Energy & Environment Media Bullet Points

Slate Whiffs on Cause of O’s Climate Authoritarianism; EPA Spokesman Reynolds Sounds Silly on “Special Interests”; Grist’s Unintentionally Hilarious Story; and More

• Over at Slate, Alec MacGillis has a think piece titled “Why Obama Is So Autocratic about Environmental Policy.” At the outset, MacGillis concedes the authoritarian character of President Obama’s climate policy (i.e., his imposing hugely consequential climate measures that lack any electoral mandate whatsoever), which is a truthful start. But the author then proceeds to absolve the Obama of his “autocratic” ways, because….[wait for it]….those darned republicans won’t work with him on climate change mitigation. In fact, the Slate reporter is two-ways wrong:

1. Contrary to what MacGillis (and others) would have you believe, opposition to climate policy is healthily bipartisan, rather than being solely a conservative cause; and,
2. MacGillis treats elected Republicans like an independent entity, as if the congressional GOP caucus has policy goals that are distinct from the voters. In reality, it’s not that *Republicans* in the abstract are being unreasonable on climate; rather, the truth of the matter is that most Americans, across the political spectrum, lend low priority to AGW. This is why opposition to climate policy is robustly bipartisan. It’s also why Obama ran from climate change during the 2012 campaign.

• EPA spokesman Tom Reynolds took to the blogosphere yesterday to defend the Clean Power Plan from “special-interest critics.” This is rich. As reported by the New York Times, the NRDC—a “special interest” that spent a bunch of time and money getting President Obama elected twice—wrote the “blueprint” for the regulation, which would fundamentally reform the electricity sector in accordance with the Obama administration’s climate goals. The purpose of Reynolds’s post is to defend the EPA’s record on reliability; however, on this issue, the unfortunate reality is that he has no leg to stand on. As I explain here and here, EPA’s reliability analysis is untrustworthy.
• Grist yesterday posted an unintentionally hilarious story claiming that disgraced Oregon ex-Governor John Kitzhaber, who was recently sacked by a green energy scandal, was brought down by “dirty media.” The alleged fossil fuel shill is none other than…The Oregonian, the hometown paper of Portland. Grist’s claim is ludicrous, of course.
• Finally, the Washington Free Beacon this week posted video of the White House press corps collectively bursting into laughter when a presidential spokesman tried to explain why the Keystone XL review has taken so long (more than 2,300 days). Video below: