ENVIRONMENT
A Tale Of Two Conferences

This week, two "international conferences" are convening to discuss markedly different responses to global warming. In New York City, 500 people met for the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change from Sunday to Tuesday. The keynote address came from Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who has said, "Global warming is a false myth." Although this conference for climate change "skeptics" achieved its mission of attaining widespread media coverage, the world has moved on to discussing solutions. Tuesday marked the beginning of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC). This global, ministerial-level conference was organized by the U.S. government for top officials from dozens of nations, the heads of BP, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and other corporations, and representatives from multiple NGOs. The keynote address will be delivered today by President Bush. Although Bush has been forced to concede the threat of human-induced climate change since 2005, now the question is whether the president will stop "globally talking and nationally postponing" positive action on global warming..

FLAT EARTH REDUX: Unfortunately for the Heartland Institute -- which has been heavily supported by ExxonMobil and right-wing foundations -- the success in drawing mainstream coverage to its sham scientific conference has only emphasized the fact that global warming deniers resemble a Flat Earth Society meeting. The only product of the convention was a self-published report -- the "work of 23 authors from 15 nations, some of them not scientists" -- "arguing that recent climate change stems from natural causes." This "yawn fest" of attendees with inflated bios and industry ties were cheered by a presentation from a staffer to Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who blamed belief in global warming on Leonardo DiCaprio and Barbara Streisand. As Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead author and Princeton University geosciences professor Michael Oppenheimer said, climate change skeptics "have to get together to talk to each other, because nobody else is talking to them."

ADMINISTRATION'S WRONG PRIORITIES: In today's keynote address to WIREC, Bush will likely repeat his State of the Union call to "increase the use of renewable power" consistent with the WIREC mission "to promote widespread adoption of renewable energies such as biofuels, wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower." However, Bush has a consistent record of "renewable energy subterfuge" -- lauding the promise of new technologies while working instead for the interests of coal, oil, and nuclear industries. This pattern, established in the days of Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force, continues unabated. A month ago, Bush submitted a budget to Congress that cuts the Department of Energy energy efficiency and renewable energy budget by 27 percent, including eliminating the Renewable Energy Production Incentive program. The Bush budget calls for hundreds of millions of dollars more for coal and nuclear projects.

TAX CREDITS FOR OIL VS. RENEWABLES: A week ago, Bush threatened to veto the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act, H.R. 5351. This bill, passed by the House last week, would extend tax credits for renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies by eliminating billions in tax subsidies for oil and gas companies. In 2005, with the price of oil at $55 per barrel, Bush said the incentives were unnecessary. This week, as oil prices hit historic highs above $102 pe barrel, Bush reversed his stance. On Tuesday at WIREC, more than 500 companies, investors, and environmental organizations called on Bush to support the House bill. Without passage, which extends many past energy measures, over 116,000 jobs and nearly $19 billion in U.S. investment could be lost. This represents the fourth time Congress has attempted to pass this legislation; it previously died twice by a single vote in the Senate. 

Under the Radar

IMMIGRATION -- FEDERAL AGENTS 'SECRETLY' PROFILING IMMIGRANTS: According to a 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo obtained by McClatchy, the Bush administration has "secretly established profiling techniques to screen immigrants based on their nationalities, protocols that critics charge encourage the unjustified targeting of Muslims." A proposed list of 35 "special interest" countries includes those with "significant Muslim or Arab populations. Almost 20 percent of the world's countries -- including some of the United States' key allies, such as Jordan, Turkey and Egypt -- are on the list." The ICE memo also suggested that federal law enforcement divisions adopt an interagency definition of a "special interest alien" as an immigrant with alleged terrorist ties or "having sympathies" with the listed countries. Georgetown Law professor David Cole said the profiling is "likely to alienate the people here and abroad we need to be working with" and that the program will "waste a lot of resources on people who pose no threat." McClatchy notes that "[c]ourts have upheld immigration policies that discriminate based on nationality, but generally view law enforcement profiling of U.S. citizens based on ethnicity, race or religion as unconstitutional."

