alex Halderman, the University of Michigan computer scientist who led the team that took over the D.C. Internet Voting systems (not long after her also hacked a touch-screen voting system, replacing its voting software with Pac-Man), testified that "the scientific consensus is that Internet Voting is just too dangerous today based on the limits of today's security technology," adding: "Indeed, it will probably be decades, if ever, before the technology is at a level where we can perform voting safely, purely over the Internet."

Verified Voting's Jeremy Epstein testified similarly at the same D.C. hearing: "What we found in forty years of experience is you can penetrate and patch, and then you penetrate again and you patch again, and you penetrate again and you patch again and you penetrate again and you patch again and it never ends. If it ended, Microsoft would have succeeded. We wouldn't all be having to reboot our computer and install patches once a month for the past ten years. ... This isn't a solvable problem that way."

From an Election Integrity standpoint, it's even larger than an issue of mere security. The fact is that even if such a system were 100% secure, it is impossible for citizens to know that it was 100% secure and that all votes were both recorded and tabulated as per the voters' intent.

Despite all of that, many elected officials, including, disturbingly enough, a number of misinformed Democrats in California, continue to call for Internet Voting in the state.

With all of that, I was very pleased with Logan's unambiguous answer to my direct question as to whether he has ruled out Internet Voting for L.A. County's new system, given the long-documented dangers and concerns.

"Yeah. I would say that Internet Voting, as it has been attempted and discussed in this country and outside of this country, would not fall within --- would not meet the standards that we've adopted for this project," he said.

"The principles that we've adopted, like paper-based ballots that are available for auditing and verifiability, and the security standards that are embedded in our principles, and the value of a secret ballot that allows for independence in voting, are outside the scope of any Internet Voting project that's been attempted at this point."

So that, at least, seems to be very encouraging news.

From there, however, our discussion became a bit more troubling...

UH, OH --- TOUCH-SCREENS AND COMPUTER-PRINTED BALLOTS

Long time readers of The BRAD BLOG will recall my own disastrous experience in L.A. County some years ago when I attempted to use the disabled-accessible part of the InkaVote Plus system to cast my vote in the June 2008 state primary. The system allows blind voters to use audio prompts to select their favored candidates and then the computer allows the voter to confirm the selections before printing out a paper ballot with the voters' selections marked for them on the paper. That ballot is then optically-scanned like all of the other hand-marked paper ballots in the election.

As I'm not blind, I was able to check to make sure the computer had printed my votes properly before dropping it into the ballot box.

I discovered --- after some 15 or so minutes studying the printed ballot, attempting to make sure I was reading it correctly --- that the computer system had misprinted 4 out of 12 of my own votes!

So, it was with that troubling experience in mind --- and Logan's own familiarity with it (his team did a terrific forensic job determining what had gone wrong to cause the error) --- that I asked him if we were looking at the possibility of computer-, rather than hand-marked paper ballots for L.A.'s future voting system (and, perhaps yours too!)

His answer was not encouraging.

"I think that it's likely that what we end up with will allow for hand-marked ballots, but that there very well could be some electronic interfaces for marking the ballot. But the key component there is the verifiability. Making sure that the voter has the ability to verify that the mark that they made electronically matches up to their choices."

A computer that marks the ballot for you, the way the current voting system's computer (mis)marked it for me, back in 2008, would seem to be stretching the idea of a "hand-marked ballot".

"How would I, as an Election Integrity advocate," I asked him, "how would I look at those ballots and know that the voter had approved them and approved them correctly, since we have studies showing that 80% of the people don't check the paper trails that are printed off by computers? Other studies show that, even when they do check them, they don't notice vote flips. So how would I, after the election, know that I was actually looking at the voter intent on a computer printed ballot?"

Logan's answer did not offer much me much confidence: "I think that there are a couple of different ways to address that, and that could be a whole show. But I would say that one fundamental thing that I hope we look at in this, is actually separating the front-end from the back-end of that. So, in other words, you might have a [computerized] ballot-marking device that you use some sort of interface, whether it be touch-screen or a keyboard where you make your selections. That prints out a ballot that's human readable, so you can see that I've made my selection for 'Brad Friedman' and for 'Yes on Measure J', and blah, blah, blah and you can actually physically see that. And then you take that and deposit that into a back-end system that does the actual tabulation, that is totally separate and independent from the marking system."

His answer didn't speak to my point about studies by MIT and Caltech that found most voters do not bother to check their computer printed votes, and that two-thirds of those who do look at the summary at the end of the computer voting process, according to a study by Rice University, don't notice when the computer has flipped one or more of their votes.

The biggest problem, however, is that even if voters do check their computer-printed ballots (and most don't) and even if they do notice if a vote has been flipped by the computer (and most don't), it is strictly impossible for anybody after the election to know that they did!

The result: 100% unverifiable voting.

Hand-marked paper ballots, presuming chain of custody is secure, are known, by their very definition, to be a reflection of the voter's intent. But with computer-marked ballots, it simply can't be known if they reflect the voter's intent or not after the ballot has been cast. A computer Ballot Marking Device (BMD) system would ultimately be equally as unverifiable as any of the touch-screen or similar electronic voting systems already in use --- often to disastrous affect --- across the country.

Adding to my worries that such a system of computer Ballot Marking Devices is in our future is the fact that Sen. Padilla's bill --- being deceptively sold to the public as a bill to allow L.A. to develop a publicly-owned voting system --- actually encourages the development of touch-screen computer voting systems like the one described by Logan. [NOTE: We requested comment from Padilla's office on this matter, and other concerns about the bill, but they have yet to respond. We hope to cover more about the troubling details in the current version of his bill in a future article.]

In a follow-up email after our interview, in which I wanted to verify whether Logan meant that all voters would always have the option, somehow, of hand-marking a paper ballot at the polling place, or whether his comment about a system that "will allow for hand-marked ballots" meant that a voter would have to use an absentee ballot, for example, if they wanted to hand-mark their vote, he responded:

Not to get ahead of the design outcomes and the iterative review and vetting process that will follow, but the focus on flexibility, adaptability and usability as important elements of a voting systems design --- grounded in security and accuracy, of course, would suggest that the voter will have options in the voting experience. I do not foresee hand-marking or other options limited to certain groups of voters or options that are exclusive to either a poll voting experience or a vote by mail voting experience. The full principles document, adopted by consensus with our Voting Systems Assessment Advisory Committee is available at www.lavote.net/Voter/VSAP/

Your interpretation of his response there is likely as good mine. In truth, I'm not sure if that means all voters will be able to vote by hand-marked paper ballot at the polling place or not. But I suspect we'll be revisiting the issue as his new system begins to take more physical shape.

NO FEDERAL TESTING?!

Given that Padilla's bill, if passed and signed as currently written, is set to remove California's requirement that all voting systems be federally certified by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC), I asked Logan if he had planned to have the new system follow current state law requiring both independent federal testing and independent state testing before voting systems may be used in the state.

He made it clear that he would like to avoid federal testing, explaining that dysfunction at the EAC makes federal testing something to be avoided.

"The federal infrastructure for providing that certification or approval for voting systems is completely broken right now," he explained, somewhat inaccurately. "It's governed by the Election Assistance Commission which has no members right now. It's mired in the partisan political dynamic on Capitol Hill."

It is true that the EAC is a mess. Currently is has no Commissioners at all, and no Executive Director. (Without going into great detail here, this is thanks to Republicans refusing for several years to nominate any Commissioners for the two seats they control, holding up the confirmation of the nominees named by the Democrats in the process. Yes, we went through the 2012 Presidential election year with no Commissioners on the federal body created to oversee and assist with the nation's election systems.)

Nonetheless, even without Commissioners and an Executive Director, the EAC's testing and certification regime is still operating as per usual.

"We continue to test and certify voting systems uninterrupted by our lack of Commissioners," Brian Hancock, the EAC's Director of Testing and Certification confirmed via email after my interview with Logan.

Jessica Myers, an EAC Certification Program Specialist also confirmed that point as well, when asked if they were still up and running as usual. "Yes, that is correct," she wrote. "We are still testing and certifying voting systems. We post a weekly update of the progress of the test campaigns on the EAC blog."

Indeed, the EAC's website posts documentation of testing performed in January, February and March of 2013, as well as in recent years prior, and last week's EAC blog update included information on the newly published "Voting System Test Laboratory (VSTL) Program Manual, version 2.0".

When I followed up with Logan after the interview, explaining that I was confused about his response on this point, given that the EAC was, indeed, still testing new voting systems as normal, he responded as follows:

You are correct that the EAC testing and certification process is still in place; although with limitations. The current process is expensive and time consuming and is limited to testing and certification under dated (some would argue outdated) standards that cannot be updated without a quorum of EAC Commissioners to adopt them. None of the systems that have recently been certified or that are seeking certification --- all of which come from the limited commercial market --- are scalable to the needs of Los Angeles County. Additionally, the federal standards, as they exist, are voluntary. Several states have adopted state-based systems in lieu of reliance on or to augment the federal process. I believe the agency is similarly limited in contracting with any additional testing laboratories beyond those with which they are currently engaged and that their staffing capacity is depleted as well. The federal testing and certification process, as it exists today, contemplates a voting systems design that is end-to-end --- supported and marketed by a single vendor. We see exclusive reliance on the federal system both as insufficient for a new model of voting systems development and a process that doesn't have the capacity to meet the timelines and demands of the county's voting system needs. The Padilla bill continues to make reference to the federal process and to the EAC (or its successor), but provides for the possibility of a more robust and efficient state-based testing and certification process.

There are a number of question I have about a number of the details offered by Logan's response. I have asked the EAC to respond to some of those question in kind. If they do, I will update here with that information.

