Va. Challenges EPA on Climate policy. Media sandbags, and AGW adherents go to Eleventy!!!11! [krak]

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, with the support of new Governor Bob McDonnell, has filed a petition with the EPA to reconsider its finding based on what is now acknowledged by ClimateGate heavy Phil Jones to be very unsettled science.

He has simultaneously filed a petition with the Federal Appeals court asking a review of the EPA finding.

The Richmond Times Dispatch takes an adversarial approach (one that was absent in its reporting of the previous administration's Climate stance) and frames the issue early, first by couching the skeptical view in purely financial terms:

"The attorney general is acting in the best interests of the citizens of Virginia," McDonnell said in a statement.

"The current federal position could have a negative impact on job creation and economic development in the commonwealth and should be reconsidered."

And rebutting that with a strong appeal to authority that ignores everything learned in the past few months in regards to the data that authority is based on:

A commission appointed by previous Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, found that global warming could spread disease in Virginia, threaten coastal areas and imperil native animals such as crabs.

The panel, which included scientists, business people, lawmakers and environmentalists, unanimously adopted its final report in 2008.

Several more such appeals to authority follow, but my favorite is from Va State Sierra Club director Glen Besa who screeches:

"[The attorney general] is questioning climate change."

and

"apparently wants to bring the Scopes monkey trial to Virginia."

Despite the Dispatches one-sided reporting, its comment gallery is full of cogent rebuttals by average readers who have somehow found information not disseminated by the MSM.

I bet right about now Al Gore wishes he could go back in time and not invent the internet.

posted by Open Blogger at 06:01 PM

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