Perhaps you've missed it, but in the climate / politics world there's been a bit of a scandal that blew on 31 July: paid by the coal industry, a lobbying firm had sent forged letters to members of Congress against climate legislation. Don't worry ... it was all a 'temporary' employee who has been fired. Never mind. Nothing there. Go back to watching TV.

As the Republican Party ever-more prominently wraps itself in anti-science attitudes and positions, the scientific community ever more identifies itself with the Democratic Party and as liberals. Recent polling provides a window on this widening gap and suggests a potential avenue for scientists to reinforce the gap between most Americans and the Republican Party.

Sometimes a light of reason shines through the pablum, confusion, and truthiness that so dominates the traditional media's editorial pages. And, sometimes that light requires us to blink, to sit back and conceive, as it might force us to question fundamental societal concepts. Thinking through environmental economics leads to conclusions that challenge basic assumptions about how global society operates. Eric Zencey's NYTimes OPED lays out such lunacies, lunacies at odds with The Village's concepts and thus lunacies worth paying attention to.

Perhaps you've noticed a grizzled old Republican in TV ads offering a solution to American's oil addiction or showing up at public events with Democratic leaders. Putting aside all the issues of T. Boone Pickens' past, water issues in the West, etc., there is a core, fundamental flaw in The Pickens' Plan. . . that 50%. . ...

Amid our massive challenges, we face an opportunity to get things right in ameliorating current economic crisis while helping to strengthen the economy indefinitely into the future and help solve some of our quite serious and pressing problems. We must strive to have the stimulus package not look to short-term consumption adrenaline but be based on W4 solutions. Here is an example of a win-win-win-win option for truly changing the game for the better for America and all Americans.

When people hear "plug-in vehicle", they think Chevy Volt or a Plug-in Prius, cars far coming to the market. We have an opportunity to spark a renaissance in public school transit, with manufacturing that can begin today (here in America), that will reduce the diesel used to get kids to school, reduce health risks from fossil-fuel pollution, and save money ... What are we waiting for?

We wait and watch, with baited breath, President Obama's decisions about who will serve in senior positions in the Administration. When it comes to the critical issues of climate change and the creation of a clean energy future, some appointments have created great elation, fostering hope for Change toward something better. Euphoria has, more than once, shifted to confusion with appointees whose devotion to and experience for creating a sensible path forward remain (generously speaking) open to question. That confusion (dismay even) can shift quickly, as it did this week.

Global Warming denial has a warm and cozy home on the minority side of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee. Yet again, on the eve of the Christmas holiday, Jim Inhofe and side-kick Marc Morano have released a shrill and utterly deceptive "report" falsely claiming a large number of scientists rejecting Global Warming theory. Yet again, the Majority side seems to have gone on vacation while the Minority uses the Commitee platform for propagating disinformation and deceit.

Whether from recession, prices, or otherwise, Americans are using less energy -- gas use fell off earlier this year (although the 50% drop in prices will likely see that trend reversed) and it looks that electricity use is falling across the nation. Is this something bad? Good? And, what might it mean?