Let's Do Nothing About Global Warming But Add More Hot Air

I wish I was kidding. But this is really the lead story on today's WashingtonPost.com:

EPA Won't Act on Emissions This Year
Instead of New Rules, More Comment Sought

At first glance I thought it was a headline from The Onion. But no, it's not a joke, it's real. That's right. We need more talking about global warming. What are they waiting for, a sequel to Al Gore's movie? More evidence? More scientific studies for the government to edit, censor, or ignore? According to the lead:

The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now.

Well that's great. Let's not take any steps. Let's stand around on the sidewalk scratching our heads while the anvil and piano come crashing down on our heads to kill us.

The story continues:

The Supreme Court, in a decision 15 months ago that startled the government, ordered the EPA to decide whether human health and welfare are being harmed by greenhouse gas pollution from cars, power plants and other sources, or to provide a good explanation for not doing so. But the administration has opted to postpone action instead, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

To defer compliance with the Supreme Court's demand, the White House has walked a tortured policy path, editing its officials' congressional testimony, refusing to read documents prepared by career employees and approved by top appointees, requesting changes in computer models to lower estimates of the benefits of curbing carbon dioxide, and pushing narrowly drafted legislation on fuel-economy standards that officials said was meant to sap public interest in wider regulatory action.

The decision to solicit further comment overrides the EPA's written recommendation from December. Officials said a few senior White House officials were unwilling to allow the EPA to state officially that global warming harms human welfare.

This is just sick and disgusting, but not at all surprising. Well, I guess the good news is I dont have to worry about saving for retirement or a college fund for my kid since we might not be around much longer. That's a relief.

And this comes just a couple days after the Post ran this story:

Cheney's Staff Cut Testimony On Warming

Members of Vice President Cheney's staff censored congressional testimony by a top federal official about health threats posed by global warming, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said yesterday.
In a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), former EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett said an official from Cheney's office ordered last October that six pages be edited out of the testimony of Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gerberding had planned to say that the "CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern."

Gee, Uncle Dick decided that we can't even SAY that climate change is a serious health concern. Aren't these the people who keep telling us they are the only ones who can keep us safe? And that their main concern (above the Constitution, above Human Rights, above our children's well being and education, above the economy and housing crisis, above energy independence) is to KEEP US SAFE??

Can someone please explain to me how ignoring climate change, and flat-out censoring scientific findings that could help save our planet and the human race, is keeping us safe?

Cartoonist Tom Toles does a pretty good job summing up the Bush Administration's policy on climate change: