Judgmental monkey judges

On the docket: Oregon primaries, Manchin shenanigans, mining reform

Author

Brad Johnson
April 27, 2022

PRESENTED BY CRANKY CAPUCHINS

Meet Judgmental Monkey.

Judgmental Monkey Judges:

Oregon - Local Democrats are up in arms because President Joe Biden and the DCCC are backing the execrable Rep. Kurt Schrader in the Democratic primary race against climate hawk Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the redrawn Fifth District. This is Biden’s only endorsement this cycle, for reasons that elude. The Sierra Club and PCCC have joined local Democratic committees in endorsing Jamie.

In the open Sixth District, tax-evading crypto-bro billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is bankrolling the candidacy of the openly anti-tree, non-voting Carrick Flynn against progressive climate hawk Andrea Salinas, having spent over $7 million already. Bankman-Fried recently publicly admitted his wealth comes from running Ponzi schemes.

Judgmental Monkey rules against Biden and Bankman-Fried: She cracks their nuts.

Humanity v. Manchin: Yesterday, I asked whether the inside-the-Beltway climate groups are so desperate for a legislative climate “win” that they would agree to Joe Manchin’s increasingly monstrous fossil-fuel demands. Manchin has moved the goalposts again to push for an energy package that will get ten Republican votes—guaranteed to be wildly disastrous. In 2015, Democrats under Obama made an “all-of-the-above” deal to extend renewable tax credits in exchange for lifting the oil export ban. Guess what happened next:

“Few analysts expect the repeal of the export ban to matter much”

So the only reasonable course of action now is to stop chasing phantoms, denounce the coal baron polluting the Democratic caucus, and fight for more climate champions. Politico’s Josh Siegel and Zack Colman have gotten several of the climate-lobbyist representatives on record with their desperation for a deal:

Christy Goldfuss, senior vice president for energy and environment policy with the Center for American Progress:

“We have no doubt this is the last chance to get reconciliation done. We are talking years if not another decade before we get another opportunity.”

Melinda Pierce, legislative director of the Sierra Club:

“There may be a price to be paid on the [oil and gas] supply side, and it might hurt.”

Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs with the League of Conservation Voters:

“We are part of a broad and diverse coalition that is pushing for as much progress as possible. It appears that what’s possible is a narrower package. I don’t think of it as we’re abandoning other priorities. We are trying to maximize progress and meet the moment on climate. This is it, this is our shot. We’ve got to get it done.”

David Kieve, president of Environmental Defense Fund Action:

“I don’t think we are driving the direction as the climate community. Sen. Manchin has been pretty clear about where his bright lines are. A few parts of the president’s agenda won’t be included in that. But all of us are at a point of ‘where does the rubber meet the road?’ The alternative would be to get nothing.”

Evergreen Action Executive Director Jamal Raad:

“The next step is prioritization — and demanding prioritization — knowing of the urgency of the timescales that we’re looking at. There’s going to be hard choices.”

Judgmental monkey judges: Don’t eat Joe Manchin’s fecal sandwich! That is stupid and bad! Eat fruits and nuts and disperse them to germinate in the forests.

Mining Reform: Judgmental Monkey is pleased by the introduction of the Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a much-needed overhaul of the still-extant Mining Act of 1872 to protect the public interest as the need for minerals for renewable technology grows. This widely backed legislation would establish the Hardrock Minerals Reclamation Fund, establish a 12.5% royalty on new mining operations, require meaningful consultation with tribes, and give federal land managers clear authority to protect areas like the Grand Canyon from future mining.

Judgmental monkey judges: Grijalva and Heinrich demonstrate skill in using tools properly. She deems them honorary capuchins.

Today on the Hill: Dr. Geri Richmond, head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, goes before the House Science Committee to discuss the department’s science and energy research infrastructure needs. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D-D.C.) highways and transit subcommittee is holding a hearing on surface transportation construction, and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) chairs a tribal legislation hearing. Forest Service chief Randy Moore, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lt. General Scott Spellman will be defending their budgets, and there will be hearings on the Coast Guard budget and the gargantuan Department of Defense budget.

Increasingly ubiquitous microplastics—in particular plastic microfibers from washing-machine lint—are capable of ferrying land-based pathogens, a new study finds, making them a likely vector for diseases spreading throughout the oceanic food chain. Leave the seas to the squid!

Russia is cutting off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. With “conditions unlike anything we have seen before,” the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has declared a drought emergency and is restricting water usage across Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. Toxic hammerhead worms have invaded Maine. California legislators have passed legislation to compel action on the deadly air of the San Joaquin Valley.

JERBS: Energy Innovation is hiring a policy research and modeling manager (no salary listed).

Hearings on the Hill:

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P.S. If you’d like a print of the Ash Ponders’ judgmental monkeys (Panamanian white-faced capuchins in Barro Colorado), use the coupon code “workshop” for 25% off.

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