Federal government to encourage America’s stair construction industry. Well, 2030’s.

Note for future researchers: ever wonder why your comedians all make jokes about all those damned government stairs people have to climb? Yeah, this would be why.  Sorry about that:

The new standard gives agencies three options for establishing the flood elevation and hazard area they use in siting, design and construction of federal projects. They can use data and methods “informed by best-available, actionable climate science”; build two feet above the 100-year flood elevation for standard projects and three feet above for critical buildings such as hospitals and evacuation centers; or build to the 500-year flood elevation.

Sorry, future dudes: we’re having a bit of an outbreak of religious hysteria among a certain part of the population right now, and it’s being complicated by the fact that said religious hysterics are actually convinced that they’re hyper-logical secularist Enlightened Ones. Also unfortunately, the current administration has to pander to them, because they’re about the only ones who are still returning the administration’s calls. Look on the bright side: it’s good exercise, isn’t it?

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane

Greenies mucking up Democrats’ Senate hopes.

Your daily dose of Democrats eating their own*:

‘Downton Abbey’ Democrats May Cost their Party the Senate

When it comes to green gentry liberalism, think of an Americanized version of the PBS hit—where everyone knows his or her place, and our betters look best.

Last week was a good week for natural gas, but a bad one for green gentry liberalism.   John Podesta, a veteran of the Clinton White House who is once again a presidential adviser, tried to explain some energy facts of life to the true-believing liberal base. Still, it’s unclear if Podesta’s intended audience was listening, and that willful blindness may cost the Democrats control of the Senate.

Continue reading Greenies mucking up Democrats’ Senate hopes.

Green movement ready to go to war on Democrats over… natural gas?

(Via Hot Air Headlines) I know, I know.  This news makes you weep.

Not so long ago enviros endorsed natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal or oil. Most limited themselves to calling for “better” industry practices, or to solely opposing exports. But as the gas rush has grown, threatening their solar-and-windmill nirvana, greens now openly decry drilling, chiding Mr. Obama for his “support for hydraulic fracturing” and calling on him to keep “our nation’s fossil fuel reserves in the ground.” The letter was signed by Bill McKibben, the director of the anti-Keystone outfit 350.org, as well as directors of nearly every major green shop in the country—the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, CREDO and Earthjustice.

This new demand could not come at a more awkward time for the party. Under fire for ObamaCare and the economy, scores of vulnerable Democrats are rushing to natural gas and drilling as political safe harbors. Supporting fracking allows them to claim they are in favor of more jobs, cheaper energy and rising incomes. Supporting natural-gas exports allows them to look responsive to the Ukraine crisis, or at least more responsive than their unpopular president. It helps, too, that this puts them on the same page as the significant majority of Americans who support more drilling (and pipelines).

Continue reading Green movement ready to go to war on Democrats over… natural gas?