For now, and for whatever reason, Logan seems interested in avoiding the federal testing and certification process entirely. The provisions in Padilla's current bill, as I read them, appear to grant sole authority to the CA Sec. of State to approve voting systems, even without any testing whatsoever, if he or she so chooses. That makes all of this additionally disturbing.

UPDATE: The EAC's Hancock responded to my follow-up query via email. He says that "In simple terms, [Logan is] correct that we cannot test to updated Standards until we have a quorum of Commissioners. That said, we have made great progress in the past 2-3 years in the time and cost of testing and certifying voting systems. Please feel free to ask the manufacturers or VSTLs [Voting System Test Laboratories] and I believe they will agree with this statement."

More to the point, he also goes on to note that there is an "extensions clause" [PDF] to the EAC's current testing standards that Logan refers to as "dated (some would argue outdated)" above. Hancock explained that the clause allows for the testing of non-traditional systems, that do not meet the "end-to-end" design Logan referenced above as a reason why the EAC would not be an appropriate body to test LA's new system.

Finally, Hancock says he is a member of Logan's VSAP Technical Advisory Committee and, as such, is "continuing to talk at length with Dean regarding how certification might work when we eventually get a system in LA County."

While we have spent no small number of pixels here at The BRAD BLOG, and even in books, detailing the enormous problems and dysfunctions of the EAC, including in their testing and certification regime, it remains our opinion that more testing, rather than less, by more independent bodies, is a good and necessary thing. Skirting those requirements altogether is troubling, to say the least, and it remains unclear to me why a system of this size, put together over this many years, with an eye to voter confidence, would serve the voters better by not being federally certified in addition to state certified, before being used in an actual election.

WHY NOT "DEMOCRACY'S GOLD STANDARD" --- HAND-COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS?

As I explained at the beginning of this article, Logan began his search by stating that he was open to any and all types of voting and tabulation systems. I had asked him, several years ago, if he intended to look into what we regard around here as "Democracy's Gold Standard" --- hand-marked paper ballots, publicly hand-counted at the precinct on Election Night, with all members of the public, political parties and even video cameras watching, with results posted decentrally at the precincts before ballots are moved anywhere.

Such a system is used (and much beloved), for example, by 40% of the towns in New Hampshire.

While we ran out of time to go into detail at the end of our interview on my KPFK show last week, Logan stated in the seconds we had left that hand-counting "has been part of the research that we've done."

I promised to follow up with him for more details on that point afterward. He responded to my post-election email query with the following:

Hand marked, hand counted ballots was among the existing voting systems included in our assessment documents and data collection. Hand counting was also included among the voting systems referenced in voter surveys and focus groups early on in the project; which are summarized in our July 9, 2010 project report available on the VSAP web page. Additionally, our team has reviewed books and reports on the New Hampshire hand count process and we looked at a 2012 study out of Rice University on various hand-count methods for ballot tabulation. I don't have immediate access to that study, but I am sure you can access it through a search engine.

The July 9, 2010 report [PDF] Logan references describes telephone and online surveys commissioned by the county to try and determine what sort of voting system voters in L.A. County would most like to use. Most respondents, according to those results, would like to use Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting systems, despite the fact that they are 100% unverifiable --- a point that was not explained to respondents taking the survey.

The fewest percentage of respondents wanted a hand-counted paper ballot system, though that number, like those supporting DREs, varied among different demographic groups in the survey. It should also be noted that, of all the voting systems from which respondents were asked to choose, hand-counted paper ballots was likely the one they were least familiar with, as it is the most rarely used among our 50 states. Moreover, when hand-counting is seen by voters, it is usually in the event of post-election recounts, where all of the ballots in a race are counted at once in a central location, versus the type of precinct-based, publicly-overseen counting done in the aforementioned New Hampshire towns and a few other jurisdictions around the country, as described in Nancy Tobi's Hands-On Elections: An Informational Handbook for Running Real Elections, Using Real Paper Ballots, Counted by Real People.

But that too is a topic I suspect we will be returning to in some detail in the days ahead, as Logan's plans take shape, and as we do our best to keep an eye on it --- and as hopefully the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk of the world's largest voting jurisdiction will see fit to continue the discussion with us on his progress in the not-too-distant future.

* * *

My full interview with Los Angeles County's Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan, from the April 17, 2013 episode of The BradCast on KPFK/Pacfica Radio, follows below...

Download MP3 or listen online:
[See post to listen to audio]

* * *Please support The BRAD BLOG's fiercely independent, award-winning coverage of your electoral system, as available from no other media outlet in the nation --- now in our TENTH YEAR! --- with a donation to help us keep going (Snail mail, more options here). If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details right here...

With the U.S. stock market hitting all-time record highs again of late, it'd be understandable for some to think strength and confidence has returned to the stock exchange.

But if today's mid-day "flash crash" --- which saw the S&P Index lose $136 billion in a matter of four minutes as AP's Twitter feed was hacked to announce, inaccurately, that a bomb had gone off in the White House --- is any indication, that's hardly the case...

You'll be delighted to know, of course, that the same casino, stock market immediately gained almost all of its losses back in almost the same amount of time it took to lose them, ultimately ending the day at another near-record high. Step right up!

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: They'd like to get their lives back: 3rd anniversary of BP's Oil Disaster in the Gulf; EPA victory over mountaintop removal coal mining; EPA slams State Dept's Keystone XL report; PLUS: Free at last: environmental activist Tim de Christopher freed - on Earth Day ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link: Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? 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' (see links below): America now has more solar energy workers than coal miners; Earth's cooling came to sudden halt in 1900; '800 Love Canals' remain; Jewell: 'One size doesn't fit all' on fracking; Denier myth: ‘Climate Change’ vs. ‘Global Warming’; Denying sea-level rise divides NC; Sichuan earthquake's threat to China's dams; WA: How Boeing killed water quality standards; TX fertilizer blast raises national security questions; EPA powerless over toxic flame retardant chemicals ... PLUS: Reality Gap: Americans clueless about global scientific consensus on human-caused climate change ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• The Fossil Fuel Industry Tool Who Told You the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Wouldn't Happen: Steven F. Hayward and the 3rd anniversary of an historic failure... (The BRAD BLOG)
• Kind Of A Big Deal: EPA Slams State Dept's Keystone XL Pipeline Report:
• How much does EPA’s objection to Keystone XL matter? A lot. (Washington Post)
• EPA Wants State Dept. To Rework Analysis of Keystone XL Pipeline (Washington Post)
• EPA Releases Harsh Revioew of State KXL Environmental Report: (LA Times):
  The Environmental Protection Agency issued a sharply critical assessment of the State Department's recent environmental impact review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, certain to complicate efforts to win approval for the $7-billion project.

• Keystone Public Comments Won't Be Made Public, State Department Says (InsideClimate News, 3/25/13)
• How is the Keystone XL Protest Affecting the Broader Climate Movement? (Natural Capital)
• ANALYSIS: KXL: Better Know Your NEPA (Elana Schor)
• ANALYSIS: Oil-by-train may not be substitute for Keystone pipeline (Reuters)
• More than One Million Strong Against Keystone XL (Natl Wildlife Federation)
• EPA's Major Court Victory Over Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining:
• MTR: Appeals court backs EPA veto of Spruce Mine (WV Gazette):
  Coal industry officials and coalfield politicians have argued that EPA did not have the legal power to veto the Spruce Mine permit after it was issued. Their complaints about EPA's veto have been at the heart of their campaign to paint EPA as a rogue agency carrying out an illegal effort to destroy the Appalachian coal industry.
• Court backs EPA veto of mountaintop mining project: The appeals court remanded the case back to the federal district court to decide whether the EPA’s action was a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act... (The Hill's e2 Wire)
• Tim DeChristopher: Free At Last, Ironically on EARTH DAY:
• LISTEN: Brad's interview with Tim DeChristopher before his 2-yr prison sentence (The BRAD BLOG)
• VIDEO: Earth Day Exclusive: Tim DeChristopher Speaks Out After 21 Months in Prison for Disrupting Oil Bid (Democracy Now!) [emphasis added]:
  DeChristopher posed as a bidder, won drilling lease rights to 22,000 acres of land in an attempt to save the property from oil and gas extraction. The auction itself was later overturned and declared illegal, a fact that Tim’s defense attorneys were prevented from telling the jury. They were also barred from informing jurors that Tim had raised the money for the initial payment to the Bureau of Land Management, a payment the BLM refused to accept.
• A Dangerous Man: Tim DeChristopher Now Loose (Climate Crocks)
• VIDEO: Bidder 70 Film Trailer (Gathr Films YouTube Channel)






