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POPSOil Companies Undermining Climate Partnership
Some of the oil companies that joined the partnership are taking part in an oil industry campaign against the climate change bill in Congress. The campaign features public rallies against the bill in places such as Houston and Greensboro, N.C., coordinated by the industry's main lobbying group, the American Petroleum Institute. The rallies are designed to look like grassroots affairs. But an e-mail from the institute to oil company executives outlining the campaign and asking them to participate was leaked to Greenpeace, which released it to the public. ConocoPhillips, a member of the climate change partnership, posted a note on its Web site encouraging people to go. BP, another partnership member, told employees about the rallies but did not encourage them to attend, according to a company spokesman. As a result, observers wonder whether the partnership could lose some of its effectiveness, just as the debate over global warming legislation moves to a critical stage. "It's
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POPSAP: NYC mayor restricts idling, but his SUVs do it The mayor earlier this year strengthened the city's anti-idling law — which allows three minutes of idling — into what advocates call the nation's toughest and promised a public-awareness campaign. The bill limited idling to one minute in school zones and mandated education for taxi driver applicants. "Those of us that want to leave a good life for our children, and want to have clean air for us to breathe, and clean water to drink ... it's incumbent on us to really carry the fight," he said at the signing. the AP spotted one of his SUVs idling for about 40 minutes during a morning event, and 43 minutes more at City Hall. At a morning event this week, idling lasted more than 30 minutes. The following evening, Bloomberg gave a speech in midtown Manhattan while the vehicles idled for 45 minutes.
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POPS Resolved: Vikings > Pirates
There could be some political pushback about a force exclusively staffed by burly blonde males, but Democrats from the northern Midwest should be happy to have those types out of their districts for good. Expect newly minted Minnesota senator Al Franken to co-sponsor the Viking Authorization Bill, building up his defense bona fides. "But Jon, why use swords, clubs and battle-axes when we have a modern, well-equipped Navy already in the region?" First Ninjas, now this? You sir, are a foreign policy dilettante. Sure, we could send a destroyer to sink a fleet of Somali dinghies, but where's the fun in that? In politics, perception is reality and Vikings vs. Pirates is flat-out COOL. Can you imagine the YouTube videos? Cable news would help fund the initiative just for the ratings boost. Exurban League calls on President Obama to do the right thing for our country, free trade and our entertainment: Use Vikings to kill the Pirates. If not for us, Sir, then for the children.
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POPSTOXIC WORLD We need to wean ourselves of so many things, fast. It's everywhere and we ultimately are supporting it, or are we?
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POPSEnvironmentalists Hold On Congress
What's the political response to our energy problems? It's more congressional and White House kowtowing to environmentalists, farmers and multi-billion dollar corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland. Their “solution," rather than to solve our oil supply problem by permitting drilling for the billions upon billions of barrels of oil beneath the surface of our country, is to enact the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandates that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have realized that diverting crops from food to fuel use would raise the prices of corn-fed livestock, such as pork, beef, chicken and dairy products, and products made from corn, such as cereals. Ethanol production has led to increases in other grain prices, such as soybean and wheat. Since the U.S. is the world's largest grain producer and exporter, higher grain prices have had a huge impact on food prices worldwide.
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POPS12 Environmental Victories in 2007 The Environmental Defense Fund uses science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society's most urgent environmental problems.