Unintentional Comedy Thick On The Ground For The 35th Earth Day

"Today, on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the first Earth Day, the House of Representatives is voting on, and widely expected to pass, a grossly porkified energy bill that would dole out billions in subsidies to fossil-fuel industries, shortchange alternative-energy and efficiency initiatives, and indemnify makers of the gasoline additive MTBE against liability for groundwater contamination. And this time the bill may actually have a chance of passing in the Senate, perhaps as early as next month, after years of stalemate. This and other dismal news rolling off Capitol Hill of late would seem good reason to make Earth Day 2005 a revolt, not a celebration. Yet when Muckraker searched high and low for organizers of big, spirited, on-the-ground protests, we found little resembling the kind of mutiny the current political moment would seem to demand.

The biggest collaborative D.C.-based event in the works is -- drumroll please -- a press briefing. On Thursday morning, legislative experts from 11 major national environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and League of Conservation Voters, will discuss the energy bill for an audience of journalists. Not exactly a cri de coeur.

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Industry, meanwhile, is cooking up some creative Earth Day confections of its own. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, for instance, "will be launching a publicity campaign to inform Americans that the new fleet of vehicles has 99 percent cleaner smog emissions than vehicles from 30 years ago," according to its spokesperson Eron Shosteck. (But don't expect AAM to be talking up the new fleet's fuel economy, as automakers' achievements in that realm over the last three decades are definitely nothing to brag about.) The Edison Electric Institute, a major utility lobbying group, has announced, just in time for Earth Day, plans that should help reduce bird deaths caused by contact with power lines, in collaboration with the Avian Power Line Interaction Committee, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

By far the most amusing event this Earth Day season looks to be an awards ceremony hosted by the industry-funded Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy. The organization will be "recognizing an individual or individuals for work in their field supporting rational, science-based thinking and policy-making." The trophy winner? None other than "Smokey" Joe Barton, the Republican rep from Texas who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is a leading pusher of the energy bill and its industry giveaways. (Last year's recipient was Sen. James Inhofe , who has since labeled climate change a big "hoax.") The irony here is almost as rich as it will be at the event President Bush has planned for Earth Day -- an appearance in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, where he will participate in a public-service project to commemorate "National Volunteer Week." In addition to being a fine spot for a red-state photo op, the Smokies also happen to be among the most polluted mountains in the nation."

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http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2005/04/21/little-earthday/