• BP Oil Disaster: 3rd Anniversary:
• The BP oil disaster: Three years later (Environmental Defense Fund) [emphasis added]:
  “Three years after the Gulf was inundated with BP oil, the wildlife, habitats and people of the Gulf are still feeling the effects of the disaster,” [National Wildlife Federation’s David] Muth said. “In 2012 alone, some 6 million pounds of BP oil was collected from Louisiana’s shorelines and 200 miles of coast remain oiled. We can’t allow BP off the hook for anything less than justice requires—a full payment for its recklessness so that real restoration of the Gulf’s ecosystem and economy can begin.”
• Full coverage on the ongoing BP Trial from the New Orleans Times-Picayune (NOLA.com)
• The Spilling Fields: How BP Made The Gulf Oil Disaster More Toxic While Covering It Up (Climate Progress)
• What BP Doesn’t Want You to Know About the 2010 Gulf Spill: The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was even worse than BP wanted us to know. (Daily Beast):
  Within days, the 32-year-old single mother was coughing up blood and suffering constant headaches. She lost her voice. “My throat felt like I’d swallowed razor blades,” she says.
• Florida Sues BP Over Gulf Oil Spill (NY Times)
• AUDIO: Louisiana Public Broadcasting Presents: "Louisiana Coastal Concerns: BP & Beyond" (Louisiana Public Radio)
• BP oil spill trial continues as demonstrators note upcoming 3-year anniversary of disaster (NOLA.com)
• New BP Data Show 20% of Offshore Responders Exposed to Chemical That Sickened Valdez Workers (NY Times)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• Closing the Consensus Gap on Climate Change (John Cook, Weather Underground):
  How many climate scientists agree that humans are causing global warming? If you asked the average person on the street, the response might surprise you. On average, the general public think less than half of climate scientists agree that humans are causing global warming. The reality is 97%. There is a huge gap between public perception of the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming and reality.
• How Americans see global warming — in 8 charts (Washington Post)
• Earth's cooling came to sudden halt in 1900, study shows (CS Monitor): An international study used tree rings and pollen to build the first record of global climate change, continent by continent, over 2,000 years.
• America now has more solar energy workers than coal miners (Treehugger):
  [There are] more solar energy workers in Texas than ranchers, that solar workers outnumber actors in California, and that across the whole 50 states, there are more solar workers than coal miners.
• New Interior chief Jewell: 'One size doesn't fit all' on fracking (The Hill's e2 Wire)
• Debunking The Dumbest Denier Myth (Again): ‘Climate Change’ Vs. ‘Global Warming’ (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  [The] switch was championed by the GOP’s spinmaster, Frank Luntz, who, as it turns out, also championed switching from ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’ in 2003. Scientists, environmentalists, progressives, and frankly the whole darn planet have always used both terms — hence the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established in 1988.
• Denying sea-level rise: How 100 centimeters divided the state of North Carolina (Earth Magazine)
• EPA probes flame retardants but lacks power to ban (Chicago Tribune):
  As the Obama administration launches a broad investigation of flame retardants used in furniture and other household goods, the nation's top environmental regulators are running into the limitations of a federal law that makes it practically impossible to ban hazardous chemicals.
• 800 Love Canals: Toxic legacy's time bomb (Buffalo News):
  Nearly 800 hazardous waste sites are located in Erie, Niagara and Cattaraugus counties, and the majority of them are a threat to the largest source of fresh water in the world --- the Great Lakes.
• Sichuan quake highlights threat to China's dams (New Scientist) [emphasis added]:
  It's too early to know whether reservoir-building contributed to last week's quake. Of more immediate concern is the damage to dams and reservoirs, says Mian Liu of the University of Missouri in Columbia. According to the Ministry of Water Resources, two medium-sized and 52 small dams were damaged, with residents evacuated downstream of five of them.
• Less rainfall expected for the Hawaiian Islands (Eureka Alert)
• WA State: How Boeing, allies torpedoed state’s rules on toxic fish (Investigate West):
  Boeing asked to delay the process last year and allow more discussion because the company believed it would result in pollution limits that were “not economically viable, not technically feasible, and there’s questionable environmental benefit as well,” said Terry Mutter, Boeing’s director of environmental strategy.
• "Clout": What does an obscure Alaska road project say about Obama’s clout? (The Ticket, Yahoo News)
• West Fertilizer blast raises questions about ammonia plants in Iowa (USA Today)
• Report on U.S. Meat Sounds Alarm on Resistant Bacteria (NY Times):
  More than half of samples of ground turkey, pork chops and ground beef collected from supermarkets for testing by the federal government contained a bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to a new report highlighting the findings.
• New Study Shows Once Again How "Climategate" Emails Were Distorted (Media Matters):
  [A] recent study re-confirms what that scientist was actually saying --- that much of recent heat has been trapped deep in the ocean.
• How Far Can Climate Change Go?: (Scientific American) [emphasis added]:
  How far can we push the planet?

New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:

• COVER STORY: It's Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn't impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century --- way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

Essential Climate Science Background:

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. ...It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don't want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming--if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried - if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)

It was quite a moving show last night in the Nevada State Senate, as a Joint Resolution was passed that would repeal the Constitutional ban on marriage equality in that state, as passed by voters over a decade ago.

All of the state Senate's Democrats supported the resolution, and one Republican jumped onto the right side of history in a surprise last-minute move. One Democratic Senator even came out as gay during the floor proceedings.

The measure passed the Nevada Senate 12 to 9 and will now head to the Assembly. If successful there, it will face one more vote in both chambers in 2015 before appearing on the 2016 ballot for approval by voters who, according to recent polls there, are now believed to be in favor of lifting the ban. So, as MLK famously said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Dramatic speeches on the floor during debate on the resolution led even jaded long-time Nevada report Jon Ralston, who covered the debate live via his Twitter feed, to observe: "Too often we who cover politics think of these people as automatons pressing a red or green button. Not tonight. Raw, emotional, human."

"Great to be not just a witness to history (or the beginning, at least), but to see politicians stripped down to who they are was something," he noted, before adding: "I feel sorry for reporters who weren't here to feel the electricity in this chamber."

But with Democrats across the country now seemingly falling over themselves to suddenly support marriage equality --- redefining the word "evolution" (or, perhaps, more accurately, attempting to redefine the word "flip-flop") --- even Republicans, at least Republicans in the Northeast, are also now showing signs of scrambling to get onto the right side of history as well.

This early evidence of that arrived in my inbox this morning, from the FreedomToMarry.org group...

04/23/2013

RI Republican Senate Caucus Unanimously Supports Marriage Bill

Providence - Today all five Republicans in the Rhode Island Senate announced their support for S38, the marriage bill to end the statewide exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage, and their intention to vote for it on the floor. The bill passed easily in the Rhode Island House of Representatives in January, and the state's Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a vote on it today. This will be the first time ever that a party caucus in a legislative branch --- Republican or Democratic --- will have voted unanimously in favor of freedom to marry legislation.

"Today's showing of support illustrates the irreversible shift in Republicans' understanding of why marriage matters to same-sex couples and their families," said Tyler Deaton, campaign manager of Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry. "Same-sex couples want to marry for the same reasons as anyone else - to take vows in front of their loved ones, to protect their families, and to share in the responsibilities that marriage brings. As the Republican Party continues to evolve, these elected officials' united stance sends a clear message to the rest of the GOP: stand on the side of marriage and the right side of history."

Ed J. Lopez, a Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry leadership committee member who is National Vice Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, said: "Rhode Island Republicans are leading the way to a more inclusive GOP --- one that can continue to grow and stay relevant as America changes. Their actions today show that not only do they know the freedom to marry is completely in line with conservative values like personal liberty and the importance of family, they are working to make it a reality."

###

Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry is a campaign to highlight and build support for the freedom to marry among young conservatives across America. They represent the rapidly growing numbers of young conservatives across the country that agree all Americans should be able to share in the freedom to marry.

Of course, it's much easier for Republicans in the "liberal" Northeast to support such measures, even though marriage equality is clearly a conservative value (even if pretend "conservatives" have yet to be instructed on that.) But, as we have argued here for years, this fight is already won. The only question that remains now is how long it will take the cowards and bigots and misinformed to realize that.

Among the many items which would have otherwise been top stories --- some even meriting wall-to-wall cable news channel coverage --- during last week's Worst News Week Ever™, was the release of a landmark bi-partisan report on the use of torture by the U.S. following 9/11.

The Constitution Project's "Task Force on Detainee Treatment" is described as "an independent, bipartisan, blue-ribbon panel charged with examining the federal government’s policies and actions related to the capture, detention and treatment of suspected terrorists during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations."

It is headed up by former Congressmen Asa Hutchinson (R) and James R. Jones (D). Hutchinson also served as a top official in the George W. Bush Administration.

"In many respects," the introduction to the report explains, "this Task Force report is the examination of the treatment of suspected terrorists that official Washington has been reluctant to conduct."

As the New York Times' Scott Shane detailed in his barely noticed coverage last Tuesday (the day after the Boston Marathon bombing and the day before the deadly explosion at the West, TX fertilizer plant)...

A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that "it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture" and that the nation's highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it.

The sweeping, 577-page report says that while brutality has occurred in every American war, there never before had been "the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after 9/11 directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody."
...
The use of torture, the report concludes, has "no justification" and "damaged the standing of our nation, reduced our capacity to convey moral censure when necessary and potentially increased the danger to U.S. military personnel taken captive." The task force found "no firm or persuasive evidence" that these interrogation methods produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means.
...
Mr. Hutchinson, who served in the Bush administration as chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration and under secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said he "took convincing" on the torture issue. But after the panel's nearly two years of research, he said he had no doubts about what the United States did.

"This has not been an easy inquiry for me, because I know many of the players," Mr. Hutchinson said in an interview.
...
"I had not recognized the depths of torture in some cases," Mr. Jones said. "We lost our compass."

While the Constitution Project report covers mainly the Bush years, it is critical of some Obama administration policies, especially what it calls excessive secrecy. It says that keeping the details of rendition and torture from the public "cannot continue to be justified on the basis of national security" and urges the administration to stop citing state secrets to block lawsuits by former detainees.

We will reserve the option of returning to this matter in the near future in more detail. But, as we're still recovering, as you may be as well, from a horrible news hangover following last week's Week From Hell (during which Andy Daly tweeted accurately: "When an Elvis impersonator trying to kill the President is the least interesting news story of the week, you know some shit went down") we are going to go easy on this matter for the moment, and defer instead to the The Daily Show's coverage of this disturbing report...just to help take the edge off things for now. You're welcome.

A solar-powered plane, known as the Solar Impulse, is cable of flying both day and night without fuel, courtesy of 12,000 photovotaic cells and batteries. The plane, "born in Switzerland", is set to commence a cross-country journey from San Francisco to New York on May 1, following a test flight in the Bay area on Friday. It is scheduled to make a number of stops along the way, flying some 20 to 26 hours each leg.

In the face of long standing concerns about global pollution from jet aircraft, Solar Impulse is a positive step, but still a ways from being a practical one given the size of the one seat aircraft and a top speed that is only about 40 mph.

