Soaring prices of jet fuel are now costing airlines more than the cost of employees, say execs at Jet Blue and other airlines (MSNBC TV). Today’s must-see White House events:
8am PT/11am ET: “Ask the White House,” with Allan Hubbard, Bush’s Asst. for Economic Policy and Director, National Economic Council. Submit Qs now.
9:55am PT/12:55pm ET: President Bush and his economic advisers will hold a press availability.
Will the press ask Bush about the little lady down the road apiece from him who’s protesting the death of her son for oil?
New record high gas and oil prices driven by supply disruption and fears of terrorism overshadowed President Bush’s energy bill-signing yesterday, and hang over his 12:55 pm ET press conference at the Crawford ranch today to tout the growing US economy.
(Also hanging over today’s event: Bush’s treasury secretary telling reporters that the benefits of the latest economic growth are not spreading equally to less educated Americans.) [SUSAN’s NOTE: Just wait until record-high heating oil costs eat away at the poor. Gas prices are already wrecking their budgets.]
We’ll see if the link between terrorism and gas prices [SUSAN’s NOTE: Oh, for christ’s sake, isn’t that a bit old?], newly emphasized for the public after a presidential campaign in which the issue of energy independence didn’t really resonate, comes up today and/or during Bush’s meeting with his national security team on Thursday. (NBC First Read)
BELOW, the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope says, “This Isn’t Democracy — It’s a Mugging”:
From the Sierra Club:
“This Isn’t Democracy — It’s a Mugging.”
Congress waited until the week before its August recess to do its worst damage: passing an energy bill that lavishes billions of dollars in subsidies upon the oil, gas, nuclear, and coal industries — more than even President Bush asked for. It also instructs the Department of the Interior to prepare to lease the entire coastline of the United States for oil and gas drilling. As Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope wrote in his blog: “This isn’t democracy — it’s a mugging.”
Fortunately, drilling the Arctic Refuge was not included, but a critical vote on that issue is coming in September. Because Bush administration allies in Congress snuck projected revenues from Arctic drilling into the $2.5-trillion budget reconciliation bill, the Arctic Refuge may not get a vote on its own merits. This puts some members of Congress in a terrible bind.
For example, Maine’s two senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, consider themselves champions of the Arctic and have voted several times against drilling for oil there. But because the budget bill also includes provisions supporting Maine’s struggling shipbuilding industry, Collins and Snowe could end up tipping the balance in favor of drilling.
But Sierra Club grassroots activists in Maine and all over the country are fighting to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Happy Birthday Alaska Wildlands
Ed WayburnFormer President Jimmy Carter, Sierra Club Honorary President Edgar Wayburn, and about a thousand other conservationists gathered in Anchorage earlier this month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which protected 100 million acres of wildlands in the nation’s 49th and largest state.
Wayburn, now 98, was arguably the most influential Club leader in securing protection for these Alaskan wildlands. “The campaign for Alaska’s lands reached an important plateau in 1980, but a campaign like this never really ends,” he said. “Wildlands must always be defended against those who would encroach against their ecological integrity.”
Dr. Wayburn’s speech is definitely worth a read for his advice on how to pursue a vision. Thanks Susan.
I haven’t read it yet…. just wanted to include that link 🙂
Here’s the Q I submitted to the White House — although I made the error of making a statement more than asking a question:
How will your bill address these concerns?
Living in a rural area, surrounded by the Olympic National Park, it is shocking to see smog descend, along with fog, on this area every morning.
We need mass transit in rural areas — including a revitalization (with subsidies, if need be) — of bus systems like Greyhound.
We need tax breaks if we drive energy-efficient cars.
We need safer highways so that people here don’t feel compelled to buy the largest vehicle they can afford just so they can survive a head-on collision on our two-lane highways.
(I ADDED THE LAST paragraph because, this past week, three men died a mile from my home on a treacherous S-curve of Highway 101. State officials could put in concrete barriers, although some say the highway is just too narrow… but there is NO MONEY to do so. That S-curve is a death trap…. it’s also exceedingly icy in the winter.
Btw, drugs are suspected in the crash. The man who crossed the center line and began the huge wreck was on something. He only suffered a single arm laceration. His station wagon hit a pick-up with the three men … the pick-up then careened into a big truck.
However, the druggie only drove 12 inches over the center line…. that’s how narrow the lanes are.)
Just read it! What great advice — and it’s applicable to all of politics. A snippet:
Amy Goodman has a segment on energy today:
Does ANYBODY still believe that the Democrats are actually on the right side of the issues? This bill is just one more example of the party moving to the right.
What will it take before liberals figure out that the only way forward is to support a party that actually has a platform that makes sense? http://www.gp.org/
Well, for starters, it will take a chance in hell of Greens getting elected to anything.
And yes, I realize that in order for Greens to get elected they need people to support them. But I’m afraid people will not support them until there’s a chance they can get elected.
Chicken and egg, I know. And I know the two major political parties have rigged this particular game in their favor. And knowing that doesn’t help. * sigh *
I’ll match your sigh and raise it.
But we have to be realists 🙁
I think I could find common cause with the Greens on many issues. Unfortunately, right now, front and center, in the current reality, it has to be all about getting George Bush and the 40,000 Thieves out of office.
And unless there’s a spontaneous mass defection of about 40 million Democrats to the Green party, voting for Greens just isn’t going to do the job, and wishing won’t make it so.
I have a lot more faith in Howard Dean’s Full Court Press (otherwise known as the 50 State Strategy) to take back the country. Once that’s accomplished, maybe, just maybe, we can start thinking about a system of more than two parties.
I’m confused. Both NBC First Read and ABC’s The Note said Bush’d have a press thingie today with his economic advisers at 12:55pm ET. But Rumsfeld is still on, and haven’t seen Bush.
Now it’s on CNN.