Here is another prediction I made MANY months ago...and it was not at all hard to see. But now we see how Obama is, indeed, beholden to certain Dem Party elements on a topic that is distinctly based on "bad (incomplete) science":
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27628719/Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
This is the first indication of Barack Gore being our new President. No doubt there will be more...
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
Hmmm...."liberal advocacy group"...you mean AlGore, right?
And also it is interesting to note that one of the many Bush Bashes was "secrecy". And so this transition team which is responding to "liberal advocacy groups" is "not permitted to speak about the inner workings." Who wants to spin this one as being "change" from Bush? Change TO Gore, yes... but the tactics are starting out the same, aren't they? The change is simply that Republicans are left out in the "secrecy" and the Dems are in on the secrets. So much for reaching across the aisle, eh?
The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration's decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. "Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer," Obama said in January.
There is the magic word that gives AlGore a big stiffy (not to mention financially benefits his company that deals in carbon credits!). Let's just ignore the scientific data that shows us that the "warming trend" was not only NOT a warming trend, but that the last 7 years of data show a cooling trend! (I will post an update in my AGW thread that shows this data).
Once again, I do not enjoy being right about these predictions. But really anyone could see it coming. Obama will be a surrogate for a Gore presidency, at least in how he addresses the fallacy of "Anthropocentric Global Warming".
Robert Sussman, who was the EPA's deputy administrator during the Clinton administration and is now overseeing EPA transition planning for Obama, wrote a paper last spring strongly recommending such a finding. Others in the campaign have depicted it as an issue on which Obama is keen to show that politics must not interfere with scientific advice.
This makes me just positively sick. They are saying politics should not interfere with "scientific advice", but it is clear that "advice" is not only biased, but it ignores whole heaps of scientific data that does not vet their AGW beliefs. They are kidding themselves.
Some related reforms embraced by Obama's transition advisers would alter procedures for decision-making on climate issues. A book titled "Change for America," being published next week by the Center for American Progress, an influential liberal think tank, will recommend, for example, that Obama rapidly create a National Energy Council to coordinate all policymaking related to global climate change.\
The center's influence with Obama is substantial: It was created by former Clinton White House official John D. Podesta, a co-chairman of the transition effort, and much of its staff has been swept into planning for Obama's first 100 days in office.
Well, Ryan, I am afraid to report to you (through statements like the above) that the "centrist" approach you were HOPEing for is already showing its true motives. I am certain there will be more data in the coming months that will indeed show we have swung almost 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and that would suggest we are not only in an out-of-phase oscillation, but it could well show us we are in a divergent oscillation. The stock market is already showing divergent oscillations in its up-down amplitude swings.
California had sought permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to require that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles be cut by 30 percent between 2009 and 2016, effectively mandating that cars achieve a fuel economy standard of at least 36 miles per gallon within eight years. Seventeen other states had promised to adopt California's rules, representing in total 45 percent of the nation's automobile market. Environmentalists cheered the California initiative because it would stoke innovation that would potentially benefit the entire country.
One thing that is not in doubt is that such standards will significantly add to the cost of cars. In an economic climate such as we are in, we want to try to encourage spending to kick start the market...not depress it! I do not see the need to force such high standards on the market, especially when we have seen that the market itself had responded to high oil prices by more people buying fuel efficient cars like the Prius and other hybrids or alternate fuel vehicles.
And finally:
Despite enormous pent-up Democratic frustration, Obama and his team realize they must strike a balance between undoing Bush actions and setting their own course, said Winnie Stachelberg, the center's senior vice president for external affairs.
"It took eight years to get into this mess, and it will take a long time to get out of it," she said. "The next administration needs to look ahead. This transition team and the incoming administration gets that in a big way."
If they are embracing AlGore's biased science, I don't think they have even begun to "get it".
Ray
(Also watching what job Howard Dean gets...)