But its still pretty cool. The major goal of the project is for a round-the-world flight, now scheduled for 2015. Here's a look at an earlier 2010 test flight of Solar Impulse, back when its goal for a global flight was still scheduled for 2012...

Today is the three year anniversary of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill and manslaughter disaster. 11 men were killed and more than 200 million gallons of crude spilled into the Gulf in what would turn out to be the largest accidental oil spill in world history.

A remark on last week's Real Time with Bill Maher drew my attention back to the woeful "advocacy journalism" (I'm being kind there) of those on the Right who continue, even to this day, to perform public relations work for the fossil fuel industry under the guise of "journalism".

Maher cited an embarrassing quote from an article by Steven F. Hayward, published by the unapologetically-wrong-on-just-about-everything Weekly Standard (the "brain"-child of its also-unapologetically-wrong-on-just-about-everything editors William Kristol and Fred Barnes) which, for non-RW loon reporters, might have been a career-ender. Or, at least, for non-RW loon reporters, it might have led to the humblest of apologies and acknowledgment for having been so tragically wrong. No such apologies or contrition occur in RW Media "Expert" Land, unfortunately, where there is no inaccuracy too wrong and no prognostication so off base that it might cause shame or humility or, gasp, an invitation from its publishers to never write there again.

Just days before the explosion of BP's rig and the death of those workers (BP recently pleaded guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter, after which nobody from BP went to jail, naturally), Hayward wrote: "Few areas of national policy offer as bad a ratio of blather to substance as energy. It is a field where cliché, wishful thinking, and wince-inducing ignorance dominate the discourse."

"No matter how patiently or repeatedly the myths and realities of energy are explained," Hayward condescended, "we are nowhere near being able to replace God's gift of dirty, toxic fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy. "Liberals," he noted, "are the worst offenders," when it comes to this naive, misinformed wishful thinking.

Hayward, the sage and much-smarter-than-you Fellow from the American Enterprise Institute, went on to write in his article, published on April 16, 2010 [emphasis added]...

The two main reasons oil and other fossil fuels became environmentally incorrect in the 1970s—air pollution and risk of oil spills—are largely obsolete. Improvements in drilling technology have greatly reduced the risk of the kind of offshore spill that occurred off Santa Barbara in 1969. ... To fear oil spills from offshore rigs today is analogous to fearing air travel now because of prop plane crashes in the 1950s.

Just four days later, on April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf.

That's not all he was wrong about, of course. The same article article also offered the wisdom --- just two years prior to the hottest year in recorded history in the contiguous U.S. and the ninth hottest year on record globally --- that "the case for catastrophic global warming" was "in free fall"...

While actual journalists might have been embarrassed and humiliated and even apologized profusely for the embarrassing statements in that article, Hayward, being a RW "journalist", went on to follow up the article in a subsequent Weekly Standard piece just two months later (while millions of gallons of crude were still gushing uncontrollably into the Gulf), headlined "How to Think About Oil Spills: The perils of overreaction", wherein he began by acknowledging his previous sniff at those who "fear oil spills from offshore rights today" with a pretend "big mea culpa", only to go on to argue that "The basic point was nonetheless correct."

Hayward, of course, was not alone in his misleading commentary prior to BP's disaster, as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting pointed out in the month that followed the spill. And it wasn't only Rightwingers in the media who were exposed as clowns. Even President Barack Obama, on April 2, 2010, just over two weeks prior to the spill, declared "oil rigs today generally don't cause spills."

Obama, of course, was generally right, as was Hayward's "basic point." While those rigs and the wells they drill leak all the time, they don't generally cause spills of the likes the Deepwater Horizon disaster. On the other hand, when they do, it is catastrophic. And it only takes one such spill to bear that out. And when they don't, they are still producing a toxic product that continues to poison the planet in dangerously irreversible ways.

Despite his own proud, if "wince-inducing ignorance", the unapologetic Steven F. Hayward continues to pen more fossil fuel industry propaganda, more discredited cover stories, and even another denier article titled "The Climate Circus Leaves Town" in the magazine's latest issue, on the third anniversary of his most infamous "wince-inducing ignorance."

For The Weekly Standard, and other similar Rightwing PR outlets, apparently, there remain no such "standards" at all.

Nearly a quarter century has passed since the U.S. Supreme Court, in Symm vs. United States, ruled that college students had a right to treat their dorms as their residence for voting purposes. It's a fact which Republicans seem to find very inconvenient --- especially given the fact that, in 2008, the youth vote, heaviest in precincts where college campuses are located, favored Barack Obama over John McCain by a two-to-one ratio. The numbers were similar against Mitt Romney in 2012.

Thus, in 2011, despite the fact that his investigation failed to establish a single instance of voter fraud by any student, Maine's Republican Secretary of State Charlie E. Summers sent an intimidating letter to lawfully registered student voters seeking to convince them to "cancel" their voter registration where they go to school.

"Back in February," of this year, writes Laura Conaway at Maddow Blog, "an Indiana Republican proposed revoking the right for students to register at their colleges. After college Democrats and Republicans in Indiana joined in pushing back, the sponsor promised to amend her bill so that it would be constitutional, by which she meant dropping the idea."

Not to be outdone, this month three North Carolina Republican State Senators have introduced the appropriately numbered S666, which would strip the right of the parents of students from claiming a personal state tax exemption, which ranges from $2,000 - $2,500, if the student lawfully uses their dorm as their residence for voting purposes.

A related bill, S667, deceptively titled the "Equalize Voter Rights" act, would also strip tax exemptions for parents whose student children fail to register their car at the same place they register to vote. According to WRAL, "That also could cut down on college student registration, since many students maintain their vehicle registration in their home counties."

As the state's Democratic House Minority leader notes, both bills "would raise taxes on middle-class families who are trying to put their children through college." But, apparently Republicans are now in favor of tax increases, at least in NC, as long at it might help curb the increase in the youth vote seen over the last several elections.

But what may be most troubling of all, is that it seems the esteemed GOP state Senators in NC must be entirely unaware of the provisions of the 24th Amendment which, long ago, outlawed all poll taxes.

* * *Please support The BRAD BLOG's fiercely independent, award-winning coverage of your electoral system, as available from no other media outlet in the nation --- now in our TENTH YEAR! --- with a donation to help us keep going (Snail mail, more options here). If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details right here...

5:50pm PT: Boston Police tweet: "CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody." Watertown residents stream into streets to cheer police as cars roll back out of town...

5:47pm PT: Local media: Second "suspect alive, in custody, and they're asking for a medic. It's over." Applause heard breaking out around scene. || Boston Police tweet: "Suspect in custody. Officers sweeping the area."

4:31pm PT: "Barrage of gunfire" heard in Watertown. "Body found on a boat," reports NBC's Pete Williams. Area locked down, officials respond, reports of suspect surrounded...unclear whether person is still alive...

12:51pm PT: Noteworthy developments since I last checked in here. The suspects are brothers from Chechnya and have been in the U.S. for two years or more. The one who was killed is 26-year old Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The one still on the lam is 19-year old Dzhokhar. Here's another good timeline of the overnight events through 8:40am ET today as the city remains shut down during the on-going manhunt...

3:15am PT: All MBTA transit trains and buses have been shut down, as the man hunt continues. Since I suspect this is all going to be over, one way or another, by the time I wake up, and since it's the second near-all-nighter I've had here in a row, I'm going to try and hasten things by going to sleep. Though I'll likely still be following along and retweeting on The Twitters.

1:55am PT: It's been a wild night, where we've been trying to keep up with and/or make sense of developments via Twitter.

So far, one MIT officer has been shot dead. Another local law enforcement official is in critical condition after a gunfight with the alleged Boston Marathon bombing suspects. One of those suspects, the one seen in the black hat in photos released by the FBI earlier today, is now dead, according to officials.

The other suspect, in the white hat, is being pursued in the Watertown area at this time, where residents have been asked to stay inside, lock their doors, and do not open it unless it is for the police who are going yard-by-yard searching for the second suspect. He is believed to be armed and very dangerous.

Here, via CBS Boston, is what happened up until now, over the past 5 hours or so, according to a description offered by the Middlesex District Attorney...

Authorities launched an immediate investigation into the circumstances of the shooting. The investigation determined that two males were involved in this shooting.

A short time later, police received reports of an armed carjacking by two males in the area of Third Street in Cambridge. The victim was carjacked at gunpoint by two males and was kept in the car with the suspects for approximately a half hour. The victim was released at a gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. He was not injured.

Police immediately began a search for the vehicle and were in pursuit of the vehicle into Watertown. At that time, explosive devices were reportedly thrown from car by the suspects. The suspects and police also exchanged gunfire in the area of Dexter and Laurel streets. During this pursuit, an MBTA Police officer was seriously injured and transported to the hospital.

During the pursuit, one suspect was critically injured and transported to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased. An extensive manhunt is ongoing in the Watertown area for the second suspect, who is believed to be armed and dangerous.

The case is being investigated by local, state and federal authorities working in cooperation. The Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad is assessing and removing any potentially explosive devices that may have been thrown on the street in Watertown by the suspects.

NBC has more details on the firefight and the other extraordinary events throughout the night.

