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THE FIERCE MORAL URGENCY OF CHANGE: Washington Post: Obama Is Right to Allow Mountaintop Removal Mining. “DURING THE campaign and after his election, President Obama left environmentalists in coal country with the distinct impression that he was going to do away with mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachians.” But he didn’t, and that’s a good thing! “While Mr. Obama may have wanted voters to believe otherwise, he never flat-out said he would end this brand of mining. His decision reflects energy and political realities.”

Buying Off the Farmers or Causing Farmers to “Buy the Farm”? » The Foundry

To convince farmers the cap and trade energy tax is a good idea, politicians are using offsets as a revenue opportunity for farmers. Generically, offsets work like this: If a company is emitting carbon dioxide and cannot meet the reduction targets, the company can pay someone else to change their behavior to do something that may have otherwise done. That is, you can pay a logger not cut down trees or you can pay someone to grow trees. If it sounds silly and fraught with fraud, it is. It’s difficult to monitor and regulate. It’s also very easy to manipulate. A country can build a cleaner coal plant saying they were going to build a dirtier one. So the plan to save the planet that will cost Americans $4,300 on average in higher energy prices is relying heavily on counterfactuals, what-ifs and hypotheticals?

Electric vehicle "glut" might be coming, so watch these five companies

Actually, here's how analyst Mike Omotoso's figuring goes: right now, governments and greenies are the driving force behind electric cars. WIth the high cost of the plug-ins and the low cost of gas, there just won't be enough customer demand for EVs once the initial rush (and the first wave of subsidies) is over.