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Joel Makower lets us in on the background of GE's Ecomagination, their new commitment to environmental friendliness. Makower had a hand in the planning and behind-the-scenes implementation of this program, which was announced today. Let's take a look at the company's commitments. [more]

2006 Senate Race

Bozeman resident Clint Wilkes has announced he is running for the US Senate. On Sunday evening, he distributed a press release announcing his candidacy and highlighting his website: ClintWilkes2006.com. The full press release is after the jump. [more]

Settling for Second Best

Occasionally, people fall into the mindset (misguided though it is) that Montana is a state. Those of us who live here understand that really we are, like Dakota, Carolina, and Virginia, two states: Eastern Montana and Western Montana. Strangely, Billings, which is several hours from the Dakota border, is considered the center of Eastern Montana, basically due to the fact that it is the only thriving city between Bozeman and, um, Minneapolis (just kidding, we'll grant that Rapid City is alive and kicking). Meanwhile, Western Montana's cities run the gamut from the People's Republic of Missoula to the tri-city Flathead to the Montana Beltway of Helena to the proud mining towns of Butte and Anaconda. [more]

Environmentalism v. Objectivism

Robert James Bidinotto, a former Reader's Digest writer and an objectivist critic of the environmentalist movement, spoke on the University of Montana campus. Bidinotto's philosophy is quite intriguing, in that it does not, like The Economist or the free-market environmentalist movement, object to the methods of the mainstream environmentalist movement. Rather, he describes its underlying philosophy as anti-human.

Is it true that people who value the environment and assign it some intrinsic worth are anti-human? [more]

Making Lemonade

Two liberal Westerners have responded to the Bush Administration's new roadless rule not by decrying the environmental impacts, but by thinking about the changing political landscape it creates. Colorado Luis says that Gov. Bill Owens, who harbors Senatorial ambitions, will be open to lobbying on the issue, since it is no longer possible to win statewide without at least pretending to care about the environment.

Emmett O'Connell says Dems should stop crying and see this as an opportunity to prove that natural resources, community needs, and environmental protection really can be balanced. And, he says, the Western Democrats (Schweitzer, Freudenthal, Napolitano, and Richardson) are well-positioned to do precisely that.

Campus Speaker

Robert Bidinotto is speaking at The University of Montana tonight, at 7 PM in the Urey Lecture Hall. After critiquing an article of his, the student who invited Bidinotto referred me to his manifesto entitled "Environmentalism or Individualism?" as an example of what the lecture will be about. Bidinotto sees a dichotomy. I see a false one.

Whatever. Most problematic in this piece is, I think, Bidinotto's rejection of the free market environmentalist movement. Bidinotto is not merely arguing that current methods are wrongheaded, but that the very goal of preserving the Earth or of even improving human health through environmental improvement is an example of misguided animals. [more]

An Unfortunate Hunting Trip

Shawn Vasell, the former Conrad Burns staffer who allegedly shot a deer illegally last Thanksgiving weekend, may have bigger problems than a pending FWP investigation. John Byrne of Raw Story is now reporting that Vasell was one of four former Jack Abramoff associates who played a role in the Florida recount -- activities that their law firm, Greenberg Traurig, was apparently not compensated for. Byrne also reports that these four lobbyists, including Vasell, have now left Greenberg Traurig, following federal investigations into Abramoff's actions. In fact, Greenberg Traurig's website no longer shows any sign of a Shawn Vasell.

Crude Discovery

The AP reports that a small oil company is claiming a find of a billion or more barrels of oil, which would make it the largest find in the interior in thirty years. Just for comparison, ANWR is predicted to hold 5-16 billion barrels.

Some analysts are hardly convinced:

"'It's just very highly unlikely because the U.S. onshore has been picked clean, if you will,' said Fadel Gheit, senior oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.

"'That's like finding a wallet in the subway after all the cleaners went through it. It's possible, but very highly unlikely,' he said.

Is it at least good eating?

The Seattle PI, which does some excellent investigative journalism, is looking in-depth at threats to endangered species that are being given the big thumbs-up by Uncle Sam. Where is the impetus for this coming from? George W. Bush said, "I know that the human being and the fish can coexist." Of course, we've also got the counterpoint, from Rush Limbaugh, "If the owl can't adapt to the superiority of humans, then screw it." Let me be the first to say, "Touché!" [more]

(Snake) Oil Transition

Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren on National Review Online, Matthew Yglesias on The American Prospect's TAPPED, and Ezra Klein of Ezra Klein all find some mutual ground on energy: the notion of ending dependence on foreign oil through some sort of wet dream, whether domestic renewable, hydrogen, or domestic oil, is likely to play out as a farce. Robert Bryce, writing in Salon.com, concludes much the same. Now, obviously, this mix of commentators agree on little else, but this agreement is notable, especially since they are all criticizing members of their own party for politicking on this issue in stupid ways.

Updated with links to even more snarky blog goodness. [more]

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