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: As we slam into Earth Day weekend... Deadly fertilizer explosion slams Central Texas town; Flooding, sinkholes, extreme weather slam Chicago; PLUS: Nebraskans unite to slam the Keystone 'Export' pipeline ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link: Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? 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' (see links below): Report: alarming levels of of resistant bacteria on grocery meat & poultry; Chevron defies CA on emissions, undercuts biofuels; Chevron ignored regulators warnings in refinery explosion; Scientists question NOAA report on climate, drought; New study shows once again how "Climategate" emails were distorted; Utility industry can survive - and lead - clean energy transition; Obama inks Arctic international fishing accord, GOP complains; Innovating 'dumb' LEDs; Why can't we quit fossil fuels? ... PLUS: Think those chemicals have been tested? Think again ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• EARTH DAY is Saturday, April 22nd --- Celebrate, Participate --- Find an event near you!
• BP Oil Disaster: 3rd Anniversary on 4/22:
• The BP oil disaster: Three years later (Environmental Defense Fund) [emphasis added]:
  “Three years after the Gulf was inundated with BP oil, the wildlife, habitats and people of the Gulf are still feeling the effects of the disaster,” [National Wildlife Federation’s David] Muth said. “In 2012 alone, some 6 million pounds of BP oil was collected from Louisiana’s shorelines and 200 miles of coast remain oiled. We can’t allow BP off the hook for anything less than justice requires—a full payment for its recklessness so that real restoration of the Gulf’s ecosystem and economy can begin.”
• Full coverage on the ongoing BP Trial from the New Orleans Times-Picayune (NOLA.com)
• BP oil spill trial continues as demonstrators note upcoming 3-year anniversary of disaster (NOLA.com)
• BP Manager Cites Rig’s Safety-System Delay as Trial Ends (Bloomberg)
• U.S. Chemical Safety Board, OSHA Woefully Underfunded, Understaffed:
• As critics press for action, Chemical Safety Board investigations languish (Center for Public Integrity):
  Yet three years after Tesoro and Deepwater Horizon, both inquiries remain open – exemplars of a chemical board under attack for what critics call its sluggish investigative pace and short attention span. A former board member calls the agency “grossly mismanaged.”
• Deadly Explosion at Fertilizer Plant in West, TX:
• BRAD BLOG's minute-by-minute coverage of West, TX Fertilizer Disaster (The BRAD BLOG)
• West Fertilizer Co. said in report that it presented no risk (Dallas Morning News)
• Op-ed: Explosion in West should make all towns question zoning decisions (Dallas Morning News Editorial Board)
• No OSHA Inspections at Texas Plant in 5 Years: Are We Doing Enough to Protect Workplace Safety? (Democracy Now!)
• West Fertilizer Co. fined in 2006 by EPA (WFAA-TV Dallas-Fort Worth)
• Perry: 'Nightmare scenario' in West earns McLennan County disaster declaration (WFAA-TV Dallas-Fort Worth)
• Extreme Weather Slams the Midwest, Floods Chicago
• VIDEO: Chicago flooding: Travel nightmare by plane, train, car (Chicago Tribune)
• Chicago floods: Evacuations, sandbagging as river levels rise (Chicago Tribune)
• Grand River flooding: Record-high water levels expected in downtown Grand Rapids (Michigan Live)
• Midwest Weather Woes Range From Snow To Twisters (CBS Minnesota)
• ANALYSIS: Oil-by-train may not be substitute for Keystone pipeline (Reuters):
  The prospects for bringing large amounts of Canadian heavy crude oil into the United States by train is a contentious issue as the U.S. government weighs whether to allow the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to go ahead.
• Keystone XL: Nebraskans Unite to Fight KXL:
• Nebraska hearing vitrifies Keystone XL pipeline debate (CS Monitor):
  The Keystone XL pipeline debate comes to a head in Grand Island, Neb., as the State Department holds a public hearing on the Canada-Texas pipeline. If the passionate, opposing sides agree on anything, it's that the Keystone XL pipeline debate is about more than just a pipeline.
• Rowdy Keystone pipeline hearing pits workers vs greens (Reuters):
  U.S. construction workers, environmentalists and company executives squared off on Thursday at a raucous meeting on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but it was unclear the gathering changed any minds on the controversial project.
• Op-ed: Lighting a Spark on the High Plains (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  Today, citizens will gather at a hearing on the pipeline in Grand Island.
  ...
  TransCanada made the mistake of bullying our fiercely independent farmers and ranchers. Landowners say the company threatened to take their land if they didn’t cooperate and warned them that later offers of money would be much smaller if they delayed. TransCanada also insisted, landowners say, that they sign papers agreeing not to talk to the press or anyone about their agreements.
• Keystone XL opponents brace for protests in Neb. (Miami Herald)
• Keystone Emissions Seen as Equal to 46 Coal Power Plants (Bloomberg)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• Think Those Chemicals Have Been Tested? (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  Many Americans assume that the chemicals in their shampoos, detergents and other consumer products have been thoroughly tested and proved to be safe. This assumption is wrong. Unlike pharmaceuticals or pesticides, industrial chemicals do not have to be tested before they are put on the market. Under the law regulating chemicals, producers are only rarely required to provide the federal government with the information necessary to assess safety.
• Report on U.S. Meat Sounds Alarm on Resistant Bacteria (NY Times):
  More than half of samples of ground turkey, pork chops and ground beef collected from supermarkets for testing by the federal government contained a bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to a new report highlighting the findings.
• Chevron Defies California On Carbon Emissions (Bloomberg):
  Chevron Corp. helped write the first-in-the-nation rule ordering reduced carbon emissions from cars and trucks...Now Chevron is leading a lobbying and public relations campaign to undercut the California mandate aimed at curbing global warming...
• Chevron ignored a decade of warnings before Richmond refinery explosion (Grist)
• ALASKA: Dems say they'll support push for oil tax cut vote (Anchorage Daily News):
  Minority Democrats, outraged by the passage of a multibillion-dollar oil tax cut, said Monday they plan to support an effort to try to overturn the measure.
• Energy Regulatory Chief Says New Coal, Nuclear Plants May Be Unnecessary (NY Times):
  "We may not need any, ever," Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum.
• Scientists Raise Questions on Drought and Climate (Climate Central):
  Judging by the reactions of other respected scientists, though, the idea that global warming is off the hook is probably too hasty. While the report did fail to find a climate-change connection, it also failed to identify any other “proximate” — i.e., direct — cause, either, leaving more questions unanswered than answered.
• New Study Shows Once Again How "Climategate" Emails Were Distorted (Media Matters):
  [A] recent study re-confirms what that scientist was actually saying --- that much of recent heat has been trapped deep in the ocean.
• The Farming Technique That Could Revolutionize the Way We Eat (The Atlantic):
  Large PVC pipes led from the fish basins to a "water garden," an area the size of a small bedroom, canopied by huge banana leaves. Growing beneath them were about 10 different plants, including coffee and lemongrass. I would later describe this sight to friends and family as my come-to-Jesus moment.
• The Utility Industry Can Survive the Energy Transition—It’s Leading It: A response to a recent GTM article on disruption in the utility industry—by the author of the cited report. (GreenTech Media):
  [T]he electric power sector is facing “disruptive challenges,” a mix of transformative technological and economic changes, as well as regulatory constructs, that could challenge and transform the electric utility industry. The financial risks created by these challenges include declining utility revenues and increasing costs. This is not new. However, what could be new, for some at least, is that these challenges not only affect the utilities and their shareholders, as suggested by Mr. Nelder, but, first and foremost, they also affect their customers.
• Accord Would Regulate Fishing in Arctic Waters (NY Times):
  It was once protected by ice. Now regulation will have to do the work.
• Making Dumb LEDs Smarter for Just Pennies (GreenTech Media): New LED integration partnerships are blossoming this spring.
• AIR POLLUTION: Supreme Court seems open to nixing L.A. 'clean truck' program (E & E News):
  Supreme Court justices today appeared receptive to the trucking industry's call to strike down a Port of Los Angeles program designed to clean up some of the country's most diesel-polluted air.
• Why can't we quit fossil fuels? (Guardian UK):
  Despite all the mounting scientific concern, the political rhetoric and the clean technology of the past decade, the growth rate in global carbon emissions has not reduced at all. Why? Because we continue to extract and burn fossil fuels more than ever before...
• It’s official: EPA delays climate rule for new power plants (Wahsington Post): EPA is likely to alter the rule in some way in an effort to make sure it can withstand a legal challenge.
• How Far Can Climate Change Go?: (Scientific American) [emphasis added]:
  How far can we push the planet?

New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:

• COVER STORY: It's Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn't impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century --- way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

Essential Climate Science Background:

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. ...It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don't want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming--if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried - if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)

First read this short story please. Then this one.

Thank you.

UPDATE 4/18/2013, 5:41pm PT: AP reports West, TX mayor says "around 35 people, including 10 first responders" were killed in the explosion. "He said not all the bodies have been recovered. Muska told the LA Times the number might be as high as 40 dead and said he got that number because all other residents and first-responders were identified."

UPDATE 4/18/13 3:23am PT: Waco's KWTX has revised their earlier report of "as many as 60 or 70" dead, which was sourced to the town's EMS Director Dr. George Smith. They now report a death toll of "five to fifteen people", as of 4:45am local time, sourced to "officials". AP confirms the report of "between five and 15 people" killed, a number which is expected to rise, according to Waco Police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton. They add that "more than 160 others" are injured. Among the dead are believed to be "A group of volunteer firefighters and a single law enforcement officer who responded to a fire call at the West Fertilizer Co. about an hour before the blast. They remained unaccounted for early Thursday morning."

* * *

UPDATE 10:30pm PT: Randy Lee Loftis at Dallas Morning News reports...

The fertilizer plant that exploded Wednesday night in West, Texas, reported to the Environmental Protection Agency and local public safety officials that it presented no risk of fire or explosion, documents show.

West Fertilizer Co. reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand in an emergency planning report required of facilities that use toxic or hazardous chemicals.

But the report, reviewed Wednesday night by The Dallas Morning News, stated “no” under fire or explosive risks. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one.

The second worst possibility projected was a leak from a broken hose used to transfer the product, again causing no injuries.

Loftis adds via Twitter: "OSHA online records show no federal inspections of #West Fertilizer Co. in the past 5 yrs."

