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Virginians knew it wouldn't take long for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to focus his attention and office on furthering his political agenda and ambitions. The surprise, perhaps, is that it took him a whole month to put Virginia embarrassingly ahead of Texas as an opponent of science and the source of states-rights nonsense.
Cuccinelli on Tuesday filed paperwork asking the Environmental Protection Agency to essentially ignore a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that the feds have an obligation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions helping to warm the planet. He also filed a petition in federal court, just to be sure.
You'd think the attorney general of a state with one of the places most vulnerable to rising sea levels - that would be Hampton Roads - would be sensitive to the concerns of constituents. Instead, he's decided to pick an expensive losing fight with a federal agency that has science and the Constitution on its side.
Sadly, Gov. Bob McDonnell has agreed that Cuccinelli's time is better spent tilting at windmills than doing the job he was hired to do. "The current federal position could have a negative impact on job creation and economic development in the commonwealth and should be reconsidered," said Stacey Johnson, a McDonnell spokeswoman.
It is unclear what impact additional flooding in Hampton Roads and rising seas might have on job creation and economic development. But it probably won't be good.
Cuccinelli, a noted climatologist, also says his move is based on new information, specifically the minor tempests surrounding stolen e-mails from climate scientists in Great Britain and small problems with a massive report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Neither problem even begins to undermine the science that has concluded that the planet is warming and that man is probably causing it. But the global-warming denial industry - sponsored by energy companies and their political supporters - has succeeded in pretending that it has.
Here's the interesting thing, though: Cuccinelli was convinced that global warming was bunk long before either the stolen e-mails were released or the minor problems were found in the IPCC report. The attorney general was convinced before any of the discovery of the evidence he cited at Wednesday's press conference.
That's probably not how Virginians want the state's top lawman to reason: Reach a verdict first, then consider only the evidence that supports it.
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CO2 Concentrations
Man caused CO2 concentrations are 3.207% of the atmosphere. That leaves over 96% caused by nature, and uncontrollable by man. If the US is responsible for 20% of the 3.2%, that is .64% of the total. Should we spend hundreds of billions to reduce that number by 20%, or under 15 one hundreths of 1 percent while China, India, Russia and the entire third word do whatever they want? Even if you accept all the causation claims, the numbers just don't add up, unless of course you need the energy tax money for something else.
no suprise
Cuccinelli also thinks the Earth is flat, so this farce should come as no suprise.
No suprise
At leest Cuccinelli kin spel
There you have it
On one side you have the National Academy of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Department of Defense, and the Supreme Court. On the other side you have a handful of anonymous Tea Party commenters.
Climate Science or Political Science
Just because the vast majority of the world's peer revieved climatologists have concluded that the public welfare is threatened by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, why should we take their word over that of our brilliant Attorney General? Don't people know his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, JD degree in Law, and MS in International Commerce and Policy make him imminently more qualified than all of them? Heck, there's even a guy here with a degree in dentistry who seems to think that he is more qualified, so why not the AT? Besides, everyone knows Al Gore paid off all the climate scientists and that the recent east coast snowstorm totally proves them wrong.
"peer reviewed climatologists" ??
What the heck is a "peer reviewed climatologist?"
Papers written scientists are subjected to peer review prior to and after publishing. The scientists are not.
But one of the main issues raised by the leaked Emails of Climategate was the perversion and politicization of the peer review process by the East Anglia/Penn State/NASA Team.
You cannot have true peer review if the raw data is not available for others to review. Phil Jones destroyed the data critical to review of the papers cited in the basic findings of the IPCC AR4 assessment. Thus the claim that AGW is based on "peer reviewed literature" is bogus. If only your supporters are allowed to check your work, it ain't peer review.
If you want to see real peer review of climatological literature, try ClimateAudit.org
A fool's errand
This legal battle has already been fought. Here's what the nation's highest court said: "The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized." Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497, slip op. at 18 (2007). "EPA does not dispute the existence of a causal connection between man-made greenhouse gas emissions and global warming." Id., at 20. When our EPA adopted this position and the case was decided, who was president? George W. Bush. Why are we relitigating this? Looks like the definition of a fool's errand.
The Fun Has Just Begun.....
I am anticipating the next 4 years under this administration more than I ever thought I would...just a month into the Repub's tenure and already Virginia is looking more and more like the 700 Club mixed with some Tea Baggers, perhaps a few Birthers, and sprinkled with inexplainable craziness. This is a recipe for disaster. Next thing ya' know, they'll say the sun has fallen from sky...and they'll still get their defenders.
I'm surprised that they ran for any office and didn't just create their own little utopia somewhere in the mountains...maybe the Appalacians with S Carolina's Governor...oh, yeah...he's a sinner. They are against everything government stands for. What kind of country i.e. government do they want?
If all of you man made
If all of you man made global warming believers just got together and stopped driving and using electricity and eating and wearing clothes the earth can be saved. As for me, I like staying warm and eating. Please feel free to offset my carbon footprint with your sacrifices.
The AG needs to amend the lawsuit to include
The AG needs to amend the lawsuit or file a new one to include the false notion that the earth revolves around the sun. We only have scientist word that the earth moves, and we know scientist cant be trusted. I can see for myself that the sun moves, not the earth.