CONGRESS -- LAWMAKERS UNVEIL BUDGET WITH MORE FUNDING FOR DOMESTIC PRIORITIES: Yesterday, Senate Democrats presented their budget, which "would inject billions of additional dollars into such domestic priorities as education, energy and transportation, while providing $35 billion for a second round of government spending aimed at stimulating a weak economy." The budget includes $3.5 billion for new energy programs, "the biggest increase in 30 years," and $13.4 billion in energy tax cuts. It also features an additional $5.7 billion over the President's request for education programs. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) said the budget plan "would result in a balanced budget by 2012...and it matches Mr. Bush's request for $2.9 trillion over five years for war and defense spending." Bush has threatened to veto any bill exceeding his own spending budget requests, prompting "some Democrats to say they may wait for a new president to take office" before finishing appropriations allocations.

ADMINISTRATION -- BUSH APPOINTS LOYALIST FRAN TOWNSEND TO INTELLIGENCE BOARD: On Friday, the White House issued an executive order revamping the President's Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), "a nonpartisan body offering the President objective, expert advice on the conduct of U.S. foreign intelligence." Board members cannot be employees of the federal government, but the President is now stacking the board with former loyal Bushies. Yesterday, the White House announced it would appoint former Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend to the board. In her former role, Townsend functioned as a mouthpiece for President Bush's misguided national security priorities. Last week's executive order also guts the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), a sub-unit of the PIAB that "advises the President on the legality of foreign intelligence activities." Bush transferred much of the IOB's investigative powers to DNI Mike McConnell, a Bush appointee. Under the order, IOB members may in fact include PIAB appointees like Townsend. Ultimately, Bush is ensuring that the boards simply will rubber-stamp the White House's intelligence activities.

Think Fast

"Voters in two southern Vermont towns passed articles Tuesday calling for the indictment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney for violating the Constitution. More symbolic than substantive, the items sought to have police arrest Bush and Cheney if they ever visit Brattleboro or nearby Marlboro or to extradite them for prosecution elsewhere — if they’re not impeached first."

Despite recent speculation of a compromise, Congress is still deadlocked over controversial electronic surveillance legislation. Democratic aides met yesterday in an effort to resolve differences between House and Senate bills, but "Republicans boycotted the meetings — as they have previous meetings on the issue."

Twenty-six Senate Democrats will send a letter to the Bush administration today urging it to impose sanctions on Iran, contending its central bank "is heavily involved in the funding of terrorism and the financing of Iran's proliferation activities."

Senate Democrats unveiled a budget “that would inject billions of additional dollars into such domestic priorities as education, energy and transportation, while providing $35 billion for a second round of government spending aimed at stimulating a weak economy." The budget "omits…tens of billions of dollars to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

A top Centers for Disease Control official told a congressional panel yesterday that the agency "should have reacted sooner to concerns about hazardous fumes in government-issued trailers housing thousands of Gulf Coast hurricane victims." "Formaldehyde in trailers didn't rise to the top of our priority list at that time," the official said.

Adopting a message that could "help Democrats to portray themselves as protecting the military and national security," congressional Democrats will argue that getting troops out of Iraq “is the only way to rebuild a spent military."

Anti-coal groups filed a lawsuit this week "to stop federal investment in new power plants that would enshrine coal for another generation."

Today, Senate conservatives plan to announce a package of harsh immigration bills that would "require jail time for illegal immigrants caught crossing the border, make it harder for them to open bank accounts and compel them to communicate in English when dealing with federal agencies"

And finally: Get ready for the House GOP’s "live-blogging" from a Budget Committee debate on the fiscal 2009 spending plan! House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said that Americans will get a "front-row seat for this important debate" and a "chance to follow the action as it happens." The excitement starts today at 10:30 EST here.

Good News

The Senate rejected "more industry-friendly" consumer protection legislation yesterday by a vote of 57-39, suggesting Congress has "the votes needed to pass" stronger legislation this week.

State Watch

CALIFORNIA: California Supreme Court hears arguments in same-sex marriage case.

WASHINGTON: Legislature votes to extend 170 new rights to same-sex couples.

FLORIDA: State mulls slavery apology.

Blog Watch

THINK PROGRESS: White House refuses to disagree with the views of global warming deniers.

MATTHEW YGLESIAS: Al Qaeda's strategy is to cripple the U.S. economy by dragging America into quagmires abroad.

EZRA KLEIN: Majority of Americans want more regulation of pharmaceutical companies.

Daily Grill

"I do not agree with your sentiment that there has been widespread corruption [in Washington]. I just don't accept that."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), 3/4/08

VERSUS

"You've seen the corruption in Washington. We have former members of Congress in federal prison. ... [I]f anybody thinks that special interests didn't write legislation in Washington, they didn't work there."
-- McCain, 10/21/07