UPDATE 10:10pm PT: Texas Dept. of Public Safety spokesperson holds short press conference: "Tremendous amount of injuries...There are confirmed fatalities. Number not confirmed yet ... Devastation like Iraq or Oklahoma City ... 50-75 houses and apartments destroyed... Nursing home w/ 130 residents was in path of fire ... Wish I could tell you more." A reporter asks for a death toll number, asks the spokesman to "confirm 60-70" number. He says he "cannot confirm that number."

UPDATE 9:44pm PT: Dallas NBC affiliates live coverage cannot confirm death toll reported by Waco's KWTX below, but says 200+ injured, "at least 40 critically" at this moment.

UPDATE 8:59pm PT: Really hoping local media has it wrong... Waco's KWTX is now reporting: "West EMS Director Dr. George Smith says as many as 60 or 70 people died and hundreds were injured Wednesday night in a fertilizer plant explosion in West."

KHOU 11 News Houston is reporting "5 firefighters & 1 police officer" among the dead. They add: "Hundreds of others are wounded in the town with a population of about 2,800."

Amazing video of blast added to top: [More UPDATES at bottom of article]...

UPDATE 9:15pm PT:

Apartment near explosion in #West twitter.com/roncorning/sta…

— ron corning (@roncorning) April 18, 2013

* * *

EARLIER...

Like we needed more news today...fake or otherwise. Unfortunately (see photos and seismograph chart below), this one is not fake. From Reuters tonight...

WACO (April 17, 2013)—Emergency crews from throughout Central Texas responded Wednesday night after a major explosion at a burning fertilizer plant in West north of Waco.

West firefighters were dispatched to the plant earlier in the evening after an earlier fire rekindled.
...
Numerous injuries were reported and multiple ambulances were requested.

Several buildings were reported destroyed and a nearby nursing home was damaged.

There were reports that people were trapped in the nursing home and in an apartment building.

Scanner traffic indicated that some residents of both the nursing home and apartment building were severely injured.

Children are among the victims, according to reports from the scene.
...
Fire crews from virtually every community in the area headed to the scene.
...
A woman who was passing through West on Interstate 35 at the time of the explosion said she and her boyfriend saw a fireball 100-feet wide shoot into the air.
...
Gulf war veteran Paul L. Manigrasso felt the blast in Waxahachie.

“Based on my Naval experience...we knew immediately what it was, but cannot believe it occurred 40 miles away,” he said.

The photos tweeted below are pretty amazing. [ALSO UPDATES NOW ADDED]...

@cnnbrk @ap I was right there! Still shaken up. Not good. twitter.com/AndyBartee/sta…

— ParteeBartee (@AndyBartee) April 18, 2013

PIC - Powerful image of the West, TX explosion. The folks in West need our prayers! twitter.com/DFWscanner/sta…

— DFW Scanner (@DFWscanner) April 18, 2013

Seismograph out of Amarillo, TX after the explosion in West, TX twitter.com/wxcam93/status…

— Cameron Young (@wxcam93) April 18, 2013

* * *

UPDATE 8:07pm PT: Short video of the fire after the explosion: "Within four blocks of the plant itself...everyone of those homes have been torn apart"...

UPDATE 8:18pm PT: Waco's KWTX now reporting 5 people dead, at least 60 being treated at local hospitals, crews pulled back for fear of second explosion.

I'm getting ready for today's BradCast on KPFK/Pacifica, so, in the meantime, if you're wondering what you may have missed today, among other things, it seems the Boston Marathon Bomber has taken down another victim: CNN.

As Josh Marshall at TPM describes this montage, it was "CNN's 90 Minutes of Awesome"...

To be fair, it wasn't only CNN who blew it today, they just led the pack. Salon has the timeline of CNN's epic failure and the similar ones that accompanied it from Fox, AP and Reuters as well.

If South Carolina used anything but the exact same 100% unverifiable voting machines that previously resulted in the inexplicable election of Alvin Greene as their 2010 Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, I'd say Stephen Colbert's sister Elizabeth Colbert Busch has just won her upcoming May 7th Special Election for the U.S. House over former Gov. Mark "Appalachian Trail" Sanford.

From AP tonight...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford must appear in court two days after running for a vacant congressional seat to answer a complaint that he trespassed at his ex-wife's home, according to court documents acquired by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The complaint says Jenny Sanford confronted Sanford leaving her Sullivans Island home on Feb. 3 by a rear door, using his cell phone for a flashlight. Her attorney filed the complaint the next day and Jenny Sanford confirmed Tuesday the documents are authentic.

The couple's 2010 divorce settlement says neither may enter the other's home without permission. Mark Sanford lives about a 20-minute drive away in downtown Charleston.

But again, before you Democrats get too excited at this point, please read this. Thank you.

* * *

UPDATE 4/17/2013: Sanford responds and National Republicans toss him under bus...

First, via NBC:

"It's an unfortunate reality that divorced couples sometimes have disagreements that spill over into family court. I did indeed watch the second half of the Super Bowl at the beach house with our 14 year old son, because as a father I didn't think he should watch it alone," Sanford said. "Given she [his ex-wife Jenny] was out of town I tried to reach her beforehand to tell her of the situation that had arisen, and met her at the back steps under the light of my cell phone when she returned and told her what had happened."

Next, Politico is reporting that the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) is tossing Sanford under the bus:

“Mark Sanford has proven he knows what it takes to win elections. At this time, the NRCC will not be engaged in this special election,” said Andrea Bozek, an NRCC spokeswoman.
...
“This is an unfortunate situation but this is what happens when candidates aren’t honest and withhold information,” said one GOP operative.

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Some good news for a change: U.S. inks climate agreements with China and Japan; Another oil company quits the Arctic (for now); California sets wind energy record; Lax state regs contributed to Chevron refinery fire; Go underdogs: scrappy InsideClimateNews.org wins a Pulitzer; PLUS: Florida invaded by giant slimy snails ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link: Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? 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' (see links below): It’s official: EPA delays climate rule for new power plants; East coast seismic tests could harm marine mammals; CO: Benzene found 1400 ft from leak site; Critics slam NOAA drought report; Protesters mark 3 yr anniversary of BP Oil Disaster at trial; Reuters bungles climate science report; Antarctic ice melting at record rate: study; China cozies up to Iceland for Arctic access ... PLUS: Unhappy Returns: Climate Change's Big Tax on American ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Scrappy Start-up InsideClimateNews.org Wins Pulitzer Prize:
• ICN Wins National Reporting Pulitzer (InsideClimateNews.org):
  InsideClimate News reporters won for their "rigorous reports on flawed regulation of the nation’s oil pipelines," focusing on the potential dangers of dilbit from Canada's tar sands.
• InsideClimate News wins Pulitzer (Washington Post)
• The Pulitzer Prize-winning piece: The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of (Amazon)
• Exxon Oil Is in the Lake, Expert Confirms (InsideClimateNews.org)
• Wind Energy Record in California: (Green Tech Media) [emphasis added]:
  Winds that reached over 90 miles per hour on mountain ridges ... raising their outputs to a record-shattering 4,196 megawatts on Sunday evening, according the California Independent System Operator (the ISO). The output was nearly the equivalent of the combined capacities of San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, California’s two nuclear generating stations.
• Feds: Chevron Refinery Fire Sign of Weak Oversight: (SF Chronicle):
  The fire that destroyed part of Chevron's Richmond refinery happened because weak state regulations allowed the company to monitor rather than simply fix potential problems, federal investigators said Monday.
• Score one for the Arctic: Conoco-Philips Drops Drilling in 2014: (NY Times):
  ConocoPhillips has made a good choice, said Michael LeVine, a lawyer for the environmental group Oceana. As weve learned again and again, operating in Alaskan water demands preparation, care and attention to details companies have not yet proven able to provide.
• Sec. of State Kerry Signs Climate Cooperation Agreements with China, Japan:
• VIDEO: Secretary Kerry Delivers Remarks With Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida (State Dept. Youtube Channel)
• U.S. and China pledge 'large-scale cooperative action' to reduce emissions (E & E News):
  "China and the United States represent the world's two biggest economies, we represent the world's two largest consumers of energy, and we represent the two largest emitters of global greenhouse gases. So if any two nations come to this table with an imperative for action, it is us," Kerry said.
• Florida Invasion: Giant (Slimy) African Land Snails Threaten Agriculture Industry:
• Florida battles slimy invasion by giant snails (Reuters):
  South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world's most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster.
• Florida Battles Giant African Land Snail Invasion (ABC News)
• VIDEO: Attack of the Giant African Snails! (AFP):

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• Small Leak Is Discovered at Plant in Fukushima (NY Times)
• It’s official: EPA delays climate rule for new power plants (Wahsington Post): EPA is likely to alter the rule in some way in an effort to make sure it can withstand a legal challenge.
• Report: Seismic Tests Could Harm Whales, Dolphins: (FuelFix):
  Nearly 140,000 whales and dolphins could be injured if the Obama administration allows energy companies to conduct seismic research aimed at identifying oil and gas along the Atlantic Coast, according to a new report issued Tuesday.
• Benzene found 1400 ft from leak site: (Grand Juntion Daily Sentinel):
  High benzene levels in groundwater have been detected about 1,400 feet downstream of the presumed source of a hydrocarbons leak northwest of Parachute, the state Department of Natural Resources said today.

