Morning News Roundup (21 September)

Climate Crisis

• California filed a lawsuit against the six largest automakers operating in the United States, alleging car and truck emissions are causing global warming, injuring the state's environment and economy and endangering public health.
  [...]
  The lawsuit targets U.S. operations of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler AG, Toyota Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. Most of the automakers declined to comment, saying they were still reviewing the complaint. In a statement, Honda said "the real issue regarding climate change is how the United States as a nation, not the individual states, is going to address the proliferation of greenhouse gases."
  
  Honda repeated its position that the federal government, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, should raise fuel economy standards to address greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Most automakers have strongly opposed attempts to raise fuel economy standards. [WaPo]
  
  
• But, right on cue, comes the solution to this global warming mess we've been waiting for from the BushCo Administration (though note who is quoted complaining about the plan):

  Addressing complaints by environmentalists and some scientists that Bush has not done enough to cut the nation's emissions of such gases, Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman (released a) 244-page "Climate Change Technology Program Strategic Plan" (that) promotes initiatives such as sequestering carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere and promoting hydrogen-powered cars.
  [...]
  It immediately came under fire from senior Hill Republicans as well as several outside scientists and policy experts. "It's good as far as it goes, but it needs to go a lot further," House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.) said in an interview after the hearing. "It's good to look ahead, but people expect something immediate, as well as futuristic."
  
  House Government Reform Committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who has scheduled a hearing today on climate change research, said the administration failed to spell out how future research will be funded.
  
  "They address the need for research but give a very convoluted answer as to how that's going to occur," Davis said in an interview. "What we're asking is, is this sufficient? You've got to have some teeth and focus."
  [...]
  Ken Caldeira, a senior scientist at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, said the country would have to spend "hundreds of billions of dollars a year" to move away from a carbon-dependent economy. He added that the government would have to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, either through a tax or cap-and-trade system, to create incentives to develop and implement cleaner technologies.
  
  "Most energy technologies that do not emit carbon dioxide to the atmosphere will cost more than those that do emit carbon dioxide to the atmosphere," Caldeira said. "A major energy R&D program only makes sense in the context of a price on carbon emissions."

• The Congressional Budget Office, while not commenting directly on this BushCo release, finds little to agree with in its plan (from a press release from minority members of the Senate's Environment and Public Works committee; see full PDF; via Gristmill):
  

  A report issued yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concludes that relying exclusively on research and development (R&D) funding is not the most effective strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. CBO found that combining R&D subsidies with a gradually increasing price on emissions is a more cost-effective approach.

• Andrew Leonard over at Salon's How The World Works econo blog sums up Dear Leader's plan best:
  
  

  I only read the first section of the introduction of the 243-page Strategic Plan before deciding that it was a vile piece of whitewashing dreck that avoids requiring the U.S. government to make any hard choices or take any real action to deal with climate change. Not worth the bandwidth required to download its 15 megabytes (PDF).
  
  Don't get me wrong -- I'm a huge fan of new technology and I hope that the U.S. funnels billions of dollars into researching all the different programs the plan outlines as having potential for reducing emissions in the future. (Although I'm not at all sure what to think about the way the plan touts its "organization" of $3 billion of climate change research -- does that mean no new spending is being suggested?) And I suppose we should be thankful that if the report proves anything, it is that the evidence of human responsibility for climate change is now so overwhelming that even the Bush administration has been forced to acknowledge it. But touting Bush's presidential "leadership" on this issue is stomach-turning. And announcing a "plan" that relies on voluntary emissions reduction by the same energy corporations that are busy spending millions of dollars in public relations campaigns that attempt to obfuscate climate change science is beyond insulting.

BushCo's Wars

• Attorney General Gonzales defended U.S. actions that led to a Canadian citizen being falsely imprisoned, rendered to Syria, and tortured. “Well, we were not responsible for his removal to Syria,” Gonzales said. “I’m not aware that he was tortured.” In an “embarrassing turnabout,” a Justice Dept. official later “backed away” from Gonzales’ remarks. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• CIA officials say President Bush had to empty the agency’s secret prison network this month “because interrogators had refused to continue their work until the legal situation was clarified because they were concerned they could be prosecuted for using illegal techniques.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• The number of civilians slain in Iraq reached an unprecedented level in July and August, which saw 6,599 violent deaths, the United Nations said Wednesday. The report from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq offered a grim assessment of other indicators, from unlawful detentions to the growth of sectarian militias and death squads, and a rise in "honor killings" of women.
  [...]
  According to past U.N. reports, 710 civilians were killed in January, 1,129 in April, 2,669 in May and 3,149 in June. Violent civilian deaths in July reached an unprecedented high of 3,590 people, an average of more than 100 a day, the new report said. The August toll was 3,009 people. Of the total for July and August, the report said 5,106 of the dead were from Baghdad. [AP via Yahoo!]

Domestic Potpourri

• The bacterium that has sickened people across the nation and forced growers to destroy spinach crops is so pervasive in the Salinas Valley that virtually every waterway there violates national standards.
  [...]
  Monterey County's Salinas Valley is one of the world's most intensely farmed regions and a major supplier of lettuce and spinach to the nation. The current outbreak of food poisoning marks the 20th time since 1995 that the dangerous E. coli strain has been linked to lettuce or spinach.
  
  The source of the pathogen has not yet been pinpointed, but tainted water is considered a likely culprit. [LATimes]
  
  
• President Bush's approval rating has reached its highest level since January, helping to boost the Republican Party's image across a range of domestic and national security issues just seven weeks before this year's midterm election, a new Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
  
  Democrats hold a lead in the poll, 49% to 39%, when registered voters are asked which party they intend to support for Congress this year. But that advantage may rest on softening ground: On virtually every comparison between the parties measured in the survey, Republicans have improved their position since early summer.
  
  In particular, Republicans have nearly doubled their advantage when voters are asked which party they trust most to protect the nation against terrorism — the thrust of Bush's public relations blitz in recent weeks. [LATimes]
  
  
• The nation’s youngest and oldest citizens are suffering the most from a fragmented, wasteful and in some cases dangerous health care system, according to a new study. When compared to nearly two dozen other industrialized countries, the U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy for people who have reached the age of 60.
  
  The study looked at 37 national indicators of health outcomes, quality, access, equity and efficiency and assigned a score to each. The U.S. scored an average of 66 out of a possible 100, a failing grade.[Gannett News via Hattiesburg American]