Cortland Coleman

The major oil companies have been endlessly touted their committment to renewable energy sources in a carbon-restrained world, but is their resolve borne out in their investments? Not quite. According to the Dow Jones (certainly no Mother Jones):

"As the companies continue to garner plenty of cash from high oil prices, which reached record highs of more than $123 a barrel this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange, they continue to steer their funds to share repurchases
and avoid any major jump into unconventional fuels."

How are oil companies using those windfall profits? They're investing in their core business - oil. That's not surprising, but it does indicate two things:

1. Greenwashing is big business for some businesses, and

2. It's going to take smaller companies truly dedicated to clean energy to significantly alter the landscape of energy generation in 21st century America.

Below is a press release from New Jersey State Senator Jennifer Beck. I love it when people call it like they see it. It's a reminder that things are rarely as they appear, but don't tell that to a frothing, professional politician. Enjoy!

Corzine To Parks Employees And Advocates:
Political Cronies On Our Payroll Are More Important Than You

Senator Jenifer Beck issued the following statement regarding Governor Corzine's plan to fire park rangers and close state parks even while patronage jobs remain on DEP's payroll.

"Governor Jon Corzine's conscious decision to keep patronage cronies on the payroll at DEP even while he is firing park rangers and closing parks is beyond unconscionable."

The following personnel at DEP are just two of the many patronage cronies Jon Corzine hired since becoming Governor and who he continues to insist are more important than parks employees.

1) Former Executive Director of the Arizona Democratic Party

A former executive Director of the Arizona Democratic Party (Cortland Coleman) was appointed a "confidential secretary" at DEP on July 7, 2007 for $75, 000. He didn't even live in New Jersey when he was hired. You can find out all about this hire by going to his website, http://cortland.squarespace.com/, where you can find his resume and a description of his new duties at DEP – "Wrote speeches, talking points and background briefing papers for agency leadership."

2) Caretaker at Drumthwacket Paid for with the Parks Budget

A former employee of Jon Corzine's U.S. Senate office (Elizabeth Mattson) was hired in the first week of Corzine's term as a "Caretaker, Drumthwacket" for $63, 252.30. She is paid out of the parks budget – the same budget where rank and file employees are being fired, resulting in closed parks.

Two of my favorite teams, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Clinton political machine, scored major victories yesterday. Both have been counted out several times in the past, yet both keep winning and coming back for more. Let's hope they can build on their momentum, keep winning and go for their respective ultimate prizes: Lord Stanley's Cup and the White House (remember, Obama fans, this is about the White House, not the nomination).

The following is an abstract I submitted to Brijit summarizing this piece by Michael Hirsh.

Michael Hirsh presents an accurate picture of two John McCains - one as a practical, authentic figure and the other as angry and unwilling to listen. The author walks us through a couple "McCain Moments" when the candidate "stiffens up" in opposition and anger to an idea counter to his own. Hirsh surprisingly believes that there is a lot to like in both McCains as he describes the senator's black-and-white world to the reader, ultimately presenting a picture of John McCain as stoic and inflexible, a potential candidate unwilling to listen to the opinion of others. Been there, done that.

This is wrong on so many levels, but it's still fun.

FM radio station 101.5 is a powerhouse in New Jersey and its morning drive host, Jim Gearhart (sp? no spell check on my BlackBerry) is well-known with a large audience. Jim constantly wraps himself in the cloak of populist reformer. Fine. Every media personality needs a hook to attract and bring back audience members. But today, Jim went too far.

The radio host's rabid desire to cut the size of NJ state government is on display every morning. But when budget cuts turned to employee layoffs Jim went over the edge stating, "people will be hurt and I don't care."

Of course, on the surface Jim is referring to state employees who he believes are under-worked and over-paid, but his lack of concern also extends to private sector workers, small busunreas owners and the entire state. If Jim's wishes came true, thousands of state employees would be out of jobs, and their families out on the street.

What Jim and others of his ilk repeatedly fail to realize is that when you fire thousands of state employees, you damage NJ's economy since out of work state employees don't spend as much at the shore, the movies or anywhere else people spend money. Small business owners hurt by falling revenues may pull back spending on things like radio ads on NJ101.5, ads that are an economic lifeline to Jim and his radio station. That's one thing Jim should care about.

When Jim Gearhart states that people will get hurt and he doesn't care, he's absolutely right.

And he's gone too far.

A resolution has been found in what was becoming a tense standoff between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas. Just minutes before a looming deadline, the presidents from the two countries announced an agreement to make the payments, bypassing a third-party business thought to be profiting from Russian gas deals at the Ukraine's expense. Cooler heads prevailed in this international energy conflict and that's a good thing.

Russia is straining to get solid footing on its energy issues. The country controls massive natural resources yet has been unable to catalyze them into a true world energy leader position for the country. One hurdle has been regional dealings which don't exactly inspire confidence in the country's ability to lead their energy entity, Gazprom. Now, in an ongoing regional dealing, Russia is being tested as it stairs down the Ukraine over a paltry $1.5 billion usd payment. Will Russia leave Ukrainians out in the cold during the worst part of the winter? How they respond will be a telling sign of their energy ability.

Russia's resurgence as a player on the world stage is due largely to its energy-related initiatives, at least that's the conventional wisdom. This scholarly article argues that the conventional wisdom is based on five myths that don't add up. The author believes Russia is unable to use energy as a geopolitical weapon and is in in no position to push other countries around regarding gas and oil issues. He states that the Russian economic expansion does not have high energy prices at it roots, it's not an energy superpower and, lastly, Russia will not embark on a significant energy alliance with China. Very interesting reading.

In a shocking move, the EPA has denied California's request to clamp down on carbon monoxide emissions. The Golden State proposed to write regulations that would have been more protective than current federal regulations. California was charting a bold path to cleaner air with other states following in tow. Many states including New Jersey and Arizona were waiting for California's waiver to be granted by the federal government so they could implement Clean Car programs of their own. Those programs, which would have improved air quality and public health, will now be put on hold thanks to the backwards-thinking administration in Washington.

How many days until the election?

The New York Times has an excellent opinion piece on the political campaign logos of the past few years. Judging from the piece, Hillary Clinton will be our next President. Woohoo!

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In a troubling turn of events, Democratic leaders in Congress are considering cutting the renewable energy provisions from the energy bill slowly working its way through Congress. The move would be in response to Republicans' refusal to work on the current version of the bill which calls for an increase in the amount of renewable energy supplied by power companies. While Republicans inability to liberate themselves from the oil industry's lobbyists is not surprising, the idea that some Democrats would abandon their principles in order to expedite bad public policy is surprising and disappointing.

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