• White House huddled with industry before changes to BLM fracking rule: (E & E News):
  President Obama's top energy adviser repeatedly huddled with oil and gas lobbyists in the months before the administration changed new hydraulic fracturing rules to the industry's liking, records show.
• Critics slam NOAA report, say climate change is worsening U.S. drought (Climate Progress):
  NOAA has issued a report on a small part of the recent brutal droughts that have hit the United States over the past few years. The report - 'An Interpretation of the Origins of the 2012 Central Great Plains Drought' - is needlessly confusing, scientifically problematic, and already leading to misleading headlines.
• BP oil spill trial continues as demonstrators note upcoming 3-year anniversary of disaster (NOLA.com):
  Full coverage of the ongoing BP Oil Spill Trial at NOLA.com
• Video Explains How Loss Of Arctic Ice Weakens Jet Stream, Amplifies Extreme Weather (Climate Progress)
• Arctic nearly free of summer sea ice during first half of 21st century (NOAA News):
  For scientists studying summer sea ice in the Arctic, it’s not a question of “if” there will be nearly ice-free summers, but “when.” And two scientists say that “when” is sooner than many thought — before 2050 and possibly within the next decade or two.
• Reuters bungles climate science report (Media Matters) [emphasis added]:
  Reuters is purporting to examine how scientists are "struggling" to reconcile short-term temperature variation with long-term climate change, but fails to quote any scientists about the issue.
• Antarctic ice melting at record rate, study shows: The evidence comes from a 364-metre ice core containing a record of freezing and melting over the previous millennium (Guardian UK):
  Summer ice in the Antarctic is melting 10 times quicker than it was 600 years ago, with the most rapid melt occurring in the last 50 years, a joint Australian-British study showed Monday.
• China should have a say in future of Arctic – Iceland president (Guardian UK): Olafur Ragnar Grimsson says nations beyond the polar region should be involved in determining future of the far north.
• Jeremy Grantham on how to feed the world and why he invests in oil (Guardian UK): The co-founder of investment group GMO on what books he's reading and why he wants to fund 'avant garde' farming
• Huge survey of tax policy experts find that 85% support a carbon tax (Univ of Michigan's Office of Tax Policy Research):
  + 91% believe there should be a gasoline tax "to pay for all the highway construction and maintenance."
  + 85% think there should be a carbon tax (tax on carbon content of energy sources or uses).
• Unhappy Returns: Climate Change's Big Tax on Americans (Live Science):
  The US Government Accountability Office warned in February that climate change is a "significant financial risk to the federal government." It threatens everything — not just federal lands and buildings, but food, flood and crop insurance, and disaster relief.
• How Far Can Climate Change Go?: (Scientific American) [emphasis added]:
  Seriously. How far can we push the planet?
• You Can Have More Fossil Fuel. Or You Can Have Water. Your Choice. (Climate Crocks):

New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:

• COVER STORY: It's Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn't impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century --- way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

Essential Climate Science Background:

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. ...It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don't want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming--if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried - if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)

[UPDATED MANY TIMES AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE, NOW INCLUDING FINAL WRAP (FOR NOW) ON THE DAY AFTER.]

From AP, via National Memo...

BOSTON (AP) — Two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon have resulted in injuries.

Bloody spectators were being carried Monday to the medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners. Police wove through competitors as they ran back toward the course.

“There are a lot of people down,” said one man, whose bib No. 17528 identified him as Frank Deruyter of North Carolina. He was not injured, but marathon workers were carrying one woman, who did not appear to be a runner, to the medical area as blood gushed from her leg. A Boston police officer was wheeled from the course with a leg injury that was bleeding.

About three hours after the winners crossed the line, there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. Another explosion could be heard a few seconds later.

More photos at ThinkProgress...

The blasts reportedly occurred near the Marathon headquarters in a nearby hotel. The headquarters has been locked down. Additionally, NBC News is reporting:

Janet Wu, a reporter for NBC affiliate WHDH, told NBC News that she heard two loud explosions. Jackie Bruno, a reporter for New England Cable News, said on Twitter that she saw people’s legs blown off.

“Runners were coming in and saw unspeakable horror,” she said.

* * *

MANY UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY, AND A WRAP UP ON THE DAY AFTER, ALL NOW FOLLOW BELOW...

* * *

UPDATE 12:49pm PT: Here is video captured of one of the explosions...

Live NBC coverage is streaming here...

UPDATE 12:55pm PT: NBC is now reporting a large fire at JFK Library nearby...

UPDATE 1:07pm PT: Three separate law enforcement officials tell NBC that "one small improvised explosive device" the cause for one of the blasts...

UPDATE 1:10pm PT: AP: Boston Police report 2 dead, 23 injured...

UPDATE 1:23pm PT: AP: "Intelligence official: 2 more explosive devices found at Boston Marathon; being dismantled"

UPDATE 1:34pm PT: Photos from Boston Globe's David L. Ryan and John Tlumacki [click each for larger images]...

Also, 28 now reported injured...

UPDATE 1:54pm PT: Dorchester Reporter reports JFK Library spokesman says fire not related to the explosions at the Boston Marathon. It was "inside the building's mechanical room...not caused by a device". Boston Police Commissioner, however, just described what happened at the JFK Library as a "third explosion", but adds he is not aware of any injuries there. So what happened at the JFK Library would still seem to be unclear.

New video now of the second explosion at the Marathon...

Finally, for now, Boston Globe just tweeted that the number of injured has risen to 64...

UPDATE 2:10pm PT: AP: "A law enforcement official says cellphone service has been shut down in the Boston area to prevent any potential remote detonations of explosives."

UPDATE 2:20pm PT: Lengthier video of first explosion, via Boston Globe, including cops running towards explosion afterwards, servicemen arriving to help, and bloodied victims on ground...

UPDATE 2:59pm PT: Boston Police Commissioner now says that the JFK Library incident was an "incendiary device or a fire" and that "the two events are not related," contradicting his earlier remarks that there had been an explosion there. He also says, contrary to misreporting from Rupert Murdoch's NY Post, that "there is no suspect in custody".

Also, President Obama is set to give televised remarks at 3:10pm PT.

UPDATE 3:34pm PT: The President just finished his brief remarks. Read them in full here. Here's a key paragraph...

We still do not know who did this or why and people shouldn't jump to conclusions before we have all the facts. But, make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who did this. We will find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice.

UPDATE 3:51pm PT: CNN now reporting more than 110 injured, many in critical condition. One of the confirmed dead is an 8-year old boy.

UPDATE 5:58pm PT: Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis updates the death toll to "at least 3". Davis also attempts to clear up continuing confusion about a "suspect" reported by several news outlets now as being held at a local hospital:

"I want to stress one thing," Davis said. "There is no suspect at Brigham and Women's Hospital. There are people that we are talking to but there is no suspect at Brigham and Women's Hospital as has been widely reported in the press. I would like to fix that right now."

* * *

UPDATE 4/16/2013, 10:30am PT: We strived, as usual, to only offer well-sourced reports in our coverage over the day yesterday. Over all, we did fairly well on that score. But just to wrap up our live blog coverage here before we move on to new items, here's a quick review of what we know the next day, as well-summarized by Josh Marshall this morning...

The central point is that there is still no clear explanation of who was behind the attack or why it happened. It now appears clear that, despite yesterday's reports, there were no additional explosive devices besides the two that exploded near the finish line at the marathon, the two we knew about from the first moment. The initial report of a further bombing at JFK Library seems to have been ruled out definitively as have various reports of other unexploded devices found in the vicinity of the attack.

Three people are confirmed dead in the attack, one of whom was an 8 year old boy. More than 140 were wounded.
...
All the signs from law enforcement suggest they do not yet have a clear theory of the crime.

At this point, no individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Irresponsible reports yesterday of a Saudi national in custody and 12 killed at the bombing have all now been debunked (though the media which offered those reports have not necessarily apologized.)

Over the past hour, AP has reported that, according to an unnamed "person briefed on the investigation," the two bombs "were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings." They are said to have been placed into backpacks.

Police and federal agents announced they are asking "for any video, audio and photos taken by marathon spectators, even images that people might not think are significant," to help aid in the investigation.

Finally, here is a photo of the 8-year old boy Martin Richard who was among the three killed yesterday. It was taken during a May 2012 "peace walk" he took part in with his school...

So...funny thing. After yesterday's BradCast on KPFK, I drove the delightful Desi Doyen (of our Green News Report) out to The Young Turks' studio where she was scheduled to guest host once again last night. Two minutes or so before airtime, the third guest-host had yet to arrive. Guess who was drafted into last-minute duty?

Unshaven, jacket-free and prep-less, the show went on. With Desi, myself, and the great Jimmy Dore on board, it was an all-KPFK/Pacifica Radio episode of TYT, to boot!

We discussed, among other things, the mass stabbing in TX yesterday (where nobody died!); Rand Paul's claim that Republicans and he are civil rights champions; Obama's attempt to slash Social Security; and the plan for a vote in the U.S. Senate on a gun sale background check bill.

Below are a few short edited video segments with the three of us on last night's lively hour of The Young Turks [Update 4/16/2013 - The Turks have posted a few more clips --- including our discussion about Pat Robertson and climate change denier extraordinaire Rep. Joe Barton --- so I've also now added those below as well]...

Mass stabbing in TX...

Rand Paul: Republicans are civil rights champions!...

Obama budget proposes slashing Social Security...

Background check bill may finally get a vote...

* * *

UPDATE 4/16/2013: The Turks have posted a few more clips over the weekend. So, here they are...

Pat Robertson predicts doom in the Middle East!...

GOP Rep blames Noah's flood on climate change...

