The Associated Press: Calif. wildfire imperils Santa Barbara; climate scam promoted

[Tom] Morse, the executive director of the environmental group Global Preservation Projects, said he's not surprised by so many fires, blaming it on global warming.

"Temperatures are rising and humidity levels are dropping. It means more fires," he said.

Global warming can't be blamed for specific fires, but it creates conditions that foster larger and more frequent wildfires, scientists say.

"A warming climate encourages wildfires through a longer summer period that dries fuels, promoting easier ignition and faster spread," the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrote in 2007.

But if alarmists can seize on decade-old warming, why can't realists seize on decade-old fraud?

Ian Talley of Dow Jones Newswires reports that Reps. Joe Barton of Texas and Greg Walden of Oregon have seized on a decade-old emissions-trading fraud case to question the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to run a cap-and-trade program