This is an open letter to William D. Ruckelshaus, Lee M. Thomas, William K. Reilly and Christine Todd Whitman. You, the former directors of the EPA who were appointed by Republican presidents, recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times titled, A Republican Case for Climate Action.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn was shown this week to have attempted to conceal the results of a study he commissioned that examined the economic impact of expanding coal trains and exports from Washington's ports. This move is especially damning in light of his December press conference touting the study. McGinn, a vocal critic of an expansion of coal train traffic in the Pacific Northwest, has been accused of burying the report because it did not support his position and his anti-energy agenda.

Top Ten Reasons to Eliminate Renewable Fuel Standards By Scott Alford

Thank the Department of Energy’s (DOE) “energy police” once again for limiting our consumer choices. This time, the DOE’s regulators are preparing to add computers and computer monitors to the checklist of controlled energy appliances.

On July 31, a joint press release was issued by Whatcom (WA) County, the Washington State Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announcing the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed coal export terminal and rail spur at Cherry Point. The proposed study opens the door for state and federal bureaucrats to decide that global warming impacts, local atmospheric conditions in foreign countries and other non-local impacts can be considered in the approval process.

Oregon's largest city, Portland, has long been a model of transit planning and alternate forms of transportation.

This weekend, environmentalists in Portland and Vancouver (WA) staged several protests against fossil fuel use in an attempt to raise awareness of the evil of petroleum products. As I've reported, one of their big issues is to try to turn the transportation of coal via rail into the Spotted Owl of this century. They're pulling out all their old tricks to try to appeal to the Portlandia spirit and gain the sympathies of voters in the region.

President Obama recently gave a wide-ranging interview to the New York Times, in which the topic of the Keystone pipeline was rehashed.  In it, the President mocked the idea that Keystone could be a job creator as Republicans have touted, because those jobs would be temporary construction positions.