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Profits vs. People at Obama's EPA confirmation hearing; Victory for the people in the federal fracking wars; GAO says nuke evacuation plans inadequate; Climate change is coming for your wine; PLUS: Environmental groups push back against Big Oil with hysterical ads ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link: Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? 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' (see links below): Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities; Wind Energy Record in California, equal to 2 nuke plants; Obama Budget Drains Tax Breaks For Big Oil; Keystone XL using old, badly welded pipelines?; Rep. Joe Barton Says Biblical 'Great Flood' Proves Climate Change Not Man Made; Tea Party Leader arrest after Agenda 21 threats; 85% of tax experts support a carbon tax; Climate change's big tax on Americans; Nike: betting against climate scientists is 'false hope' ... PLUS: Video: Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for climate action is full of awesome ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Study: Climate Change Will Threaten Wine Production (Climate Central):
  [T]he latest findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, still took the researchers by surprise. "We expected to see significant shifts, but we didn't expect to see shifts like these," said Hanna.
• GAO: Expand Evacuation Zones Around US Nukes:
• Alert to Congress: Nuclear evacuation may bog down (AP):
  Nuclear sites were originally picked mainly in rural areas to lessen the impact of accidents. However, in its 2011 series, the AP reported population growth of up to 350 percent within 10 miles of nuclear sites between 1980 and 2010. About 120 million Americans — almost 40 percent — live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant, according to the AP's analysis of Census data.
• NRC Ex-Regulator Says U.S. Reactors Are Flawed (NY Times) [emphasis added]
• The Long, Tragic Trail of Failed General Electric Nuclear Plants: (Cascadia Times)
• Exxon Vows To Fight $238 Water Pollution Fine in NH:
• Jury finds Exxon liable for $236.4 million in U.S. pollution suit (Reuters):
  Exxon was the only one of the 22 original defendants in the original suit to go to trial. Other defendants either had the suits against them dismissed or agreed to settlements.
• Exxon's Arkansas Tar Sands Spill a Bargain: How world's most profitable company pays almost nothing for continuing violations of federal law (The BRAD BLOG)
• Victory for the People in Federal Fracking Wars:
• AUDIO: U.S. Judge Rules Obama Admin Violated Law in CA Shale Oil Land Leases; Finds BLM Failed to Consider Environmental Effects of Fracking (The BRAD BLOG):
  We discussed the case and its first-of-its-kind ruling, the impact it may (hopefully) have on similar fracking land leases elsewhere in the state and nation, and what the hell supposedly "liberal" Democrats like Barack Obama and CA Gov. Jerry Brown must be thinking.
• U.S. Judge Rules Obama Admin Violated Law in CA Shale Oil Land Leases; Finds BLM Failed to Consider Environmental Effects of Fracking (The BRAD BLOG)
• Profits vs. People in EPA Nominee Gina McCarthy's Senate Confirmation Hearing:
• McCarthy EPA Hearing: GOP Senators Focused On Climate Denial, Email, And IM (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  After hearing Senator Barrasso’s hyperbolic opening statement about “extreme emissions rules” and the “war on coal” (in fact, the industry is growing under President Obama), [Sen. Bernie Sanders] cut to the chase.

  "This is not a debate about Gina McCarthy. Senator Barrasso made it very clear what this debate is about. It is a debate about global warming, and whether or not we are going to listen to the leading scientists of this country who are telling us that global warming is the most serious planetary crisis that we and the global community face — and whether we are going to address that crisis in a serious manner.

  And in essence what Senator Barrasso has just said is “no” — he does not want the EPA to do that. He does not want the EPA to listen to science.

• EPA nominee's supporters stress history of work for GOP (The Hill's e2 Wire)
• Inhofe on climate 'hoax': Don't forget Soros, MoveOn.org (The Hill's e2 Wire)
• Barbara Boxer Reveals EPA Email Aliases During Gina McCarthy Hearing (AP): The EPA has said that whenever it provided copies of Jackson's emails to Congress or to citizens under the Freedom of Information Act, it provided emails from both accounts, including the secret "Windsor" one.
• Hilarious: New Ads Push Back Against Big Oil:
• All Risk, No Reward: New Coalition Makes Compelling Case Against Keystone XL Pipeline (Climate Progress):
  A group called “All Risk, No Reward” aired ads opposing the Keystone pipeline yesterday during the Sunday news shows and will soon be targeting Democratic donors and youth.
• Exxon revolutionizes energy by delivering it straight to your face (Grist)
• Exxon - Energy Everywhere (Heavy Crude Video Youtube channel):

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• Sen. Bernie Sanders' Awesome Call For Climate Action: (Raw Story):

• Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities (Grist):
  Solar power and other distributed renewable energy technologies could lay waste to U.S. power utilities and burn the utility business model, which has remained virtually unchanged for a century, to the ground. That is not wild-eyed hippie talk. It is the assessment of the utilities themselves.
• Wind Energy Record in California: (Green Tech Media) [emphasis added]:
  Winds that reached over 90 miles per hour on mountain ridges ... raising their outputs to a record-shattering 4,196 megawatts on Sunday evening, according the California Independent System Operator (the ISO). The output was nearly the equivalent of the combined capacities of San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, California’s two nuclear generating stations.
• The Obama Budget Drains Tax Breaks For Big Oil (Climate Progress):
  President Barack Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2014 would eliminate $39 billion of special tax breaks for Big Oil companies over the next decade as part of comprehensive business tax reform. These companies earned billions of dollars in recent years due to high oil and gasoline prices and do not need additional support from taxpayers.
• Keystone XL: Using aging, retrofitted pipelines to ship oil — what could go wrong? (Grist)
• VIDEO: Stupid Sh*t Republicans Say: Rep. Joe Barton Says Biblical 'Great Flood' Proves Climate Change Not Man Made (The BRAD BLOG)
• Oklahoma Tea Party Leader Al Gerhart Charged After Agenda 21 Threats (Huffington Post Green)
• Huge survey of tax policy experts find that 85% support a carbon tax (Univ of Michigan's Office of Tax Policy Research):
  + 91% believe there should be a gasoline tax "to pay for all the highway construction and maintenance."
  + 85% think there should be a carbon tax (tax on carbon content of energy sources or uses).
• Grandmother Arrested For Blocking Keystone Pipeline Construction (Huffington Post Green)
• Nike, Starbucks: Betting against climate scientists is ‘false hope’ (The Hill's e2 Wire):
  “We cannot risk our kids’ futures on the false hope that the vast majority of scientists are wrong. But just as America rose to the great challenges of the past and came out stronger than ever, we have to confront this challenge, and we have to win,” states a joint declaration from more than 30 companies.
• Keystone XL protestor cleverly disrupts Valero golf tournament, explains how he did it (Grist)
• Score one for the Arctic: Conoco-Philips Drops Drilling in 2014: (NY Times):
  “ConocoPhillips has made a good choice,” said Michael LeVine, a lawyer for the environmental group Oceana. “As we’ve learned again and again, operating in Alaskan water demands preparation, care and attention to details companies have not yet proven able to provide.”
• Unhappy Returns: Climate Change's Big Tax on Americans (Live Science):
  The US Government Accountability Office warned in February that climate change is a "significant financial risk to the federal government." It threatens everything — not just federal lands and buildings, but food, flood and crop insurance, and disaster relief.
• VIDEO: Storm hits Mayflower, Arkansas site of Exxon oil spill. Contaminated water pumped into Lake Conway as citizen journalists report live. (Treehugger)
• How Far Can Climate Change Go?: (Scientific American) [emphasis added]:
  How far can we push the planet?
• First California Fracking Challenge Is Defeat for U.S (Bloomberg):
  U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal in San Jose, California, said the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act by relying on outdated reviews, conducted before the extraction process known as fracking spurred massive development of energy deposits, when the U.S. sold four leases in 2011 for 2,700 acres of federal land in Monterey and Fresno counties.
• You Can Have More Fossil Fuel. Or You Can Have Water. Your Choice. (Climate Crocks):

New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:

• COVER STORY: It's Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn't impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century --- way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

Essential Climate Science Background:

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. ...It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don't want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming--if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried - if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)

On Wednesday's BradCast on KPFK/Pacifica Radio, I interviewed Brendan Cummings, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. He's fresh off his win in federal court where a U.S. Magistrate Judge found earlier this week that the Obama Administration violated federal law by not taking the effects of fracking into account in its environmental assessment before leasing areas of the Monterey Shale Formation in California to oil companies.

We discussed the case and its first-of-its-kind ruling, the impact it may (hopefully) have on similar fracking land leases elsewhere in the state and nation, and what the hell supposedly "liberal" Democrats like Barack Obama and CA Gov. Jerry Brown must be thinking.

I also covered this week's election fraud felony guilty pleas by a staffer for Newt Gingrich's 2012 Presidential campaign, the pending felony charges against a co-defendant and additional arrests that prosecutors say may be coming soon. All a part of Gingrich's failed attempt to qualify for the 2012 GOP Presidential primary in Virginia, and his unbelievable hypocrisy in downplaying fraud in his own campaign that was far worse than anything ACORN ever did (or, actually, didn't do.)

Finally, we had an extended Green News Report segment with Desi Doyen, to discuss, among other things, Rep. Joe Barton's amazing comments today, and the new attempt by Fox "News" to raise George Orwell from the grave by describing environmentalists as "climate deniers"...

Download MP3 or listen online below...
[See post to listen to audio]

P.S. The BradCast now also airs Saturday at 3pm ET and Sunday at 4pm ET on The Progressive Voices Channel on TuneIn! (And download the great TuneIn app on your smart device if you haven't already!)

P.P.S. Still looking for someone to help with an official logo for The BradCast. We need one! Good with logos? Drop me an email with ideas! See this and this for potential inspiration!

Yes, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) actually said this...during a hearing in the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power today...

Here's what he actually said --- out loud --- via RAW STORY [emphasis added]...

“I don’t deny that the climate is changing,” he said. “I think you can have an honest difference of opinion on what’s causing that change without automatically being either all-in that it’s all because of mankind or it’s all just natural. I think there’s a divergence of evidence.”

“I would point out if you’re a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change. And that certainly wasn’t because mankind overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy.”

You may remember Barton from 2010, after the BP oil spill in the Gulf, as the man who actually apologized to BP's then CEO during a U.S. House hearing, for what he described as a White House "shakedown", after the company agreed to pay some $20 billion to help clean up the unprecedented disaster and help restore the livelihoods of many who lost everything thanks to the spill.