Tuesday, September 2, 2003

regime change begins at home Here's a trio of eco-disasters taken from one day's headlines. President Bush appears to be determined to poison as many of us as he can. I'm not real sure what the benefit is, to him or anyone. Maybe that's why politics make me ill. Coal-fired power plants' upgrade provision to die; Utilities expected to save billions on anti-pollution devices The Bush administration has decided to allow thousands of the nation's dirtiest coal-fired power plants and refineries to upgrade their facilities without having to install costly anti-pollution equipment, as they now must do. Bush official rallies support for logging legislation at Sonora summit President Bush's agriculture undersecretary came to California timber country Friday to rally support for legislation that would ease logging restrictions in the name of fire protection and forest health. EPA misled public on 9/11 pollution; White House ordered false assurances on air quality, report says In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available... [S]ome of the [EPA]'s news releases in the weeks after the attack were softened before being released to the public: Reassuring information was added, while cautionary information was deleted. Or, in short, Bush is saying: you'll have dirtier air, fewer trees to clean it, and we'll lie to you about how sick you'll get as a result. [debris.com] 3:31:07 PM

Another Friday Outrage Apparently, the FERC has now settled with "energy companies accused of manipulating markets during the California energy crisis." Through various price manipulations, those companies cost Californians $8.9 billion -- not including the extraordinarily high prices we now face because of long-term contracts signed at the height of the crisis. The FERC has now imposed a $1 million fine on the energy companies. Though they imposed costs of at least $250 on each Californian by their games, they're required to pay 3 cents. $1 million for $9 billion in real harm. [via Lessig Blog] 3:12:24 PM

Dynomite! A few follow-up points to Monday's "Good Times" fireball, including why complexity is not an excuse for unreliable computers. [Daring Fireball] Most people think computers are unreliable, because Microsoft Windows is unreliable. 2:04:58 PM

Good Times Would you tolerate it if prankster script kiddies could damage your company's toilets? If not, then why tolerate allowing them to damage your computers? [Daring Fireball] 2:03:29 PM

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